Mother's Day Recap 2011

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I slept in a little and then came downstairs to discover two vases the children had made for me. Their daddy took them to an activity at Lowe's on Saturday where they made "surprises" for Mother's Day. Turns out the vases were the surprises. Daddy filled them with flowers from the yard before I came downstairs. There was also a very sweet card and my favorite special occasion treat. A local restaurant has the best apple pie ever and I only get one on special occasions. It was a beautiful way to start the day.

My parents came over and we all enjoyed a decadent lunch and then took the children out in the yard for a couple of hours before nap. The slide on the playset had gotten extremely hot in the sun and we decided on a whim to try to cool it down with the hose. That turned into a giant water slide adventure. Daddy climbed into the playset to turn on the hose every time Michael climbed back up. Michael probably went down that slide 50 times. He loved it. Ava tried it once, but it was too fast when wet for her. She couldn't control her landing and decided to just sit on the sidelines and cheer her brother on. We all had a blast.

After getting the children down for nap we had apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was a really nice family centered Mother's Day.

As an almost completely unrelated tangent, I took this picture in the backyard today. It's two baby birds hungrily awaiting the return of their mother. You're looking at the nest from below. The nest rests under where our deck used to be before it rotted away and had to be demolished.

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: Voicing Pairs

Here's a quick speech lesson of the day. Don't you always want a speech lesson on Mother's Day? (Happy Mother's Day everyone!)

Say, "Ssssssss" out loud like you're making a snake sound. Draw it out as long as you can and while you're doing it place your hand on the front of your throat near your adam's apple. Now say, "Zzzzzzzzz" out loud like you're making a bee sound. Draw that one out as long as you can too while keeping your hand on your throat.

The first thing you should notice is that your throat vibrates while you make the /z/ sound, but it does not while you make the /s/ sound. That is because /s/ is a voiceless sound. You can make the sound without vibrating your vocal chords. The reason you feel your throat vibrating when you make the /z/ sound is because it is a voiced sound. You have to vibrate your vocal chords to make the /z/ sound. Other than that one difference, voicing, the /s/ and /z/ sounds are made in exactly the same way. You raise your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your teeth and blow. So /s/ and /z/ are a voicing pair. They are two sounds made in exactly the same way except that one is voiced and one is not.

There are lots of voicing pairs. /t/ and /d/ are voicing pairs. /t/ is voiceless while /d/ requires vibrating your vocal chords. /p/ and /b/ are voicing pairs. /p/ is voiceless while /b/ requires vibrating your vocal chords. /k/ and /g/ are another example. /k/ is voiceless while /g/ requires vibrating your vocal folds.

What does any of this have to do with apraxia? Well, making a voiced sound is a more complicated motor task. To make a /b/ you have to do everything you have to do to make a /p/ and then coordinate vibrating your vocal chords at the right time for the right duration. So often, children with apraxia will find voiceless sounds easier. /t/ and /p/ are often easier than /d/ and /b/. Just another example of how complicated the motor planning of speech is and why our children sometimes seem to have trouble with a sound or word for no reason when there really is a reason after all.

Friday Night Fun

So many things enter your life with parenthood. Love, tenderness and pride. Fear and worry. Responsibility and fatigue. Many you are prepared for, and some you are not. You get through them all. Sometimes with grace. Sometimes not so much.

And then there's the illness. The neverending illness. I do not exaggerate. I'm pretty sure that we have not gone more than one to two weeks since October with everyone in this household being well. I personally have not gone more than a week and a half since January without being sick. I had heard that having children in daycare often involves them bringing home bugs, but this is getting ridiculous. They are only there two mornings a week.

Last night my husband entertained the children while simultaneously getting a quote to replace our rotting deck, played with the children in the yard, and then fed them dinner. All by himself. I spent 2 and 1/2 hours at my doctor's office walk-in clinic and then waiting for my prescriptions at Walgreens. Diagnosis this time: Bronchitis.

Someone tell me this ends. Please. Tell me that I am not going to spend three out of every four weeks for the next 16 years sick.

Now I'm off to drink more hot tea and to try not to cough too much.

