Hodge-podge of Stuff

First up, I recently discovered ABC Jesus Loves Me which has a nice preschool home school curriculum for FREE if you are looking for a specific plan to follow. We do not follow a regimented curriculum but rather work learning experiences into our everyday fun but the site has great information regarding handwriting. Then, a good friend recently introduced me to I Can Teach My Child. There are lots of fantastic ideas on that site! I combined ideas from these two sites to create our own no fuss handwriting practice.

Jack has found immense enjoyment playing dot to dot on his Ipad. When I saw a post on Christmas sticker letter dot to dots.  I thought that the idea presented a perfect opportunity to capitalize on this new found enjoyment.  It reminded me a little of the handwriting worksheets from  ABC Jesus Loves Me.

So I combined the two ideas....
1.  I used a highlighter and wrote out Jack's name at the top of  a piece of construction paper.
2.  On the bottom of the paper, I used the highlighter to draw three straight lines for Jack to practice.

3.  I used sticker dots to create the start and end dots for the letters of Jack's name.
4.  I used larger stickers to create the start and end points for the straight lines.

and added an idea or two of my own....
5. I put it on a fairly light colored construction paper so bright white or some other bright color would not     cause Jack to turn away from it.
6. I put the "worksheet" on Jack's textured clipboard. Back when Jack was still receiving therapy through our local school system, his vision teacher gave us some textured contact paper that we put on a clipboard creating a textured writing surface to give Jack some sensory feedback when writing/coloring/drawing.
7. I used a fat piece of sidewalk chalk as our writing utensil. We have recently been enjoying chalk drawing together and I was hoping that this activity could be an extension of that.

We traced his sticker dot to sticker dot name hand over hand then we did the first sticker to sticker straight line hand over hand. The other two he did readily without any assistance at all. The entire thing took just a couple of minutes. He did not fuss one little bit and seemed pretty proud of himself when he was all done.

Next up, I had a "how-to" idea of my own. I have been trying to find something to put on Jack's jacket zipper pulls to make them easier for him to hold onto while learn to zip and unzip.

I saw this cute little charm on clearance for $2.

Most jacket zipper pulls have some kind of hole on them somewhere.

I attached the charm to the hole in the zipper pull.

He's still getting the hang of it but at least now hanging on to the zipper is not the problem.


Finally, I leave you with a picture of our favorite kind of "sensory" activity.....

We call it pile o'friends and if you look carefully, Jack is in there!

Where is All Access Pass to Jack?

PEEK A BOO!

Sorry I've been scarce around these parts. We have had some very busy days in our household. I hope to get back to more regular posting soon but I wanted to reassure all of you that Jack is not sick or having surgery or anything. He is busy growing and being a little boy and amazing us with how mature he is becoming.

Haircuts have always been a big chore for Jack. Back when he is around one and a half, David and I decided that haircuts were a Jack and Daddy activity. Jack would flail his extremities and his head so that he looked like he was caught up in a tornado while getting his hair cut.

David has been taking Jack to Ms. Barbara, the barber, since that time. Ms. Barbara has always been patient and understanding. In fact, she and her cohorts at the barber shop kept telling us that they have seen much worse.

Then there was yesterday. Jack walked into the barber shop without fuss. He walked up to Ms. Barbara and said "Hey!" After she said, "Hey Jack", he said "Sit in the chair." Ms. Barbara set up the chair for Jack to sit alone and to everyone's amazement, Jack climbed up, sat down and sat still for his haircut. Ms. Barbara said, "Who is this? Where did Jack go?"

Life is Therapy--Give it a Try

New to the Life is Therapy series? Here's a quick blurb to tell you what it's about:

Sometimes we parents can get bogged down in the notion that the teaching of our children must be done by professionals. Parents of children with special needs are particularly vulnerable to this idea since children with special needs often have to learn and develop quite differently than children with typical needs. This series centers around the idea that learning can and does occur most effectively through everyday life experiences at home and out in the community--for children with both typical and special needs.

You may remember this post where I talked about some of Jack's sensitivities to certain sounds and noises. His preschool teacher, as promised, tried a few different things with him to try and isolate what upsets Jack. She discovered that Jack does not mind it if the kids sing "Happy Birthday" alone. She theorized that he just doesn't like the adults singing over the kids. And what about "Yay!"? Well, Jack did not seem to mind when the kids just shouted "Yay!" It only really seemed to bother him when it was directed at him. So....the end result is....we know a little bit more about what truly bothers him and what doesn't.

It is very nice to understand what actually disturbs him a little bit better but we can't stop everyone who want's to say, "Yay, Jack!" and we can't tell all the adults at every birthday party we attend that they can't sing. So what's a parent to do when a child is sensory sensitive? And aren't all people at least a little sensory sensitive about something?

We cannot control the world we live in and there are some things that unfortunately upset Jack terribly for brief bouts of time. The key is that the upsets are brief. He truly enjoys getting together with other children. AND he learns so much from being with other children. AND the more exposure he gets the less upset he seems to get over these things. When you weigh a brief bit of upset against the positive aspects of venturing out in the world, we say "GET OUT THERE!"

Let me add that we allow Jack the time to be upset. I do not understand why these things upset him so how can I tell him not to be upset? We comfort him the best we can if he has an upset. These upsets do not prevent him from wanting to go to parties. In fact, this fall it seems that he was very busy with all the birthday parties.

