rainbows

 The other day I found Harrison with these three things. I did not know what he was up to. When I asked him he said he was making a rainbow, like  Curious George.  If you spend anytime at all at our house you will know Harrison LOVES Curious George and has for years, and that he LEARNS LOTS from Curious George, for example he wanted to get John tree trimmers for Christmas to cut the limbs on the trees like he saw on the show. This was actually a really good gift for John.

So I got online and found these directions  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Rainbow  on how to make a rain bow with a flashlight. He thought it was grand.

Flashlight Method

1. 1
   
   

   
   Find a piece of white paper. Fold it in half, and cut a little triangle with a pair of scissors.
2. 2
   Fill a glass with water. A fishbowl works well, but anything works well.
3. 3
   Tape a flashlight on the hole in the piece of paper.
4. 4
   Hold the paper up with the flashlight bar.
5. 5
   Turn on the flashlight directly at the glass of water.
6. 6
   Shazaam! A rainbow has appeared.

back on schedule...well trying to to get there

We are trying to get back in the swing of things here and that includes "school work" right now we are mainly working on phonics and early reading and some Bible study. Looking for some Math skills to add in too. This shelf looks a mess but I LOVE having it all within reach but wish it was behind closed doors.

Our Monster

This week Harrison and I have not been feeling the best so we are a little house burnt so I have been pulling out all the bells finding something to do. I bought this monster a couple months ago at Tuesday Morning for $1.99 and it was a hit.

This is what came in the box. Everything you needed for the project. So we went to work after we finished with "school work" today. There are several different "monsters". I looked online and they were $4-$8 each. If I find anymore good deals I will be grabbing them up.

You might notice the paint and crayons on the table, and I have had several people ask where I let Harrison do all his crafts. I got this table and chairs (2) at IKEA about a year or year and half ago for $70 and it has been great. Not that I want him to write on furniture but this allows him to enjoy his tasks and I don't have to stress about the mess. I also have foam mats under the table for easy clean up.

This monster has gained a spot in Harrison's Heart and his bed tonight.

some things we LOVE

We Love Melissa & Doug toys and puzzles http://www.melissaanddoug.com/ We have LOADS of their goodies. They are too cute, educational, and GREAT quality. We recently got the Nativity set and it is wonderful.

We also use the the chore above DAILY and we also recently got the calendar since Harrison is very concerned these days when something is going to happen. (I also have the clock put up for after Christmas)

We have lots of the smaller puzzles (which are wooden ) and the larger floor puzzles and two or three sets of wooden food. We LOVE MELISSA AND DOUG.

Old Habits are hard to break

I used to stock up with loads of school supplies at the beginning of the school each year when I was teaching. I guess Old habits die hard, the beginning of the year school supplies still make me a bit giddy. But instead of a class set of markers, 3 class sets of crayons, a class set of glue, lots of glue stick, pencils, and paper. I just get a few now. For Harrison and when I am teaching at church etc. but at $1 pack for markers, 25 cent crayons and glue, I have to stock up so I won't have to get more for the rest of the year.

I also still have a closet full of buckets of books in the hallway and 2 file cabinet full of files and books in the garage. I guess you can take the teacher out of the school but you can't take the school out of the teacher. :) I miss teaching for about 30 mins on days like this but I get over and love every minute of being at home, or most minutes.

Happy Birthday

Harrison SO DOES NOT like to write but it is coming along and he even made this card for Matthew this week.

a Little of 'School Time'

Harrison has made so much progress in the month and a half. In August he had about 12 words that anyone could understand. Since Christmas he has added close to a hundred words and is putting sentences together. IT IS UNREAL.... We are so proud of his hard work.

One Smart Little Boy

One of the biggest frustrations as a parent with a child with Apraxia is that when people meet Harrison or even people that know him think that since he does not speak they way we "think" he should, that he is no intelligent. Which is very far from the truth. Harrison amazes me daily with the things he knows and the connections he makes.

We also went to an Open House to a school we are looking at once he starts school and I really think he could just about do the Kindergarten work now, and it was advanced for the general Kind garden, I did see a few things that we need to continue to work on. One of our biggest areas of needed gain is in his hand writing which is worked on weekly in OT and I work on daily with him.

Harrison LOVES to do his "school work" which we try to get to daily but with two days of Speech and OT, and two days of Mother's Day Out it does not happen every day.

Letter of the Day

Each day during "school time" we do a letter of the day along with other activities. We read books that have things with the letter of the day, go through flash cards that start with the letter of the day, use stickers of the letter and items that start with the letter. Along with work book pages from A Beka and other workbooks. We make puppets, play games, anything that I can come up with that enforces the letter of the day. Every time we get a new flash card, sticker etc, Harrison is to attempt the word or at least the letter of the day. He also sees the words of these items. We do this for the extra speech practice, along with building some early reading skills. He is beginning to recognize some site words and will see a word in a book that he knows for example, horse, and will go get a toy horse and point to the word to show me that he knows it. Anyway I say all of that to share a website that has some fun activities, an books. In the picture the the pages on the left are how the Letters are printed and the "M" on the right is it all cut out and glued together along with a Book. Just thought I would share the website.

writing

So Harrison has taken an interest over the past week with his writing, which we are excited about since the fine motor skills are something he has some problems with. Anyway yesterday morning we were watching TV and Harrison just got up and got a note pad and colored pencils and started drawing Veggie tales. He was SO PROUD of himself. He do several pages like this then last night at church he had to draw them for all his teachers. What a funny boy.

He has also started wanting to write his letters during "school time" above you can see he wrote the letters along with putting the stickers on his paper.

I came back in the kitchen the other day and he was proud to show me his "G' and "S" above and "O" and "g" below. I could not get mad since he did a really good job writing them and I write the letter of the day on his had each day so why would he think twice about writing letters on his own hands?

I don't think we give Harrison Enough Credit

Last night Harrison wanted to get all his train track out, and put them out on the sun room floor. This is completely normal in our house, but he did not want any help, he wanted to do it himself, and what a nice job he did. He wanted to show Daddy when he got home and Harrison was so Proud of what he had done.

Harrison and I have "school time" each day here at home. While I do use a preschool home school curriculum we also do other things that are not in the curriculum. We mainy focus on Language skills that will also help with his speech. We spend up to 45 mins in the morning on "school" then after nap try to review and do extra stories etc. So today I was planning to do all things along with the letter "V". But when I came out from getting dressed I found that Harrison had done "School" without me.

He moved all the "U" flash cards from the green chart, (we did "U" yesterday and will review "U" and "V" tomorrow) to the red Chart. then He put the "V" flash cards into the Green chart. Just like we do everyday. He also got the "V" bag and put the "V" stickers on the easel and even glued a few extra "V"s to the page. Just like we do everyday.

Then he also had his A BEKA workpage out and had glued pom poms and buttons on the letters just like we do every day.

Oh, and lets not forget you have to have the Large card sitting up so we can all see it. He was so proud and had to show me all his "work" I asked him if he needed Mama for his school work and he said with big smile, "No Mama". I think We might have to make things a little harder around here for school time, so Mama gets to keep her job.