Final K: 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. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview set.)

Key Features

• This set includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back.
• The words are all VC or CVC in syllable shape.
• 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.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this card set 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 this card set. Let me know if you find errors or 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.

I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability.

Initial K: 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. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview set.)

Key Features

• This set includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back.
• The words are all CV or CVC in syllable shape.
• 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.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this card set 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 this card set. Let me know if you find errors or 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.

I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability.

Passing the Blanket

We've been cleaning the basement a little. We moved into our house when I was in the third trimester with Michael. I wasn't doing a lot of unnecessary unpacking then. Then we had our first baby followed 15 months later by our second baby. Now that things are settling a bit we're diving into some boxes and bins that have been pretty much untouched for over four years.

I opened a bin yesterday and found my old blanket. It was the one I used as a very young girl. My mother had made it for me. It is nothing special to look at, but it is special to me and I still have it decades later. As I was holding it, Michael walked by.

Now, Michael has a special blanket he sleeps with every night. He calls it his hugging blanket. It stays in his room, but he wants it at naptime and bedtime, so he is familiar with the concept of a special blanket.

I showed my old blanket to Michael and told him that it was my hugging blanket when I was a little girl. I explained that his grandmother had made it for me and that it was special. I was about to put it back away when he asked me if he could have it for his room. He said he wanted it so that it could be friends with his hugging blanket. I thought to myself, why not?

As he proudly carried it up the stairs to his room he ran into his sister. I heard him say, "Look Ava! This is mommy's hugging blanket from when she was a little girl. She gave it to me. It is very special."

Preparing for an Evaluation?

Ava's evaluation is less than a week away. I'm beginning to think about how I need to prepare, if I need to prepare.

Some things are mundane. I need directions. I need to know what parking will be like. I need to figure out how long the drive will take given that I will be fighting rush hour traffic. I need to make sure someone can pick up Michael from school because Ava and I won't be done in time to get him. I need to pack a snack for her because we are supposed to be there all morning.

It is silly, but I want her to look nice. I need to pick a nice, but comfortable outfit. I need to allow enough time in the morning to feed her a good breakfast, dress her, and fix her hair.

And then there are the other considerations. Here in our state, in this district I've been told that the decision will be made that morning as to whether she qualifies. If she does, we will set up an IEP date that same day. I guess that means they plan to score all their tests and come to some kind of decision that same morning while Ava and I wait. If I want to be prepared to advocate for her, I need to be prepared to do so that same morning as the testing.

I'm not sure what that means exactly. I am going to write down my observations of her speech challenges at this time. I don't want to have to think under pressure. I want to be able to read off a list. Or perhaps just share that list with the team. I am thinking I should bring the ASHA position statement on Childhood Apraxia of Speech just in case. Oddly enough, I am having trouble thinking of other things that might be useful.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What should I bring with me to this evaluation/meeting? What should I be sure to think through ahead of time? What should I say/share? What should I not say/share? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

The Weekly Review: Week 38

Online Post I Enjoyed this Week

Linda Sharps wrote a post on The Stir that I really enjoyed this week. It listed some of her favorite posts about parenthood. My favorite was, "You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back. — William D. Tammeus."

The Weekly Holiday Tradition

I shamelessly stole this tradition from one of my aunts who did this same thing for her two children. Each Christmas of her children's lives she chose and bought a special ornament for each of them. Then, when they moved out and had their first Christmas tree of their own, she gave them all of their ornaments to use on their own tree. I've been trying to choose ornaments that represent what my little ones have really loved for the year. The ornaments of the year get a special place of honor on the fireplace mantel. Here are the children's ornaments for this year.

One of My Absolute Favorite Christmas Treasures

We moved away from New Orleans right before my eighth grade year. Every year since then, our family has traveled back to New Orleans to spend the holiday with our extended family. We didn't have Christmas trees of our own after that. One of my aunts had the most beautiful tree every year. The same aunt who bought the special ornaments for her children actually. The highlight of her tree, for me, was the beautiful handmade garland she had made for it. Every year, I would joke that she'd have to leave it to me. Her daughter would say, "No way! It is mine!" Shortly after I got married, she surprised me by making me my own. I treasure it. I love it because it is beautiful, but I also love it because it was handmade for me with love.

