Some Early Learning Things

These are a couple of things suggested in Aidan's OT consult yesterday.

Cornmeal tray -- I made this a long time ago but just found it in the pantry today so I brought it out and put it with their word cards from Spell to Read and Write.

I wrote a word in the cornmeal and then Aidan and Paddy both traced over it. This was easier for them than handling a pen.






Later, in the evening, Aidan read one of the journals that we had written together a couple of weeks earlier. He did really well, actually, is recognizing far more words. Then he wanted to make another journal. I wrote it and we read it back.

Then he asked to write some words himself. Below is what the OT recommended because he tends to lose control of his pen and sprawl his letters all over the page. She thought his pencil grip, control and everything were fairly good and that he was ready to work on writing smaller and within spaces. So she made boxes and this seemed really helpful for him.

The words here are his choices. These are some of his favorite words:

























After we had written them out in the book, he wanted to cut them out.

























Here is a game he made for himself with a lid and marbles. He loves to roll them back and forth and this is actually good bilateral control because he is hemiplegic (his left side doesn't work so well after a stroke in infancy).
























Brendan brought the beautiful wooden USA puzzle out of his room and Aidan tried to do it today. Of course it was too difficult for him but he did all right. Please pay no attention to the crumbs all over the rug. That is life around here!

Cards for Brain Gym Activities

I made two cards or sheets for Aidan and Paddy's OT exercises that I mentioned last week.

There they are in gif form on the right, and I made them into PDF as well.

Pease Porridge Hot
Shoulder Owl

Where I used online sources, I put links to credit the sources. I shall have to find out if that is kosher, though, or if you have to ask permission.

A few handwriting --OT links

A page with handwriting resources: Teaching Your Child to Write
Hand Strengthening Exercises.

Also, here is a set of occupational therapy resources called Write it Down (pdf). I printed them out quite a while ago so I'm setting the link here in case I need it again.

Occupational Therapy plans and follow-up 2008

A summary of what Aidan's OT and I talked about in planning for this upcoming year..... basically just for my records.

Therapy Sheet for Aidan

This is from Spring 2007 so it is out of date. Therapy Checklist for Aidan (PDF).

Here is a form I'm going to try to use as a planner for next year. Therapy Planner (doc)

I had a more complex one last year and it was TOO complex. This one might be too, but I'm going to try to work with it at least until I get into the habit of it.

Speech Language Goals

I thought I would brainstorm a bit on here about story sequences. Aidan's speech teacher said that she felt one of the goals for him next year ought to be ability to sequence. Interestingly, I found when I worked with him at home that he CAN sequence verbally with concrete processes. He told me the steps in how to make a graham cracker sandwich.

First, you put peanut butter on the graham cracker
Then you put on the vanilla chips
Then you put on the chocolate chips
Then you eat it!
(What do you put the peanut butter on the cracker with? A KNIFE!)

What he apparently can't do right now is put a picture story in order. I do not really know if this is sheer lack of interest, or if there is a layer of abstraction there that is too much for him.

Anyway, here are a few links

• Story SEquence cards from ABC Teach.
• Lesson Plan on Verbal Story Sequencing

MOre general links:

• Speech and Language Milestone Chart
• Nurturing Oral Language Skills
• Speech and Language Development
• Language Arts Skills for First Grade
  

You know, now that I'm thinking about it I bet part of the reason that he was so unable to sequence correctly -- when in theory he is capable of it -- is that he didn't have a chance to make a real connection between the pictures and the idea of a story process.

I probably would have picked up on that faster if I had been more engaged in the process than I was.

In light of that, it seems like there are several ways I could encourage sequencing.

1. Narration -- read a story and help him tell it back. Simplest and possibly most key.
2. Take photos of pictures from books he likes (since I don't have a scanner) and ask him to put them in order, first using the book as a guide, then having him do it on his own.
3. Have him tell a story or something he did, then draw pictures (or take pictures of something he is doing), then have him put them in order.

Here are some lists of language and listening milestones for Kindergarten and first grade -- I'm going to print them off and check the ones he already knows. Most are PDFs.

• K-2 speaking skills
• First Grade Essentials
• First Grade Basic Skills
• Kindergarten Achievement Standards

Some more:

How do SLPs plan treatment?
Motor planning -- praxis
Dyspraxia and Learning

Aidan's Reading

I used the Montessori pink cards with Aidan for the first time yesterday. I print them out on regular paper with our black and white laserjet, and then I put them on pink cardstock with contact paper to seal them. It takes a long time, but is soothing and I can talk on the phone or supervise the littlies' craft activities while I'm doing it.