Magic Tree House Progress Chart

Michael and I have been reading the Magic Tree House books. The books are about siblings Jack and Annie who discover a Magic Tree House that travels through space and time to destinations found in books. The series is very well done and Michael is really enjoying them.

There is a companion website for the books where children can track their travels through the series in a virtual passport. They collect a virtual stamp for each book's location by answering questions about the book. Michael is really too young to enjoy collecting virtual stamps and the questions are a little hard for a three year old. I was kind of disappointed because I was hoping that the passport would be a fun enrichment activity that we could do together in addition to reading the books. (They advertise the passport in the back of each book which is how I knew about it.)

As I was wandering the sections of the website for teachers and parents, I discovered a welcome packet that included some bookmarks and a book list that has small images of every book cover.

I decided to make Michael a physical version of their passport. A Magic Tree House Progress Chart, if you will. I printed out the bookmarks and the book list on cardstock. I used the bookmarks and some title art to decorate a cardstock Magic Tree House themed blank progress chart and taped it to his closet door. I then cut out the pictures of the book covers we had already read. He loved sticking the books to the chart and excitedly talked about the books as we put each one on the chart.

He couldn't wait to start reading the new book and is already talking about how we get to put another book on his chart when we finish reading it.

The Weekly Review: Week Eight

Blog Post I Thoroughly Enjoyed:

I very much enjoyed Julia's most recent post. First, she often has pictures of her absolutely adorable children and this post is no exception. Second, she tells a very entertaining story about a marital debate. My favorite quote from the story, regarding her husband, is "putting the passive in our passion and the aggressive in our aggregate since 1996."

Apraxia Article of the Week:

A while back I wrote a post about Apraxia and Infant Bonding. I was talking about how I felt like the fact that both of my babies have oral apraxia might have had an effect on my ability to bond with them when they were little. I had never really seen any article mention such a thing, but I had lived it. And it made sense to me logically. This week I stumbled upon an apraxia article that begins by talking about this very thing. (The title of the article doesn't immediately scream "pertinent to this topic", but give it a chance.)

Sibling Moments of the Week:

• Michael pushing his sister on the swing.
• Michael asking Ava, "Do you want to go play in my room?" and Ava responding, "O-tay!". Watching them run off up the stairs together.
• Watching the two of them on either end of a string playing tug-of-war.
• Trying to decide if the two of them encouraging each other into an ever increasing fury of splashing in the bathtub was a good thing or a bad thing.

Quote of the Week from Michael:

"Mama, I need just one more hug!" from the doorway of his classroom as I drop him off at school.

Ava's Contrariness of the Week:

Finally, we got a barrette in Ava's hair. We snuck it in when she wasn't paying attention and for two adorable hours she had a pink bow in her hair. When she finally noticed it, she was hysterical until I managed to pull it out. I put it in my pocket. Five minutes later she insisted I give her bow back. She didn't want to wear it, mind you. She just wanted to hold it.

Incomplete Project of the Week:

Sorting through over 100 dvds we no longer want collecting dust and figuring out which of three different online vendors offers the most money for each dvd. This involved typing in the 12 digit UPC number for each dvd into each website. Next step is to print out the quotes, sort the physical dvds, box them, and ship them off.

Amazing Library Experience

I've mentioned this before in passing, but it is worth saying again. Our county library system is amazing. First, their entire catalog is online. I can browse by author or keyword or even call number. I choose up to 25 books from anywhere in the county to place on hold and they are delivered to my local library. I get an email when they have arrived. I browse the call number "board books" for Ava and the call number "JE Readers" for Michael. I've also placed children's cds and dvds on hold.

It gets even better though. They have a hold shelf. I don't even have to go to the counter. I simply walk over to the hold shelf, find the books I've requested all waiting for me together in one spot and walk over to check out.

The county recently upgraded their technology to some sort of wireless system. All the librarians have to do to check you out is place a small pile of books on a pad and the entire pile is scanned at once. I thought that was pretty amazing but then they installed self checkout kiosks. I am in and out of the library in five minutes. I walk in, putting my returned books in their slot, and then walk over to the reserve shelf near the door and grab my new set of books. Then I self checkout and leave. I'm trying to remember to request new books every Sunday night and pick up the new set every Thursday on the way to pick the kids up from preschool.

