Frog's School

Quick Update

2009-02-12T13:14:00.001-08:00

We've continued to home school while the School District got Frog's program, including his own room to work in, together. He has an amazing and wonderful one-to-one Para Educator who has been working with us at home and attending Frog's therapy sessions with his school OT, PT, and SLP. The transition is going better than any of us could have dreamed.

Today Frog was at school from 9am - 10:30. He worked one-to-one with his Para Educator then they joined a general ed first grade class (taught by an wonderful teacher who also happens to be an autism mom) for recess then snack and story time. He did some more one-to-one work with his Para then they joined the special ed class for a horse drawn wagon ride provided by a very special Principal and his horses.

Frog has come home from school this week giggling and re-enacting some of his day (running up and down the hall way like he did in the relay race in PE class) He seems especially motivated to be with the other kids. Such a different experience than the last time he was in school! We will continue to supplement the school program with work at home (Rapid Prompting, pre-reading stories, chores, imitation, Floortime). Hope to have some pictures soon :0)

All is Well, just no time to type :0)

2008-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note of thanks to everyone who has checked up on me! We are all fine here at the pond. We've spent the last weeks working on getting a re-evaluation for Frog - closing out the old IEP and getting a new one together. I've also been teaching an enrichment cluster in Diva's multi age cohort at school - 12 kids ranging between 1st and 5th grade. The theme this year was Winter Celebrations around the world - we are studying celebrations that grew out of a recognition of winter solstice - the shortest night of the year. Lots and lots of prep time have gone into project which we based on Lights of Winter

We've made Yule logs, wassail, Swags, Saturnalia cake and meed (mock of course), Chinese lanterns, and Raven masks. We've told stories from Scandinavia, Italy, China, India and America. We are noting many similarities between ancient celebrations and some of our current winter celebration customs.

I also have new office space and hope to start moving in and getting set-up the week of the 15th (when the enrichment cluster is over). I've been busily scouring the Internet for deals on office furnishings and equipment.

Today we are off to Bellevue for Diva's first State Championship Gymnastics Meet. Tomorrow she has a mini dance recital and next Saturday her gymnastics club is holding their home meet/exhibition.

If all goes well - I'll be back to posting around the 22nd. I promise I am coming back!

2008-11-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

I've been busy here at the pond dividing my time between home schooling, starting a business, and working with the IEP team to get Frog a new school placement by January. We were also feeling a bit under the weather last week so everything took longer than it should have.

Here are a few of our home school highlights:

I'm outing Frog on this one, but I thought using the letters he's been writing to write his name was a reasonable and important goal. I have a magnetic alphabet fishing game and we used it to "fish out" the letters in his name an put them in the right place. I sang about the letters in his name as we fished.

He was supposed to follow up by connecting the dots to write his name - but that was more than he was willing to do this first time out. I'm hoping as we continue with this game he will become patient enough with it to actually teach him how the game is supposed to be played.

We continued reading Coyote's Rain Song from our ENKI fairy tales. Frog seems to enjoy this story. Our composition book was not handy, so we used a sheet of tag board. He was able to identify the word CLOUD from the two words on the sheet. He copied the letters C and R with support and resistance.

We made a rain stick to shake while we sing the rain song from the story. I had Frog put the letter C in the Cloud (with support from me after we practiced making the letter C together). I had him put Coyote under the rain cloud. Finally I had him put dots (for rain drops) falling from the cloud (I helped him hand over hand with this). I had already partly assembled the stick, and had him pour the beans into the tube. I finished tapeing the ends and putting his picture on the outside.

Later in the week we read a new Baba Yaga story -

a Russian version of Cinderella. It is a rather long story, but Frog has listened to it twice already. I'm hoping to interest him in a little doll making before we move on from the story.

There has also been a lot of play time, running in the wind, and making music together. Today we went to Frog's new school and met his new teacher and the rest of his team. It went very well. We will see how things go in January when there are more rules and expectations to stay on task.

Day 35 - Back to Frog School

2008-11-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

We started the morning with a decision. We had 4 more days left on our medication trial. I had reduced Frog's dosage back to 5mgs last week to see if having more time to adjust to the way his perceptions changed would make a difference. He continued to cycle between clam/lethargic to sensory overload melt down with prickly feet, large red itchy splotches, lots of tears and the need to go to his room and sleep it off. He also has gone quite manic every day around 4 or 5 pm, running and yelling non-stop. His therapists were very happy with his session yesterday, but still reported red itchy splotches and discomfort. Frog and I have really not had any quality home school time since we started the medication trial. This morning I decided we have had enough. So today was school without meds.

We started the day with Frog choosing pancakes for breakfast. He ate a little bit before we had to leave to take Diva to school. He ate a granola bar in the car. With a little prompting, Frog gave Diva something between a high five and a wave goodbye. At home we finished breakfast then headed downstairs for some Floortime. Frog wanted to climb up the mats against the wall. We turned it into a climbing and sliding game with an anticipatory 1, 2, 3, go! Later he moved to his swing. He let me move my body into the swing and add additional pressure for proprioception. We used the setting for requesting and working on the ee sound - with the choices "eat sweet feet?, squeeze knees?, or kiss please?" There was lots of Frog laughter, twinkling eyes, requests (offering me the body part he wanted pressure on) and ee sounds. We moved on to music and took turns strumming the guitar and singing/vocalizing into the karaoke machine.

Frog decided he would like to take a bath. This fit well into our school day, as stories work best for Frog when he has water to play with. Since today is a very rainy day and there are at least 4 more days of rain forecast, I thought rain would be a good subject. We re-read It's Fall and talked about the changes we've seen outside this week. Then I read Coyote's Rain Song, a Native American story from our ENKI folk and fairy tales. I had the pleasure of taking Diva to see According to Coyote at the Seattle Children's theater.

Gene Tagaban , the gifted story teller, brought Coyote to life for me. At the time, I really wished that Frog had been able to see the show with us - but I knew it was still too much for him. I must admit, I heard Gene's voice and saw Gene's mannerisms in my head while I told the story today. Frog and I both enjoyed it. (side note: If you ever get the opportunity to see According to Coyote performed or to see Gene Tagaban perform or speak - do not miss it!)

After I finally talked Frog out of the tub, we opened up the windows and doors so we could hear the rain. We also listened to the rain pounding on the skylights while I got our art supplies ready. Then went outside in the rain (and got almost as wet as Coyote) to do our art project - rain painting. I put a few drops of food coloring onto white paper plates and we took them outside into the rain. The rain bounced off the food coloring and splashed colors around the plates. Frog did not want to stick around for the "art" but rather ran around and experienced the rain bouncing off of him. He did come back and checkout the finished product.

After the plates dried in a warm oven, we used them for our lunch. Frog actually ate half his lunch today - including some yogurt WITH A SPOON (but only a little - he didn't want more if he couldn't use his fingers).

Frog also has a new box from Grandpa C.

Today, instead of using our composition book, we got out the markers and made lines and scribbles on the box.

We also discovered that when you push the box against the window, the box has a smaller window to look through - another perspective on the yard.

We finished off our school day with some more Floortime, including throwing and catching a ball - to musical rather than verbal cues. It is now 2:30 and Diva will be home soon. Frog is not having a melt-down and does not appear to be heading for a nap any time soon. Since we have had a week of sleep problems, I'm hoping this is another sign that stopping the medication is the right thing to do.

Day 34 - HALLOWEEN FUN

2008-10-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

I knew I wanted to work with pumpkins and Halloween this week but I wasn't quite sure what we would do. We are still struggling with the dosage on Frog's Vyvance and he has had some pretty off days. When I logged onto 4-frogs this morning, I came across a link to the 5 Little Pumpkins poem at If I Only Had Superpowers

Diva loved this poem when she was in pre-school and I had just heard one of Frog's friends reciting it after he learned it at school. So I gathered up our 5 little pumpkins and Frog and I went downstairs to read the poem and roll the pumpkins away at the end. I went through it three times, but Frog was not impressed. Not even when he had a pumpkin muffin to eat while I acted out the story.

What he is impressed with is a Russian fairy tale I found in our ENKI material about Baba Yaga - an eight foot tall witch who lives deep in the forest in a hut on three chicken legs. Her black geese snatch up children and bring them to her to cook for dinner! The children in the story get away and make it home safely. Frog wants me to read it again and again. He even went to his composition book today while I was reading the story. He flipped through the pages until he came to the page with a witches hat and broom and the name Baba Yaga. He patted the page as I described the witch in the story.

For our art project, I cut contact paper into a pumpkin shape then had Frog put the face on it. Afterwards he got to sprinkle, pour and dump a mixture of rice, paper punch outs, and glitter over the pumpkin face. The glitter stuck best of all so we ended up with a sparkly pumpkin face.

After lunch, Frog got to spend some time in the autumn sunshine, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the sandbox, and running around the yard.

I had a meeting in the afternoon, so Grandpa came to our house to hang out with Frog. They had a good time :0)

We still have to decorate our big pumpkin. But given Frog's preference for witches, I got him a few dress-up options to make a witch, warlock or wizard costume for Halloween. We'll see what he thinks of it tomorrow.

Day 33 -

2008-10-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have read at 4-Frogs, financial circumstances are requiring that I go back to full time work. To accomplish this Frog's School will become a night and weekend school starting in January. Frog's Grandma has been watching Frog in the mornings this week to give me some time to reorganize and make plans. This has been very nice for me, but very hard on home school as Frog is at his best in the mornings and early afternoon and our routine requires 4 to 6 hours so I am not trying to cram everything in at once and overwhelming him. Between the change in our routine, the splitting of my focus and the medication trial - Frog's School has really suffered the last two weeks.

Tomorrow Frog is staying home in the morning and we will see what we can do. I'm tempted to keep him at the present medication level for another week to see what happens for a week when he is better adjusted to the dosage.

