Theme 4: Eyes

 Day 1

Academic Activity: This morning Chelsea, the speech therapist, came by with another lady, Courtney, a sign language specialist.  All of us (including Colt and Cody) looked at the books for our new unit, eyes, while Courtney completed her evaluation to see if Colt would qualify for sign language support through the early childhood intervention (ECI) program which is funded through the public school system.  When Colt was first assessed by ECI, they measured him at 22 months for receptive and expressive language.  He qualified for speech therapy because he was 32 months at the time of assessment.  At the end of today's assessment, he was measured to be at 28 months for expressive language and scattered between 22-32 months for receptive.  Considering that he has only had his hearing aids for a little more than three months, this is incredible progress!  Courtney said that she would qualify Colt for sign language services because he is still behind.  I am really excited about this!  The speech therapist we initially saw was very opposed to us learning sign.  Truthfully, her attitude completely turned me off of her, and solidified my decision to go with another speech therapist.

Here is my rational:

1. American Sign Language (ASL) is another language.  Learning it would make Colt bilingual.  Being bilingual opens doors and provides opportunities that he may not have been privy to otherwise.
2. There are times that Colt cannot wear his hearing aids (at the pool, a water park, or maybe they are out for repairs).  I hate the idea of him not being able to communicate in those situations.  Signing can help keep him safe and allow him to clearly communicate during those times.
3. Anyone in education will tell you that applying a movement to vocabulary increases retention.  As long as Colt continues to speak the words while learning sign, this should increase his vocabulary. 

Story: Once the ladies left, I put Cody down for a nap.  Then, Colt and I read Sense of Sight by Carey Molter while we ate a snack.  I'm familiar with these books because my students who are beginning English language learners use them during our silent reading time.  These are great books for beginning readers and people learning vocabulary because they repeat essential vocabulary about the topic throughout the book.  I prefer the first story of the unit to be nonfiction with detailed pictures about the topic.  It just seems to provide more avenues for discussion.

Academic Activity: I decided to continue working on the S sound with Colt by doing the straw activity we did last week.  This time instead of a puff ball, I decided to use a few feathers.  We had fun blowing them across the table and trying to keep them afloat in the air.

Looking at these pictures makes me laugh because Colt's PJs are truly out of control!  We let him pick them out, so they never match! I guess last night he was rocking a Paw Patrol (I'm told this is a TV show. We don't watch it, but it has dogs, so we buy the stuff.) shirt and pants with a dog on an orange surf board.  I remember taking Colt to school on pajama day last year.  All the kids had these super cute PJ sets while Colt rolled in wearing something similar to this ensemble.  I was pretty embarrassed then, and I'm a little embarrassed now...

Music: We had a lot of fun singing/playing head, shoulders, knees, and toes.  Every time we got to eyes, we shouted the word really loud.  This lasted for about three minutes before it turned into a game of Simon Says.

Adventure Time: Today we went on a field trip to the audiologist's office to have Colt's super annoying hearing aids looked at and have his hearing tested while wearing the aids.  Turns out his aids had cracked tubes, so the sound was not being funneled into his ear properly thus causing the feedback.  They were able to fix the problem right there in the office.  Now his ears are no longer driving me insane!  He also passed his hearing test with flying colors.  I was relieved that he did so well.  In my heart of hearts, I've been stressing about the idea that his hearing may be getting worse.  I guess eventually it may, but for now it's the same as it was last time, and we've corrected it.  We'll test again in three months; I'll keep you posted!

Poor Colt went to time out after our appointment.  I don't remember what he did to earn the time, but while he was in his room, he dumped out all of the money from his piggy bank.  This is a picture of Cody and me waiting while Colt cleaned up his mess.  No joke, there were hundreds of coins all over his floor and dresser.  This took a while.

Craft: We made a really big eye out of a paper plate for our craft.  I took the idea from here, but I made a few changes.  I decided against the red squiggly lines in the eye because I knew once Colt got a hold of the paint, the whole paper plate would be bright red!  Instead, I decided to add eyelashes to the plate.  While were made this craft, we looked at the picture of the eye that we added to our learning board.  We looked at the pupil, iris, and eyelashes.  I was so proud of Colt for attempting to say each word.  Our end project looks more like an alien than an eye, but we had fun making it.

The end of a successful day at CC!

Day 2

Story:  We started the day with breakfast and a story, The Eye Book by Theo LeSieg.  This is a really fun Dr. Seuss book.  We enjoyed the pictures.  Colt liked pointing out the eyes as we read.

Adventure Time: I purchased a Groupon a few months ago to have the boys' pictures taken at JC Penny's.  Today was the big day.  I went out over the weekend to get the kids coordinated outfits.  Colt was so thrilled that his shorts matched Cody's outfit.  I was a little skeptical about how well these pictures would turn out.  The last time we tried to take nice pictures for the boys' baptismal announcement, Colt had a MAJOR meltdown because he couldn't hold the camera.  I was expecting more of the same.  Much to my surprise, both kids rocked their photoshoot!  They were so sweet, handsome, and well behaved.  We will probably go back to have family portraits done soon.

They're ready for their close up!

Since we were already at the mall, we went over to the indoor playground.  It wasn't very crowded, so Cody was able to interact more with the play area.

Academic Activity: This week's color is blue.  We practiced saying the word; the B sound is difficult sometimes.  Then, we did a color sorting game with Colt's mega blocks.  I told him Cody only wanted to play with he blue Legos, so he started paying them over to Cody.  Cody was so thrilled to get so many fun toys!  He is teething something terrible right now, so they all wound up in his mouth!

