Mother Goose Time - Week 2, Days 1 through 3

We have been enjoying the Mother Goose Time curriculum! Wes is so excited when I get our day's bag out of the "school bus"! Rather than go day by day, I will highlight some of our fun activities. For more on what we did with Mother Goose Time last week, please see these posts here and here!

Canteens
One thing that I completely take for granted is that my kids are not exposed to the same things I was exposed to as a young child. Call us city slickers but some things like Canteens haven't made an appearance in our days at home. So, being that we are talking about deserts and all, one would be up the creek without a paddle if they didn't have a canteen, right?

We set out making our own canteens by first painting paper plates and talking about what canteens are for. I let the boys pick out their paint colors and we went about painting! All of the materials (except paint and staples) to make our canteens were included!

Wes really wanted to MIX all of his colors!

Brady wanted to paint a border around his

After letting our paper plates dry, we assembled our canteens and the boys and I pretended to trek across a dry desert and take a drink!

The boys showing off the purdy canteens!

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Ah! Refreshing!

Desert Journal

Wes loves looking at his journal and talking about the things we've added to it. This week, Brady is joining us for a lot more activities and we started his journal as well.

Wes and I practiced writing "H" & "h". Being only 3, Wes' handwriting is fairly underdeveloped and pretty much chicken scratch. At this point we are doing a lot of hand over hand and giving him verbal cues for the motions. Then I let him practice "on his own". Not wanting to discourage him, we also added salt tracing of uppercase "H". I included a video of how we incorporated salt tracing so you can see how I "sing song" the verbal prompts so they are easy to remember and encouraging to Wes. I used a cheap plastic tray I picked up at Dollar Tree. 

We also made 17 bugs in our journals. We practiced using our "pointers" to make 17 blue dots and we went back and added eyes and legs. We made sure to go back occasionally to count the bugs and make sure we added all 17 of them! It was interesting to see how they placed their finger prints. Wes just placed them haphazardly around the page, but my ever so cautious Brady had them go in a line, just like ants!

Sally the Camel
We read a fun little poem about Sally the Camel and talked about how some camels have one hump and some have two. So, naturally, the boys wanted to call ALL camels Sally! We made a Sally the Camel puppet with the included camel cut out. What boys don't like like making puppets??? Brady was very insistent that his camel would not have eyes. So, Brady's camel is in minimalist fashion.

Brady and Wes working together

Wes attaching his camel's saddle pad

Sally the camels!

Say it two ways - ASL Cards

Okay, I know that Nick Jr. may be the one that coined the term Say it Two Ways, but it really got the boys attention when I asked them if they wanted to learn how to talk with their hands. What I really appreciate about Mother Goose Time is that it includes activities that are very enriching for my boys' little growing minds. We used the enclosed ASL card to learn and practice how to say "camel" in American Sign Language. We then attached it to our ASL poster in their learning area.

Photo Labels and Cards

The quality of the included materials is beyond impressive. The photo cards were very vivid, high color pictures of things we have been talking about. Wes was able to identify all of the items and we spent some time talking about them in detail. Wes kept calling the lizard iguana, and to his credit, he was technically right. We expanded on that by talking about how iguanas were a type of lizard. I already know that I've got a "questioner" on my hands! But, that's a good thing!

To make this activity easier on my little one, we looked at the label cards and I had Wes identify what the first letter of the word was. For example, boots started with "b" and then I asked him to match it with the picture of the boots. Then after we did this for all of the photos, we did it in reverse. I laid out the word label cards and then I would hand Wes a photo card. I asked him, "What is this picture? What letter does it start with? Can you find the word card that starts with that letter?"

  

I think that we will revisit this activity more over the month. It was entertaining for him but I can see the wheels-a-turning in his mind! It would make a great on-the-go activity! Great for putting in a ziploc bagging and tucking it away in my purse!

Leaping Lizards

Having two boys, you find yourself getting tons of gross motor practice! This activity was easy peasy but it burnt a ton of energy! I simply placed washi tape on my carpet and we took turns leaping as high and far as we could. Then we just ran and jumped for the heck of it! 

We are planning a trip to the zoo to see more desert animals and visit our very own Sally! One of the best things about starting our experience with Mother Goose Time is that it has really expanded the topics and things we talk about!