We did manage to get one project done today - a face project that I had done with Diva when she was three or four years old. I set the pieces out and had Frog, with help, place the face parts where he wanted them to go. Then I glued them down for him. I made one first for a model.

This is the pumpkin face Frog made:

The similar pumpkin face is the one I made. The smaller pumpkin face is the one Diva and I made years ago. The extra pumpkins are for Diva to put faces on later - she always feels left out when she sees what Frog got to do at school!

Day 30 and 31 - Trial and Tribulation

2008-10-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

On Monday we bumped the meds up from 5ml to 10mg. Frog cycled back and forth between regulation and disregulation. He seems more tactile sensitive while on this medication and wearing clothing is getting more difficult for him. We read one book - Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, while Frog played in the bathtub. He was quite distressed through most of the reading. The distress continued throughout the bath and even after he got out. He seemed to be experiencing sever pain in the groin area - something he has dealt with off and on for years. He was finally able to urinate, which relieved the pain and left him calmer and happier.

We've talked to so many professionals about this and they all conclude it is a sensory issue and leave it at that. It is so frustrating! It may very well be a sensory issue, but it is also very painful. It might also be something else, but nobody has any ideas about how to determine what might be going on. I suspect this has more to do with Frog's lack of ability to speak for himself, answer the doctor's questions, and because he is autistic and has sensory processing disorder - so they choose to stop there. The only suggestion I get is to bring him in when he is having an attack. He can't be touched when he is having an attack - so I haven't figured out how to get him to the doctor's in time for them to see him.

We had planned a leaf walk and leaf rubbing activity for today, but Frog's sensory state put that plan on hold. He played in the yard on his own for a little while, and watched Diva play on the wii (even tried out the balance board on his own), but mostly he just rested. I did a few leaf rubbings and he checked them out. He also explored the leaves themselves - tearing them and letting them fall to the ground.

On Tuesday, I spent most of the day getting the van serviced. Frog spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa. He seemed to be tolerating the 10mg of medication much better today. He was not holding his head and fussing as much as yesterday. He was tired, not surprising since he was awake between 2 and 4 am last night. When he came home with me, he began to have pain in his feet. Like the groin pain, this is not a new experience. It happens often when Frog is stressed or under some sensory pressure. He goes from not wanting anything to touch his feet to stomping them on the floor really hard or, like today, jumping really hard and high while screaming. It looks like he is having a very extreme pins and needles sensation in his feet which he is holding very taut. They sometimes get hot. And his ears turn bright, bright red. I have video, but again it is not loading onto blogger. If any and of Frog's therapists would like to see it, let me know and we'll make arraignments.

Edit: I was able to load one of the videos on Youtube -

On the positive side, he was very communicative today when he wasn't in a sensory melt down. He really wanted to play and sought us out with vocalizations, a couple of echoed words, and lots of referencing and giggles. Tomorrow he has Speech/OT at school - maybe we can get our leaf walk in after that.

Update - Wednesday Frog woke in a good mood. He did much better at Grandma's and seemed to be tolerating the medication better than he has the last two days. But when we got to our Speech/OT appointment at school, Frog went into meltdown and had the same foot reaction he was having yesterday. It was actually good timing since it gave his therapist a chance to see what this looks like and try all the things that logically should help, but don't. By afternoon, Frog and I were both wiped out. Frog had not slept the night before and neither had Frog's Mom or Dad. Fortunately, Frog took a very short nap and stayed up a little later, going to bed around 10pm. We were all able to sleep through the rest of the night.

Day 29 and 30 -

2008-10-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Day 29 was a day off for Frog - Frog's mom was on the computer all day working on a real estate transaction. When Frog's mom wasn't looking, Frog did some drafting too - which meant Mom had even more drafting to do.

Frog continues to show the pattern of regulation - disregulation and gets worn out around 4pm. He did seem to sleep through more of the night last night.

Day 30 we've tried to get back on track and focused our attention on Geese. We read The Mournful Goodbye from our ENKI nature stories. It is the story of Little Goose and her first migration. Then we did a little art project. I did one by myself while I hummed the tune I'd been using to sing the verse from the story:

High honks and low,
Fast wings and slow,
The skies all one song,
That echos below.

Frog moved in and out while I worked and hummed. He played with the feathers, and licked the stamps. Eventually he let me help him drop some feathers on his goose page and press the stamp on the page instead of on his body. He took the crayon from me and added a few marks of his own.

Later we worked on the letters G for goose and V for V-formation. Both were part of our goose story. Frog was able to find the word V formation in the book, and put the paper goose with the word goose. He reluctantly wrote the letter G, and enjoyed removing the bean geese from the V formation. (I re-glued them several times before I took the picture :0).

Frog was getting tired and started having mini meltdowns. He finally went to his room for some quiet time. When he came back down, he said he was ready to go to his NAET appointment. He was being treated for grass. When the treatment began he got really silly - very engaged - and pretty loud. I always feel sorry for the person trying to enjoy an acupuncture treatment in the next room when Frog is with me. He did quite well for the rest of the night.

Day 27 and 28 - THE TRIAL CONTINUES

2008-10-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've tried for days to upload video of Day 27, and it isn't happening. So you will just get a lot of words :0)

Day 27 -

Day two of the medication trial. We are supposed to stay at 5mg for the first 7 days, then bump up to 10mg to see if there is any difference. It took Frog a little longer to take the medication today. I saved the extra in case the first dose got dumped or spit out onto the floor.

I spent the morning working on legal documents and let Frog have some free time in the playroom. He seemed calmer and less prone to get into things. When I finished my drafting, I suggested it was time to get dressed warm and go outside to work in the garden. Today's lesson plan centered on Dirt and Worms.

I went upstairs and got dressed. When I came back, Frog was on the kitchen counter near the refrigerator helping himself to cookies from the cupboard. I got him down and tried to entice him to go outside. We did some dancing and jumping around, but he showed no interest in getting dressed. I decided to fix lunch first to see if some protein, along with all those cookies, would make him feel more receptive. He ate very little and threw the rest around.

He still did not want to get dressed - no pants, socks or shoes, thank you very much! I told him we were not going outside without more clothes on. He was angry, but still did not want to get dressed. I cleaned up the mess from lunch and Frog wrapped up in a blanket and settled into his favorite wing back chair. He was none to happy when I got out the composition book. He was able to identify the word Worm when given the choice between Dirt and Worm on the page. We worked on using a good pointing finger to identify the shovel and the bucket from a page of stickers. And he did a good job, under protest, with his letters.

This was followed by a scream, at me, and a bite to his wrist before he took off upstairs with his blanket. He went to my room and fell asleep in front of a blowing fan.

When he woke he was very out of sorts. He needed to be alone and would move from room to room to get away from everyone. He did a lot of rocking and singing. He could not tolerate listening to us talk. He did manage to tell us that his head hurt. Then he went back to bed. Frog's Dad feared he was getting sick - he's been very sniffly and stuffed up the last few days. I thought it was strange that he was fine earlier in the day. I had a hunch and went downstairs to locate the cup with the extra medicine. I'd put it away on the top of the refrigerator - pushed way back and behind everything else that is up there. Sure enough, Frog had finished off the other 15mg of the medicine with his cookie before lunch!

We dropped the rest of our plans for the day and monitored Frog. His breathing and heart rate seemed normal. He was agitated, but not more so than we've seen at times in the past. After an hour or so, he got up and sat on the landing to the stairs, rocking and singing. Then he came downstairs and sat in his chair. This is what Frog looks like on 20mg of the medication (video should have gone here - Frog sat Still in the chair for 10 minutes or so. He did very little vocalizing and moved his head and eye gaze very slowly. He looked out the window, he tracked his Dad's movements, and he spotted the fire burning in the wood stove and stared at that. After leaving the chair and eating a little dinner, he seemed a little less spacey. He watched TV by himself and seemed quite calm and happy. As the night wore on, he got more energy and began to run and vocalize more like himself. He went to bed around 10:30 and got some sleep before waking again around 2am. He had a hard time getting up the next day.

Day 28 -

Day three of the medication trial. We learned from yesterday and locked the extra medication in the refrigerator until we were certain he had taken his dose. Then I dumped the extra down the drain. Although he had a hard time getting up and going, he was happy.

After taking his medication and eating some breakfast, he was happily playing downstairs, but came quickly when I started singing the Let's go get in Mommy's car song. He was receptive to Floortime type play especially swinging, wrestling and tickling. He was not as happy about putting on clothes, but agreed to them in order to get a ride in the car before going to his Speech/OT appointment at school.

He became more agitated at school cycling between happy jumping, requesting, and referencing to wails and the need to lay flat and press his body against a resistant surface. He responded well to deep pressure until it pushed him over the edge the other way. When he wasn't in this agitated state, he was happy to be with the therapists, made lots of eye contact, threw the ball, took the monkey, asked for the trampoline, complained when the swing was moved - but we felt that trying to direct him to the board to write or the vantage to talk would push him back over the edge.

This is the pattern I am seeing at home with the medication. He cycles between regulation and disregulation more often than usual; when he is in the regulated part of the cycle, he is calmer and more focused than usual, but the focus can only be used for things he initiates or comes to on his own - it does not extend to other-directed activities. His OT suggested that the medication may be changing his perception of sensory input so much, that he is in a period of readjustment and it may take some time before he can attend to some of the activities he was doing before.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Floortime play, and then Frog took a nap. I was kind of hoping the medication would put an end to the afternoon naps, but he still seems to need them. Maybe this is part of the readjustment too.

An Award

2008-10-15T12:03:00.001-07:00

Rainbow Mummy at Organizing the Jellybeans has honored Frog's School with our second award! And a beautiful award it is too :0)

Congratulations Rainbow Mummy, on winning the award. And thank you for thinking of me. I appreciate your support and comments here at Frog's School.

I've just given this award out over at 4-Frogs, so I'm going to wait and pass this one on at a future date!

