After going through all the letters, my admiration for all the Pre-k teachers, Elementary teachers and Special Education teachers has increased greatly because it can be a lot of work to keep kids attention and focus on activities! :) Ashley is definitely motivated by edible manipulative (pretzels, twizlers, marshmallows, etc) to create the letter and we will do that activity after handwriting practice. It can be frustrating at times because her attention span is still short but we will keep working! We are going to spend 3 days on numbers and then start the Alphabet over for the rest of the summer bringing back in the lowercase letters!
Here are some highlights for Letters i - z
Letter i : This morning we played "I Spy" on our walk for different colors and then ran at the end! Since dried Elbow pasta was so popular with Ashley, I bought multiple types of pasta. Ashley and Noah both love playing with these big containers pouring pasta Into the box and Into each others! Ashley also got her Yo Gabba Gabba toys to come play in the pasta too which made her start laughing!
We played in the backyard pouring water Into the buckets and had crushed Ice to eat!
After playing outside, we ate Ice Cream and she was very close to saying ice cream! :)
Letter J : Today Ashley did a great job getting the vacuum out, plugging it in, and seemed to have fun vacuuming! Jenn put down small pieces of paper so that Ashley could see the vacuum picking up the paper. I love that Jenn took a picture to send me so I could see her progress!
Ashley did a great job saying 2 syllable words spontaneously today! She asked me for "on-sters" and pointed to Monster Inc Toys! I have never heard her say that before and so clearly! She said it 2 more times! She had Jelly and Juice at lunch! When daddy got home we made Jello, tried to Jump Rope and Jumped around!
HANDWRITING
Tonight I tried something new with Ashley's handwriting. I wanted to see how well she could write the letters independently with no tracing and a visual aid. Everyday we practice tracing the "letter of the day" but then I realized both kids need to keep practicing the previous letters too. It took her a few times to understand that I wanted her to write the letter below on dry erase board and not trace on the actual letter. Once I guided her to write the first 2 letters on dry erase board, she started to write the letters but needed help with letters B & G. I was soooo impressed and proud of her! :) I am glad we tried this method and we will keep building each day to practice. Ashley seemed to struggle with some of the lowercase letters so we all decided just to focus on the Uppercase letters for now.
Letter K : Lyla, Chloe and my mom worked on Letter K, L & M ideas last week! The girls were staying with Grammy & Papa's house attending VBS so they really got into making "Letter of the Day" activities! We are so grateful for their help and it was cute to hear how excited they got with new ideas! Lyla is demonstrating a Kangaroo activity where we can hop around like Kangaroo with scarf tied around stomach while singing the song!
Today on our walk, we found several Letter K's on license plates and in the Free Little Library stand. After the walk, the kids enjoyed eating Letter A and R donuts that were given to us by a good friend!
Son-Rise Session: Tracy had a great session with Ashley today and they did the fun activities that Grammy, Chloe, and Lyla planned. They made a Kite with crumbled tissue paper, a Kings crown, Kangaroo sash and and Kissed the K! Then we had a Kid's Meal with Papa at Chic-fil-a followed by Kicking at swim lessons.
In the evening with daddy, we Kicked the soccer ball, ate Kiwi, and made the letter K using Kit Kat bars!
Letter L : Today we played with Legos, ate a Lollipop, had Lunch, and Ashley sang "Jesus Loves Me" by filling in words with me several times today!
Son-Rise Session: Chloe and Ashley played with Legos, Little Shopkin toys, marbles, and had fun jumping! Miranda brought Lipstick for them to play with and then did a craft using glue to attach cotton balls onto picture of a Lamb. They talked about the word Love and lots of Laughs.
Letter M : Today Jeremy helped with Letter M after church and they talked about Milk, Monsters, and Monkeys while making Monkey noises! I went to San Antonio today to help prepare my Grandmommy's house to list on the market and I found some items I think Grandmommy would love for us to use in the Playroom! I found an old Oreo metal can we can use on Letter O day, Santa ornament we can us on Letter S day, etc. Jeremy took BOTH kids to Target by himself and it went so well! He needed to get a few grocery items and Ashley did so great with no behaviors! Jeremy commented about how easy the trip was with both kids and how Ashley has made a lot of progress in a year!
In the evening, we did our Letter of the Day M tracing using workbook page. Then we did the activities that Grammy and their cousins planned out for us! We used gel icing to write the letter M on paper plate and used Marshmallows to outline letter M! We also did a large foam Minnie Mouse puzzle.
HANDWRITING
This picture shows Ashley's progress with writing letters using visual aid! Yay!!! She needed assistance with letters K and M but the rest were independent!
Letter N : I took both kids grocery shopping this morning and I did my full list with Ashley pushing the cart! She helped me pick out the Nutella to-go snack and Nilla Wafers! After lunch we made Noodle Necklaces that Grammy prepared for us and then enjoyed our Nutella snack!