If you would like to learn more about Mother Goose Time, please feel free to visit their website at www.mothergoosetime.com.

Autism and the Sleep Deprived Parent

I will start off this post with the "I AM NO PROFESSIONAL" disclosure. I will not even begin to try and convince you that I know what I'm speaking of. I just want to share with you what I've found works for us. Virtual word of mouth is how I've found my most useful tips! So, take it. Leave it. But, no flaming me! Pinky swear?

As a baby, Brady was a phenomenal sleeper. He slept through the night beautifully. Even as a wee toddler, he slept like a rock, never fought us when putting him down and usually waved bye bye as we closed the door for the night. Blissful.

Then we had another baby and realized how miserable one is when they don't have sleep. Those newborn days are rough. But, what got us through that was the distant, faint light of returning to the days of restful sleep. And, as Wes began sleeping through the night and life seemed to return to normal (well, relatively speaking), Brady started having sleep troubles. 

Now, sure...every child has occasional sleep problems. But, I kid you not, we were all running on fumes. When your child is up at night, raring to go, you usually are awake, too. So each night was a frantic race to fall asleep, KNOWING we would be up from about 2-5 a.m. We often took turns staying awake with the nocturnal son, but with my hubby's work schedule, he was often gone overnight. And, with no way to take a nap during the day, I was literally like the walking dead.

We had tried everything. EVERYTHING. No naps. Melatonin. Medication. Amethyst under his pillows. Brain wave CD's on repeat each night. Salt lamps. Shoot, I was spraying lavender in the room and on his pillows and on his clothes. I had him wear crystals that were supposed to calm his energy. I tried anything ANYONE said may remotely help. For crying out loud, I had rocks in his pockets and under his pillows! ROCKS! But, nothing seemed to work. NOTHING. I felt like I was dying a slow death with the amount of sleep I was, or should I say WASN'T getting.

In all of the reading regarding ASD I do in a day, I saw on one of the forums I followed a post on sleep disturbances. I thought I had read it all but this reader shared some advice that I had not heard before. She suggested to pair Melatonin with GABA Calm. I already had GABA Calm in my cabinet, so the next day I figured I had nothing to lose and gave Brady one GABA Calm before going up for baths. At bath time, I gave Brady his 1 mg melatonin and guess what? Brady slept through the night. At this point, Brady was also on 1/2 teaspoon of N-Met in the morning. (You can read more about Brady's use of N-Met HERE. Combined, I believe that these supplements have resolved Brady's sleep troubles).

Scared it was a fluke, we tried it again and didn't even mouth the words, "He slept through the night" for fear of jinxing ourselves. It worked and he slept through the night. The night after that, we stuck with it. He slept like a baby. Shoot, I'm like the footballer player who doesn't wash his jock strap when on a winning streak. My husband and I were in disbelief. We looked at each other one night and gave each other the look that says, "PLEASE DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT F'ING CHANGE ANYTHING IF HE IS SLEEPING". That was months ago and I tell you what...he is still sleeping through the night. And, I am a much better person having had sleep. 

His neurologist pretty much gave me the, "Oh Um-kay. Sure, whatever you'd like to do" when I told her we weren't going to do the EEG because he was now sleeping through the night since we tried GABA Calm paired with Melatonin. I'm pretty much sure they stamped our file with "Cuckoo Mom". But, rather than endure an EEG, we will roll with what is working.

Sleep affects so much of my Brady's behavior. When he's tired, he's meltdown king. Everything has improved when he's had some sleep. EVERYTHING. Plus, it's amazing what I can tolerate when I have had sleep, too.

I should add that the GABA Calm and Melatonin we use are sublingual. Brady chews them like a chewable tablet because we cannot get him to dissolve them under his tongue. The fact that he chews them does not seem to affect the effectiveness of the supplements. Just throwing it out there. Both supplements are orange flavored and Brady, who is hypersensitive to tastes seems to enjoy them.

So, if you are having sleep troubles with your ASD child, this may be worth exploring. Like I said, we had explored a lot of alternative and traditional routes to address Brady's sleep issue. We are thankful for having someone share this advice and are paying it forward incase it helps someone else!