Absolutely amazing. Have any of you had good experiences with your local libraries?

Social Dynamics

I try hard to find playmates for my children. Michael has a weekly playdate with a boy up the street who is only 6 weeks older than he is. We've been getting together regularly for at least a year and a half. They are a wonderful family and it has been pretty amazing to watch their relationship develop from two babies playing side by side to two boys who run off to play independently. Ava is just starting to get together regularly with a little girl in our neighborhood who is only 4 months older than she is. So far, they mostly just play in the same space, but that is fairly typical for a couple of two year olds playing together.

I have a friend too. We've known each other since before marriage and children. Now she has a little girl,Cara, who turned four just a few weeks after Ava turned two. She is 8 months older than Michael and almost exactly two years older than Ava. We try to get together on a weekly basis too. It's great that the kids get along, but mostly, we just want to get together ourselves.

Usually, Cara and Michael play together. That was especially the case before Ava started talking. Or all three children would play independently. When they came over yesterday though, a whole new dynamic appeared. The two girls went off together. Cara was actively engaging Ava and trying to make her laugh. They were tickling and wrestling and just being silly. They climbed on the playset together. In fact, every time one wandered off, the other would follow. The girls played together for extended periods of time while Michael ended up a bit neglected.

I was torn. It was amazing to watch the girls playing together even with the two year age gap. The communication, enjoyment, and togetherness was like something that had been gift wrapped for Ava and it was beautiful. At the exact same time, I hurt for Michael. He was trying to get in on the fun, he really was. But somehow he just ended up sidelined. The girls weren't deliberately leaving him out. They were just interested in different activities.

I suppose that when Ava tags along on Michael's playdates she is the one sidelined, but somehow that doesn't make me as sad because the pair playing together are age matched. It was just fascinating to watch gender and personality determine the playmates more so than age. Social dynamics start so very young.

Free Everyday Math iPhone / iPad apps

McGraw-Hill is offering all of their Everyday Mathematics iPhone / iPad apps for free until May 6 in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. There are ten of them. They are pretty much only going to be useful for school-age children, but free is free and I can save them for a couple of years until Michael and Ava are ready for them.

Shadow Play

Ava was playing with her shadow in the basement playroom. She was standing on a step stool and the setting sun was coming in through the basement window lighting up the wall. Ava noticed her shadow and was delighted. She waved and played with it for several minutes and her Daddy was able to catch it on film. I stole the pictures from him and put them together so you could see.

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: Complexity of Motor Planning - An Example

Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a neurological disorder of the motor planning of speech. Here is one small example of how complicated that motor planning can be.

You might think that a /b/ is a /b/ is a /b/. Or you may have thought, correctly, that making a /b/ at the beginning of a word is different than making a /b/ in the middle or at the end of a word. But it gets even more complicated than that.

Say the word "book" five times in a row out loud, but before you say it the last time, freeze your mouth in the position it is in when you are about to make the /b/ sound. Your mouth should be pursed a little, almost like you're about to give someone a kiss.

Now say the word "bee" five times in a row out loud. Again, stop before you say it the last time freezing your mouth in the position it is in when you are about to make the /b/ sound. Your lips should be pressed together, almost like you just put on chapstick or lipstick and are spreading it evenly around.

Even though the words "book" and "bee" both begin with the /b/ sound, the motor planning for producing the /b/ is very different. For the first /b/ in the word "book," the motor planning involves the muscle motions necessary for lip rounding (because the following vowel is a rounded vowel). For the second /b/ in the word "bee," the motor planning involves the muscle motions necessary for lip spreading (because the following vowel is a vowel that involves lip spreading).

The difference between those two initial /b/ sounds is just one small example of how complicated motor planning really is. I just thought the example was interesting and I wanted to share.

What to do with an old baby wrap?

I was trying to think of creative ways to use a few old baby wraps I have lying around and I came up with this. We're redoing the basement's drop ceiling so I have access to the guts of the ceiling. I tied the wrap in a loop to a 2 by 4 in the ceiling. Voila. Instant indoor swing.