Day Twenty Six - HERE WE GO

2008-10-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today was our fist day of the new medication. I dissolved the contents of the capsule into 4 oz of water and gave Frog one ounce to drink. He had no problem drinking the medicine. He did act very sleepy most of the morning, but I had a hard time telling if that was due to the medication or lack of sleep the night before. He also did not want to keep his pants on - but that is not entirely unusual.

We read our book while Frog played in the bath-tub. We are reading the Moon books this week and hoping to get outside for a twilight walk to look at the moonrise. Frog listened to the books and kept requesting more. We read Hello Harvest Moon, I Took the Moon for a Walk, and Twilight Comes Twice. Then we listened to some music while Frog continued to play in the water and I did some movement work within his view - mostly tai-chi and ballet moves that emphasised mid line crossing. He did become very agitated while listing to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto number 2. He calmed down when I changed to a Haydn piece. I wonder if the Brandenburg was a little too busy.

We had some lunch, then worked on our letters. Today I choose "O" for orange and "M" for moon. Frog would not work at the table, so we moved around the house. He was able to choose the orange item from a field of 2 to 4 for our orange collage. He also made some nice "M" in his composition book.

He was really not happy about finding the letters on his Vantage. But he did manage to make a nice pointed finger all by himself.

Our afternoon adventure was a trip to the pumpkin patch (they opened it after all) to look for orange pumpkins. Frog liked walking the grounds with mom. He enjoyed looking at the chickens, until the looked at him and started coming closer looking for food.

Frog also liked running in the pumpkin patch. Mostly he wanted to play with the dirt. When I started asking him to find a pumpkin, he got really annoyed with me and the crying and carrying on started. I picked out one pumpkin and we went to pay for it. Frog was still struggling to keep it together, and the added voices of strangers was more than he could take. We had a bit of a wrestling match in the grass (where Frog wanted to sit and pull grass to drop in front of his eyes). Eventually we made it back to the car and enjoyed the ride home in the wind and the rain listening the his Pam Marshalla phoneme CD.

Frog and I spent a little time outside exploring the back yard on a cool wet rainy day.

When it was time to come in, Frog took off his wet shoes and socks and decided to curl up in a blanket and take a nap. Dad carried him to bed and he slept until just after 5pm. He was up and down for the rest of the night.

Day Twenty Five - CAN'T FIGHT THAT FEELING

2008-10-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

The fans and dehumidifier continued to run all day. Good news - the floors are dry. But Frog had a difficult time focusing on anything but the white noise, blowing air, and sight of the rain falling outside. He was alternately stimming and sleepy. He is also battling a bit of an intestinal bug which did not help. When he did rouse himself, he wanted little to do with school work or engaging with mom. Other than requesting food, he spent most of the day exploring on his own - playing with water until mom would take it away; climbing on the wood stove (not hot), the counters, the dehumidifier, and furniture; and he brought out a lot of toys he hasn't generally played with in the past. He got his sister's kite out and experimented with the kite and the wind from the fan.

When he was quiet and sleepy, we read I Took the Moon for a Walk and Twilight Comes Twice. We listened to music and I did some mid line crossing movements to the music and let Frog watch me from a distance. The moves I used are found on the Smart Moves DVD program he has watched before and we've done some of them together, hand over hand in the past.

We watched the changing weather - rain and breezes blowing through the yard. We also noticed that our bird feeder has been discovered.

Frog did have a good time playing in the van after we brought Diva home. When I left to pick Diva up from gymnastics tonight the high beams were on, the turn signal was blinking, the volume on the radio was turned up high, and my seat was folded forwards. Frog had a good Floortime session with Dad tonight after all the fans had been turned off.

Frog's new medication has still not arrived at the pharmacy. Looks like we will not be starting the trial until next week.

Days Twenty Two, Twenty Three and Twenty Four - CHANGES

2008-10-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Changes, Changes, it seems there are always changes. Monday was our last day with our beloved SLP who has been with us from the beginning of this whole adventure. She has been amazing, thoughtful, innovative and a great collaborator with all of my observations and wacky ideas - some of which have paid off :0). But like so many others, financial changes on the pond will not allow for continued private services. So we said goodbye, promised to keep in touch and hope that we will be back someday.

After our speech appointment, we read a few books, played some music - Frog has discovered Diva's toy guitar and I'm starting to think he should have a real one - and did some Floortime. After that, Frog played outside while I worked on financial plans and got ready for our trip to Seattle to see Frog's neurologist.

Tuesday we left the house bright and early and made it to the appointment just a few minutes late. Frog was really cooperative and the Doctor did some observing and listened to my observations about what had changed and what had stayed the same over the last six months. He suggested a trial of Vyvanse for Frog. Frog's Dad and I have gone back and forth on the issue, sometimes we feel he's too young and we aren't ready to go there yet, other days we wonder what if this was the piece that was missing? Frog has never really had trouble engaging and he is showing day by day that he really does not have a cognitive impairment - but he has NO attention span, little impulse control, and a very skittish tendency when others direct their attention or intentions towards him. I trust this doctor. We've decided to go ahead with a 30 day trial, just to see. This could make for a very interesting month.

We also work with a psychologist at the clinic. She asked us if we would help her with her thesis project and she needed some video of Frog and I interacting. So our "school" day was 20 minutes in front of a video camera in the clinic playroom. Despite the unusual surroundings, or maybe because of them, Frog did remarkably well following through on directions although I did have to do a lot of redirecting to keep him on task.

When we finished up with the doctors appointment, we took advantage of being in the city and had a family day at the Zoo. Due to busy schedules, there was no one to pick Diva up after school and keep her until we got home, so I pulled her and she came with us. Frog did a great job of attending and staying with us at the Zoo. Dad or I always had a hand on him, but he moved right along with us, only stopping or sitting down to rock a few times. We spent over one and a half hours wandering through the park.

We saw lots of big bushy gray squirrels while we ate lunch. Frog shared his cheese and crackers with them by dropping them off the end of the table.

Some of our fall stories talk about squirrels fattening up for the long winter months. I was glad we got to see it in action. I asked Frog about the squirrels today and he remembers them.

Frog checked out most of the plants at the zoo, and sampled a couple when I wasn't quick enough to get them first. He survived! He also showed some genuine interest in many of the animals.

Frog got very excited about the gorillas. He was doing a lot of low vocalizations while he watched them. When he saw the baby riding on its mother's back he let out a holler. Gorillas don't like loud noises. We gave Frog one warning. When he yelled again (agitating the docent as well as the gorillas) we told he we had to move on because he was too loud. I'm hoping this resulted in some incidental learning, but Frog has a hard time controlling the loud outbursts when he is excited.

We had to wait for the ferry on the way home, making it a very long day. Frog got a little fussy towards the end, but held up remarkably well. He was so tired when we got home. He found a blanket and curled up on a footstool near the couch where Diva was watching TV. He usually won't watch TV or stay in the living room with another person, but he was quiet, calm and content. I sat down near him and stroked his head, moving his hair back from his face. Usually this would be his cue to get up and leave. But he stayed and asked me to do it again and again.

Today, however, was another story. He did not want to cooperate. He only wanted to go outside. We weren't able to get our prescription filled - they had to order the meds. - so it will be Friday before we can try them. I dressed Frog 4 times in 30 minutes as he kept stripping off his clothing. I told him we were going to school to meet with the therapists (OT/SLP - amazing, amazing team, by the way!!!) but he just kept taking me to the backdoor. I finally got him to the car and we made it to school right on time. He did great in this initial session with his new SLP and the OT and OTA he has worked with in the past. I think this is going to be a winning combination. He started getting upset when it was time to go.

When we got home, we had lunch and he got his outside time as promised. He came in muddy and in need of clean pants. We decided to clean him up in the tub and read our books. When I finished the stories, he said he wanted to play by himself. I went back and forth between cleaning up downstairs and checking on him in the bathtub upstairs. He was being so good. He was turning the water on and off, just getting a little bit at a time. I complemented him on his control and conservation. I went downstairs to fill out one form our psychologist needed for her project. It must have taken longer than I thought. When I went back upstairs, the humidity hit me at the landing. Frog was not in the tub, Frog was at the vanity. Both basins were filled and overflowing with steamy hot water. The carpet and floor were soaked with a layer of water floating on top. The water was dripping down through the floor and into the furnace room and lower bathroom. School came to a halt. Frog was sent to his room, dried, dressed and left. I spent the afternoon cleaning up, best I could, and waiting on the professionals to finish the job. They got here around 5pm, removed the remaining water and left us with heavy duty fans and dehumidifiers. We shall see if further repair is needed in the morning.

Day Twenty One - DIGGING IT

2008-10-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

We started our day off with the Pam Marshalla CD, Do You Like Pie. Frog really enjoys the songs, but so far he is not interested in singing along. He is becoming more tolerant and even enjoying some of the verbal synchronicity games.

Our plan was to play in the dirt today. I also wanted to make some fall leaf cookies, but some little Frog had crushed all of my leaf shape cookie cutters in his powerful mouth! So the next order of the day was to shop for a new cookie cutter and pick-up some potting soil, bulb food and some fall annuals. We went to Jo-Anne Fabric to look for a cookie cutter. Frog stayed with me while I shopped was very interested in the large assortment of sprinkles they carried. As I was looking at just one more thing, Frog got tired of waiting and slipped my grip on his hand - he ran around the perimeter of the store - very happy. He did not yell, he did not grab at anything on the shelves, he did not make a mess - he just ran around and took in the sites. When I finally caught up with him we paid for our purchases and headed to the nursery.

At the nursery he got to ride the flatbed cart again. We picked out our flowers and requested the soil and amenities we needed, paid and headed for the car. Frog is doing better and better out in the community. I hope to reach a point soon when it will make sense to take his vantage talker with us. It might be easier for him to learn to answer the basic questions asked of kids in a real context rather than the more contrived practice at the kitchen table or in therapy. Hard to say, but worth a shot.

