Children's Picture Book Review - Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

I wanted to share this picture book with you. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site written by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld is a wonderful read. The gentle rhymes tell a delightful bedtime story. The story takes you through the last job of the day for Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Dump Truck, Bulldozer, and Excavator and then puts each truck to sleep. The illustrations are beautiful and the details in the pictures provide discussion material independent from the story. Both my three year old son and my two year old daughter love this book and join me in whispering, "Goodnight" to each truck in turn. This book is a treasure.

Weekend Update

We had an extremely busy weekend around here. Friday night we went to a local children's museum. As it turned out, we spent the entire evening in their courtyard first in the sand pit, then playing with the little stream and boats, and finally playing with the huge set of foam building blocks they have outside. Some of the blocks were as big as the children. We got home past bedtime, but it was completely worth it.

As is perfectly normal for our children, they did not sleep in even a little because they were up late and so Saturday morning began before 7am. We spent the entire morning in our own backyard. We played in the water and on the playset. My husband continued to work on the deck. He's about 60% done laying the floorboards. After afternoon nap we went to the grocery store. So, an at-home day, but it felt busy anyway.

Sunday morning we rushed out of the house so we could get to the zoo by their opening time of 8am. Entrance to our zoo is free, but between 8am and 9am many of the pay attractions are free as well. We rode the carousel three times in a row which was lovely. We could have gotten into the children's zoo section for free during that hour as well, but we didn't make it. The zoo train didn't start running until 9am, so we wandered a bit. We saw the penguins and bears and went into the bird house. This was really our first visit to the zoo where the children actually seemed interested in the animals. Usually it is just like a big park to them. After the zoo we went to lunch and then back home for afternoon nap.

Sunday evening we drove 45 minutes to a small frozen custard store that occasionally has live bands. Everyone brings lawn or camping chairs and sits in the parking lot listening to the band and eating frozen custard. This week was a Cajun band and we all had a good time. My parents came with us and a friend of the family met us there. The children danced in the parking lot entertaining everyone around them. We got home past bedtime again.

As I am essentially a homebody, I found the whole weekend to be a bit exhausting and I'm quite looking forward to spending all of Monday at home. At the same time, I loved the family time and outings. Building memories. As always, I wish I had taken more pictures.

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On a completely different note, Sunday was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. I love them both and I'm looking forward to helping them celebrate many more anniversaries.

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On another completely different note, I know I have several comments and at least one email to respond to. I love comments and want to respond to them all. Thank you for writing them. As soon as I get a chance to catch my breath and the children give me some uninterrupted time I will respond to all of you.

Final N: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview sets.)

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.