Michael likes to lay in it on his tummy and twist himself around until the swing won't turn any more. Then he picks up his feet and twists until he's so dizzy he can't stand. Ava likes to sit in it and be twisted and left to untwist, or to be pushed in traditional swing style. At the moment these activities are closely supervised because Ava sometimes gets tangled in the swing when she tries to get out on her own. I pick it up out of their reach when I'm not in the room.

It's a ton of fun though and certainly a better use of an old baby wrap than leaving it lying folded in a drawer.

Here's a picture of Ava in the new swing. Sorry it is so blurry. The swing was moving pretty fast. At least it gives you the idea. And just for fun, here's a picture of Ava in a different baby wrap when she was only three weeks old.

If anyone has any other great ideas for what to do with an old baby wrap, speak up. I'd love to hear them.

No problem.

Last night at dinner Ava was wandering the kitchen with one of her Daddy's wrenches. She walked up to him and said, "Look Dada! Look." He replied, "Yes baby. Could you put that on the table for me?" Ava walked over to the kitchen table and plopped the wrench right down on the edge of the table. She said, "No problem Dada!"

It completely cracked us up. I'm not sure she knew why we thought it was so funny. Did she get that from me?

Ms. J and Magic

I haven't spoken much about Ms. J recently. She's the local apraxia expert we're fortunate enough to be seeing twice a month. We saw her again yesterday morning. She is so good. She has amazing one-on-one sessions with Ava. I shamelessly eavesdrop through the door. She takes my 26 month old little girl and gets her to work on her speech for 50 minutes straight and enjoy it the whole time.

She's also magical. I will go and she will tell me work on something (the one I remember most is "work on two-word phrases"). I will tell her, "Sure!" while thinking to myself, "Yeah, right! There's no way Ava will be doing that in the next two weeks, she isn't even close." Every single time, Ms. J has been right. Every single time. She was right about the two word phrases. She was right when Ava first started being able to imitate final consonants. She was right about using the hand signals.

Well, this time she told me to work on the /k/ sound. I've been trying off and on to stimulate a /k/ production from Ava. I'll say, "Say /k/." Ava will respond, "/t/". Every time. She just can't make a /k/ or /g/ in the back of her mouth. Think about it for a second. Try to explain how to make the /k/ sound. It would go something like this:

1. Bring the back of the tongue up to the roof of your mouth so that you completely block all air flow from your mouth. Leave the front of your tongue down.
2. Build up air pressure behind your tongue.
3. Now, let the air out in a little explosion by dropping the back of your tongue down. If you do it right, it will make a /k/ sound.

Ok. Now imagine trying to explain that to a two year old. Just not possible. So, when we're trying to stimulate a sound a child isn't making we have to use indirect methods. Sometimes you're lucky and the child can imitate the sound even though they aren't using it on their own. Or sometimes it is a sound that is easy to see, like /m/, because you make the sound with your lips. Then you might be able to help the child make the sound by showing them how. But /k/ is made in the back of the mouth. You can't just have the child watch you.

Ms. J took an indirect approach to getting Ava to make a sound in the back of her mouth. Essentially she had Ava open her mouth wide. Then she used a tongue depressor to hold down the tongue tip which will often force the back of the tongue up. Ava hated the tongue depressor and was happy to open her mouth wide if only the tongue depressor stayed put away. Then Ms. J had Ava imitate a kind of growling, "scary" sound. With the mouth wide open and the head tilted slightly back, making that noise is a giant step towards making a /k/ sound because you're making a sound way in the back of the mouth by moving the back of the tongue up. That's the first step we needed. Hopefully over the next two weeks I will be able to use that technique to shape a true /k/ sound from Ava.

If you had asked me two days ago if I thought there was even a possibility of getting a /k/ out of Ava in the next couple of weeks I would have said, "No way, absolutely not." One visit with Ms. J later and I think there's a distinct possibility. Magic I tell you. Magic.

Poll #3 results

Nine people responded to April's poll. The question was: Would you consider your child's Childhood Apraxia to be mild, moderate, severe, or not sure yet? Two people responded mild. One person responded moderate. Three people responded severe. Three people were not sure yet.

I think I'm going to take a break from polls during the month of May. If you have suggestions for a poll topic for June, please leave a comment.