At home we read Arnold's Apple tree. This time, Frog listened to the whole book - said "yes" it was a good story, and asked for more. We read Hello, Harvest Moon, which also met with his approval today. I had a lunch date, and Frog got to spend a couple of hours with his Grandma J. She said they had a good time playing and when one of the TV shows started talking about fall - Frog stopped to watch and listen.

When I got home, we took advantage of a break in the rain to work on our bulb garden. I started by reciting our verse. I began to work some of the potting soil into the dirt. Frog watched from a distance, running back and forth between the fountain and the sandbox. I managed to catch him once and got him to dump some potting soil into the garden. I set the bulbs in place and slowly began to cover them. Again, Frog watched from a distance.

I finished covering the bulbs and added some more potting soil as a top dressing. I went to begin the process of gutting some small pumpkins for our next project. While I was busy, Frog made his way over to the flower bed and played with the dirt. He watched me empty the seeds and guts from the pumpkin - the sensory aspect must have been too much for him. He went into melt down and was only soothed in the bathtub. While he soaked, I read It's Fall to him. He enjoyed the book and agreed that we had planted bulbs just like the boy in the book.

When Frog finished his bath, we planted our pumpkin planters.

These were made as gifts for Frog's Grandmas, Aunt, and our Neighbor. Frog is just starting to understand and get excited about giving things.

When the planting was done and we were somewhat cleaned up, we went to the table for our letter work. We practiced the letters L for Leaf and M for Moon.

Frog identified the sight words, wrote the letters, and put the stamps on the correct pages with some help from Mom. Then we spelled our sight words on Frog's Vantage, using word predict to finish the word as soon as it appeared.

Our last project was to roll out, cut and decorate fall leaf cookies. Frog decided he would rather watch the news. Diva and I finished one batch of cookies that Frog was happy to sample :0)

Day Twenty - PLAY DAY

2008-10-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

We woke to ominous skies.

It seems Fall is upon us. The forecast predicts that we will see rain and wind by late Friday afternoon. I decided to set the lesson plans aside and enjoy the outside while we still could.

When we returned from taking Diva to school, Frog climbed into the front of the van. I took the opportunity to introduce some imaginative play. I climbed into Frog's seat and asked him to take me for a ride. He did a little turning of the steering wheel while I made sound effects - he seemed to be enjoying himself.

We went into the front yard and looked at the sky.

Frog thought it looked a bit dark and scary - but not scary enough to come back inside. We moved to the back yard. I worked on our flower bed a little more and repeated our verse from yesterday. We played in the sand box and checked on the swimming pool. I took a walk around the yard and gathered some fall leaves for potential crafts. Frog continued to play with the fountain and run around the yard.

When I came back into the house, I noticed that he was making a few trips to the flower bed to checkout the freshly turned dirt. I left my leaves on the kitchen table. When I was vacuuming the living room, Frog came in and played with the leaves. I hope the chance to play with the materials first will help him accept them as art supplies later.

The rest of the day was spent going in and out of the house. Frog was quiet for part of the day, lounging with his blanket, but didn't want to hear any stories. He was active in the yard for most of the day running, spinning, climbing jumping and digging in the dirt. He alarmed the UPS driver who made a delivery to our house. The driver encountered a very muddy and barely dressed Frog jumping up and down on top of the playhouse - I'll bet he had a story to tell when he got home :0)

Frog and I did some dancing and a lot of vocal play. He was also very excited about Dad's new Wii game and spent some time watching him play. By the end of the day Frog was plum tuckered out.

Day Ninteen - TRYING NEW THINGS

2008-10-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Days Seventeen and Eighteen - ADJUSTMENTS

2008-09-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

We've gotten off to a rocky start this week. Frog has been very stimmy and harder to engage than usual. Rather than fight our way through it, I returned to less school and more Floortime. It also gave me a chance to ponder and envision some adjustments I want to make.

We are all a bit worn out here at the pond. So I am going to leave you with pictures tonight, and I'll post some description tomorrow -

ART

FLOORTIME

SEARCHING FOR SIGNS OF DUCHESS AUTUMN

Last Night on the Vantage

2008-09-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I left the Vantage in Frog's room last night set on it's home page. This is what it looked like in the morning:

The picture is a little blurry. The screen says:

. . . Is it, oj lj

I find the capital letter I, the comma and the spaces most interesting. I don't know if he typed out Is it or if he found the words with word predict after typing in the letter I.

The Award Winning Frog's School!

2008-09-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Julie at A Celebration of Our Journey has awarded Frog's School a Brilliate Weblog Award! Thanks Julie - what a nice surprise :0)

Now I get to spread the love. For those who are about to be honored, here are the rules:

1. The winner can (and should, really) put the logo on his/her blog
2. The winner must link to the person from whom they received their award.
3. The winner must nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award.
4. The winner must place links to those blogs on their own blog.
5. The winner must leave a message on the blogs of the people they’ve nominated.

Since I started this blog less than a month ago, I've been meaning to search out some other Home School blogs to follow. So I'm going to honor Home School with Autism blogs (a caveat - If you have recently received this award for your home school blog or any other blog, feel free to accept and reserve the right to pass it on later):

1. Christine at Adventures in Home Schooling

2. Bonnie Sayers at Autism Family Adventures

3. Kyra at This Mom

4. Harvest Mom at Along the Crooked Path

5. Mrs. C at Home school and Etc.

6. Lisa at Home School for All Kinds of Learners - Teaching Tommy

7. Sue at Living and Learning

I'll Add Aspergertopia - since she didn't have a chance to pick-up the award last time :0) A great home school resource with fabulous ideas!

And I think Julie's Blog - A Celebration of our Journey - is a wonderful home schooling blog and resource. A real "Can't Miss!"

Day Sixteen - LAZY DAY

2008-09-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

Frog woke late this morning. I don't think either of us slept well last night, but I didn't really hear much from his room. He grabbed his Vantage when he woke and I found him with the device in his lap, pushing letter after letter with fingers, hands, elbows, even his tongue. The result was a long line of gibberish - but at least he is playing with the thing on a regular basis now. I hope it's usefulness as a communication device is not far behind.

Frog helped himself to pumpkin muffins for breakfast - four of them to be exact - although most of the muffins ended up as crumbs on the floor. Added to the dishes left in the sink from yesterday's muffin making and dinner, we had a mess to clean up. I spent the morning in the kitchen. Frog drifted in and out to play in the bubbles in the sink. We turned Zac, the robotic rumba vacuum, loose on the crumbs.

One of Frog's new "chores" is to turn the vacuum on when I request him to do so. First I ask him to turn on the vacuum, then I sing the "turn on the vacuum song." Today was the first day I tried this. Frog loves to turn on the vacuum on his own - I want him to work on following my request. He needed hand over hand today, but I think he will get this one. By 10am the house was clean, but the Frog was not. He headed for a bath and I grabbed our stories.

Since he did not like Apples and Pumpkins yesterday, I gave him the choice between It's Fall (one we've read before) and Hello, Harvest Moon (a new book). He choose Hello, Harvest Moon.

He did a good job listening and even took a moment or two to glance at a picture here and there. When we were done, I read It's Fall (for good measure). He didn't pay as close attention, but he didn't resist the story either. Both stories reinforced the various fall themes we've been using - harvest, leaves changing color, cooler weather, geese flying south, pumpkins, and Halloween. Both have beautiful art work that I hope Frog will take some time to appreciate on his own when he is ready. I plan to ask questions following the stories next week and use them as a basis for our letter and craft work.

When Frog was dried and dressed, we turned on Little Bill on TV. He is not a big fan of TV, but likes to watch occasionally when nobody else is in the room. I asked him if he could take care of himself and stop himself from making a mess while I took a shower. He grinned. I told him I knew he could do it and reiterated what I expected.

As I got dressed after my shower, I could hear a lot of hooting and hollering from downstairs. I said "It sounds like you are having a lot of fun down there. Will mommy be happy when she sees what you are doing?" Frog clapped twice (yes) - so I headed downstairs. 15 minutes had passed since I left him in the living room. He was still in the living room and there were no new messes anywhere in the house!!!!!

Friday is usually our play date day. He met with our group on Wednesday with his Grandma. Today we were a little too late by the time we were ready. We decided to fix some lunch and head out to a park on our own. Frog had a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana and a bag of Doritos.

I choose a park near the airport where we could watch the planes fly low over the top of us as they took-off and landed. Frog was very good at visually locating and tracking the aircraft when I asked "where's the airplane?" We ran free on one of the baseball fields and Frog practiced stopping or slowing down when I directed him to "Wait for Mommy."

We visited the pond and watched the ducks.

We checked out the log cabins.

And we played on the playground. Frog had the place to himself and had a great time - especially trying to climb up the big twisty slide.

After an hour at the park we headed back to the car for a drink of water, and headed home to meet Diva when she arrived from school. Frog played in his front yard for a little while more, then headed for his room and fell asleep. A nap for Frog is not unusual these days. Especially on Fridays, when we have an evening NAET appointment - he sometimes anticipates the treatment and reacts with dis-integrated behavior or fatigue. I promise to post a full account of NAET on the 4-Frog blog when I have a chance to sit down and do it justice - for now I'll direct you to the NAET website and just say we have seen dramatic reactions and great improvements in Frog since we started the treatments in January 2008.

Day Fifteen - BACK IN THE SWING

2008-09-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Frog took a couple of days vacation at Grandma's house while I attended the Pacific Northwest Institute on Special Education Law and fulfilled many of my continuing education hours.

He was a little cool towards me when I got home last night, but warmed up considerably by this morning. We got Diva off to school with a high 5 from Frog. When we got home, Frog and I played with the air walker swing going fast and slow, bumpy and smooth. When Frog was ready, we did a few of our HANDLE exercises.

We read the book Apples and Pumpkins. Frog was not happy about it. I used Rapid Prompting Method to ask him 1. Do apples grow in an Orchard or in a Store? He picked Orchard. 2. Did the girl pick a Green Apple or a Red Apple? He answered Red Apple (correct). 3. Did the girl find the pumpkins in a Car or in a Field? He answered Field. He was very upset about the whole thing. After several questions about why he was so upset - he said yes to "Are these questions too easy?"