Ava this Week

Ava is starting to compete with her brother for conversation space. It is both beautiful and painful to watch. They'll both run up to me just brimming over with something to say. His words will spill out. Hers will often stutter and stop. For a child with motor planning problems, she's actually more fluent than usual, but in this particular high pressure situation, her fluency tanks. I love that she's trying though. If I slow it down a little bit, and make him wait quietly while she talks, she has so much to say. That part is wonderful.

The Weekly Michael

I wrote about how sensitive Michael seems lately. We've decided to try OT style brushing with him twice a day. It worked miracles with Ava, so we figured it couldn't hurt. We've only done it for a couple of days now, so it is to early to tell if it will help. He enjoys it (and the attention), so that much is good either way.

Our first try with the final /k/ pivot phrase pages

I made the final /k/ pivot phrase pages a few days ago for Ava (and shared them with you). We sat down during our after dinner at home therapy session to try them. It looked like it was going to go well. She was excited about the new pages. They were bright, colorful, and looked new. She was excited about the treat she was going to earn. A necessity, as I've discussed. Things all went downhill from there.

Here was my reasoning for trying the pivot phrases. First, she was blasting through the pivot phrase exercises in the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol Workout Book. All of those use early emerging sounds and she's pretty much got those now. She's even starting to add final consonants on the medial words in therapy without prompting. So, doing those exercises is good practice and review, but not challenging any more. Second, she was starting to get that final /k/ in single word practice at least 60-80% of the time. I really thought we might be successful at moving up to the pivot phrase level.

Well... not so much. I don't know if she was just having an off night, but she could hardly produce the final /k/ sound at the single-word level. The pivot phrases were a complete bust. I should have taped it. It was prototypical motor planning problems. No two attempts were the same. One time the /k/ would pop in at the beginning of the phrase even though she can't actually produce initial /k/ sounds. Another time, the /k/ would pop in in the middle of the word and then there would be random /t/ sounds thrown in for fun. Everything was disjointed and there would be long pauses while her system just struggled to sequence.

After trying for several minutes unsuccessfully to get some /k/ productions at the single-word level and watching her frustration increase exponentially I shifted gears. I simply used the picture prompts on the pages and made up 2-3 word phrases with them working on getting all the final consonants in the short phrases. At that point we were in familiar territory using all early emerging sounds and she was able to experience some success. Every so often I would probe the /k/ again, but without success.

I guess I'll try again in a few days. I hope someone else had more luck with these.

One Activity - Many Skills

I've been wanting to do this cork/pushpin activity ever since I wandered across the idea.

Pinning Shapes

Disclaimer/Warning: Only use this activity with children you are sure aren't putting things in their mouth any more. And even then, closely supervise.

I found cork squares at Joann Fabrics for about $2. Use a marker and draw shapes on the coasters. You could use cookie cutters to trace simple shapes. (I did dots, but if I were to do it again I would just trace lines.) Bring cork, pushpins, and the children to the table.

Introduce pushpins to children. Explain that pushpins are for grown-ups and children only get to use them during very special activities because they are sharp. Remind them that if they ever find them at any other time they should carefully bring them to a grown-up to put them away. This introduces basic safety rules and also has the side benefit of making the children very excited about the activity.

Let them use the pushpins to fill in the shapes.

Skills/Objectives addressed here:
Vocabulary/Concepts: Shapes, colors (we only had red pushpins, but if you had many colors you could address colors and patterns), patterns
OT: Fine motor / pincer grasp / hand-eye coordination
Speech: Use this activity as a motivator. The child gets to push a pin in after every X repetitions.
Pragmatic: Listening to directions, turn taking, attention span, eye contact

Final /k/: Free Pivot Phrase Picture Prompts

Description

This is a set of four pages of picture prompts. Each page uses a different pivot phrase that targets the final /k/ sound. The first page uses "I like the...". The second page uses "I pick the..." The third page uses "I take the...". The last page uses "Look at the...". The picture prompts are designed to be simple and varied. The picture words are CV, VC, or CVC in syllable shape and include mostly early emerging consonants. The vowel sounds are varied to improve carryover.(Scroll down to preview pages.)