Music: Colt is obsessed with the song "The Wheels on the Bus".  When it was time for Cody's nap, I hooked Colt up to this Youtube video.  The first 6ish minutes has every possible version of that song.  These days, six minutes is all it takes for me to get Cody down for his nap.  Once I was done with Cody, we continued singing the song.  It's so hilarious to watch Colt attempt to sing.  He only knows every third word of the song, but by God if he doesn't sing it with enthusiasm!

Academic Activity: I was feeling a little lazy today, so our academic activity was simply going through some flash cards and sorting them by shape and color.  As far as shapes are concerned, Colt knows square, diamond, star, and circle.

Craft: We decided to make a "baby" as Colt called it.  I found this handout on Pinterest, but it looks like it's been deleted from the site...bummer.  I cut out everything ahead of time.  Colt picked out the color paper.  I'm very surprised he did not choose yellow, but I guess he's realizing variety is the spice of life.  He got to use one of his favorite crafting materials, glue, and he created the face.  I liked this activity because it really got him talking.  In the end, the face looks like the very creepy baby from an episode of the 90s cartoon, Rugrats.  It's even creepier that Colt keeps pointing at it and calling it Cody!

The finished product.  He was a little heavy handed with the glue.

Here's the baby from the cartoon.  The fact that I remember this, proves how creepy I thought it was at the time!

Day 3

Academic Activity: Once again we started our day with speech therapy and the new addition, sign language.  I'm really proud of Colt because he hit one of the initial goals we set for him.  We decided to set a new goal and add to his previous goal for following directions.  Our new goals are below.

• Mom would like Colt to follow 1-step directions involving familiar objects/people containing a preposition (i.e. put your cup in the sink) at least 3x daily for a week by his 3rd birthday (9/27/16).

• Mom would like Colt to produce 3+ word phrases containing correct initial consonants (e.g., h, g, k, t) to label or request at least 3x daily for a week, by his 3rd birthday (9/27/16).

I'm starting to get a little sad because Colt will age out of the ECI program when he turns three.  I'm not exactly sure what my next course of action will be after that.  I know he will be reevaluated sometime in September, and I will find out our options then.  I guess I'm just really satisfied with the progress we've made so far that changing things makes me anxious.  

Chelsea and Courtney brought over a doll house and a few different dolls to play with.  From all the research I've seen, little girl toys encourage language development more than little boy toys.  This may be one of the reasons girls tend to develop speech earlier than boys.  I'm going to a big consignment sale next month to look specifically for toys like this to continue the practice at our house.  If you live in the DFW area, you really should check out Just Between Friends; you can get so many kid items at a fraction of the cost!  The doll house was great for practicing prepositions.  "Put the doll on the bed."  "Put the boy on the potty."  "The momma is in the kitchen."  

Colt working with one of his therapists.

Cody chooses to hang with me.

Academic Activity: Once the ladies left and Cody was asleep, we learned about the letter D.  Colt calls my mom DeDe, so we had a similar situation with this letter as we did with last week's.  Now when Colt recites the alphabet, he says A, B, CiCi, DeDe.  It's too funny.  He choose to paint his letter page.

Although it makes me anxious, these days Cody prefers to sleep on his stomach and side.

Story: We read another nonfiction book today called Look!: A Book About Sight by Dana Meachen Rau.  This book really goes into detail about all the different parts and functions of the eye.  I'm sure a lot of it was way over Colt's head.  We read it and spent a lot of time looking at the pictures.  Overall we enjoyed the book, but it is very factual.

Adventure Time: We had a big playdate with my friend, Rachel, and her daughter, Ava.  We all met up at the Dove Park Splash Pad.  Colt had a great time waiting for the giant bowl to fill up with water and pour out on him.  Cody is not really into the whole splash pad scene.  Upon getting a drop of water on him, he starts screaming like he's being waterboarded.  It seems he has his mother's flair for the dramatic.  I am slowly starting to ease him into this activity, and we've made some progress, but at the moment he prefers to sit off to the side in the shade with some toys away from all flying water.  He did have a good time flirting with Ava!  All this fun in the sun totally wore us out.  Both boys napped in the car on the way home.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the house and having free play.

Day 4

Academic Activity: This morning we did the activity suggested by the curriculum.  I printed a picture of a face without eyes, placed that in a paper protector, and taped it onto the wall.  Then, I found some brown eyes (same as Colt's) and cut them out.  My intention was to tie a bandana around Colt's head to cover his eyes, but he has a giant head, so I wound up having to tie a whole blanket around his head!  It took him a few minutes to understand the concept of the game, but once he got it, we had a lot of fun playing.  He enjoyed taking off his blindfold to see where the eyes wound up.

He is just the cutest with his bed head and monkey PJs!

He wore a PJ set!  Now I'm less embarrassed!

Craft: I don't know that this activity is a craft so much as a project, but we made a really fun eyeball sensory bag.  I found the idea here.  We used blue hair gel since blue was the color of the week.  We also had a really good discussion about big vs. small when adding the eyes to the bag.  I did end up taping the top of the Ziplock bag with packing tape just to make sure no one could open that bad boy and get hair gel all over the house.  The bag lasted about three days before I had to throw it away.  Cody really liked the sensory bag, too.

He is really teething!  Look at all that drool!

Eye see you!

Academic Activity: I introduced the number four.  This one was difficult, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to spend time reviewing it next week.  For whatever reason, Colt wants to skip four and go straight to five.  We practiced counting up to four.  Then, we added the number and stickers to his number notebook.

At the end of a long day, these two are always happy to have each other (and the monkey).