Saturday School

In an effort to keep Gracie moving forward (or at least not regressing) during the summer, I have been working with her in a structured setting for at least an hour or two daily. (The exception is the day her nurse, Nicole, works. That day is Gracie's day of fun... she spends at least three hours out at the park and loves it. And, she expects to dictate the day!) Some days when we work, she ignores me and "checks out," as we call it, and we keep trying to re-visit the structured learning activities. Other times, she's a signing machine - - communicating all she can about what she sees as we are working on a lesson.

Saturday, my little signing machine was in rare form and, let me tell you, it was FUN! She worked so hard and signed (unprompted) up a storm - - telling me colors of certain items, naming pictures, counting and recognizing numbers 1-5 easily and repeatedly. She matched items in one of her file folder activities and signed several words in two different books we read. She was "on" - - in a big way - - and I couldn't get enough of her!




We sign "strawberry" as "red fruit" not "berry" and "grapes" in this picture looks a bit more like "rash," but she's always signed it all the way up her arm!
She's also far more interested in taking off the numbers than she is in matching the numbers to their column... it's good OT work, I guess, but not the intended task!

Preston, of course, is always underfoot, which can make teaching Gracie difficult, as he always wants to do the things I am doing with her. This is fine, except that he often barges in and takes over while she's trying to process the task. I'm not complaining, of course... he's so stinkin' smart and I wouldn't have it any other way. I just need to find him a preschool... I can't keep up! He needs structure and to learn to WAIT and follow directions!

For instance, in the structured circle-time part of TOTnastics, he has the order memorized and is about 45 seconds ahead of the rest of the group - - this despite my repeated pleas to follow the teacher's instructions and wait! He does the same thing when we do certain lessons at home. And, even though I know he's only two and this may be typical, I wonder a bit if he's already bored! What to do... what to do?!

We also had recess... Bubbles!
Bubbles are a guaranteed "happy maker" in this house! After "Mommy School," I got out the kids' bubble machine (a stellar shared birthday gift from their Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunt Elaine... affectionately known as GUB and GAE!) and we were all happily entertained for over an hour.
Gracie, of course, stripped out of her clothes immediately upon getting out of her chair. Any tips for keeping my little exhibitionist clothed would be greatly appreciated! Thankfully, she still hasn't tried this anywhere other than in homes of friends and family. And, I know it looks a little barbaric that she's scooting on rough, patchy grass (she does concrete, too!), but if it hurt her, she wouldn't do it!