Monday, September 20, 2010

Language - Hockey 3-Part Cards

It's that time of year.  Hockey time.
We are living in Canada now, and decided that Dew1 should enroll in the TimBits hockey league (he's 4) so he can learn to skate and start playing.  Before signing him up (thank goodness) we took him to the store to try on equipment.  It was at this point that we realized he wasn't ready.  He just isn't at the point where following directions isn't something we can count on, and it's way too many new things at once.  Learning to skate, trying on and wearing equipment, using a stick, listening to a coach, participating with a team ... all very complex and confusing to a spectrum sensory kid.

So we decided that baby steps were the way to go.  We bought a street net and street sticks and started playing in the driveway.  We thought that this would be a good way for him to learn the basics.  As we predicted, he'll play for a minute or two and then just run around chasing the puck.  That's fine because he's gotten up to about 5 minutes of playing over the past weeks since starting, and could you imagine if we'd paid all that money for him to play on the ice and he was pulling this?  He does have skates, so we are going to take him to open skating throughout the winter so he can become familiar and comfortable with that.  Then we'll start buying his equipment and wearing it piece at a time to get used to that.  By next fall, he will hopefully be ready!

So we stopped off at the local rink on Saturday and watched some of a practice.  He was fascinated - it's all starting to make sense to him.  But I realized that making a set of Hockey Language Cards for him would be exactly the right thing - he learns very well through his cards.  I've never made a set before but a quick google search found this template for me at My Montessori Journey, and away I went.

And, in a few short weeks, it will be time to start watching it on TV!  Yea for Hockey Night in Canada ... hmm, shoulda made a Don Cherry card *hee hee*.
Oh, and you might notice that just about every card is related to the Philadelphia Flyers.  That's because of our family allegiance.  But you can just google images replacements if you like :-).  When I have a chance, I'll make a more neutral set ... but done is better than perfect.

ps.  speaking of which, I just wanted to mention that I just realized that they are a word doc ... that works if you want to alter the pictures but not if you don't have word.  If you'd like to see them as a PDF just let me know and i'll post both.





Hockey 3 Part Cards

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Milestone - First day of Junior Kindergarten

It's hard to believe, but Dew1 has officially started Junior Kindergarten.

He has been going to a typical preschool since he turned 2 (he's an August baby by birth but was a September baby by due date ...)  His first year went well - it was 2 mornings a week, and  his delays were not as apparent as there were not many demands placed on them that year.  It was more social, and getting used to be away from Mommy for a while.  They did activities and such, but didn't have circle time or anything.  He had a great time and it was very good for him socially.  It was during this year that we took him to the Easter Seals Step-Up program as well. (more about that another time.)

Then last fall he started the 3 year old program.  We decided to keep him at 2 mornings a week because we had to register him in February and he was transitioning in the Early Intervention program to the Intermediate Unit.  We didn't know what they were going to provide for him in the way of therapy and we wanted to keep his schedule as open as we could.  Turned out that he got 3 hours a day of in home therapy so it worked out well.  He did alright, but by December his Behvioural Consultant determined that the situation wasn't working as well as it could be.  We looked into switching him into an IU Classroom, but really wanted to keep him as "Typical" as we could.  In the end, we got an Aide into his room, and it was the perfect solution.  He started coming home with completed assignments, he was joining circle time, he was being more social with his peers, and having fun. 

We registered him for 5 day a week 3 year old programs for the fall.  We decided to do a combination of 2 day and 3 day programs and keep him back a year to let him catch up with his peers.  Then, the year after, put him into 5 day 4 year old preschool, then off to Kindergarten a year behind his age mates but in with his developmental peers.  He wasn't potty trained yet because his language wasn't ready for it yet, and we weren't worried about this.

And then it happened.  We decided to move back to Canada.

Suddenly it was a whole new world.  Instead of 2 years before Kindergarten, he was going to be going to Junior Kindergarten this fall!  Whole day, every other day, alternating Fridays.  And he had to be potty trained! 

We had contacted the school in June, as soon as we knew where we'd be living and made as many arrangements as we could for him.  We prepared them for his special needs, and while they weren't able to get him his own Aide (mostly because it was June and that planning happened in April, but even more mostly because he's not officially in the system yet for service. .. and that could take years...) but they paired him in a classroom with a little guy who does have an Aide, so that Aide will work with both of them.  Which is good b/c I don't believe that he needs a Full Time Aide, but just one to keep an eye on him and guide him a bit.

So it's been a busy summer with the potty traning (another post to come!) and this past week he he had his orientation.  He did really well (or so the school told us.)  He didn't use the potty while he was there and they were concerned that he was holding it (which i think he was.)  They gave us a great booklet that they have prepared that is a photograph tour of the school.  He loves to read his "school book" and I'm going to put a template together to share here for everyone to see.  I think that all kids, typical and non-typical alike would benefit from it.

I can't wait to see how things go next week!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

What's coming up?

Things to look forward to ...

we have made:
- a geometric floor puzzle
- a geoboard
- sandpaper letters

we are working on:
- a Brown Bear Brown Bear activity unit

now to just take pictures and start posting!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Where have we been? What's up?

Wow!  Time certainly has flown by since my last post!  I can't believe it's September already.

Well, here's the story.

When I started this blog last fall, I had all hopes and intentions of blogging regularly, tot schooling my two little ones, and being a normal family.  We were well on our way in the first few weeks of September, getting into a nice routine of preschool, tot school, Early Intervention Therapy, the gym ... it was all good.

And then DH (Dear Husband) came home early one afternoon and our entire lives changed.  He had been let go at work.

This led to a 6-month unemployment stretch during which our family has been to he!! and back and made a lot of life changes.  The first of which is that we decided that I would go back to work and he would stay home with the kids.  I am a Librarian (Administrator, actually) and he is in the restaurant business, so we decided that my career was more stable at the moment than his, considering the economy.  The second major change is that we moved from the US to Canada.  I'm from Canada so it was a move home for me, but after 13 years of being in the states, and finally settling in down near DH's hometown, I never dreamed that our life path would bring us here.  We are now closer to my parents, the Dews are in love with their grandparents, Dew2 has started preschool and Dew1 has started junior kindergarten.

So needless to say, when my life when into survival mode, blogging fell to the wayside.

But we have been working on activities and I can't wait to start posting them again.  And filling in on the challenges that we are facing here in Canada (like a 4 year wait for Early Intervention therapy.  sigh.)

Oh - not to forget that the youngest got tubes in his ears in April so he can hear again (we think!).

Thanks for sticking around.  Hopefully I will be able to make it worth your while.