Letter O : Ashley colored an Octopus today and had Oranges for snack. In speech, they worked on Open, Over, etc. We had family dinner that evening at Kerbey Lane and Ashley did so well for 1 1/2 hours sitting! She was in a giggly mood at the beginning and we were all so impressed with the progress she has made with sitting and waiting for food patiently!!! It ended a little rough but we think it is because we pushed the outing time too long. It was fun to see my Uncle, Aunt, Cousins and their families!
Letter P : Ashley got to Play at a bounce house with Amber and had Peanut butter & jelly sandwich. We also made the letter P using PEZ candy.
Son-Rise Session: Pam came to Play in the Playroom and brought Pirates, small fuzzy Pom-poms, Pocahontas Barbies and Pictures, Pink bouncy balls, Pink baby Pool, ate Popsicles, and dot Pen activities on multiple coloring sheets including Pineapples, Pigs, etc. Ashley LOVED it all!
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We took a break on "Letter of the Day" while attending Joni & Friends Family Retreat! It is a family camp for special needs families hosted at Camp Allen in Navasota, Tx. We had am amazing time again and enjoyed all the activities! The pictures below include:
- our first family dinner after arrival
- our first morning of camp Ashley woke us all up at 5am so excited for camp to start
- pool time each afternoon during family time
- family dance night and theme was Board Games. Jeremy came up with idea of Sorry! game pieces
- 3rd morning of camp on the way to breakfast
- Ashley falling asleep in the car last 30 minutes of drive home. She has NOT napped since she was 2 years old so that was a huge shocker to us!
Ashley loved her STM (short term missionary buddy) Tara who was with her last year also! Ashley held her hand everywhere and never wanted to part from her! :) Ashley had so much fun with her and we were at complete peace during the day knowing she was in excellent hands with Tara!
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Letter Q: We did letter Q on the Monday after we returned from Joni & Friends camp. I did not have much prepared and we seemed to all be recovering from the retreat. We found the letter Q in some books throughout the day, found a toy Queen, and found Quarters in my wallet.
Letter R: We celebrated Ashley's birthday today on July 4th with family having pizza, cupcakes! She loved her singing Elmo gift and swimming at the pool! We pointed out Red items around house (Elmo, wagon, hat, car, book, train, rainbow, etc) and played with some Ribbons from her gift bags.
Letter S: We found letter S on the Postal Service mail boxes, license plates, free library, street sign and found lots of Stars on all the flags for July 4th. She had a fun outing with Kelsey and they also painted a Star!
Ashley and Charlie have the most adorable friendship in the world!!! They SPONTANEOUSLY hold hands and hug each other all the time!!!! Charlie is Ashley's FIRST best friend! and Ashley is also Charlie's FIRST best friend! I am so thankful for wonderful therapists who have social outings each week so Charlie and Ashley get to have more play dates! She even Shared her Elmo toy today with Charlie!
Son-Rise Session: Today Ashley and I wrote the letter S in Sand and then she loved it as sensory activity. We played with Strawberry Shortcake toys, books, and images. We had Snack hidden in Socks which I then turned into Sock puppets. She also loved getting tickles form the sock puppets! We did Stamps with Stars and made confetti with paper stars. She did great verbalizing lots of S words during our session too!
Letter T: On our morning walk, we found Trees, a Truck, the letter T on Texas license plates, Toyota logo and in US Postal Service logo.
Ashley had a social skills session with Charlie this morning and they practiced playing some board games together! She also tried Apples & Cinnamon Oatmeal and it turns out she actually likes it! :)
Son-Rise Session: We had to do a joint session today with Noah in the Playroom and started out playing with sand. They both wrote letter T in sand and then we played with the sand. We played with Tinker Bell toys and looked at a Tinker Bell book. We also got Tickles on our Toes! The session got cut short today because Noah was getting cranky so it was too hard to manage in the Playroom.
Ashley was very verbal today and it is hard to document everything. Some spontaneous words that stick after today are "On-sters" for Monsters toys, "T-bell" for Tinkerbell, "Bath" for bath, "Water-un" for watermelon, "socks, juice, chip, ice, I want, book, train, bye, hi, sea (for sand), pea (for peanut butter), t, kles (for tickles), tree, done, elp (for help), shoes."
When Jeremy got home, we built a large Train Track using box a friend gave us! Ashley actually helped build half the train track and then had fun lining up the Trains in her order!
Letter U: On our morning walk, we found the letter U in word Austin, United States Postal logo, and a street sign. I forgot to bring our umbrella for the walk. After our walk, Ashley spontaneously came up to me with the remote and said "Monsters" very clearly with the M sound!!!! She got to watch Monster's University right away! :)
Papa came to treat us for lunch and Ashley said "Papa" so clearly! She also held his hand when we left our house, when we got out of the car, and when leaving Chick-fil-a to return home. It seemed like she wanted to make sure Papa came everywhere with her! :)
Son-Rise Session: Pam came to have an outdoor session on Letter U. She made several stations in the backyard and Ashley did great waiting while Pam set up. She made a wall with U theme papers to use dot pens. There was a mini sprinkler so they could lift it Up onto their head and a water station where items were Under the water. Pam brought a Unicorn My Little Pony toy so Ashley took it to all the stations. She communicated to us that she wanted her own My Little Pony toys so she could join them with the Unicorn! Pam and Ashley put all the My Little Pony toys onto the swing and pushed them for a while! :) They also made snow cones by putting the cup Under the machine and at the end decorated the letter U with Unicorn stickers and dot pens!