(I chose the five highest interest ones -- VAN, GAS, CAB -- he loves cars and all things around them!-- )

I presented the cards -- asking him the second part of the Three Period Lesson -- giving him a choice between two word cards -- for ex, saying "Which card says VAN?"

He got the concept almost right away and did a great job matching the words with the pictures.

At the end he was almost up to the task of matching five sets by himself, without my prompting. He would get too excited and mismatch them sometimes, and then I would have him sound out the letters to try to give himself a clue.

NOW -- as I mentioned in an earlier post -- he doesn't really "get" sounded-out words, but this process helps him practice it and also demonstrates to him the usefulness of sounding-out. He grasped that fast too, and would "sound out" by himself even though it didn't completely help.

I noticed that in the process of working with him, I was quite naturally helping his pronunciation, so it was a phonological lesson as well as a sort of motor programming and thinking skills lesson. That is what I LOVE about open-ended methods -- there is more than one learning process going on at the same time.

Trying to match

Success!
Then I asked him to choose one word to write. I was expecting this to be less fun, but he liked it so much he asked to write several words. (I use the Writing Road to Reading "language" to help him think about the mechanics of the handwriting, but unlike WRTR, I hold him next to me and hold my hand over his very gently -- he has some spasticity and tremors and this along with his motor processing makes it very difficult for him to tell his hands and fingers what to do)

Then he wanted to paint. More letters! He can make a capital A, I, O, and X by himself now, which is definite progress from last year.


"Cooking" with playdough and the pots.

Learning to Read --LD

I am stuck on teaching reading to Aidan using 100EZ lessons. He has been able to identify letters by their sounds for a couple of years now but is not getting blending. Part of this, I realize, is because he isn't segmenting sounds or being able to put them together again. So when I sound out "d-o-g" it has nothing in common to him with "dog". It might as well be "man on the moon".

So I'm reading different books trying to figure out ways to get him comfortable with decoding and blending. Here are some resources I found this weekend:

Montessori Mom -- Learning to Read.
--Lots of good information about the pink cards and how to use them. One advantage for this approach with Aidan is that (1) he needs lots of repetition (2) he loves doing things he can do by himself.

Some ideas for Teaching Blending and Decoding
There are some visuals for phonics manipulatives here.

Here is some information on teaching LD students Phonological Skills.
Aidan has been able to recognize rhyme and generate it for a long long time -- probably because of the ongoing music immersion in this house. But there's a step from there to being able to produce it on call. With him, there is a big step between producing something spontaneously, and being able to produce it on call. This is showing up in all different areas of his life.

This site does give a progression for teaching to discern broken-up words, which is something Aidan has gotten stuck on both in 100EZ and in Reading Reflex.

(A thought! Get Aidan's SLP involved in this -- it does seem like an aspect of speech and langauge therapy and most therapists seem to settle in more productively when they have something concrete to work on -- probably because unavoidably, they know the therapy better than the individual child).

Finally, I am thinking that teaching the signing alphabet might help him segment. When he was struggling to learn to talk, he made huge strides once I figured out a "combination" approach. He had DK-type realistic picture books which he loved. I found that pointing to the picture and slooowlly, emphatically saying the word, and then talking about it (because his receptive skills were way above his expressive ones) was effective, and so was signing the word and saying it slowly at the same time. After a while he took off on verbalizing and I dropped the picture and sign talk because they became cumbersome. But thinking about that, maybe writing out the letters, signing them, laying down cards and so on might help him in the same way.

Day 27

Sean:

• Algebra
• Latin (he just finished the second chapter of Henle -- so we're doing a bit of review).
• Greek and Vocabulary.
• I gave him a retelling of Don Quixote and he read a good bit of it.
  
• Football practice tonight and he has been given some exercises which he is supposed to do three times daily for rehab.
  

Kieron

• Math -- multiplying and review of addition.
• Latin -- review.
• I am not sure if he got Greek and handwriting in.
• I gave him Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue today to read (Clare and I were having an abortion-related discussion and that reminded me I wanted to have Kieron read this book).
• also, gave him In Search of a Homeland which he is reading now (retelling of the Aeneid, and fits in with his Rome interest and with the exploration theme.
  

Aidan

I was reading Reading Reflex -- about remedial as well as introductory reading. The method used is rather similar to Montessori, with the word-building. Anyway, I think I will try to use it for a while -- the first exercise is for me to sound out words like this D..O...G... with intervals between the sounds, and then ask the child to guess what word is being sounded out. This is where Aidan is stuck at 100 EZ Lessons -- with the "say it fast" skill. He just isn't able to do it, probably because of his auditory processing deficits (he is deaf in one ear and has motor processing problems) So this game, which we can do any time we are together, hopefully will help with that.