How to use these prompts:

Use these prompts if your client is ready to practice final /k/ in multi-word utterances. Start with two words (Look top.). Then move to three words (Look at top.). Then do all four (Look at the top.). Skip any of the prompt pictures that your client is unable to produce. For example, if your client is not yet producing /w/, skip the prompt picture "wood".

Deliberately break up the flow of practice after every line. Stop briefly and ask your client to repeat something entirely unrelated to /k/. Then go back to the page. This will briefly disrupt motor memory and improve generalization in the long run.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these pivot phrase picture prompt pages 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 these. 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?

This is the only set of pivot phrase picture prompt pages I have so far. I do have free articulation therapy card sets on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Pivot Phrase Picture Prompt Pages

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.

Heart on His Sleeve

Michael is at an age where he is beginning to be interested in playing with his peers. I watch him play with his sister, or with a friend during a play date, or even in the play place at the mall or McDonalds. He tries so hard.

He'll carefully set up an activity in his room. Last week it was a picnic. He carried a blanket, pretend food, and play dishes up two flights of stairs from the basement to his bedroom. He spread out the blanket in the middle of the room and laid out a beautiful picnic. Then he excitedly ran down the stairs to invite his sister to play. She wasn't interested. First he invited. Then he wheedled and whined. Finally he broke into tears. I didn't know what to do. I felt for him. I wanted her to want to go. But she didn't. She's still too little. She wanted to be near me. I suppose I could have dropped what I was doing to go upstairs with both of them, but I didn't. I don't remember why.

During a play date a couple of days ago Michael desperately wanted to show his friend one of his birthday presents. Again, he was practically quivering with excitement. It is adorable and he is just so earnest and genuine. And his friend was more interested in playing with something else. And he melted down, again.

At the play place I see him look at the other children and carefully choose someone who looks his age to be his friend. He'll walk over and introduce himself and ask the other child's name. More often than not, the other child simply goes their way. I watch other children successfully bond. Even Ava is beginning to be able to do it. But it doesn't quite work for Michael and I can't quite put my finger on why. He's often on the periphery of the group.

I see this as a budding issue on two levels. First, I wish I could figure out why socializing isn't quite gelling for him. If I could figure that out, perhaps I could subtly redirect him to be more successful. The second level is his sensitivity to rejection. The meltdowns are heartbreaking for him and for me. And they don't help the social situation. Surely the solution isn't to "reject" him at home on purpose when he invites me to do something just so that I can try to help him handle the feeling...

If anyone has any wisdom or resources to share here I'd really appreciate it because I'd love to find a way to help my sensitive little boy and I don't have a lot of ideas.

At Home Therapy Plan 2.0 (or is it 3.0? 5.0?...)

I finally gave up on self-discipline. Almost a year later I still hadn't found a way to consistently do therapy with Ava during the day. I'm a speech therapist. My daughter needs speech therapy. This shouldn't be a difficult equation!

So, I enlisted my husband's help. The newest plan involves dinner. It is our most consistent group meal. We sit down as a complete family at home at least 5-7 days a week. After dinner, Michael helps his father clear the table and load the dishwasher while Ava and I do speech.

It's been a little over a week and this seems to be working. It's the routine. Everyone knows and expects this particular plan, so I don't have to remember all by myself.

Now getting Ava to cooperate so that we actually get speech practice instead of pouting in is an entirely different matter. I tried being firm. Boy can she be stubborn. She's perfectly happy to sit in time out, or forgo some fun activity later in order to avoid speech now.