100% INDEPENDENT HANDWRITING!!!!!! Ashley traced the letters A - U and then wrote them on the dry erase board! We need keep working on letter A & K but she is making huge progress with G, N and R!!!
Letter V: This Saturday morning Jeremy joined us for our walk to find letter V. We saw a Van, CR-V logo, and several V letters on license plates. We also found Vegetables, Velcro, a picture of Violin, the Vacuum, and ate Vanilla Waffers.
Kelsey came to have a make-up session with Ashley and did so great! They explored a park and then observed the animals at Petco. Ashley is doing so great not putting her hands in the fish tanks anymore :) She enjoyed watching the chameleon today and apparently tried to feed it one of her Goldfish crackers! We think she might have connected it with the chameleon off Tangled Movie.
Letter W: This morning we found some W items around the house like Wagon, Wiener dog, Water, and Watermelon play food.
Son-Rise Session: After church, Chloe and Aunt Miranda came for Son-Rise Session for Letter W. They played with Winnie The Pooh figurines, read 2 Winnie the Pooh books and a puzzle, Wiggled in the seats, colored picture of Watermelon and Winnie the Pooh eating Watermelon! We had a few challenges today with Ashley wanting to throw the sand and dried pasta noodles. She did well communicating what she wanted to play with today and used ALL the crayons to color her picture of Winnie the Pooh!
In the afternoon, we played in the Water at the pool, Vanilla Waffers for snack, and had Watermelon at dinner! Jeremy tried to give Ashley an opportunity for independence on the large slide today. Since there were only 1-2 people in line, he thought it might be a good opportunity to try. She did an excellent job Waiting in line and listening to lifeguard when it was her turn!!!! She did that twice today waiting in line all by herself! We are at Elizabeth Milburn pool every Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the summer if anyone wants to come join us!
HANDWRITING
Ashley is making great progress and I love seeing her write independently the letters of Alphabet. I am having her trace the letters A, G, K, N, S and U before writing independent since she is still needing work on those.
Letter X: This morning HCBC Back Yard Bible Club (BYBC) started so we got to attend the 9am club hosted at Little Land Play Gym for special needs kids and siblings! It is run by trained teenagers who play with our kids in the gym, act out skits, read a short bible story, and sing songs with our kids!
Ashley did great transitioning to story time at BYBC in the back room and sitting during the story, skit and singing! Ashley already had therapy with Andrea at this time so Andrea came with us so I loved being able to talk with all the other moms! Sascha is also our supervising BCBA for Ashley's program but I don't have a picture! She puts a lot of work into training everyone, updated goals and all the paperwork!
We played X marks the spot around the house finding post-its! Kelsey helped Ashley find letter x on the kids menu at lunch too! We also kept making letter x using our arms. She is struggling to write the letter x so we will keep working on it!
Ashley did so well waiting and listening on her outing with Amber today that they celebrated by getting Snow cones!
Letter Y: On our morning walk, we found letter Y on license plates, RecYcle bin, Yard, and on a book in the free library.
Noah is at Grammy & Papa's house for a church camp for a few days so Ashley is using his wagon. Noah's wagon is full of Robots but Ashley decided her Sesame Street Characters needed a ride today too! She thought it was so funny!
We attended BYBC again and Ashley was running ALL over the place today. She had a harder time at story time because another kid was crying but she made it through. Jenn came with us today and she helped Ashley on her social skills with her friend Drew! Ashley also wrote her own name on the name tag!
She had a great Speech session today with Brooke and they worked on Letter Y also!
When Jeremy got home, Ashley wanted tickles and to run with him! We were trying to incorporate her answering a question "Do you want to run?" with "Yes" for letter Y day!
Letter Z: This morning we attended BYBC again and Ashley started to participate in the song that has movements. She has watched for 3 days and today she did the thumbs up and arms in motions!!! It was another big turn out so it was a tight squeeze in the back room for snack and story time!
Son-Rise Session: Pam came to have an outdoor session with Ashley for Letter Z. The put the Zoo animals into the small pool and Pam wore a Zebra on her shirt. She brought Zucchinis to play with, decorate, cut, and eat! They ran in Zig-zag lines and cut zig-zags on paper using special scissors.
HANDWRITING
Ashley is making progress!!! I got her to trace the letters G, K, S and X after writing out the letters on the dry erase board. Then she rewrote those 4 letters on dry erase board and made big improvement! We are also working on her connecting the A at top so it does not look like the letter H. Before the summer started, she would not have been able to write these letters independently and so clearly! We are all so proud of her!!!
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