Tall People Can Reach High Locks

Ava and I were in a public restroom. Now, this is how the experience usually goes. Ava uses the potty first. Then I try to get my business done while begging her not to open the door just yet. The sounds of muffled laughter from other stalls are always helpful.

Well, this time, the door lock was too high for her to reach. It was wonderful. In fact, I'll admit it, I kind of enjoyed watching her fruitlessly try to reach the door lock secure in my knowledge that she couldn't reach it.

Ava stepped back, frustrated and said to me, "door high." I replied, "Yes, sweetheart. The lock is really high." She looked up at the lock again, and then back at me. Then she said, "Mama tall." I was astounded. I didn't even know she knew what tall meant, much less that she would make the connection to how the concept applied in this particular situation. And then she used it in a sentence well enough that I completely understood what she was saying.

All in all, a very nice trip to the restroom.

Subtle Problems are Harder to Explain

I was talking with our early intervention therapist about Ava's speech trying to figure out what it is that still worries me. Ava is doing so much better. She looks more age appropriate. That is good, of course, but I know both as an SLP and as her mother that there is something there I need to pay attention to.

Yes, Ava is still missing individual sounds (k, g, f, v, r, l, etc.), but all of those sounds develop late anyway and aren't always present in a young two year old anyway. And, some of them are starting to emerge a little. I'm seeing hints of an /f/ and hints of a /k/ for example. So, I'm not crazy worried about the missing sounds. Sure, the fact that they're missing makes her harder to understand, but in a relatively age appropriate way.

Yes, she still exhibits quite a few phonological processes. The big ones are final consonant deletion (leaving off those final consonants) and syllable reduction (taking a three syllable word and saying it as a two syllable word). Again, phonological processes are a normal part of speech development, and it isn't too age inappropriate for her to still be exhibiting some. It's particularly reasonable given that she's only been talking at all for a grand total of three and a half to four months. So, to summarize, I'm not too worried about the phonological processes either.

What I do see are signs of a motor planning problem - apraxia. I have a little girl who has a lot to say. She understands what she hears. She has a great vocabulary. She wants to put together 4-5 word sentences which is pretty darned good for a just turned two year old. However, whenever the syllable structure gets complicated she struggles. Whenever she tries to put together over three syllables she struggles. Whenever she's trying a new word or sentence structure that is complicated she struggles.

Yes, her motor planning problem is mild, but it is definitely there. And, more importantly, it is holding her back from her potential. I think without the apraxia she'd be startlingly articulate. As it is, she struggles to express everything she'd like to. I'm told that she's extremely quiet at school and hardly talks at all. At home she's trying to talk all the time, but she doesn't at school. Is it a confidence issue? It is because the processing demands are higher in a higher stress environment? Is it just her personality to be shy at school? I don't know, but I want her to get to a point where she is able to say everything she wants to and she isn't being held back by the apraxia.

And so we will continue to work on it. It is so easy to get distracted by the sounds she can't say or the phonological processes she exhibits, but the bigger issue is definitely the motor planning. The best strategies I've found to help with the motor planning problems are the tapping and the visual prompts. We'll stick with using those in context to help her say the things that she wants to say. And we'll see how her speech continues to develop over the next several months.

Redecoration

I'm going to begin with the basic facts.
A few months before Ava was born we decided to move Michael into the guest bedroom and to give Ava his old room. My dad painted his room a wonderful shade of green and we bought beautiful wall decals to decorate the room. Well, the wall decals didn't go up for months and months, but we finally made the time. I entertained both children while Daddy painstakingly arranged the decals around the room and the room came out beautifully. Note exhibit A: beautifully arranged wall decals.

Last night we noticed a brand new arrangement of wall decals (exhibit B). Michael had borrowed bits and pieces of other arrangements to make a new one of his own. He climbed up on a chair in his room (multiple times I assume) to arrange the stolen elements next to one of the pictures in his room.

Initial reactions.
Parents: Did you do this?!?
Michael: No. (obviously a lie)
Parents: Why did you do that? Mommy and Daddy worked hard to make your room pretty!
Michael: I'm sorry. (looking pitiful and crushed)
Parents: (starting to feel a little guilty) Well, it does look very nice sweetheart, and we can tell you worked hard on it. But Mommy and Daddy worked hard on your stickers and we would like for you to leave them where they are from now on.