I admit it. I have resorted to simple bribery. My children rarely get candy. We just don't keep it around and so they don't expect it. If I pull out a single pink starburst candy, show it to her, and tell her she can have it if she does a good job at speech, I get a beautiful session. I leave it right there in the middle of the table in full view. When she starts to slip and get pouty because I ask for three repetitions of something difficult (stupid /k/) then I don't even have to say anything. I just reach my finger over and slide that piece of candy a little farther away from her. Our eyes meet and I raise my eyebrows a little and she's back with the program.

I feel a little like I -should- feel guilty about this, but I don't. One piece of candy a day is certainly not going to kill her and the consistency of cooperative speech sessions is priceless.

There you go. I wouldn't exactly recommend it for professional practice, but it's working here in my own home.

Fall

When we were rearranging Ava's room we moved a bunch of treasured belongings crap into the upstairs landing area. It's still there. We'll get to it eventually.

A few nights ago as I was getting ready to head up to bed I heard the distinctive sound of a kitty batting something around in play. I went around the corner to investigate. The sound was coming from above. I looked up and to my horror our kitten Grace was dashing around the upstairs landing on the -outside- of the rail.

I must have gasped and startled her because she startled, slipped, and fell off the landing heading for the hardwood floor a full story below.

Did you guys read that news story about a woman walking by on a street who caught a baby who had fallen off a balcony? I am so not that woman. My reaction time is s l o w. Grace crashed into the floor before I had even fully processed what was going on.

I was terrified, briefly. But she scrambled up and ran off as if she hadn't just fallen straight down from one floor to another onto a hard wooden floor. It took much longer for me to calm down and for my heart rate to return to normal than the entire event took to begin with.

And the moral of this story...?

I have no idea. :-). Don't count on me to catch you if you fall? Kittens really can fall at least one story without harm? Be thankful when disaster passes you by?

The Weekly Review: Week 37

This week's atypical weekly review is brought to you courtesy of the two hours I went overboard prepping for a preschool school project last night instead of working on preparing a typical weekly review.

So, this is how it went...

Assignment:
Help your child make five holiday cards to be sent to a nursing home.

Initial thoughts:
Hmm. I can use the cricut to make some trees. Michael can glue them to some construction paper and then glue on some ornaments and color it and we'll be done.

And then:

1. Well, if I'm getting the cricut out anyway, I might as well cut the cards out of cardstock and matching envelopes. (This step didn't go smoothly, and took much longer than intended.)
2. Oooh, I have some pretty glittery cardstock. I'll cut the ornaments out of cardstock too.
3. And look! I can print a pretty phrase too! (Joy)

Seriously, by the time all that was done, my poor husband had put the children to bed by himself.

And now I have a big pile of card components to assemble with the children today and they'll still just color all over them.

Tape Resist Watercolor Trees - with Salt Effect

I was inspired by this to try a completely different type of art project with the children yesterday. It turned out beautifully.

As I believe I've mentioned before, I have very little art experience. I've never really worked with watercolors myself, but one of my aunts gave us some really nice watercolor paper and I had bought some watercolors for other projects (like the salt art). I found a roll of my husband's tape (I think it's electrical tape) that I thought would peel back off the paper well. We also have salt. So we had everything we needed to try this.

This is how we did the project.

Gather materials.

• watercolor paper
• tape
• watercolors (I chose blue and red because I wanted to start by having the children paint everything blue and then add a little red to the blue to make a darker blue to layer over half the picture. I wanted a wintry look to the picture.)
• paintbrushes / cup
• salt (table or coarse)
• easel (optional)

I prepared the trees with the tape ahead of time and taped them to the easel. Then I let the children wet the paper with a fine mist from a spray bottle.

Next I gave them the paint and had them paint the entire card blue. I had to show them that it was all right to actually paint over the tape and to paint all the way to the edges of the watercolor paper. Then I added some red to the blue watercolor paint. I was aiming for purple, but ended up with a dark blue instead. I told them to re-paint the bottom half of their paper with the darker color. (I picked the bottom because the paint kept dripping down. If we had tried to make the top darker, we would have ended up with drips all over the bottom. An interesting effect, I'm sure, but not what I wanted.)

