It started so well...

I was solo parenting the other night and decided that a super long bath would be a great way to finish off the evening. I set the kids up in the tub with some bath paints (mix shaving cream with liquid tempera paints). They were excited. The paints looked great. I left the room and sat in the armchair in Michael's room eavesdropping while simultaneously relaxing.

Over the next 50 minutes I listened to them happily playing together. I heard them decide to paint families (the discussion about how big a mama should be was particularly funny). They shared paint with each other. They erased and started over. Conversation never ceased. It was lovely. I could hear them showing off their art to each other.

Then Ava called, "Mama, mama! Come see what we did." I knew I had been lucky to get 50 minutes and it was time to put them to bed anyway, so I headed to the bathroom expecting to see two adorable pictures of families on the tub walls. After all, that was what they had been discussing the entire time.

I was a bit surprised to find this:

They were terribly proud of it though. And it gave us the opportunity to review that when all colors are mixed they make brown. It really only took a couple of minutes with a shower to clean everyone up and move on with the night. It certainly wasn't two adorable family self-portraits though.

The Weekly Review: Week 56

SLP Idea of the Week

Viktorya at Speech Language Play has such a fun idea for what to do with articulation cards that have been mastered. She prints out my free articulation cards in black and white and uses them with her students. Then, when the students have thoroughly mastered a card and no longer need to drill with it they get to feed it through a little hand crank powered mini paper shredder. What fun! I can think of lots of variations on this children would enjoy. Tear it up. Cut it with scissors. Run it through a paper crimper. Crumple it and try to throw it in the trash can. I'll definitely have to print some on regular paper in b/w (instead of in full color on cardstock) just so we can try this. I think my kids will love it.

Ava this Week

One night I was getting some extra work in on the computer after dinner, but before the children went to bed. My husband was doing dishes in the kitchen. Ava came up to me and asked if she could have the stack of speech cards sitting next to me on my desk. I'll admit I looked at her a little suspiciously and asked her why she wanted them. She replied, "So I can do speech with Daddy!". I handed them over and watched her find a spot on the carpet, sit down, and start laying the cards face up on the carpet waiting patiently for her Daddy to come join her. She didn't actually notice that she'd neglected to invite him to play. I snuck into the kitchen to tell him what was going on. He abandoned his dishes and let her teach him "speech". It was so adorable.

Weekly Michael

Fine motor is finally kicking in for Michael. He's enjoying drawing pictures. He prefers his magnadoodle, dry erase board, or an iPad, but will use colored pencils or crayons and paper when necessary. He always tells elaborate stories about his pictures. One day this week he was staying at my mom's house and drew this picture on her iPad. I love seeing him find a new way to exercise his imagination. (It is a hot air balloon. What looks like hair on the passenger is actually the hot air balloon's flame.)

Ava's and Michael's Weekly Home Therapy Notes

/s/, /f/, /l/, and blends are falling into place for Ava. We've also recently re-introduced /k/ (only in final position) and she's finally making progress there. If she isn't paying attention, /k/ will always be /t/. When she is paying attention, with multiple types of cues, she's getting a back sound about 65% of the time. Yea! Progress. Hopefully it will all be downhill from here.

Michael's doing well with his /s/ and /f/. His /s/ sound can be easily corrected now when he's paying attention. His /f/ production is starting to lighten up a little and sound a bit more natural. I'm going to let him settle into those for at least another couple of weeks before even considering starting /th/ with him.

Weekly Homeschooling

I went ahead and ordered a couple of homeschooling curriculum programs. This week we did a math lesson and a handwriting lesson. They took about 20 minutes each (not consecutively) and the children and I had a great time. I look forward to continuing as soon as our schedule permits. I'll write more about the specific curriculum materials I purchased and what I think of them soon.

Homemade Doctor Kit Accessories - Play Prescription Pad and Broken Bone X-Rays

Michael and Ava had their annual pediatrician checkups recently and subsequently started playing doctor. Michael was making bandages out of tape and paper, which was adorable, but I did decide to buy the doctor's kit I found at Walmart to give them some props to add more dimension to their play. Then I had some ideas for some things I could make at home to add to their kit: a play prescription pad and some pretend broken bone x-rays.

Making a Play Doctor Prescription Pad

Michael likes to pretend to write prescriptions. On a whim I decided to try to make a prescription pad. I made a template and printed 20 copies (I printed mine in b/w because I've run out of color ink.). Save to your computer by clicking to open the full size image then right clicking and choosing "save as". Print and then trim off the footer and cut the pages in half.

Grab some glue (I used Mod Podge - I can't guarantee something else will work), a paintbrush and some binder clips. Cut a piece of thin cardboard (like from a cereal box) to the same size as your stack of play prescription paper to use as the back of the pad. Use the binder clips to hold the top together tightly. I only had five binder clips, but if you have more, use as many as possible so you can hold the pages together tightly along the entire top. Remove one clip at a time, painting the edges of the paper together with the glue then replace the clip to hold them as they dry. Do this to the paper under each binder clip until the entire edge is coated. Let dry for 15 minutes and then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Once you have a fairly thick coating that is thoroughly dry you're done. Show your kids how to use their new prescription pad and toss it in their doctor bag along with a pencil/marker/crayon.

Making Play Broken Bone X-Rays

I did a google image search for broken bone x-rays and chose ones with really obvious breaks in four different bones (collarbone, leg, arm, finger). I printed them on a single piece of paper. I wanted our x-rays to be fairly small so they would store inside their play doctor's bag. I printed them and then traced along the outline of the main bone and edges of the break with a pencil to be sure they would show up. I cut out each x-ray and cut a second piece of paper to place on top. In this way, I made it so that the x-ray would need to be held up to a light to be examined. Then I made a frame from black construction paper and a little label for each x-ray. I took the final product and covered it in contact paper for durability. They can examine the x-rays by holding them up against a bright window or by placing them on one of our homemade light boxes.