At that point we returned to the regularly scheduled bedtime routine and put Michael to bed for the night.


Parental Discussion
Dala: Why is it that our first reaction to creativity and initiative is to crush it? I'm feeling a little guilty.
(can still hear banging from upstairs indicating that Michael is actually awake and playing rather than sleeping)
Daddy: It did look pretty nice didn't it?
Dala: Yeah, and he must have worked hard on it.
Daddy: That's it. I'm going upstairs right now to talk to him about it.


5-10 minute delay


Daddy's report.
Dala: So, how did that go?
Daddy: He obviously felt proud. We went over and I picked him up so we could look at it. We talked about how nice it looked. He was relieved that we liked it.
Dala: You're such a good Daddy.


Your thoughts?
What do you think? Was our initial reaction as out of line as we thought? Would you let your kids intentionally rearrange their room decorations?

The Weekly Review: Week Seven

Blog Post I Agree With Most:

Swistle apparently encountered the same ad on Amazon that I did. She took the time to write a post about it. I looked at it for about half a second, decided that it kind of freaked me out and moved on. Swistle does a nice job of explaining why the picture is so freaky. You wouldn't think a woman in a swimsuit would elicit this kind of reaction.

Sibling Interaction of the Week:

I had my arms around Michael as he sobbed because he had gotten hurt. I hadn't quite figured out what was hurt yet, he hadn't calmed down enough to tell me. I just knew it involved falling from the playset in the basement. Ava ran over and wrapped her arms around him too. The kiss she delivered next was really sweet. (Small scrape on the temple, btw - nothing that won't heal up in a day or two.)

Quote of the Week from Michael:

"The Easter Bunny is so nice!"

Ava's Sweet (annoying?) Habit of the Week:

Every time Ava wakes up she now insists on bringing her baby kitty and water cup downstairs. Sometimes we also need to bring mama kitty and her blanket too. It's adorable, but trying to balance Ava along with all of the extras on the way down the stairs is a bit of a challenge. And then you have to remember to bring them back up. Otherwise, she inevitably realizes they're missing after you've read stories, sung the songs, kissed her head, and turned off her light.

Success of the Week:

Weeks ago I started trying to figure out how to get some money from an old 403B I had from when I was working in the schools (Institution A) rolled over into an IRA (Institution B). Oh my goodness they wanted me to jump through some serious hoops. First, the form was a nightmare and asked for information that was extremely difficult to find. Then, instead of doing the logical thing and sending their stupid form back to them, I first had to send it to Institution B to get their approval. Then, Institution B needed to send the form back to Institution A. Then, if all went well, Institution A would finally send the check to Institution B.

Really, what century is this? Shouldn't I just be able to make a request for an electronic transfer that will be complete in three days? Anyway, I jumped through all their hoops and the transfer is finally complete. Yea! Now, I just need to make sure that Institution A actually closed my account. If not, I'm sure they'll go ahead and charge me their $20 annual fee even though I no longer have any money with them. They're nice like that.

Illustrated Early Chapter Books

First, I just have to say that I wrote this post twice. The first time I wrote it I walked away without saving (always a mistake, I know) and came back to find the computer had mysteriously rebooted and it was gone. After crying a bit and wallowing in self pity I decided that I liked the post enough to try to recreate it. The second time I wrote it I saved about 30 times - every time a child interrupted me. And without further ado, here is version 2.0.

You start with a baby who looks at the pictures in picture books for about five seconds before wanting to chew on the book. Ideally, you end up with a young child who enjoys listening to chapter books. How do you get from point A to point B? (I'm just talking about listening to books here, not the child reading the books for him or herself.) In my mind I think of the progression as something like this:

1. Picture Books
2. Early Readers: These are books with multiple chapters, but each chapter is a separate story. Examples include the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel and the Little Bear series by Elsa Holmelund Minarik.
3. Illustrated Early Chapter Books: These are books with multiple chapters that tell a single story. They are illustrated on every page.
4. Early Chapter Books: These are books with multiple chapters that tell a single story. There are usually only one or two illustrations per chapter. An example is the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne.

