Weekend Learning -- A Few Little Things

Kieron tells me he read Outlaws of Ravenhurst. We had lost it for a long time, and I suddenly saw it when I was playing music with Clare. He went off to his room with it and apparently read it through so quickly I never saw him. Also, I forgot to mention earlier that his grandma bought him a book of Brain Games and he has been doing them (and noticed and showed me fatal glitches in a couple of the puzzles btw). I need to find him some more books to read beyond rereads of Redwall and Hardy Boys.

Clare and I discussed the lifting of the SSPX excommunications for some time.

Kevin and the older kids watched The Blob. It was the first movie that Steve McQueen acted in.

I read MSB inside a Bee Hive to Paddy. He looked at the back cover where the other books in the series were listed and said "Here's one we don't have.... Magic School Bus inside the Human Body." I don't know where he learned "Human" and "Body". He is sounding out slightly more accurately than he used to, but mostly he is still relying on memorization.

Aidan read "fox" and "play".... two words I didn't realize he knew. He read FOX over here, at Outer Edge of Normal. Looking at Miranda's kindergarten activities for her young daughter, he got so thrilled that I think next week I am going to have to reproduce my own version. His favorite was the muffin pans with the alphabet, because that combines two of his favorite things. He read PLAY, um, at the opening screen of our VCR as it loaded in a Pokemon video.

Over on the left is a list of all the words I know that Aidan can read. Yes, in alphabetical order. I am THAT much of a dork : D. Most of them he can spell, too. Many of them are from his V-Tech phonics board, which I have mentioned before. I am not a big fan of electronic toys; I only started buying them because Aidan was SO weak for so long and for so long while he was in medical care, his inner emotional needs were on a complete different track from his input (which was based on his clinical needs, not his personal or developmental needs).... so he didn't have the slightest idea how to do something to get a response. He needed toys that would give him a big output for a tiny bit of input. Most kids get tired of electronic learning devices in very short order, but Aidan does not and has actually learned quite a bit from them. ... .they are self-correcting and endlessly patient and cheerful.

I remember making a list like this of all Aidan's spoken words -- he was just short of three and had about 20 words total. It impressed the people at his transition IEP from Early Intervention to school services, that I had written it all out.. I guess they like dorky moms.

Soon after that his vocabulary exploded so quickly that there was no need to keep track.

Interesting how there's two times I feel a need to keep track. When not much seems to be happening and I want to reassure myself that something is happening. And when there is SO MUCH happening that I know I will totally lose sight of it all if I don't try to keep some kind of record. Just a random thought....