Practice Writing

More writing practice...of course the number "2" is still her favorite, but we are working hard on number "3". I must say that the number two's that she is making are really really good...we just need to figure out a way to get her to move on to the next number! We found a Discovery Toys Starting To Write set at a garage sale that is awesome! It came with lots of wipe off cards and colors, but Emma would rather use the dry erase markers. I am going to try to photo copy the wipe off cards and see if we can get her to work on them as worksheets. I will keep you posted as to how that goes...

Dynavox is Coming!!!!!

We have just received confirmation that Emma's Dynavox has shipped out!! I'm not sure when it will arrive and how long it will take Jere to get it programed for us, but I think I can pretty confidently say she will be bringing it with her on the first day of school!!

Here is link to video showing how a child a little older than Emma is using his device at school. I know it is going to take a little while for Emma to get to this point...but this is my goal for Emma.
www.dynavoxtech.com/success/developmental/details.aspx?id=81

Monkey Mania Day Camp

Today was the Monkey Mania Day Camp in Charles City. Emma had a ball learning about monkeys, making monkey crafts, and playing monkey games. She was completely wore out!! She had a chance to meet some new kids and practice all of the good things she needs to be doing at school...sitting to work on projects, listening, taking turns, and what she needs to do to be a good friend. One thing that I did notice today was that she wanted to sit and stand very close to the child next to her. She wasn't being naughty or doing anything wrong, just being a little close. All of the kids were very good with Emma, but I see that this is going to be something that we will need to work on with her. It's just more of a space issue and she needs to give her friends a little more in line and when sitting next to them for floor activities. I'm not really sure the if there is a really good way to teach this...probably just lots of reminders. I'm really glad I took the day off work and spent the day monkeying around with Emma!!!!!!!

T-Ball Game #2

Emma had her second t-ball game the other night. She did so much better at this game. She was so patient and waited her turn to bat. She also played in the field and even got a ball. She didn't know to throw it to first but we have not really worked with her to know that...but she is one smart cookie. She walked the ball to home plate, put it on the tee, threw her glove off, and picked up a bat. She got the ball so she thought it was her turn now!! I think that the first night was so rough because it was all new to her and she didn't know what to expect. She was definitely more comfortable - she was cheering and telling her teammates to "Run, Run" after they hit the ball. We still have lots to work on...running the bases, staying out of the other teams dugout (she just such a social butterfly), and that she shouldn't eat the third base coaches popcorn when she is playing in the field! So far she has been loving going to the ball games and is having so much fun!!!

Color Matching Game

Here Emma is working on a matching game that we made to help her learn her sight words. She does so well with matching. After she matches the color to color we work on matching the correct sight word to the colors. Right now I am trying to get her to know the words so I am holding up two cards for her to choose from and one of the two cards is blank. She can't get the answer wrong, but by doing this she is getting familiar with the words along with learning what she is suppose to do. The next step will be to give her two word choices and have her choose the correct one. She is also doing a really nice job repeating the word when I ask her to. She is also still doing some if the signs for the colors. I am finding that she is more willing to sit and do the things that I am wanting her to do with less refusal and coaxing. This is encouraging!!! From some other parents that I talked to their children started showing the most progress academically at about age seven. At any rate we will keep plugging along and she will get it in her own time.

T-Ball Experience

Well...the first night of T-Ball was an experience to say the least. Emma was so excited to get her new shirt and hat...sporting it very cute I might add!! It didn't take her long to figure out that batting is more fun than playing in the field and as you all know, she is not the most patient little gal. It wasn't so bad when you think about what she got out of it.

1. She was excited to be there, got to meet new friends, and was able to have some one-on-one time with Uncle Ron. (Thanks so much for asking her to join your team!!)


2. She has now been exposed to a team sport and needs to learn the correct behaviors that go along with it.
   
   

Just like when something hasn't gone the best for Emma at school I need to come up ideas to make it better next time. I am going to make a boardmaker book about playing baseball so that we can read about the right behaviors. Next game I will be bringing some visual cue cards, a name card to her to sit on, and try to come up with something for her to on the bench to keep her busy while we wait for our turn to bat. Just like everything else that Emma does she will need some time to learn and master it...so we will continue to work on it!!

You know me...I'm all about the goals and seeing progress...
Goals for Emma during t-ball:

1. I would like to see Emma verbally greet all of her teammates when we get to the field.
2. Emma will independently run the bases after she hits the ball.
3. Emma will patiently wait her turn to hit the ball...this is going to be the hard one :)

PLAY BALL!!!!!

Workbook Writing

Today we worked on some pre-writing activities in a workbook. Emma did a really nice job drawing lines. Of course she wrote lots of letter "E" and also numbers 1 & 2. She let me hand-over-hand to work on the number three. We have a desk in her room so that we can close the door and try to keep the distractions...mostly her little brother...to a minimum. I also put a plain piece of white card stock over the page that we are not doing and then over the page that we are done with to keep that from distracting her also. When we were finished I asked Emma to write her name on the top of the page and then told her "E-M-M-A". As she wrote them she said the letters. I was very proud of her. The only help that I gave her was to have her make the line through the middle of her "A". We need to work on making those mountains for the "M", but not to bad!!

Big day tomorrow ~ Emma is going to play in her first T-Ball game.

She is going to play on her Uncle Ron's team in Floyd at 6:00

Lets Get Blogging!!!!!!

Well~we are up and running. Emma's blog is up and going!! We are going to be posting information about what Emma has been up to and what she is working on at home. This blog will be just one of our communication tools between school and home. There are just so many people that are helping Emma on her journey through school that it is almost impossible to write notes to everybody and get information to everybody that needs it. This will be a central location we will post her progress at home and how we are getting her there in hope that it will help her teachers at school...please check back often. We will also be posting helpful information that learn from other parents of children with Down Syndrome and workshops that we attend along the way. Feel free to post comment, call, or email us with any questions or concerns. With that being said...lets get blogging!!!!!!!!!
Keith & Lorra