We had a long talk about waving and saying hello and goodbye. About why we wave and what it communicates to the other person. We will keep working on this.

Frog indicated he was ready to get out of the house. We took a drive, got some lunch and headed for Safeway. We got our cart and headed back outside of the store. Frog was hanging onto the cart handle and riding by standing on a rail at the bottom of the cart. I stopped by a large box of mixed fall gourds. I asked him to find a green one. He did. Then I asked him to find a yellow one. He did. Then I asked him to find a really small one. He did. Here are the ones he choose:

I showed him a medium sized pumpkin and asked him to find a really large pumpkin. This is what he choose:

Inside the store I asked him to find the apples, then the bananas, then the grapes. He led me to each item as I asked for it. I asked him if Diva likes strawberries and he clapped "yes." I said let's find the strawberries. He took me there too. I said I needed two boxes. He patted one box and I put it in the cart. He patted another box and I picked it up. He'd spotted a third box, but I told him we had enough and he moved on. The only thing he couldn't find at the store, was the car after we returned our cart - but that happens to me all the time :0)

At home we went into our garden and checked on our pumpkins.

We also picked some squash and some cucumbers. Frog played outside, making mud in his water table, while I put away our groceries. Then we got around to making pumpkin muffins.

While the muffins baked, Frog explored our vegetable table.

I took out his composition book and wrote Pumpkin on one page and Vegetable on the other. I added the letters P and V in the lines at the bottom. I put the book in front of Frog, handed him a small pumpkin and said "Is it a pumpkin or a vegetable?" he set it on the word Pumpkin. Then I handed him a yellow squash and asked again "a pumpkin or a vegetable?" He put the squash on the word vegetable. We worked on the letters P and V, although I think Frog would have preferred to be doing something else ;0).

Frog spent the rest of the day eating pumpkin muffins and playing outside. He told Dad that he had missed school and was glad Mom was home.

Day Fourteen - GO FROG GO

2008-09-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today started off auspicious - First thing this morning, Frog danced a gig to the sliding glass door, pounded on the window and said Deerrrrrr (trilling that r like a pro). Sure enough there were two deer bounding through the yard - doing the same dance as Frog. When we got to Diva's school, Frog waved goodbye to Diva then gave her a high five (without a physical prompt).

At 11:15, we headed for the playground where we knew we'd find the pre-school playgroup. Frog had been excited about this for days. He's been stealing the SMART MOVES book off my nightstand almost everyday. He takes things like this often, but the fact that he kept coming back for the same book made me wonder.

Looking at the cover of the book I had a hunch. I sat Frog down and asked if he liked the picture. He patted the book. I asked if he saw a girl on a swing - he found it. I asked if there was a boy climbing a tree - he found that. I asked if he wanted to go back to the playground with the kids - an enthusiastic two clap YES!

Frog was in a bit of a mood today. There were lots of tears and sad faces, lots of arm biting, lots of struggles getting into and keeping clothing on. But every time I asked if he wanted to go to the playground I got an immediate yes - even through the tears. When we got to the playground, Frog jogged from the car to the kids on his own - no handholding or redirection needed. He got a little overwhelmed when one of the boys got right in his face and asked him questions - he threw a hand out to pinch, but stopped himself and ran off to rock and cry.

The boy was OK and continued to try to interact with Frog. I explained that Frog didn't talk, but could understand what he said to him. The boy introduced himself. He tried a couple of times to include Frog then gave up on talking. He resorted to the common childhood taunt rift - "na, na, na-na, na" He didn't seem to be doing it in a mean or taunting way and Frog - who can readily tune into music - found it charming. He even gave the boy a smile and a giggle. Frog did a lot of referencing with the adults. And the kids were fascinated and a bit perplexed by all the pea-gravel Frog was dropping into his mouth.

At home we worked on the letter A and P. I helped Frog to use his pointing finger to find the A on his Vantage. After we had A, I added letters until the word-predict function showed Apple. I helped Frog choose Apple. Then I asked him to find the letter P. He found the letter I. Then he found the letter M. Then he found the letter F and choose Floor from the word-predict choices. We finally found the letter P and I added letters until we could choose Pumpkins from the word predict options. He came back to the Vantage later on his own. He pushed the letter R and choose Rainbow from the word-predict choices. Then he pushed the letters HY.

I helped him to write the letters A and P in his composition book. He did these while he was half in and half out of his chair.

We also worked on pointing and color identification using a fall wreath Diva made.

We added a new book today Apples and Pumpkins. This will transition us from our apple theme to our pumpkin theme and is the first mention of Halloween. (Later tonight I found the book in Frog's room. I think he took it up there to have a better look at it). After the story, we took some of our remaining apples, some peanut butter, and some birdseed, nuts and berries and made a bird feeder.

Frog used his scissors to cut the ribbons. I helped him get his fingers into the right position and held the ribbon between the blades. Frog checked out the feeder in the yard a couple of times on his own. He also enjoyed playing with the left-over seed in the sensory table.

Frog and I played in the sandbox and jumped on the trampoline while we waited for Diva and Grandma to get home from school. When Frog saw Grandma, I asked him if he wanted to give her the applesauce he made for her. He got a big grin on his face. A few minutes later he let himself out of the trampoline. He made his usual circuit back to the house (slide, sandbox, fountain) then went inside. Grandma said "where's my applesauce?" Frog walked to the refrigerator. Grandma asked again, "where's my applesauce?" Frog patted the refrigerator. Grandma asked "should I open it?" Frog SAID "ged-id" which both Grandma and I heard as "get it." Frog's Dad asked him later if he was excited to give Grandma the applesauce he made - Frog clapped twice with a smile.

Day Thirteen - APPLE DAZE

2008-09-18T08:44:00.001-07:00

Frog was up and ready to go at 7am today. His talker was on the holiday icon page and he had selected all sorts of holiday words. But today was apple day - to pick up on what we didn't get to do yesterday.

Frog gave Diva another high five as she left the van for school. Frog and I headed home. But when we pulled into the garage, Frog refused to get out of the van. I needed to clean it out before our afternoon play date, so Frog explored the van and the garage while I sorted through the various things that get left in a mommy-mobile.

We came inside and did some movement work and some of our HANDLE exercises. Trying to gently move ahead with our new goose story, I added a "fly goose fly" chant to our morning work. When we were all warmed up, we headed outside to pick some apples for apple day. My plan was to follow the Applesauce story as closely as we could.

I said to Frog, "Those apples are really, really high. I think I need my special guy to sit up on my shoulders - why? - to pick the highest apples." Frog though this rhyme was really funny, but he wasn't going for it. When he headed for the stairs to the pool, I followed. I looked at him and said "Honk, Honk." He looked at me. Again I said "Honk, Honk" and "yup, its time." Both are from our goose story. Then I sang "fly goose, fly. fly goose fly" and helped Frog climb on my back. We flapped our wings and flew to the apple trees where we circled once, circled twice and landed with a jump.

We searched for an apple he could reach. He picked it and put it in the basket. We found another one, but it wouldn't come off the tree. Frog got flustered, then reached into the basket, grabbed the first apple, and threw it. (I was reminded of Stanley Greenspan saying that you don't learn about an apple by being told that it is red and round and a fruit you can eat - you learn about an apple by picking it, feeling the weight of it in your hand and seeing what it feels like and what happens when you throw it at your sister!) I put Frog down and went back to the song from the Applesauce story:

A is for Apple, Applesauce,
sticky and sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples in the Apple tree,
waiting there for you and me.
SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE the Apple Tree (I did)
Down come the Apples, 1, 2, 3 (they did)

We gathered apples and put them in the basket. Frog helped pick up three apples, then he was done. (Maybe he was listening to specifically to the song).

Then I told him:

"Home from the orchard with basket a-bursting,
with fruit from the harvest this family's been blessed"
(a modification of a line from the Duchess Autumn poem we've been reading)

We headed back to the house with our apples and prepared for the next step:

A is for Apple, Applesauce
Stick and Sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples in the Basket too,
Apples waiting for me and you.

WASH, WASH, WASH the Apples all,
Chop them into pieces small.

Frog stood at the sink to "wash" the apples. Mostly he played with the water. I stood next to him and chopped the apples. After every apple I chopped, I'd ask Frog to hand me another one. This was done with lots of emotion and facial expression. At first he ignored me. I helped him, hand over hand so he would know what I wanted him to do. Then when I would ask for an apple, he would pat a floating apple but he wouldn't try to grab it. Finally he did grab one on his own and threw it into the garbage disposal. Eventually, we made it through all the apples.

A is for Apple, Applesauce,
Sticky and sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples cooking in the pot,
Hissing and steaming, nice and hot.
Smush the apples through the holes,
Add the sugar, stir the bowl.

While the apples cooked, we checked on them once in awhile. Frog liked watching the steam roll out of the pot when I lifted the lid. We also did some table work. We drew our letter A in a composition book. I had done a drawing of a ladder against an apple tree that had both the upper and lowercase A hidden within. I hope to get Frog to copy these pictures someday. But today he just worked on his letters. He is doing well with the uppercase A. He just needs some support and stabilization. The lowercase was new to him and he wanted to just keep making the uppercase letter. I guided his first and second lowercase A. The third he did himself with support and stabilization and he made it uppercase.

He wasn't thrilled about the the sorting game, but was able to find both apples from field of three fruits. He really loved the tree and kept sneaking off with it when I wasn't looking.

