Best part of today: receiving 9 kisses from my son (at different times throughout today), without me asking for them! There was a time when I wondered if he would even acknowledge me as his mum & whether I’d ever feel that he loves me. Now I know better!

Felt pretty tired when woke up today, so didn’t go for our morning walk. The tiredness stayed with me throughout the day so didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to do with him. I had to also attend to other matters that took more than an hour to sort out. I’m so blessed to have a good helper who’s been trained up to do some of the activities with him. Each day lost not doing activities with my son is another day added to the developmental gap between him & his peers.

Activities with my son: 24 June 2009

1. Magnetic Alphabets

I wanted to do some phonic work & reading with him but he wanted to play it differently. So I went with the flow & look for opportunities to teach him other things.

He decided to sort by colour, which is fine.

Then I directed the play to get him to put the capital letters & small letters side by side. This not only reinforces recognition of alphabets but it helps develop skills for reading. I guided him to search for the letter to be matched, by looking from left to right, line by line. This skill is needed for reading – you read left to right & line by line. I also mention the phonic sound of the alphabet.
I involve him in tidying up, which I see as teaching him to be independent. Other benefits gained while tidying up - a lot of squat to sit movement in picking up the pieces off the floor & also movements that cross the midline. I also did phonics again, but this time, giving him examples of words that begin with the letter he’s picking up.

2. Wooden Workbench
Mainly to get his wrist to move, by using the screwdriver to unscrew the screws. Very hard for him so had to hold his hand to get the movement. It got a bit easier for the last screw. Good that he can now at least place the tip of the screwdriver into the groove at the top of the screw. Shows better control of hand eye coordination.

He decided to use the hammer when placing back the screws. But had to show him he should use the end which is wider rather than the end used to yank out nails. Also had to guide him to holding the hammer towards the lower end of the handle instead of the end near the head.

Showed him that the ruler is used for measuring things & how to measure (i.e align object parallel to ruler & to the zero reading). Then he happily went around measuring things at random. He couldn’t do it properly but that’s ok as it’s the first time I’m showing it to him.

3. Swing

– the benefits have been mentioned in earlier posts. I forgot to add that I also use it as a speech activity: he has to say “tick tock” when I swing him in a pendulum motion.

4. Cranial Sacral Therapy

His therapist noted: no more stiff neck muscles (likely resulting from car accident); tighter left hamstring; more words communicated & clearer; probably sensitive to loud sounds.

5. Sand play (with the helper)
Scoop & pour motion for wrist movement; squatting & squat to stand

6. Feeding (with helper)

He remembered to chew so he finished most of his chicken stew & rice. Lunch portion: piece of chicken about the size of half my palm; an equal sized potato; 3 tablespoons of brown rice; 1 piece of carrot. Dinner portion was about the same but didn’t finish only a small portion. Coughed/chocked only once but didn’t vomit. Very happy!

For snack, he used his own fingers to feed himself a piece of keropok. Didn’t have to help him estimate how far back to place the kerepok. Very happy!

7. Sucking with straw

He loves his homemade smoothies but still wont drink it using a straw. Used a bendy straw, cut in half.

8. Wooden train with stacking pieces of blocks

Mainly for fine motor (removing & putting back the blocks). But this time, used the blocks to build structures. Noted that he’s commenting on what he’s doing, without needing me to prompt him. For e.g. he built 2 identical houses for mama & himself, then another in a different design & he’d say “different house…kakak”. He didn’t have the usual shaped blocks for another house, so he used the train funnel & engine piece to build another house & he said “funny house…for Aunty Khin”. Great!

9. Three little men song

This was a song we learnt from the playgroup we attended for a few months in 2008. It’s a song with action & teaches counting (subtraction). The kids were taught to use 3 fingers to represent the aliens. I improvised the idea by making my own aliens in their UFOs (see photo). The sticks are satay sticks/bamboo skewers available at supermarkets, sundry shops.

He “sang” most of the words of the song. It was out of tune & miss out some words, but I didn’t care. Previously he’d only fill in the last word of a line. So I’m very happy that he’s able to say more words in a single breath…and that he remembered the words.

Here’s the lyrics:
3 little men in a flying saucer,
flew round the earth one day.
They looked at the light
but they didn’t like the sight
so one man flew away….whooooshhh
(then you’d ask how many men left & you’d repeat the song with 2 men & then down to 1 & zero)
There are several kiddy songs/nursery rhymes that I like which introduce numbers & counting. For e.g. “two little ducks that I once knew” or “three little monkeys jumping on the bed”. I’m always looking for different ways to teach maths.

10. Scissors (with helper)
Thanks to my friend who bought the Crayola Beginnings scissors from UK (fully plastic, no metal cutting edge), it’s safe for him to play with it without fear of nicking or cutting himself. I cant find them here.

11. Sticker (with helper)
She added onto this activity by getting him to write “HEART” within the heart shape. She showed wrote stroke by stroke by the side of the paper & got him to follow. This is the 3rd time she got him to do it, so I’m no longer surprised. I’m still very happy though that he can do it.

His writing is very shaky but that’s what I’d expect. He was using colour pencil (jumbo size, local Swan brand) to write & noted that it’s usually very faint, unlike if he used markers.

12. Worksheet for preschoolers (with helper)

The one I chose today gets him to put a big “X” on the larger of the two shown animals. It teaches him big –vs- small & to try writing X. He needs more work on X, though he can use his finger to follow the strokes of writing X.

I get a lot of his preschool worksheets for free from this great website: http://www.learningpages.com/

13. Lacing beads

Haven’t done this activity for some time. He’s not as good as before. E.g. turns the bead the wrong way resulting in the lace falling out; hand holding the bead sometimes blocks the other hand from pulling the lace out from the other end. He sat on the floor for this activity & noted that he leaned backwards rather than sitting 90 degrees.

14. Tongs

Use tongs to pick up coloured cotton balls & place into a container. Getting a bit better. Easier for him to pick up if cotton balls were on the floor rather than in a cup. This activity is good for him to practice opening & closing his palm, which is a necessary early step in learning how to use scissors. Cheap to do too – roll cotton into tight balls, dip into food colouring for colour (more attractive than plain white). Get a cheap pair of tongs – make sure you test it out yourself cos there are many types of tongs available. Get one that matches your child’s current ability (not too stiff not too light). Later on you can progress to using tweezers.

15. Golf tees

For fine motor, hand eye coordination, getting both hands to work together. It was an activity I got off the internet. Items needed are shown in the photo & self explanatory. Simple & cheap.

16. Pushing fusili pasta

Similar to the golf tee activity but use tricoloured fusilli pasta instead. The fusilli pasta are in the little container on the top right of the photo illustrating the golf tee activity.