This year for Valentine's Day, we tried out a new family activity.  It involved a family mailbox, little heart-cutouts, and kind words.  When someone did something kind or we thought of something we appreciated about another family member, we wrote it down on a heart cut-out and put it in our family mailbox (made by Zac and me a few years ago).  We called it words of appreciation or compliments. 

We gave each other these Valentines starting from February 1 all the way to February 14. There was no limit to how many compliments or appreciative words we gave each other so we left plenty of hearts on the kitchen table throughout the 14 days.  After our special Valentines family dinner while we were all eating dessert, we pulled the hearts out and read them out loud. 

When I first announced our special activity on February 1st during the commotion of dinner, "Daddy" responded with an uncertain, I'm-not-sure-I'm-on-board, "um.....what?"  He did however, participate and get into it as the two weeks went on, which included requesting more hearts when we ran out.  Adelyn needed a little help.  I encouraged her a couple of times each day to think of something that someone else did for her and wrote it down for her.  She would put it in the box herself. I think Scott and I both really enjoyed the excitement and joy on the kids' faces when they listened to a compliment addressed to them. 

This worked well for us because not only did we all try to dwell more on the positive attributes of others, but we also tried to make sure we were being appreciative material worthy of a heart! Happy Valentine's Day!

This activity is great for

• Tactile/Sensory motor- cutting out, writing, hands-on putting hearts in the box
• Visual- Seeing the family mail box reminds us to think about the topic
• Auditory- listening to the family members read what is on the heart for them

A Continents Song with Spatial Awareness

As a second grader, I remember really enjoying the unit when we studied the continents.  Zachary has been interested in the continents since my brother n law taught him a song about the continents when he was 3. Adelyn is now 3 and she is acquiring her own interest in maps so we pulled out the large world map and taught her the song (thank you again Kev!)

Both of the kids had a great time jumping from continent to continent as each one was called out during the song.

This activity is great for:

• spatial awareness
• sensorimotor
• auditory skills
• visual skills

                                            

Shaving Cream and Glue Earth Day

Pinterest helped me find something for Adelyn to do for Earth Day last April.  I'm just slightly late posting this.  This idea came from the blog, "No Time for Flashcards" at this link http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/08/puffy-paint-earth.html.  

You can find the recipe there.  You mix shaving cream with glue and food coloring.  The kids play in it and then smear it all over the paper.  It's a great sensory activity and then you can pick your favorite Earth songs to play along.

Alphabet Sensory Buckets

One week this fall, Adelyn and I were learning letter S.  We made a letter to hang on our wall and then we decided to go on a scavenger hunt for things that started with letter S.  We walked around the upstairs making the S sound while looking around and here are a few things we found!  Snoopy, soda, slide, stethascope, square, strawberry and skunk (he's next to the basket).  After we hunted she got to use explore her items in her basket.  

Ideas on Teaching Kids about Prayer

Over the past six years as I have been teaching my kids about "how to pray," I managed to come up with categories of "ways to pray" to help them organize and understand prayer in their mind.  Honestly, it helps me too. I have come across kids books about praying that have categorized prayer into many of the above groups.  I think these 6 are the main ones I focus on with myself and my kids. 

So, knowing that humans love visuals to accompany ideas, I decided it was time to make a visual for our prayer categories. Here is a pie chart I made in a word document.  You can make it into a wheel with a spinner, or pull colors out of a hat, or pick the one that is one your/their heart! A short description of each is below. Hope this is a helpful visual.  It was very easy to make!

Including "is" + "location" in Speech

I recently did an evaluation on a student who is working on an objective in speech to work on using the word "is" + a location.  For example, "The pig IS IN the mud."

Problem/Sensory issues

The problem here is that our student (let's call him Frank), leaves out the "is" and sometimes other parts of the sentence.  He does get both of the subjects which is helpful to those of us participating in conversations with him.

Anyhow, the idea to use music to help was to slow the speech down to help with his auditory tracking and processing and place emphasis on the "is" and the location.  Successful auditory tracking requires our brain to track or "catch" the sequence of sounds heard, re-create the sounds (requires short-term memory), organize and determine relationships between each sound (put in order), and then file into memory.  Frank is only processing parts of the sentence and it happens to be the important words like the two subjects and the verb (The boy going store).

Successful music

I found that putting the selected sentence to the tune of Sally is Wearing a Red Dress worked very well. It's an old Wee Sing song.  You can hear me singing it with my kids (not clients) in the video above.

This piece:

1. Is in 6/8 time which creates the "swaying" feeling, heavily emphasizing each beat.
2. Is slow enough to give Frank more processing time on each syllable.  
3. Has 4 phrases which gives the opportunity to repeat the sentence 4 times and help with filing the sounds into memory.

Steps for the Intervention

1. Present a visual (I used speech cards from Artic. You can also use something like a box and an animal or manipulative)
2. Sing the entire song (a capella).
3. Take turns singing each line (you go first).
4. Repeat as necessary.
5. When they master the objective or several sentences add some accompaniment to make it more fun.

Example Sentence

The pig...is....in..the barn. 

The pig...is...in..the barn.

The pig...is...in the barn.

The pig is in the barn.

Shoe Problems

So I'm a little paranoid.  About shoes. Shoes in the house, specifically.  Growing up, we took them off at the front door. This habit began when we lived overseas in Dubai.  The local people there did the same when they entered their homes.  Sounded good to us.  Less dirt in the house!  And now, less allergens tracked in.

Turns out, there is another advantage of putting your shoes by the door when you come in.  We always know where our shoes are.  In the closet or by the door. I have dragged Scott into this idea which he has kindly begun to get on board with.  The kids however, are still working on the habit. I still hear grumbles and "awwws" as I announce, "Please take off your shoes and put them by the door."   Sometimes they sweetly oblige, but other times the shoes do not come off right away and end up in no man's land.  This of course means that shoes cannot be found when they are needed. Like when Mom is dragging them out the door to be somewhere.

Fortunately,  this is a mistake they can afford to make with a small price to pay.  I would rather them learn from this kind of mistake than some one with a bigger price down the road when they are a few years older. As Foster and Clive have said, we build self-esteem by learning to make successful choices.  I just have to remind myself of this and tell myself that I do not need to follow them and say, "Put your shoes by the door" until they do it (unless there is mud).  I forget sometimes....a lot of times..., but this weekend I remembered to just give one warning. So this morning, (Sunday!) when we were trying to leave for church AND the USA vs Australia women's soccer (YEAH!!!!!) we had some problems.  Zachary was trying to pack his change of clothes that included his sneakers and they were no where to be found.

I tried super hard to be patient...hmmm you might have to ask them how that turned out...and then also sympathetic to how he was feeling so I could lessen the power struggle (as indicated in Love and Logic which I'm trying to make sure I'm doing because I do love their philosophy).  So I said, "I'm sorry you can't find the shoes you need. I feel very frustrated when that happens to me."  He was extremely upset without his sneakers and ended up having to go with just sandals.  The first few minutes of the car ride were extremely unpleasant with a little boy screaming that he wanted his shoes.  Hopefully our sympathetic lines of, "I'm sorry you don't have your shoes...I know it's frustrating to not know where you put them" helped with the realization that it was his responsibility.   We also did ask him when he was in his calmer state about what might have happened if he had put his shoes by the door.

Anyhow, after the morning at church and then the game at the Alamo Dome, we came home and Zachary searched for his shoes, very concerned that he would not have them for P.E. tomorrow (found them in the guest bathroom...?what??? I never would have thought to look there).  The hope is that the shoes will be sitting happily in their home by the door far more often.