We finished our applesauce off in the food mill. Frog reluctantly took and turn and turned the crank three times while holding on the to handle with his other hand. Then he got to pour in the sugar. That was his favorite part of the whole process. As you can see, most of it was poured over his hand and onto the counter. We stirred in the sugar and put the applesauce into containers. I left the mixing bowl out on the counter and sure enough, when he thought I wasn't looking, Frog came back and helped himself to a taste. He didn't come back for more - so I don't think he was overly impressed :0)

We had some lunch and Frog played outside. When he came back in, we spent a few minutes talking about his Vantage. We looked at the keyboard page and found the letter A. Then I showed him the word predict for the word Apple. Since he seems to be playing with this feature on his own, I am going to use it with our vocabulary words.

We are down to the last verse of our song. Frog's gone off to take a nap, so maybe we will get to this after dinner.

Update:
Frog woke-up in time to make Gingerbread. When he found out that I was not going to let him dump the flour out of its canister and onto the floor, he boycotted the project. But when he came back to the kitchen and found the mixing bowl and spoon he was all over it. He also discovered he likes mom's Italian couscous. (good for eating and for playing with :0)

We will be trying gingerbread and applesauce for dessert!

A is for Applesauce in a jar.
Look at our apples, they've come so far.

Applesauce with Gingerbread.
Dream of Applesauce in bed.

A is for Apple, Applesauce.
Sticky and Sweet, Applesauce.

LATE NIGHT VANTAGE EXPLORATION

2008-09-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

Frog must have been up sometime late last night or early this morning. Here is what he did on his Vantage:

We always start the Vantage off on its home page at bedtime. Frog is getting to these additional embedded pages by himself.

Day Twelve - MOVING FORWARD

2008-09-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Frog woke in a better mood today, although he was tired. He was awake past 2:00AM last night - restless and frustrated and having trouble getting back to sleep.

He had a big breakfast - two bowls of cereal, a banana, yogurt, a bag of Cheetos, and some frapaccino. That got him reved up. He gave Diva a high five sign as she left for school - not quite a wave, but closer. When we got home, we did a little singing and movement work then headed outside to play. We checked the garden and watered some plants. Then I let Frog have a little free time while I got some things organized inside. When I came back to check on him, Frog was in his new "thinking" spot.

I've grown accustome to his standing up there - he is really quite good at it. But the step dancing on the ridge pole did put my heart in my throat! He also has trouble getting down from there. Often he just sits patiently for someone to notice. Today he cried out and clapped furiously until I came to the rescue - I think that is his equivalent of yelling "MMMOOOMMMM!"

A little later, Frog had a bit of a meltdown while playing in the dirt. He may have gotten a small sliver from the bark that is mixed in. I called him back inside and let him have a bath. While he was playing in the tub, I sang our Applesauce song. Then I read the story again, adding each song verse in the appropriate place. Frog did a good job listening to the story. Next I read the Duchess Autumn poem. He seemed to enjoy this recitation as well. I tempted fate and tried to add a new story about goose migration. This was met with resistance. He turned on the water, vocalized to drown me out, and finally just let me know "enough talking already!!!!"

At lunchtime I used Rapid Prompting Method to ask him what he wanted for lunch.

He definitely choose noodles, but I don't think I was specific enough. He turned his nose up at my home-made mac-and-cheese. I think he was expecting Pad Thai. He ended up with a lunchable and munched on it throughout the afternoon.

I wanted to go though our cupboards and get the foodstuffs organized. I invited Frog to join me. He was interested for a little while. He especially liked snagging boxes of snacks out of the pantry cupboard, then looking to see if I noticed.

When he got board, he headed off into the playroom. I went to check on him when I noticed it was quiet. I found him hiding in a corner behind a file cabinet, chewing his sister's bubblegum - not just one piece, I was soon to discover, but the entire pack with pieces of chewed gum left all over the house. Never trust a quiet Frog!

Once we had the gum and the cupboards cleaned up, we were ready for our Applesauce project. This is the culmination of the Applesauce book - picking apples, washing apples, chopping apples, cooking apples, smushing apples, adding sugar and making a gingerbread to go with the sauce. Frog had other plans.

We spent the next half hour working on dressing, undressing, potty training, and dressing again. When Frog tried to get back into the bathtub fully clothed and I said - No - that was it for him. Melt down and full temper tantrum ensued. He ended up taking a much needed nap.

We will save the applesauce project along with an apple letter sorting activity for tomorrow.

Day Eleven - STILL A LITTLE OFF

2008-09-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday September 16th, 2008

Frog was still having a hard time this morning. Things did improve over the course of the day. The dose of Tylenol didn't hurt either.

Frog did a lot of requesting today - mostly by getting me and taking me to what he wanted: his swing, more cereal, the door to the front yard, and the door to the bathroom (for a bath). We read our Applesauce story again and sang the song. Frog was in the bath at the time, but he listened to it all, then when I told him I did not remember the last verse of the song, he clapped then got out of the bath.

We used rapid prompting to pick-out something for lunch. He choose "sandwich" from a field of three. Later he came walking into the kitchen from the living room. He went to the garage door and stopped. I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere and he did nothing - just stood there. A couple seconds later I heard the garage door open. Then the front alarm bell went off. I unlocked the bolt on the door to the garage. Frog's Dad opened the door. As the door opened Frog said "Dad."

In the afternoon, Frog seemed sleepy again. I asked him if he was ready to go for a ride. He did nothing. I asked if he was going to take a nap, he clapped twice. He got up and got his blanket, but he never went to his room and he did not take a nap.

When Diva got home, he went swimming for an hour or so. When he got out of the pool he was starving - he ate watermelon, peas, crackers, cheese, turkey, and chips. He continued to act tired and went to bed around 6:30. He woke up at 12am and has been singing and jumping in his room for 45 minutes or so.

I think he is feeling under the weather because he has a tooth coming in and he is dealing with the effects of the full moon - which means he does not get much sleep at night. I'm hoping we are back on track in a day or two.

Day Ten - UNDER THE WEATHER

2008-09-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Monday September 15, 2008

Frog woke up cranky today and didn't want to eat. After Diva was dropped off at school, Frog headed back to his bed and crawled under his blanket. I asked him if he felt sick - he clapped twice. I asked him if something hurt - nothing. I asked him if his head hurt - nothing. I asked him if he did not sleep well - he clapped twice. I went downstairs and called the Clinic to cancel his speech therapy appointment. Frog came downstairs a little later. He looked much better, but was hot and cold all day long.

We had carpet cleaners coming in the afternoon. So after we played a little in the front yard, and watered our plants, I let Frog have his free time while I cleaned, moved furniture, and vacuumed. At one point I found Frog had removed his clothes and climbed up on the playhouse roof. He was sitting in the sunshine watching the neighbor run his tractor over the fresh topsoil they'd put down for a new lawn.

We made PBJ sandwiches for lunch - Frog only wanted to eat the J part. Then the carpet cleaners came and Frog and I headed to the backyard to play and stay out of their way.

He also swam in the pool and played in the sandbox. After all the activity he was pooped. He had a major melt-down, then took himself back to bed. He was up at 6pm for dinner and wandered around the house - sometimes loud and sometimes quiet - for the rest of the evening. We put him back to bed around 9pm. He was awake for a substantial part of the night - dancing by the light of the moon

Vantage Post

2008-09-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

At bedtime Dad asked Frog if he'd been using his talker. Frog clapped, yes. Dad asked Frog if he wanted us to read what he said on his talker. Frog, clapped, yes.

When we tried to interput what Frog was trying to tell us with this - he got very upset. When Dad asked Frog if he wanted to learn to say more things with his talker - Frog clapped yes.

Day Nine - FRIENDS

2008-09-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a different kind of day at Frog School. We had gifts to wrap and deliver for two friends who have birthdays this time of year. Diva and I had done the shopping, and Frog and I filled the gift bags. Then Frog chose a sticker for each card and signed his name (at least his first initial). I finished the card with the rest of Frog's name and Diva's name.

When we were finished, we got dressed to go out - Frog tried on his new shoes for the first time and kept them on all morning. We went to the first friend's house. Frog rang the doorbell and we waited for our friend's mom. Our friend was at school. Frog and I took the gift into the house and left it with all of our friend's other presents. Frog was a little unnerved by the family's two pet cats, but he kept it together.

Next we took a drive to the bank and then to Costco. We needed to replace our robotic vacuum "Fred" who worked very hard for us for two years before he just gave-up and started pushing crumbs around the floor.

Our new vacuum is black and silver and we call it "Zac." We found a few other things at Costco too - Frog picked out a big box of granola bars and wanted to open them as soon as we got home so he could try a new flavor.

Before we came home, we stopped at a playground where we were meeting our other birthday-boy friend. He and some classmates were having an after pre-school play date and we were invited to join in.

Frog played among the kids for over half an hour. He did a lot of referencing of me, the other adults and occasionally the kids. He watched the kids. He also dealt well with the kids being in close proximity. He tried the monkey bars all on his own after watching another child cross them. Frog hung and dropped a couple of times. When he was ready to go, he let me know.

At home we had some lunch, unloaded the car, and put Frog's water table back into the front yard. We checked on our new plants and gave them a drink with the hose.

I put the Costco groceries away and spent the afternoon working on spaghetti sauce and lasagna for our freezer. Frog came in frequently to check on what I was doing and see if there was anything good to eat in the kitchen. I checked on him in the front yard frequently and we had lots of fun playing with the water from the hose.

Sunday Playdate

2008-09-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

This video is from last Sunday. The kids had a great time in the pool and on the trampoline.

Frog is in the yellow and red suit. He stayed in the pool for 40 minutes with the other kids before he was ready to get out. He played on his own in the yard for awhile afterward then got upset and was ready to go inside.

A note on Frog's swimming skills - he is self taught. He still can not touch the bottom of the pool with his face above the water - what you see is him bobbing, treading water, diving and pushing off the bottom, and using his arms and legs to swim through the water.

Day Eight - LISTEN

2008-09-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Frog started his day outside playing in the yard while I cleaned up a bit and got our playroom set-up. I made a fort with our mats and parachute, and hid some of his favorite noisy toys in the various nooks and crannies. I let Frog discover the Fort on his own...