Mother Goose - Week 1, Days 3, 4, and 5

Wes is really enjoying the Cowboys part of this month's theme!

Day 3 Wes couldn't wait to get home and "learn"! Each day we start by talking about what day it is and what the date is also. I let Wes attach the date to our calendar and we sing the days of the week song.

This day we started off with "Lasso and Look". I took the looking glasses included in the day's bag and tied them to ribbon. I used our sand sensory box to hide the glasses amongst some objects we have been talking about, like horses, rocks, lizards and camels. I put the "find" poster right in front of the box. The horse in this box has accompanied us ALL WEEK. Wes fondly named it "horse".

I then had Wes select a ribbon and we read what each card said. Each had instructions to find an object on the poster and on the back side it had actions to do that tied into the object that you found. 

We then did a round up of shapes that included counting and matching. I made a corral out of play fencing we already had. I placed the counting card included in the day's bag inside and told him we were going to round up some shapes and put them in our corral.

It's really amazing how much more excited Wes was about counting when it was presented this way. I had him match the size at the same time so it was a double lesson for him! I know! Sneaky mommy... 

When he had finished matching and counting, we returned the squares back to the corresponding bag, counting one by one and sorting by color. As you can see, we re-used the squares from day 2.

This day we also talked about kindness. The "kindness" activity was by far my favorite. I'm so bummed I was not able to capture some of these moments with my camera. It is one of the lessons that really resonated with Wes and we reference it all the time. Wes and I made each other "kindness" bracelets. He wore it through the day and whenever we went somewhere, I asked Wes if he wanted to tell people what his bracelet said. He would give a huge grin and say, "I am KIND". We talked often about what it meant to be kind - we share, we think of how we can be nice and make people happy. I asked Wes who he would like to be kind to today and he picked Ms. Martha, a school attendant at Brady's school who we see every day when we pick him up. I asked Wes what he'd like to do to be kind and he said, "Get her coffee". This kid's kindness really melts my heart. 

I explained to Wes that I didn't know if we could keep her coffee hot, but maybe he'd like to get her something from the bakery. When there, I had him show the bakery gals his bracelet and tell them what it said. Talk about cuteness overload! I asked him if we should get something for his brother, too and he handpicked a "panda" cookie because he knew Brady loved his panda, "Maggie". The picture below is priceless. Brady didn't know what to think of his cookie. 

When we arrived at school, Wes gave Ms. Martha her boxed treat and we explained how he was practicing being kind. Now, if he gets upset or grabs something out of his brother's hands, we simply ask, "Was that kind?" He usually will say "No" and we decide on something else to do to make both boys happy, like asking for a turn or just finding a different activity to do instead.

The other activity Wes loved this day was making lassos. We practiced roping animals and leading them to the corral.

Day 4 we practiced our cutting with the hobby horse activity. Wes is starting to get cutting a little bit more on his own, but I am still ready for hand over hand help. We fringed the mane and then glued it to the horse. It's amazing that with all of the toys we have, Wes finds a lot of joy from racing with this horse head on a stick. We have used it almost every day! 

Since letter H is the letter of the moment, we used the cards and some objects to talk about the letter H. I used horse and hat objects because that was what is referenced on the day's cards AND the alphabet poster.

Because this type of activity is fairly new to him, we kept the items close by on the table and really worked on identifying the items horse and hat. I asked him to point with his pointer "h" to hat, then to the horses. I asked him to use the pointer to point to the hat card and horse card. Then I asked him to take the cards and put it in from the objects and then match the objects on the card. 

And, while playing with playdoh, we decided to make the letter "H". We also used small horses to make imprints in the playdoh with the body and hooves. 

We made horse trail mix, which included "hay" (shredded wheat), "oats" (cheerios), "grass" (crunchy chow mein noodles), and "apples" (dried apples). I put them in bowls and had Wes "feed" his horse and make baggies of mix for the horses to eat. Wes took turns letting the horse "eat" and then he would try it. We practiced being "kind" and asking Brady if he would like to try the treats as well.

Day 5 I used washi tape to make a huge "H" on our carpet. Both Brady and Wes took turns walking, crawling and jumping over the "H". We even did the "Hah-Hah" dance sounding out words that started with "H". It was a great way to incorporate gross motor and phonics!

