Is it Christmas again?

Hand-me-down toys
Got hold of some old toys from my childhood days & received toys that his cousin has outgrown. Great! It'll be like Christmas again for him! These are some of the stuff I took back for him:

Boggle

Will use it as part of reading activities. Reading requires a lot of practice so I'll need different activities to stimulate him & keep up the interest. This one requires fine motor skills. I suspect to start off with, he'll want to scatter the cubes rather than patiently find the letters he wants. Well, I'll have to be creative & go with the flow. (reading, fine motor)

Spill & spell

Similar concept to Boggle, except, you shake it out of a tube onto an open floor. The cubes are smaller than Boggle, so I'm not expecting much from it until he's older. (reading, fine motor)

Pop up mini Tent

Useful for our day trips to the beach. In the past we made do with just black plastic bin bags to sit on!

Beach toys

Medium sized beach ball (gross motor) and a set of various tools for building sand castles, scoop & pour, etc (fine motor, wrist movement)

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

Lots of these. Vehicles. I think I'll use them to teach him concepts of first, second, third in a pretend race to the finish line. He knows his numbers (1,2,3) but not in terms of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. (maths)

Books

Variety ranging from those for a 7 year old to pre-teens. Nursery rhyme types to Enid Blyton. Will be some years yet before it'll be utilised!

Skittles & ball

Plastic bowling set. A friend lent a set to him last year, but he preferred to use his hands to knock the skittles down! Will try it this year, perhaps he'll play with it the way it was meant. Good for gross motor, hand eye co-ordination.

Titiwangsa & others

Titiwangsa

Slides:
- still keen which also means he himself will want to crawl/climb whatever obstacle to get to the slide. As a result, he climbed more steps today.
- He climbed up the wrong way to get to the top of the baby slides & shorter tunnel slides, which is good for his achilles tendon, gastroc muscles etc.
- He's a bit bolder now & went down a tunnel slide with 1 1/2 twists by himself, without prompting!

Swing: been sometime since he sat on the swing. I showed him how to pump himself to get the swing moving, but he didnt try it, just observed my legs.

Long suspension bridge
- still likes it! A tiny bit better in getting up & down each level of the platform, though I still have to help him - e.g. he bends his knee more readily when coming down & when going up, his leg is placed a bit more in front of him instead of slightly to the side.
- yesterday he walked backwards on the bridge (moonwalking tribute to MJ!?)

Short suspension bridge: I increased the challenge by bouncing up & down on it to get it more shaky (cos that's how it'd be like if there were kids running past him). Good that he didnt lose his balance.

Spinning tops: He was a bit better on it today. Phew. It's also good for strecthing his legs (to help in opening up his stride).

Monkey bar slide: he didnt want to do it today

Suspended balance beam: once or twice towards the end of the beam, he managed to place his foot one in front of the other instead of squeezing them side by side. Hope he does it more cos that'll help get a more narrow based gait instead of broad based now.

Rock climbing:
- surprised he wanted to do it ! 1st time ever! And not just on 1 set, but went up 2 sets! I had never asked/prompted him to try it. Helped him with his footing, but was otherwise able to get up.

Visit to great grandma's
- Had a bit of time before lunch, so squeezed in a short visit to his great grandma's.
- realised there that he poo poo, so washed him. Poor thing, he must have been at the playground all the time with that icky feeling cos he did smell a bit when we got there but just thought he passed wind.
- he spoke a few words (e.g. thank you, purple, don't want) that were audible & intelligible enough for grandaunt to understand. Hooray!

Smell
- I taught him the 'thumbs up' sign for good last week. 2 days ago, taught him the thumbs down for bad. Today, after he passed wind (kentut), he said: kentut...smell BAD (with thumbs down sign!) So funny!

Cranial Sacral Therapy
- his therapist noted the front of his skull was slowly opening up a little. Not so sharp looking.
- he played with some toys that helps with fine motor & hand eye (click clack & chunky foam animal puzzle)
- In preparation of the NeuroSuit therapy, I learnt to massage him: up & down the sides of his spine, shoulders, shoulder blades, arms, legs & hip. He was so ticklish esp arms & shoulder blade. He complained towards the end...but he was ok lah.

Hair cut
- hair getting long, weather so hot, scrathing his head more often ... time for hair cut!
- thankfully he can still fit in his small bathtub, while I cut his hair. Gave him beakers to fill & pour. It's good for wrist movement & crossing the midline (told him that if he wants to pour the water out of the bathtub, he has to pour it in the pail I placed on his left - he's right handed)
- handsome now!

Garden hose
- I had diarohea this evening, so didnt take him for evening exercise.
- he helped with watering the plants, using the garden hose. Good for hand eye, arm movements.