We wore hats and looked at ourselves in the mirror. He searched for toys by their sound. We tried to find the purple ducks in the lucky duck game.

We played "find me" games with small wind chimes and running water in the bathroom. He tried to scale the walls of our Fort and experimented with how much weight he could put on top of the parachute. He did some jumping on the mini-tramp seeing how high and how far he could jump.

We followed this with a new story, Applesauce by Shirley Kurtz

In the ENKI curriculum many of the stories also have a shorter rhymed verse that retells the story. Beth suggested that I write similar verses for some of the stories I choose to use with Frog. So far he hasn't paid too much attention to these. For today's story, I composed a song. This held his attention better.

The song A is for Applesauce follows the story's recipe for apple sauce from picking the apples, cleaning and prepping the apples, cooking the apples, pressing the sauce, canning, and dreaming about applesauce. It also reinforces our letter A work. It is sung to a variation of twinkle twinkle. It also lends itself nicely to hand gestures. We will try making applesauce again after a week or so of this song and story.

We worked on the letter A again after the story session. Today, I did most of the work. Frog watched and did attempt to write one letter A and answered some rapid prompting questions.

After lunch Frog requested to make brownies. We looked at the box together and went slowly through the directions:

1. preheat oven
2. prepare pan
3. gather ingredients - water, oil, egg and mix
4. mix together wet ingredients and add mix
5. pour into pan
6. bake for 35 min.

Frog was willing to look at the box and listen to me read. He did not want to help with the mixing. He did want to help with the clean-up.

And if mom was not generous enough with the batter left on the spoon . . .

Help yourself to the bowl from the sink!

Frog took a bath while the brownies baked. He listened quietly as I read Duchess Autumn. I think this poem is beginning to sink in.

After the bath, we played some music. I've notice when Frog thinks nobody is listening, he will play a note on the piano then sing it back - perfectly in tune. That has to say something about his auditory processing. I got out my violin and played around for awhile - Frog jumped to the music. He also wanted a turn with my violin so I let him strum and pluck the strings while I held the instrument. His favorite part was sitting in my violin case while I had my instrument out. :0)

When Dad and Diva got home, the three of them headed for the pool. Frog and I will wait for the cool of the evening to plant our blueberry bushes, a hydrangea and a couple of rose bushes I need to transplant.

Day Seven - GROW

2008-09-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Frog woke-up more like himself this morning. He did need a little cleaning up so he hopped into the bath while Diva and I got through the rest of the morning routine. No wave for Diva this morning - Frog turned away and looked out the window instead.

We started our morning with some rough and tumble Floortime play. Frog spent a little time outside running and swinging. Then we got down to business. My plan was to grow our program a little today - a little more focused work. We went downstairs to read our book - RED LEAF, YELLOW LEAF. I put a beanbag chair in front of the door so Frog had to stay downstairs with me. With me tucked back in this corner, he could see the book without feeling trapped or having to do too much interaction.

He laughed and laughed during the story. When I asked him if it was a good story he clapped, yes. Next I got out the stamping supplies. Frog reluctantly added 4 stamps to our art project - two leaves, a Pooh Bear/Piglet, and an O.

He was able to find and pat Pooh Bear on the picture when asked "Where is Pooh?"

We moved on to our letter work. I am starting with the letter A for Autumn, and Apple. He picked the letter A from a field of A, D, and P. Then we read the story and sang the song for A from the Animated Alphabet. When he got fussy, I let him sit and watch while I constructed an A out of Magic Noodles. I gave him some noodles to chew on. We ended with me asking a question about the Animated Alphabet story. We used rapid prompting. I had to chase him around the house with the clipboard, paper and pen - but he did answer the question - and answered it correctly. As promised he was allowed to go outside after the session. When he came in for lunch, I had him find the letter A on my computer key board. The MS Word program was running with the font size set at 72. We made several A's and some other letters on the computer.

Frog had a little more play time while I cleaned up from lunch. Then we found our shoes and headed for the nursery to shop for a tree. Our book said the best time to plant a tree is in the fall after it's leaves fall off. We went to look at trees to see what type we might want to plant.

Frog was very good at the nursery. He stayed with me and didn't touch too many of the plants. We took pictures of several trees, then shopped for some blueberry bushes for the front yard and some fall flowers for our pots. Frog decided, with a giggle and a grin, that he would like to jump onto the nursery cart we were pushing and take a ride with the blueberry bushes. He rode for the rest of the visit (no seat belt, only mom saying "sit down".)

We came home and planted most of our fall flowers. We'll plant the blueberry bushes and geraniums tomorrow. We swam for an hour or so and ate BBQ ribs and broccoli salad for dinner. Frog fell asleep around 7pm.

Day Six - QUIET

2008-09-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

Frog woke-up very tactile defensive today. He had taken off his pajamas and pull-up and was wrapped in his fuzzy blanket. He was in a good mood - though not very focused - and he didn't want to be touched. I didn't take many pictures of Frog today, because he didn't want to keep his clothes on.

That was pretty much how our day went. He was not unhappy. There were really no melt-downs. He wanted to play alone and he did not want to do any "activities." When he started biting his arm from wrist to shoulder while in a calm state, I decided this was a sensory issues day. He let me do a little deep pressure over his body and we applied pressure to the balls of his feet (me pressing on him and he pressing against my hands). We did some brushing and then a little HANDLE work. His body seemed very warm to the touch, but he did not appear to be running a fever.

He played outside in the water, running and spinning in the yard, sifting sand in the sandbox, and swinging on his swing.

He came to me to request snacks, open doors, water. We cleaned up the mess Frog made in the kitchen with the water facet in the sink. And I sang the "Frog is getting in mommy's car . . . running to Mommy's car . . . .jumping to mommy's car" song while we walked, ran and jumped. But we went around and around the car instead of getting in it.

We did take a ride and saw cows and raccoons. We tried to take a walk, but Frog wanted to stop every 4 feet and sit-down to play with the dirt/grass/sand.

We added a new book to our collection today:

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert. Frog sort of listened from across the room. The book is about the life cycle of a tree. We may bring this one back again and again over the year and finish by planting a tree of our own.

By 3:30, Frog was pooped. He headed for his room and fell asleep.

Day Five - GOT TO MOVE

2008-09-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Mondays are Speech Therapy days with our private SLP. Frog was up, active and ready to go today. He was a very happy camper at speech, but really reved up. He and his Therapist worked on body imitation, trying to form their bodies into the poses depicted on simple stick figure drawings. Frog had trouble staying on task and exhibited some delayed processing (forming the previous pose instead of the one they were trying for). Therapist decided to copy Frog instead of having Frog copy her. This held Frog's interest for a longer period of time. I'm going to add follow the leader to our games at home. At the therapy table, Frog did some vocal imitation with physical prompts. He choose to work on writing letters, but had a hard time staying on task and needed to flail his arms about, seek deep pressure from the Therapist and play with her hair. They moved onto a book about ducks. Frog did not stay actively engaged with the story, but he did not resist the story either.

After Speech Therapy we headed for the grocery store. I asked Frog to push the cart, but he indicated that he would prefer to ride. He did a great job during the 30 minutes we were shopping. He got a cookie at the bakery and choose some trail mix for the car. He tried to open the Frenches French Fried Onions, and complained when I said "no" and took them away, but there was no melt-down. We had to wait in line at the checkout stand. This is always the hardest part for Frog. He did great! No fussing, no complaining, no loud outbursts.

We left the store and took a drive to a local beach, listening to some classical music on the way. We spent an hour on the beach where Frog was free to run, climb, and explore.

It is always nice for both of us when we are in an environment where Frog can have some freedom to explore without mom hovering. And we had a nice lesson in natural consequences - walk in the water, wear wet shoes!

We went home to clean-up, put away the groceries, and get some lunch. After lunch we tried a little art. Frog was actually curious about what I was doing with all those bowls out on the patio. He came and explored the paint and water with me for a few minutes.

Our face project today was putting chocolate chip eyes on pumpkin cookies. I took this opportunity to work on Frog's pointing finger. I placed an eye and helped him make a pointer finger to push it into the cookie dough. I had him do 4 cookies (8 eyes). He did the last eye by himself.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool - taking advantage of the sunny weather. He is playing the duck, duck, goose game with three people now. He is very tired this evening.

Day Four - FOLLOW ME

2008-09-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Still no waving goodbye to Diva. We came home and straighted up the kitchen. We did some of our HANDLE exercises. Frog spent a little time outside in his fenced in front yard, then came in for some swinging with mom. We did a little potty training.

Our school day started with a trip to the garden to harvest the long awaited squash.

Frog's Dad and Diva did the planting this year. Because of Frog's new found love of uprooting every plant he sees, he's only been allowed to look at the garden from outside of the fence - until today. He was not as excited as I'd hoped, but he did look under the leaves at the vegetables with me.

And he stayed in the garden - stopping and coming back when I called him, while I harvested our tiny crop. Frog liked washing the lettuce and eating it better than picking it.

We explored the front and side yards for awhile and talked about why we don't run into the road as we watched large dump trucks come racing down the hill. I offered to help him ride his bike, but he was not interested. So we headed back inside for some Mr. Potato Head fun.

Today's game was "Let's make a potato head like Frog and one like Mom." Since I knew he wasn't going to build a potato head himself, I asked him questions about his face and when he responded (usually with a clap) I followed his answer and put that piece on his potato head. I also had to keep chasing him around with the activity as he insisted on moving from room to room. The strangest answer I got from him was that he hears with his nose. He told me this once before during a rapid prompting session. I'm still trying to find out if he is really not answering/getting the answer wrong, playing a joke on me, or he has some synesthete tendencies. When we finished his potato head, it asked him, in a very funny voice, if it could have a hat. That was Frog's favorite part of the activity. He chose a hat from two I offered and gave it to me to put on his potato head.

Later in the day he came back to the potato heads and slowly took them apart, piece by piece. I got the box out and we had a lesson in cleaning up.

