Tot School--P Week

Isaiah will be 48 months on Saturday!

This week we started back into our alphabet inspired school. However, rather than going straight through the alphabet, we are working through a "letter/sound chart" given to us by Isaiah's speech therapist that shows which sounds usually develop first for little people. It just so happens that the first letter on the chart was P, so that's where we started.

I wasn't as on top of things as I still hope to be, but we're getting there. I didn't have a specific Bible story picked out to work on, but we did read the Bible every day as a family.

We started out the week just right with a playdate with our friend Lydia! No pictures, I'm afraid, just too busy having fun!

I drew and cut out an upper and lower case P for Isaiah to glue onto a piece of construction paper. He hadn't used glue in about 6 months, but he remembered exactly what to do with that bottle!

We then worked with his little markers on his pre-writing skills and hand strengthening by having him open the markers and then draw lines up, down and across as well as circles, trying to make the Ps pink and purple.

And then he tried to tell me he wanted no more of this activity (before he had completed the tasks) by throwing his arms out to the sides whenever I asked him to draw a line. Yeah, he's got his own ideas these days. :)

We played with pink play-doh. I made him a little pot from some of the play-doh so that he could tear pieces from the rest of the play-doh and put the pieces in the pot, but he was only interested in tearing apart the pot, so we just went with that before rolling out long pieces and shaping them into the letter P.

I finally got some pictures printed out for him. This was a big hit! He didn't do as well as I thought he would in naming the pictures at first. (I had tried to choose things that he already knows really well, looking for opportunities for him to succeed right away.) We then adapted to laying out all the pictures. I asked him to give me the picture of "walker" for instance, and he got them 100% correct this way, from a field of 8! We worked with these every day, and he has definitely improved. I hope to add to our stash every week.

Isaiah's pronunciation continues to improve, but his habits change. Originally he was not closing his words well, but now he's not opening them well. For instance, "popcorn" comes out "opcorn", when it used to be "popco". It's strange to me, since I don't understand how all that works. He's improved greatly on closing his words, which has definitely helped with understanding him. Any suggestions in this area are greatly appreciated!

Thomas also downloaded and printed lots of pictures of cars for Isaiah to look through--another big hit with Little Man! We use them for colors right now, but I have plans for grouping and other things as his color identification gets better.

We also enjoyed exploring the letter P in the kitchen with pancakes, peanuts and pizza!

Check out all the other Tot Schools for great ideas of fun things to do with your little ones at 1+1+1=1!

Tot School--Back in Russia!

Isaiah is 47 months old

We are getting back into the swing of things in many areas as we have returned to Russia! While in the States official Tot School took a bit of a back seat while we were able to get Isaiah some intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy.

So now I'm trying to get us into a schedule that will help me stay accountable and productive as Isaiah grows and learns each day! My desire is to continue the work that we began in therapy as well as incorporate much of what we had been doing in Tot School before we had our 5-month stint in the States.

Here's a little bit of what we did this week:

We actually made it to the park with his new wheels! Something I'm hoping to do more of when it gets just a tad bit warmer, like above 0 F.

Working on hand strengthening for writing, we used puzzles, lacing beads, legos and play-doh. Isaiah's hand coordination is developing slowly but nicely. Thanks to some lacing beads that look like cars, he actually seemed to enjoy this activity that he often resisted in occupational therapy!

We worked on drawing horizontal and vertical lines and circles. Just opening the markers is a skill to develop hand strength. These were fairly new and not all of them have been used yet, so they were a little tricky.

A puzzle with trucks helped keep his attention.

We used legos to work on color recognition/identification and hand strengthening. First I held out 2 different colored legos, asking him to take a specific color. If he went for the wrong color, I prompted him to try again. He got 2 out of 4 correct. He does really well with green and blue, and red is finally starting to come into the picture! Then he worked on stacking them, harder than you think when you have to match up those little pegs. With a little assistance on alignment, he did a great job.

Isaiah seems to have ups and downs with self-feeding, which can give Mama some ups and downs, too! This week he was doing much better with the spoon, a definite up for both of us!

Next week we'll start with working on specific letter-themed activities again to help give us focus and to develop some of the skills Isaiah began working on in speech therapy. But this week we did general activities like watching LeapFrog's Letter Factory. I got so excited as Isaiah actually began repeating the sounds with the characters! He's never done that before.

He's getting much better at repeating letters as we practice his alphabet. He also will count 1, 2 on his own, and then I help him up to 10.

On Tuesday we had a special treat. It's been bitterly cold here, so rather than meeting a friend in a favorite park or something, we took the free bus out to IKEA! We had a great time catching up with Oksana and Slava! There are always tons of toys to play with at IKEA, which also provided time for me to visit with my friend!

Every day we review Isaiah's children's catechism. He has the first two questions down cold! With a little prompting he is getting the third one really well, too. After breakfast we read the Bible together, and we are working on teaching Isaiah how to pray. I love hearing him talk to God!