Mega bloks
Didnt have time to build structures but played with it as follows:
- tried to unzip the bag, but couldnt. It's ok, it's the first time with this bag. Just needs more practice
- right hand took out individual pieces from the bag & placed it on the swing, while counting out loud & placing it in separate groups according to colour (speech, fine motor, sorting), I also got him to stretch by moving the swing a little further away each time.
- left hand put back all the pieces at the end (no counting)

music class today

Music Class
He started his weekly music class in Feb'09. He only became comfortable after 2 months there. Today, he was a lot more comfortable/confident – e.g. went forward to teacher when other students do the same without me prompting; he approached the teacher for the white board marker & wanted to draw even though not his turn yet

- Class starts with each child playing "Twinkle twinkle" with the teacher: he wanted to play it instead of being guided by teacher. He can’t as yet, so at times he played the wrong keys. It’s ok for now cos I do not practice that piece with him at home & it shows he’s becoming a bit more confident.
- he drew music notes but needed step by step instruction
- teacher gave him markers with different thickness to stretch his pincer grasp muscles a little
- he tried to clap according to rhythm (5, 6, se-ven, 8) but cant yet
- he "sang" simplified version of the minuette - teacher plays one note at a time & gets him to follow e.g. teacher plays the note "la" and asks him to sing "la"
- he played the chorus of "Old Mc Donald" (it's just the note "fa" repeated many times) on the mini keyboard & on the musical bell – he was better on keyboard than on bell. He could almost get the right timing with the keyboard
- he still grips the other children's hand too tightly during circle time - when he's excited, his muscles tighten.


Unlocking the door
- he needs to stretch up to reach up to the height of the keyhole;
- I've to place the key into the keyhole inside first, then he's able to push it in fully;
- he now knows the direction to turn the key when unlocking (anti-clockwise);
- he can now turn the key but needs help when actual unlocking (the "click" moment) because it's needs a bit more strength (wrist movement);
- after unlocking I've to pull the key out a little, then he can pull out the rest of the key;
- used his left hand to pull down the lever cos right hand holding key;
- balancing & co-ordination required (cos he’s on tip toe) when pulling down the lever & simultaneously pushing open the door

Painting
- He did hand printing, hand painting, painting with brushes of different thickness
- these help with hand eye, fine motor, grasping, creativity

Bananas in pyjamas
- today’s episode was all on nursery rhymes with action E.g. I’m a little teapot; Here we go round the Mulberry bush; Head & shoulders.
- we carried on that theme (action songs) in the restaurant while waiting for the bill

Dinner at restaurant
- I placed some ice chips on hands to stimulate senses
- He used both hands to grasp (palm grasp) the glass & raise it up & down. I allowed it cos it helps open up the palm & it wasnt a fancy restaurant
- We played games to get him to stretch arms wide open & high up E.g. when he spots aeroplane (it's outdoor dining), or sees a long bus pass by
- We made up games to get him to move his arms based on the cars passing by (we use his interest as much as possible)
- I tried to massage his muscles near his shoulder blade but he was too ticklish

2 July 2009

Went to Low Yat this morning cos I want to buy a netbook but ended up confused with the wide variety & might even consider getting a low end laptop instead!

What he did do today:

- Escalator: we’ve been teaching him to step on and off the escalator every time we’re at the shops. It involves balance, co-ordination, good reflexes. If he focuses, he's able to time his step on & off quite well. But he's often distracted by his surroundings. Since it’s quite dangerous, we hold both his right & left arms, for now.

- Running: he loves to run, so I usually bring along my helper to supervise him when I know I’d be busy

- Speech: he’ll say the names of the vehicles he sees on the road, while in the car & at the shops. E.g. Perodua, truck, Toyota jeep. He's crazy about vehicles, so no prompting needed here.

- Counting: he counts he number similar vehicles that he sees e.g. 3 Proton, 2 vans

- Alphabets: he’ll say the name of the alphabet in advertising signs that he sees in the shop E.g. A-c-e-r

- Learning to unlock: Just introduced it this week. I want him to eventually be able to unlock the door with a key. I detached the key from the key ring cos he grasps the key ring instead of the key. At this stage, I insert the key; I show him which direction to turn, with my hand over his & help him turn it when he's unable to. Good for wrist movement & for strengthening his hand muscles, hand eye & a practical activity.

- Play masak masak – pretend play; colour matching of spoons & forks to the plates; movement of both hands E.g. right hand was holding the kettle & I gave his left hand a spoon for him to match; fine motor E.g. he pulls apart the Velcro fruits (the type which you use a play knife to cut through the velcro joining the 2 halves)

He had speech therapy this afternoon. Spoke very softly except towards the end of the session. Not sure if it’s because we changed the timing of the therapy to the afternoon & he's therefore more tired compared to during a morning session, or because he was a bit uncertain what the therapist wanted of him.

It was good of the therapist to include activities to prepare him for kindy. E.g. getting him to practice saying “Teacher, I want to colour”, “Teacher, I want to drink”

We did one activity to improve his articulation of the letter “k”, which I think he did quite well. On and off we did do similar “k” sound activity in the past at speech therapy so I guess he’s progressed.

This evening, he got his dose of exercise, by running in the garden & playing with the helper. I think I’m down with the flu or something cos I’ve been very tired these few days & having bad headache now. There's much more I want to share on the stuff I did with my son last week, but it'll have to be postponed again...