Picture books are plentiful, beautiful, and easy to find and enjoy. Picture books are an interesting genre because they can be very simple and very complex. Some picture books have no words at all, and some are actually written at a fifth or sixth grade reading comprehension level. You can read picture books to children forever. You just need to start simple and gradually get more complex.

Early readers are also pretty easy to find. Step into Reading is a early reader program that goes through four steps in increasing difficulty. I Can Read is also a early reader program that has four levels. The Frog and Toad books are actually I Can Read books Level Two. I highly recommend any of Arnold Lobel's books as great early readers. The thing about early readers is that they are typically a single story or the books are broken into chapters but each chapter tells a different story. In the Frog and Toad books, for example, all the stories are about the same two characters, but the stories can be read in any order.

There are many early chapter book series. Magic Tree House is one of the most popular. These books are longer, often around ten chapters long. They are also much more sparsely illustrated than picture books or early readers. There are usually only one or two illustrations per chapter. It is a big jump, particularly if you are trying to transition to chapter books with a preschooler, from early readers to early chapter books. They just still need the pictures.

That's why I started looking for illustrated early chapter books. They were much harder to find than I expected. (There are a few, like the Magic School Bus series, that I'm not discussing here because they are just deal with topics that are not right for a preschooler. I need something that works for a preschooler, not just a grade school aged child.) Here are five series I found that are illustrated early chapter book series that would be interesting to a preschooler.

1. Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant: This series is about an elderly gentleman named Mr. Putter and his cat Tabby. They have many adventures, often with their neighbor Mrs. Teaberry and her dog Zeke. The adventures are often simple, but the stories are sweet, the relationships are genuine, and the mishaps of the characters make Michael laugh out loud. They paint a porch, fly a (model) airplane, go on a train ride, bake a cake, in addition to many other activities. We've read almost all of these books and have enjoyed every one. There are three or four chapters in each book and each page has a full color illustration. These books are a great transition from early readers to early chapter books.

2. Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman: This series is about a young cowgirl on a working cattle ranch and her talking horse Cocoa. The books are beautifully illustrated on each page and the stories are accessible for a preschooler. These books are also usually four chapters long. I thought that the cowgirl and ranch theme might turn him off, but Michael enjoyed these and looked forward to the next one.

3. Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant: This is another series by Cynthia Rylant. This one is about a boy and his really big dog named Mudge. Again, the pair have really simple adventures. One story is about a mud puddle, another is about camping, a third is about catching a cold. Somehow, even though the main character is a boy, Michael likes the Mr. Putter and Tabby series more, but this one is still a great illustrated chapter book series. These books are also usually three or four chapters each and are illustrated on every page.

4. Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo: These are books about a pig and her misadventures. The books are beautifully illustrated and extremely well reviewed. These books are longer, around 8-10 chapters each. We read a couple of these and then abandoned the series. I think that the jump in length was a little too hard and the content was just a little too old. It's close though, and fits the criteria of an illustrated early chapter book so I wanted to mention it just in case it works for you. We'll revisit them in a few months.

5. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown: This series is about a young boy who became flat (only one inch thick) when a bulletin board fell on him. He has a series of adventures and solves mysteries as only he can, because he is flat. This series is a little higher level for two reasons. The books are longer, around 9-11 chapters each. The illustrations are not on every single page, and the illustrations are black and white line drawings rather than full color illustrations. We have only read two of these so far, but Michael seems to like them and the stories are able to appeal to him as a preschooler so I'm including the series in this list. Definitely try the other ones first though. They are more appropriate.

That's it. That's all I could find. If you know of any other series that meet my criteria of an illustrated early chapter book series that would appeal to preschoolers, please let me know. I'd absolutely love to find more. Otherwise, enjoy the ones I have found. I hope you like them. Let me know if you read them.

Free kindergarten.com iPhone/iPad apps

If you search kindergarten.com in the app store, you will find 24 programs that are flash card style programs. All of them are free in April in honor of Autism Awareness Month. That gives you a few more days to check them out if you are interested. I haven't tried them all yet, but there are three main kinds: flash cards, receptive identification, and problem solving. The pictures are very nice and you might be able to use the flash card programs to try to get your little ones to say some words. Michael enjoyed the one problem solving program I let him try, so if you have older children the more advanced programs might be nice too.