And our big news is how well Isaiah is doing in our "PE program". Thanks to the diligent work of his therapist and the man who made his new braces and the man who ordered his equipment, Isaiah is making strides in walking! I just had to post a video of this. His walker is about 14 pounds, more than half his weight (finally 23 pounds!). He is finally getting the hang of turning it on his own, which involves lifting it a little bit. Little Man is STRONG!

Be sure to check out the other Tot Schools at 1+1+1=1! It's good to be back!

Starting Over?

Since I am finally starting to feel better, even without medication, I really want to get started in Tot School activities with Isaiah. I'm a girl who loves routines and really gets so much more accomplished when I have a routine. For the past several months my routine was get up, get sick, take Isaiah to therapy, try to survive the day.

Now we're back in Russia, and my routine has been adjust to jet lag, get up, get sick, try to survive the day and have some meaningful interaction with Little Man.

I'm ready for more! However, I'm having a really hard time finding a starting point in providing structure for both of us. I would appreciate any suggestions!

There are certain elements that I know need to be included every day, but I currently begin to feel overwhelmed when I try to think about fitting them all in! Here's the short list:

~Bible Reading
~Physical Therapy (walking, arm strengthening exercises)
~Occupational Therapy (I want to focus on hand coordination for now, thinking ahead to writing)
~Speech Therapy (increasing vocabulary)

And then the more "school" type activities can often be fit into the therapy categories, such as learning colors and numbers and letters.

And here are the other things I'm hoping to fit in every day:
~Grocery shopping, at least every other day so Thomas doesn't have to do it all. This will involve at least 2 hours of the day.
~Outside time for at least 1 hour. It takes us about 25 minutes to gear up for going outside, so I'd like to be there for a while.
~Rest time
~Reading time, books other than Bible Reading time
~Independent play

Am I asking too much? Perhaps I am, but I would appreciate the insight of others! I think that part of my struggle, too, is simply remembering that Isaiah learns differently than other kids. During our time in the States we became increasingly aware that while Isaiah learns well and continues to progress, there are definitely some delays. I have to constantly find that balance of pushing him, but not looking for things that aren't going to happen on a "normal" schedule. I want to make learning fun for him, just like every parent, I think. I want to learn him well, so that I can help him in the best way possible.

Tot School--Flexibility!

Isaiah is 44 months old

Well, official Tot School sort of got put on hold for a couple months. This break wasn't intentional, but we're trying to make the most of it. Those of you with children with special needs are probably very familiar with times like this! These days have been so full with moving into a new house, doctor appointment after doctor appointment, surgery and therapy. Things are finally starting to slow down, but in the midst of all that business a lot of learning has been taking place!

Isaiah after his tendon release surgery. He almost had to learn how to sit again as his legs were in different positions.

While we're still working on "school" stuff, there has been a focus on more physical development. Isaiah had surgery the end of August for a tendon release in order to prepare his legs to be able to bear weight. We go to his wonderful physical therapist two times a week to work on gross motor skills such as strengthening his arms to lift his body with a walker and to push himself in a wheelchair. His occupational therapist has been working with him on fine motor skills such as drawing and putting in puzzle pieces and dressing himself.

Here he had a break between physical therapy and occupational therapy. Please forgive the poor quality, I had to copy this from Twitter.

His beloved OT, Miss K working on lines and circles.

During his therapy sessions we also work on colors and identifying objects and following directions and problem solving. He's become quite proficient in choosing the correct color when asked, but he won't say the colors without a lot of prompting. His self-feeding has improved a lot, and he's finally drinking with a straw! (thanks, JanJan!)

He's been working on perfecting his straw technique by sharing smoothies with Grandma!

So at home, I've been trying to follow the therapists' lead, and I'm in the process of developing my Tot School plans based on the activities that they do with him in therapy. They have loaned us a stander with a tray, and we have been working on different fine motor skills at home, while learning shapes and colors and drawing. We're working on sorting, too, but he hasn't quite caught on yet, but he's getting better!

Coloring with Mimi and JanJan while working those legs in the stander.

Isaiah actually drew TWO CIRCLES all by himself the other day and TWO STRAIGHT LINES! That might not sound like much, but both those events were tremendous victories!

So, as things slow down, Lord willing, for us, I hope to be faithful again with Tot School. We do have some traveling coming up to visit some friends in CA, and several appointments again this week, but I do hope to get at least 2 days of official Tot School in each week (between appointments!). I've missed reading everyone's posts, as I've been too busy to even stalk all my favorite blogs! Hope everyone is doing well!

Be sure to check out the other Tot School posts linked at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School--N Week

Isaiah is 40 months old

Bible Verse: Psalm 67:4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth.

N is for...

Notes

So we made this, that I barely remembered to get a picture of, and yes, I realize some of the notes are backwards. We'll do better next time.

Not much else

Yeah, it was a busy week....

But there are other Tot Schools that you can check out at 1+1+1=1.