We got two stories in. First we read Silly Little Goose. Frog did a good job listening to the story - we only had to move once (he wanted to sit in my chair). After the story I asked Frog to look at Goose and see if Goose had a face. He was not happy about this and fussed and fumed all the way through. Later, while he was playing in the bathtub, we went back to the Duchess Autumn poem. He listened to the whole poem this time and clapped at the end.

We finished our day with some music. I got all of the instruments out and played a few tunes on the piano, recorder, xylophone, percussion instruments and my violin. Frog listened from his swing in the other room, vocalizing along. When he came to join me I followed him around and used my violin to mimic his movements. He likes this a lot. He stopped me now and then to strum and pluck the strings on my violin. I ended up composing a rift that he especially liked. Maybe this will evolve into a whole new Frog inspired composition.

We are now eagerly awaiting Diva's return so we can go swimming before our NAET treatments.

Day Three - UP, UP, UP!

2008-09-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

We started our day taking Diva to school. I sang the "Frog is getting in Mommy's Car" song and Frog took himself to the garage and climbed up into his seat without assistance. Diva is working on getting Frog to wave goodbye to her. She is very animated as she waves to him. I asked Frog if he was going to wave goodbye to Diva. He clapped yes, then put one hand up and played with his hair - its a start.

Back at home Frog quickly discovered that the fountain continued to foam all night. There was a mountain of soap bubbles with large pieces breaking off and floating around like low lying bubbly clouds. We had to go check that out. An hour later we were still playing with bubbles, the fountain and the sandbox. It was clear that I was not going to get Frog back into the house and I wanted to distract him from trying to climb up on top of the fountain, so I suggested we get in the pool. He didn't give me any response. I went in to get my swimming suit and some swim pants for Frog. When I looked out the window, I saw him up at the top of the stairs to the pool with his body plastered against the gate. I guess he was listening.

So our school morning was spent in the pool. At first he wanted nothing to do with me. He swam, he dove and swam under the water, he bobbed up and down - eventually he came up with the dive sticks I was throwing to get his attention. Slowly he warmed up to working with me. I came up with an auditory processing game I thought he would be able to participate in and enjoy - our version of Duck, Duck, Goose - we hold hands, he puts his feel on my knees and we slowly bounce around in a circle. I say duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, GOOSE - then take a big breath and we go under the water. After a few rounds he swam away. Later, when I asked him to play again, he took my hands, I began the circle, I said duck, and he said "gez" - down we went. We also practiced some of the hand movements from the Smart Moves video and practiced throwing the dive sticks overhand (hand over hand at this point).

We got out of the pool, dressed and ate some lunch then left to run errands and to keep Frog from climbing up on the counters. We put the Smart Moves video on in the car. At the bank, Frog got a lollipop. We had a long wait at the pharmacy drive-thru, but between the music and the lollipop, Frog stayed content. We ended our outing by stopping at the Estuary downtown on the waterfront.

We read the placard explaining that "An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. ..." In other words, its a big old transition. And that is exactly what our visit turned into. Frog was not happy about putting on shoes; he was not happy about looking for letters or words (or at least pointing them out); he was not happy about being asked to stand on his feet and move forward. Eventually he settled in and let me know that he did not want to go back to the car, he wanted to go to the observation tower. So we went, Frog in his socks, up, up, up the stairs of the observation tower. Such a happy Frog 15 feet off the ground, bouncing like a pinball off the tower fence. We spent some time pulling up the grass and watching the birds and boats then headed home to meet Diva.

Frog spent the rest of the afternoon showing off on the trampoline, playing in the sandbox and the water table. He even requested that I join him on the trampoline. We took turns and tried holding hands and jumping together (harder than it sounds). We finished our day by frosting and decorating the cookies we made yesterday. Frog watched as I said each feature I added to the cookie. He waited patiently until it was finished and I gave the "OK" before he grabbed a cookie and took off.

Day Two - BUBBLES!

2008-09-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today turned into a day of bubbles. It wasn't planned that way, but we go with the flow around here.

I wanted to get the kitchen cleaned-up before we started working. Yesterday Frog made several side trips to the kitchen where he got into and played in the cold, greasy, dirty water left in the pots I was soaking in the sink. It got all over him, the counter, and the floor - I spent too much time cleaning up. So today I wanted to nip that in the bud and take advantage of Frog's desire to play in the sink. We did the dishes and Frog was able to play in the warm, clean, soapy water to his heart's delight. Next I wiped down counters and the kitchen table - Frog wasn't so keen on that chore. Last we washed the hand prints off the sliding glass doors. Frog was fascinated with the spray cleaner I used. Since it was a non-toxic variety, I let him make a writing / art project out of it.

He then headed to the pantry to look for a quick snack. I unlocked the door for him and asked him what he wanted. He SAID "fish," clear as a bell, then grabbed the carton of goldfish crackers and took off with it! Yesterday when we got to the park he said "duck" then paused and said "ducka, ducka, ducka, ducka" which is a common babble for him so I didn't get too excited. But two clear words in two days - I think I'm going to have to start a Frog's Word of the Day in my sidebar!!!!!!!!!!

I had planned on doing some bubble art: adding food coloring to bubble solution then blowing the bubbles at the paper and letting them pop leaving colored bubble marks. Frog had absolutely no interest in this activity. I tried both a bubble wand and a bubble pipe (letting the bubbles fall down on the paper) the pipe worked much better. When I finished one painting without Frog, I decided to join him in his activity (playing in the fountain). I took the colored bubble solution and poured it from way up high into his hands above the fountain. We looked at the colored soap on his hands and watched it swirl into the water. In no time, we had suddsed the fountain which Frog thought was just great!

Frog spent some time playing with the hose while I prepared the next project. My plan was to make Gack in his water table. Frog liked the dry cornstarch, but when I added the water he was out of there. Before giving up on the idea, I tried adding more water then I added a few drops of the food coloring I was using for the bubbles. Frog was willing to come over and give this a quick try:

After which he headed back to his bubbly fountain. I'm going to have to think of more ideas to incorporate that fountain! The color swirl in the water table turned out better than I had hoped. I'm going to post more about it next week for my "Try It Tuesday" post at 4-Frogs.

When Frog was finally ready to come back inside, Dad was home and he helped Frog help me to get the ingredients for the pizza dough into the bread machine. Frog poured in the buttermilk and the sugar (after he had a quick taste of course). Frog loves the bread machine.

I tried to squeeze our story time in here, but should have waited for bath time. Frog wanted to go outside. I told him to wait for Diva to come home from school. When I tried to read the story he went into major melt down, then grabbed a blanket and headed for bed. I don't think he ever got to sleep, but the self-imposed time out seemed to help him regroup.

We are running a little behind schedule here. Plans for the rest of our day include harvesting those squash for our dinner, swimming (more bubbles), decorating some sugar cookies for dessert (our faces project), and getting our story in before bed.

Day One - THE BEGINING

2008-09-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

We are starting off gently. Frog spent some time at home with Grandma while I took Diva to her first day of 4th grade.

When I got home, Frog spent some time in his Airwalker while I helped push to make it swing. Every so often, I stopped the swing and opened the material and made a face - different faces for different emotions. We will be working on body parts and facial expressions all fall. Frog initiated a spinning motion. I helped him wind-up in the swing then "whirl" and "twirl" - which came back later in the day with the Dutches Autumn poem from our ENKI nature stories - the leaves whirl and twirl and eddy upwards.

Frog had some free time while I re-viewed the movement videos we will be using: Smart Moves and Auterobics. When he drifted in, I left him alone to preview the videos too. I'm hoping to acclimate him to the music and words on the videos before we try the movements. Later in the day we took a drive and I put the Smart Moves video in and played the first series over and over.

We played a game of Silly Faces. The goal today was primarily to get Frog to stay with me through one round. I did have to help him stay. But, he vocalized his disapproval rather than pinching me so I felt this was a success. He did spin the spinner until we got all the pieces we needed for our face. He didn't pick the pieces, but he patted the sheet with the pieces when I asked "what do we need" or "where are the eyes", etc., and he patted the face we were making when I asked where does the nose, or mouth, or ears go.

Our story was Dutches Autumn. It was not his favorite, but this was the first time we read it. I'm hoping that as it becomes more familiar and it ties in with other things we are doing, he will settle into it.

Frog indicated he wanted to "go" by taking me to the garage. We took a drive to a neighboring city and went to a park where we could feed the ducks. Frog was a bit overwhelmed when the ducks spotted us and our bag of bread. 18+ ducks came waddling out of the pond and surrounded us. I asked Frog if the ducks talk too much and he clapped (yes).

We left the ducks and headed for the playground. There were 2 to 8 other boys there at any given time. Frog stayed on the playground. He spent most of his time running around or playing with the wood chips, but he also watched the other boys playing. When the playground got quiet, Frog ventured onto the play structure. When the other boys returned Frog stayed up there with them. He tried several times to go down the twisty slide, but lost his nerve. He was able to back out of it and get passed the other kids without pinching, biting, or screaming.

Back at home, we went out to pick apples. I put Frog on my shoulders and took him and a bucket to our trees. I showed him an apple, said "pick the apple" then picked one and put it in the bucket. The next apple he touched but wouldn't grasp. I picked the apple and he took it from me and put it in the bucket. The next time he choose the apple, I picked it and he put it in the bucket. The last apple he choose, picked and put in the bucket. He watched me wash, peel and chop one of the apples. I put them on the stove to make apple sauce. He came back to the pan when he saw the steam. He tried several times to get his hand in the pan, but was told "No, HOT!" and removed his hand.

After apple picking, Frog took himself to the trampoline and climbed in without assistance. I went out and zipped him in and watched and commented for awhile. I told him I was going inside for a few minutes. He continued to jump until he'd had enough. He unzipped the enclosure and got himself out without assistance.

We will continue similar activities tomorrow including harvesting our three small squash that we grew in our tiny garden.