We took the wet pictures down from the easel and laid them flat on a large piece of cardstock and the children sprinkled salt on their pictures.

We let them dry with the salt in place for an hour or two. Every so often we'd stop by and observe how the salt was turning blue and there was a snowflake effect in the salt around the paint. Then we sat down to brush the salt off.

Finally we pulled off the tape.

The children were amazed and proud at the final product. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed too. I think the end result is quite beautiful and it was simple enough to do with a 2 and 4 year old.

I think we'll do a similar project in the near future, except this time I'll let the children apply the tape any way they'd like and choose their own colors.

Ava's new room

This past week we've significantly rearranged Ava's room. Her room is small, and the children would rarely play in there because the room felt cramped. She did, however, have one of those long shallow closets with sliding doors. We came up with the idea of taking the doors off and moving her toddler bed into the closet.

Well, it gave us more space, but it looked awful.

So, I decided that we could try hanging curtains around it to hide the storage and edges of the closet. We went to a fabric store and chose some material and got 10 yards of two different types. One was pink and satiny and the other was a tutu type material (not sure what it was called actually) with pretty sparkles. I just hemmed all the edges and we called them curtains.

We bought and installed a curtain rod and then tossed the curtains up and it's better. Ava loves it. Now it does look like a pink princess went a little overboard in her room, but I can live with it. (Ok, that made it sound easy, but I am obviously completely uneducated on how to hang curtains, because achieving that look was extremely difficult and my husband did most of the work.)

This is what her room looks like now. Everyone is enjoying the refresh and I've noticed the children spending a lot more time playing in there.

It's Coming and I Don't Have a Good Feeling About It

Our evaluation by the school district is coming up in a little over two weeks. Thursday they will send someone to observe her at school. Then two weeks later I bring her in for a morning of testing. I just don't think she'll qualify for further services.

She's doing so well. The occupational therapy has been nothing short of a miracle. She's trying new foods, tolerating stimulating environments, touching a wide variety of things without too much protest, and playing more with others. It is amazing and I am in awe at the transformative powers of occupational therapy. I'm not sure she needs much more OT.

Her speech is still full of errors, but her language is fine. Her teacher is just an amazing teacher and has a lot of experience with little ones and so doesn't have a lot of trouble understanding her at school. Most of what she has to say at school has a lot of context to help out. Her intelligibility is aided by her good coping skills. She will often try another way when her first attempt at communicating is unsuccessful. She also has good inflection, facial expressions and body language which helps boost her intelligibility. All of that is wonderful, but is going to work against her during this assessment. I suspect they will not qualify a child who isn't even three yet based on the presence of speech errors alone.

We'll just go and see what happens. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

Speech Therapy Update: Speech vs. Language

We saw Ms. J for therapy yesterday. It was the first time in about three months. Ms. J had some issues with her office space and wasn't seeing clients for a while and then we had some scheduling conflicts. It is amazing how time can just slip away.

Three months is a long time at this age. Ms. J was amazed at Ava's language. She's talking in full sentences. For her age, her sentences are complex and she is also doing well with grammar. To be honest, even when she had no words, I wan't super concerned about her language skills. She always understood exactly what was being said around her and was managing to be pretty expressive through body language and other non-verbal communication. Now that she's talking she has a lot to say.

Her speech, on the other hand, hasn't progressed a lot. After working with her for an hour, we were sent home working on mostly the same things. We're still working on that final /k/ sound. I think I hate /k/. Never once, did I imagine working on the same sound for months and months and months on end. However, I should note that it is finally coming in. It is guttural, but with prompting and multiple cues we can get a back sound instead of a front one. So now we're going to try to stimulate /k/ in medial and front positions as well.

So, in summary, language is great, intelligibility is moderate (pretty good in context to a familiar listener, but iffy under other circumstances), and speech is still our biggest area of concern.

Discovery Bottles

Magnetic, Static Electricity, and "Magic Dust" Discovery Bottles

Discovery bottles are just clear closed bottles filled with something for the children to explore visually and through interaction with the bottle. We've made several over the past week or two, but I'm sharing my three favorites today.