The inflatables' places were really popular places for birthday parties this past season.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we were able to get at Matthew's birthday party before the camera died. You can see Jack's self appointed best friend, Kimberly, in the foreground and Jack and I are somewhat visible in the background.

Jack's niece, Elise, also had her birthday party at one of the inflatable places.

Jack loves these places. He is so used to them now that he says, "Shoes off" and removes his shoes as soon as he hits the carpet of the jumping "arena".

Like all the kids, Jack enjoys jumping and bouncing around but he also always manages to find

the cozy coupe.

For some reason, he derives comfort from these little cars. He is getting a bit big for them and I am sure he will enventually move past these little cars. In the meantime, I try to remember that parties are supposed to be fun. Jack's idea of fun may be a little different but it doesn't hurt him or bother anyone else so into the cozy coupe he goes.

We recently discovered yet a new place to party when Jack was invited to Ren's third birthday party.

Ren's party was at My Gym.They have a dream set up for working on all sorts of gross motor skills such as

balancing,

climbing and walking on unstable surfaces,

dancing with your sibling,

jumping,

and crawling.

There are also oppurtunities for

cooperative play

and deciding how much of a daredevil you want to be.

I would love to be able to tell you that the sensitivities are "fixed" and Jack never cries at birthday parties anymore but that's just not true. BUT we can't let that stop us from going. Most of the party finds him

a happy, handsome little guy.

Recent Life is Therapy Posts can be found at:

What's in Your Child's World
Setting Goals
Videos
Learning from Others

For more Life is Therapy Posts, check out the left side bar.

Now it's your turn to participate. This is where we share our ideas and stories with one another. We're all in this together. Let's laugh together, motivate one another, and stimulate each others ideas. If you have a blog, create your own "life is therapy" post and link to the specific post in the Mr. Linky below. If you don't have a blog just leave a comment with your life is therapy story.

After Christmas

As I mentioned before, younger folks on both sides of our family rebelled against tradition this year. My side of our family traditionally gathers at Nana's house Christmas afternoon. This year, we saved our get-together for the day after Christmas. Unfortunately, David had to work and couldn't be there.

Jack took comfort in having Irish by his side

and his beloved Tunnel

.

Because they had already had their family celebrations, some good friends extended family were able to join our crew.

Mr. Austin

Mimi

We didn't completely break from tradition though...

Somehow I managed not to get pictures of everybody. Wonder who did not want to stick around while each group sat on the couch with Nana?

He had other plans in mind.

Glad I went with him or I might have missed this....

Noah the car model.

I did get a few shots inside though.

Here's Uncle Rick with his camera. If you blow up the picture and lighten up the background you will see my cousin Ninfa and her husband Tony in the background. Evidently in the three nights that they stayed with us, I had no oppurtunity to take a clear picture of them.

I did however get this shot of Ninfa's kids and my cousin Ronnie's daughter with Nana.

The bride to be, sweet Christy,

and her intended, Ricky,

have set a date in March.

Here's Nana and her two girls.

*Sorry Dad and Uncle David I missed it if/when you posed with Nana.

Here's my clan minus David.

Top left to right then the bottom Me, Oma (Anne), Nana, Opa (Dad), Noah, and Jack.

Evidently I was saying something hilarious.

Here's Nana with her grandsons that were present.

Here's Nana with all her granddaughters.

Here's a sweet shot of Ronnie and his daughter, MacKenzie.

Then it was time for the unveiling of the afghan this year. Nana makes an afghan each year for one of her grandchildren. This year's lucky recipient was Deborah.

Here's Noah opening his great gift found by his brother-in-law, David.

A battleship! He was thrilled and set to work putting it together immediately.

I don't remember taking this picture of Dad but I like it. He looks like he's enjoying some quiet reflection.

Well, that's it for the big Christmas celebrations this year. Hope you enjoyed all the pictures!

Don't forget to check out the latest installment of Life is Therapy.

Wordless/ful and Special Exposure Wednesday--Decorating Nana's

This is Nana.

Each year, Nana (my grandmother) chooses her very favorite of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren to come decorate her house for Christmas*. Jack has been chosen every year since his birth. And, of course, I was chosen every year since my birth.

This year's other chosen few were

Rachel

Tunnel Deborah

and Noah.

This year, Nana also asked Anne (Noah's mom/Jack's Oma) to come and bake some cookies to feed the troops.

Here was the blank canvas we started with....

Jack's not big on decorating so he decided to provide some entertainment

in the form of

flipping...

Not to be outdone in the cuteness department.....

Noah did a little improvisational

twirl and

step

dance!

Next up, the big kids tackled the yard decorations....

while Jack protected the cars.

I forgot to get a shot after the boxes were taken away.

But I did remember to capture the beauty that is Nana's Christmas tree.

*So it may not be 100% accurate that Nana chose only her favorites to come decorate the tree. The truth is she invited all the grandkids and great grandkids but the rest of you slackers her sweet grandchildren were too self-involved unfortunately previously obligated to other activities. Let this be a warning, next year, y'all better be at the tree decorating or I'll really talk some smack about you! They were all greatly missed and we look forward to having a much bigger group next year.

Jack's Great Aunt Ninfa showed up later and helped finish up the final decorating but by then the food was on the table and I was too busy stuffing my face making sure that Jack got a good meal in after all his hard work.

We had fun guys! Thanks for having us over, Nana!

Click for more Wordless Wednesday, Wordful Wednesday, and Special Exposure Wednesday posts

Don't forget to check out this week's installment of Life is Therapy.