Here are a few photos from Wes' journal this week. We drew a photo of Wes with a lasso and on another page we made a horse pin from twigs we gathered outside.

Thanks for following our journey this week! As you can see, we are having a blast with the program! You will get to see more of Brady next week! He's officially on summer break as of Tuesday! For more information on Mother Goose Time, please visit them at www.mothergoosetime.com.

This Moment - 6.7.13

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Photography by the beautiful Ashley Perry 

https://www.facebook.com/ashleyperryphoto

http://www.ashleyperryphotography.com/

http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/photo-projects/

Sensory Play - Faux Ice Cream

In my Fave Five of June Post, you may have seen that I listed Silicone Ice Cream Cone Molds as one of my favorite things lately. These things are awesome! I've used them for fill and pour activities, sorting, a memory/matching type of game and just silly pretend play. But, one of the cooler things we have done is just plain ol' fake ice cream.

With summer here, we have been doing a lot of sensory activities outside. We finally broke out the water table and we have been getting our messy play on like Donkey Kong outside as much as we can! Gotta get our Vitamin D in! This Faux Ice Cream is something we do almost every other day! Inside, outside or in the tub, this is a super fun way to get some sensory fun into our day!

To make Strawberry Faux Ice cream, you only need THREE things:
Baking Soda
Hair Conditioner (I used Strawberry Suave)
Packet of Single Serving Pink Lemonade (I used Walmart's generic brand)

I added the packet of lemonade because I wanted the ice cream to be really pink and surprisingly, it made it smell EXTRA SWEET! With activities that pose the possibility of staining clothes, I try to avoid food dye as much as possible!

To make the ice cream, I just eyeballed the ingredients until there was enough conditioner in it to make the consistency of ice cream. I placed it in a covered container and kept in the fridge to chill.

We played with this ice cream in several different ways...

When I gave it to Brady, I gave him the ice cream cones, an ice cream scoop and some regular spoons. He immediately wanted to sink his hands into it! So, following his lead, his therapist did the same and they rolled balls of ice cream and crumbled them back into the bowl. 

Brady and his therapist, Karen, making ice cream balls

When I gave the ice cream to Wes, he immediately went about scooping it into cones. He is really in a "pour and fill" phase. 

Filling his cones! 

One for Wes and one for Mommy

Refilling the cones

Me being me, I tried to incorporate as much conversation and labeling as I could! Wes and I talked about whether ice cream was "hot or cold", "rough or smooth", "light or dark". We also talked about what it smelled like and he said, "Candy!". It DOES smell really sweet. I kid you not, Wes filled and poured for about 30 minutes independently! Perfect time to check my emails across the counter! This was my time to be an armchair parent, for sure! 

I asked Wes if he wanted to see something really cool, and what BOY doesn't say "YES!" to that?! I got a little bowl of vinegar and showed him how to pour some into the cones with his spoon. Fizzy fun, I tell you! Wes immediately took a spoonful and put it in the bowl of vinegar and what a cool fizzy reaction with bubbles!

Filling his cone with "fizzy juice" 

Filling the "fizzy juice" with ice cream

Look at those bubbles!

Having so much fun!

We still had a ton of left over ice cream from this batch, so when I tossed the kids in the bath, I gave them the rest and let them play away with it! They smelled like candy when they went to bed! 

I have experimented with vanilla (cake mix) and chocolate (hot cocoa mix) but Strawberry is my FAVE! I've even considered making some with those new frosting mix-in's. We've used sprinkles and confetti (from my hole punch) to use as fun condiments! 

Word to the WISE...

I made a batch for Brady's therapist to show the ABA Supervisor when he was here. I thought it would be more fun if it was a little bit more airy and fluffy, so I added a little more conditioner and a splash of water. OOOPS. When Brady got excited he shook his hands in that "OH MY GOSH, I'M EXCITED I MIGHT FLY OUTTA HERE!" kind of way. It went EVERYWHERE. Luckily, when baking soda dries, it vacuums up easily. With two boys, I have had it worst, but I felt horrible for his therapist who thought she made a tremendous mess. My response..."At least it wasn't poop!". And, ain't THAT the truth!