Magnetic Discovery Bottle

This bottle is simple in concept. Fill the bottle with pipe cleaners cut into half inch or inch long pieces. Have the children predict if a magnet will attract the pipe cleaners. Give them the bottle and the magnet and let them find out.

The kids loved watching the magnet attract the pipe cleaner segments. They competed to see who could get their magnet to attract the most segments of pipe cleaner. They attracted pipe cleaners near the bottom of the bottle and then would drag the magnet (and therefore the pipe cleaners) to the top of the bottle very carefully to watch them suspended seemingly by "magic" at the top of the bottle. Michael even managed to suspend the bottle in mid-air through the power of the attraction between the magnet and the pipe cleaners.

Static Electricity Discovery Bottle

Cut small shapes out of tissue paper and insert into clean dry bottle. I presented this to the kids like a magic trick. I showed them the bottle "at rest", so to speak, with all the shapes resting at the bottom. We talked briefly about gravity and what happens when we flip the bottle upside down (fall to the bottom) or on it's side (fall to bottom again). I then told them I needed their help to do a magic trick and had them repeat magic words after me as I rubbed the bottle against the carpet. (abracadabra, alakazam, etc.) Then I showed them how our magic made the shapes stick to the side of the bottle. When Michael asked I explained a little bit about how it was really static electricity that made it work, not really magic.

"Magic Dust" Discovery Bottle (or Current Bottle)

Put some shaving cream in the bottle (about 1/3 full). Then fill bottle with colored water (be careful, the shaving cream will try to escape). Swirl until the shaving cream dissolves and then add more water until the bottle is completely full. Now your bottle will make beautiful swirls and current-like patterns as you swirl or shake the bottle. It is hard to see in the picture but it really is quite peaceful and beautiful. The children call it the "magic dust" bottle. It is one of the first ones they choose to show off to guests.

The Cricut Card Elves Strike Again

The children received another homemade holiday card in the mail (see the Halloween cards here). It was sent to the children by Ava's godfather and designed and made by his girlfriend with her cricut machine. It is adorable.

She also had a brilliant idea. While she was cutting the pieces to assemble the turkey for the front of the card, she made extra pieces (a little larger). Then she put together two assemble-your-own-turkey activity kits for the children. They are so excited and can't wait to make their own turkeys. Michael insists his is going on the wall in his room. Ava hasn't stated a preference yet, but I suspect she'll copy her brother.

(Thanks for the card! It is lovely.)

The Weekly Review: Week 36

Blog to commiserate with this Week

You know when your child does something they shouldn't for the millionth time and you fuss (or possibly even yell a little). They apologize, sincerely even, and you know the mature adult thing would be to let it go and move on. And yet, you're having trouble letting the transgression go. Linda wrote a post about encountering that very situation more times than she'd like in her week. I completely understood.

The Weekly Procrastination Update

I did slightly better this week. I got 5 additional CEU's. That leaves me with 5 more to get in the next three days. Why, oh why am I always leaving this to the last minute? Oh yes, the answer to that would be the children. Well, that and my natural tendency to procrastinate.

The Weekly Thing for which I am Extremely Grateful

My amazing parents took both children for three days. My husband and I booked a beautiful room at an inn 6 hours away and spent two nights there together. It was our first getaway since we became parents a little over four years ago and it was wonderful. We had a private balcony overlooking a river. I went out there once, but it was cold, so I went back in our room. The room had a gas fireplace and an amazing whirlpool tub. It had cozy comfy chairs and a canopy bed. They brought us milk and cookies at bedtime. And there was silence and adult conversation. It was peaceful and rejuvenating.

Ava this Week

Ava is blossoming. She's come out of her silent bubble and is fully participating in the world around her. It's amazing to see. Three months of occupational therapy has worked wonders. I didn't realize how much of what was holding her back was due to sensory issues. Those are mostly under control now and what a difference. She tolerates noise and being near others. She tolerates being touched and touching things. She's so much better about trying new things to eat.