We did that for a while, and then some of his physical therapy exercises, and also some handwriting.
(He had physical therapy yesterday and got some exercises to work on at home, too)

Paddy -- I read him another Tintin, and yesterday we read for about an hour at his bedtime.

Yesterday was so extremely busy, running all over town, and this afternoon I have to bring the dog down to the vet for shots--- which is anxiety producing for me in a big way -- this week and next week are anti-procrastination week -- trips to the dentist, and all kinds of miserable things. So homeschool may be a bit more cursory for a little while.

things to remember:

• Tomorrow is Saint Francis's feast day (so get out the books) and next Monday is Columbus Day (which fits in with our geography theme) so maybe print out some maps to trace his journey.
• I want to start teaching Kieron to knit, since we've been skimping on the hands-on side of homeschooling recently. It would also be interesting to do a bit more with watercolors -- perhaps a map or some borders to a drawing.
  
• Also, in the works are teaching some piano and music theory.
• I intend to take the younger set on a Nature Walk just as soon as I get this typed.

Home Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy ideas for home
Online Ideas
This looks like a good overview by an SLP

There is more here: HomeBased Speech Therapy Plan.

More about designing your own home therapy program.

Mommy Speech Therapy -- a blog.

Aidan's school SLP is going to be out of town for over a month so I am continuing his therapy at home. She gave me a whole bunch of handouts, mostly on thinking skills type things for kindergarteners.... like facial features, shapes, prepositions.

I was thinking of doing it as themes, but can't find anything online specifically targeted to themes.... but maybe I can work the concepts into other things we are doing.

Here's a Kindergarten Curriculum Plan though, at Kinder Themes.
Themes arranged by Month.
Some by Alphabetical Order
Some ideas here --DLTK

Grammar at Linguisystems
has list of objectives suitable for where he is, so that might be helpful.

Day 17

Today was a bit of a different day. Sean had his MRI scheduled, so he only did Greek and Vocabulary, since I had to take Aidan to the local school for his first speech therapy session.

Kieron got a late start since I was gone, but he accomplished quite a bit.

• Labelling a continent map. (there are lots of these online -- I just made little labels so he could attach them -- later he can label and color his own map).
• Greek
• Math (rounding off, and we played a place value game which was fun for him and the little kids could play too).
• A quiz for the first chapter of Our Life in Christ (I found the quizzes here) -- the ones he didn't know, he looked up in the book. This led to an extended discussion about the Fifth Commandment, abortion, Dumbledore and Snape, etc.
• He finished reading Amazing Snakes (and has been narrating to me all throughout the day) and finished Once Upon a Time Saints.
• He drew a picture of a snake in his field notebook.
• His Young Scientists' Club #7 arrived so he looked through that.... It's on Minerals.
• He is playing now with his dad's old Erector set from childhood.
• He also babysat Paddy while I was at speech with Aidan (for a dollar : )).

I assigned him Midsummer Night's Dream to read from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. We will see how this goes. I have Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki and there are Shakespeare unit studies at Core Knowledge, and some other library resources. We want to work on it slowly and integrate it with the Geography unit if we can.

I made little assignment books for Sean and Kieron. Many days we don't seem to need these -- but some days I wish I had some place to write down a checklist, and so the books are for those times. I also made a new weekly lesson plan format, but I can't upload them from this computer. Here's Kieron's Henle Help sheet though -- I am planning to add to it as the year goes on.

Later today I hope to take the younger set for a Nature Walk... the weather is beautiful out there ...cool and sunny .... and we haven't been on a walk or to the beach for over a week because there was an armed fugitive loose up here. I don't know if he has been captured yet, but we can't stay indoors forever.....

I have been thinking about immersion studies.... because of what Rosie said here and what real learning folks said here. It fits in with things that have been on my mind recently.... mainly, that I notice if I plan in detail for one broad "Main Lesson" type unit, it seems to end up growing anyway to encompass the whole universe. So why plan several subjects and end up with way too much to connect all together? not that I do this anyway, but I usually feel the temptation.

Clare has been listening to Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense and has borrowed the Father Brown series from the library .... so the family is watching those in the evenings.

Aidan and Paddy played with their Math books and played with the HWT letterforms..... Aidan had cranio sacral therapy yesterday for OT and speech today went pretty well -- getting used to a new speech therapist, but she seems to be in tune with how we do things.

I gave Paddy a new spiral notebook, and drew some more pictures with him.