Day Ninteen - TRYING NEW THINGS

We started our day taking Diva to school and listening to the Pam Marshalla CD Do You Like Pie? songs for phonemes, syllables, and words.

Frog played with Grandma during the morning while I met with the new School SLP. When I got home we read a new book - The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree.



As with any new book, Frog was not in a listening mood. We read pages of the book in each room of the house as I followed him around and paused to let him vocalize his dissatisfaction. I had hoped to also read It's Fall again, but one book was all Frog could take. When we finished our book we had some lunch.

Frog went out to play in the front yard while I got our craft ready. Frog is usually even less enthusiastic about crafts than he is about new books. After talking with Beth Sutton, our ENKI home school consultant, about my observations of Frog's learning style, I decided to try one of her suggestions.

I thought about what I wanted Frog to get out of the craft, proprioceptive and tactile exploration and enjoyment of the medium (clay), then planned the craft around what I enjoyed and modeled it for Frog without directing any of my attention or expectations towards him. I usually have to bring Frog to a craft, and then he doesn't stick around. I don't know that he stayed any longer today, but he watched from a distance and came in to the table a couple of times on his own to check it out. When I finished my project, I left it on the counter for Frog to explore - which he did when I was not in the room.



After our craft, we went out in the back-yard to play - Floortime style. We played chase, played in the sandbox, and in the fountain. Frog spent some time on the trampoline and I took the opportunity to try some vocal synchronization as described in Pam Marshalla's book Becoming Verbal with Childhood Apraxia.



When Frog was done jumping, I went to get our shovel. I started digging a small flower bed near the fountain as Frog played. I recited a verse I wrote about flower bulbs -

When autumn comes we dig a hole and make a bed where bulbs can go.
They sleep away the winter hours and wake in spring as brand new flowers.

We make their bed with mulch and soil so little bulbs they need not toil.
When they are ready in the spring, their food waits their awakening.

We tuck the bulbs down in their place, giving each one lots of space.
We say good night and cover them deep and let the bulbs go fast asleep.

When winter starts to lose its chill and spring rain falls upon the hill,
the bulbs awake and stretch their roots and start to send up little shoots.

When the sun begins to show its face and frost no longer coats the place
where little shoots reach for the air- out pop spring flowers everywhere.

I invited Frog to check out the flower-bed and dig with a smaller shovel. He took a quick look, then he was off and running. I know he loves to dig in the dirt, so I am stretching out the bulb planting over a few days to give him time to warm up to it. We have a couple of other planting projects to do and a vegetable garden to winterize - so we will be working with dirt for awhile.



We came back inside for a snack, then worked on letters. We reviewed the letter P and the sight word Pie, and we added the letter L with the sight word Leaf. Frog was complaining of a sore bottom - a little bout of acidic stool - and did not want to sit down. We did our letter writing standing up - not as successful, but I wanted him to know he has options. When we finished the letters, I had him locate the sight words so we could put the stickers on the correct pages.



We finished our table work with some practice using a pointing finger to find the letters on the Vantage Keyboard. We spelled out our sight words.



Frog ended his day with lots of loud vocalizations which he invited his Dad to join him in.