And as she tolerates all of those things better, she's talking more. She's talking in more settings and more situations. She's initiating conversations and drawing attention to herself. Kudos to early intervention. We still have a long road to go on clearing up the speech, but now we have some speech to clear up and she's willing to use it.

The Weekly Michael

We came back from our mini-vacation and picked up the children from their grandparents' house. Once we got home Michael said to me, "I thought we were going to stay at Grandpa's house forever." He sounded disappointed that he had to come home. Hmm. Always nice to be missed.

Early Pentatonic Music

As a companion to my review of early pentatonic instruments from a couple of days ago, I wanted to discuss pentatonic music.

Given that the notes you'll find on the early pentatonic instruments include only d, e, g, a, b, D, and E you need music that only includes those notes. It was more difficult than I expected to find songs for early pentatonic instruments.

Music Book Reviews: Pentatonic Music Books

These are the four books I found.

Music Book Review: I love to be me: Songs in the mood of the fifth

The first book is I love to be me: Songs in the mood of the fifth. Music is by Channa A. Seidenberg and illustrations are by Kingsley Lou Little. This book was first published in 2002. The book includes 32 songs written for a 7-string lyre in the pentatonic scale. Almost every song is accompanied by a beautiful full-color illustration and includes lyrics. The songs are presented very simply. Notes are not divided into measures. Some of the songs are very simple musical accompaniments to children's poems. Others are more lyrical. This would be a nice way for a preschool teacher to introduce children's poems with a picture and simple musical accompaniment.

Music Book Review: Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack

The second book is Clump-a-Dump and Snickle-Snack by Johanne Russ. This is a translation of a book published in Holland in 1966. It includes 42 fairytale themed, holiday, and lullaby songs written in the pentatonic scale. The music and lyrics are handwritten rather than typeset for the most part. The book also contains occasional (beautiful) black and white pencil drawings. Due to the handwritten appearance of the music it is a little harder to follow than the Seidenberg book. Also, this music is significantly more complex. However, the content is original and there is a lot there to learn and enjoy.

Music Book Review: Pentatonic Songs for nursery, kindergarten and grades 1 and 2

The third book is Pentatonic Songs for nursery, kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 by Elisabeth Lebret. This book was published in 1985. This book contains 45 simple songs. Many were written by the author or based on nursery rhymes. This book includes no illustrations. The music is done in a handwritten style and the lyrics appear as if they were typed on a typewriter.

Music Book Review: Familiar Songs for Pentatonic Playalongs

The final book is Familiar Songs for Pentatonic Playalongs published in 1991 by Noteworthy Press. This book has the music and lyrics for 11 pentatonic songs and named notes (not full music or lyrics, but just the names of the notes) for an additional 14 songs. For 8 of the songs the book includes song cards that show a visual representation of the music for easy use with a lyre. This book begins with an introduction to the lyre and the pentatonic scale. That is followed by the 8 song cards and the full lyrics and sheet music (and small black and white illustration) to the 11 pentatonic songs. That is followed by the named notes for 14 additional songs. Finally there is a short information page on reading musical notation. If you were only going to get one of the four books, I would recommend this one. Yes, there are fewer songs overall, but the songs are familiar and accessible. The book also provides some introductory information to the instrument, the pentatonic scale, and musical notation. The song cards are a great bonus as well.

These books are not easy to find. Most websites had one or two, but not all. I finally found all four of them here.

My Pentatonic Song Card Adaptations

So, to be perfectly honest, even after several years of piano as a child I am not a great sight reader. Also, the lyre is a completely new instrument to me. I use intervals a lot when I'm trying to sight read and the translation from a traditional music staff to the pentatonic instrument was challenging for me. So, I took a couple of familiar tunes I knew were pentatonic and made my own song cards. I'm sharing these arrangements with you. I hope someone finds them to be useful. (I checked and both of these are public domain songs so I do not believe I am violating any copyright laws. If someone believes otherwise please contact me so I can address the issue.)

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these music cards 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.