This week we're living it up outside. I think O is definitely going to be Isaiah's favorite letter.

Tot School--M Week

Isaiah is 40 months old

We had a monster of a week! But I mean that in a magnificent way. :)

Bible Verse: We continued with Mark 12:30

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

I decided to keep this verse because after all this is the greatest commandment. I think it's worthy of 2 weeks.

Bible Story: Moses

Family worship has been in Leviticus (we just read through the Bible, and that's where we are right now), so we've been reading tons and tons about Moses. I didn't do any specific activities with Isaiah about Moses, but we talked about him every day!

And here are some of the other things we did, in no particular order:

Monster

I made cookies with Isaiah's help, and he was the Cookie Monster!

Machines

I was able to get this little outfit made for Isaiah with the machines that he's growing to love more and more.

Moon and Muppets

For our letter craft, I found a printout of the moon and of Kermit the frog from the Muppets. This covered 2 of Isaiah's current favorites, Moonpowder and The Muppets. Just to tell you how much Isaiah loves his muppets...usually his first word in the morning when I come to get him out of bed is outside. Several times lately he has said uppets before saying outside. Now that should tell you something!

Meet

We finally got to meet Birdie! We've been waiting for quite some time now. The day before we were going to get to meet her, I told Isaiah at bedtime, Tomorrow we get to go see Birdie! I mentioned this several times. The next morning, first thing, Isaiah said Outside? Birdie? (which sounds like Buddy, it's so cute!)

Miss

Not like the adorable little miss pictured above with her mommy. This is for missing Daddy! Every day Daddy would call and talk to Isaiah, and this is how Isaiah looked while talking to him, except when he was covering the phone with kisses!

Material

I took scraps of material from old sewing projects and put them in 2 of Isaiah's bowels, thinking, of course, he'll love to move them back and forth. The 2nd picture shows you how interesting he found this activity.

Magazine

Isaiah loves his 'azines as he calls them. My mama graciously sends us some magazines on a fairly regular basis. They're all about North Carolina, where I'm originally from, so I really enjoy them, too!

We also ate at McDonald's (how could we skip that during M week?!). I also made us some meatballs, which were not enthusiastically received for some reason.

We sang My God is so Big, I May Never March..., Majesty, All Must be Well, My Hat Has 3 Corners, The Ants go Marching. Music is always a big part of every day for us! We listen to it, sing it, play it, the works.

We read Moonpowder (over and over and over again!), I Love You, Mommy and of course lots from the Bible.

And finally, M is for...

Mohawk

During bathtime I just couldn't resist giving Isaiah this cute 'do.

(Please ignore the mildew on the wall behind the tub. I have scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, and it just will not come off. But hey, it's another M for us, right?)

Be sure to enjoy the other Tot Schools linked at 1+1+1=1. And we're getting a notable start for N Week!

Tot School--L Week

Isaiah is almost 41 months

L is for Life, and we had a lot of interesting experiences in our lives this week!

Bible Verse:

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Bible Story:

Lazarus

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of any great crafts for this Bible story to increase hand coordination for Isaiah, so we acted out the story with some of his little animals. Lazarus was the lion (since they both started with L). I hope that doesn't seem too sacrilegious! We didn't have an animal for Jesus. And Isaiah's little cloth briefcase sufficed for the tomb. So Isaiah enjoyed putting Lazarus into the tomb, but I had to convince him that Mary and Martha didn't need to go in the tomb, too. Then he enjoyed taking Lazarus back out when I finished the telling him the story.

Laundry basket

Which apparently has suddenly begun to fascinate Isaiah.

Lydia!

Lydia's mommy had their second daughter on Monday night! We got to spend all day with Lydia on Wednesday! They played so well together!

Lick

Thursday our friends Oksana and Slava came over. After lunch we were able to go for a walk in the wonderful park near our house. Isaiah and I enjoyed licking some ice cream!

Lighthouse

I made the letter L and we turned the tall side into a lighthouse. Anyone recognize which lighthouse this is supposed to be?

Legos

Isaiah actually asked to play with his legos! And guess what else! He built something with them! This is the first time that he's worked so hard to put the legos together all by himself. Before this he's only pulled them apart.

Lids

Isaiah is getting better and better at unscrewing or taking off lids these days. And he even has started to put them back on fairly well. This also has developed into a fascination with putting chap stick on his lips because he can get that lid off very easily! Hmmm....wonder where he got that idea? (anyone with the last name of Slawson willing to confess to this behavior?) :)

We did a few other things like mail letters, look through magazines, lock ourselves out of the apartment, and of course laugh lots and lots.

Some songs we sang:

O Be Careful Little Hands..., This Little Light of Mine, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, and tons of songs with Love in them.

These last 2 pictures, don't have much to do with our Tot School, except that the applique is "Little Mechanic". I just really like them, so I had to add them! And it's like a preview for next week's M activities!

Be sure to check out the other Tot Schools around the world or helpful Tot School tips at1+1+1=1.