Our Tony is liking school!

A quick update on Tony: He is liking going to school. God knows that for us that is the only thing that matters :) That, and he enjoying other kids, which he is also doing. I have met with his teacher and Tony is learning the routines and having fun. He even told me he wants to be a teacher! Of course, most of the time he wants to be an astronaut. And, he told me he wants to play "school" at home with his toys! Wow, what a difference!!! He is struggling a bit in PE, music, and library because he seems to think he can do whatever he wants in those classes, but that's ok. I am sure he will learn the routine of those classes, too. Hurray for our little kindergarten boy!

Our January Outreach with Megan

January was so busy that I did not get to publish our top 10 learnings from our outreach until now! Here is the list:

1. Don't match the energy level of Duch or Liam when playing with them. You set up your own energy level with lots of energy, excitement and enthusiasm!
2. Duchis' tent does not have a blanket anymore and we will stay outside and "join" her when necessary by creating our own game while she creates her game with the puppets in the tent. I loved seeing Megan playing "hot potato" and "Cootie" with the Barbies and seeing Duchis come out of the tent to play, too.
3. Use Liam's board in new creative ways. It was fun to see Megan draw a firefighter scene on the board while pretending to be a firefighter.
4. Don't expect less from Liam. He can do it. If Duchis has come this far, Liam will, too. The sky is the limit for both of them.
5. Be aware of Liam's eye contact when playing. He is not always looking at us when talking to us. Stop and tell him "Liam, are you talking to me?" or "Liam, if you look at me, I know you are talking to me" or "I need eye power to do  .... ", or just point to your eyes without saying anything.
6. Now that the attention span of the two kids is SOOOO much higher (Duchis was in Level 5 and Liam was in Level 4 during Megan's sessions!!!), our next emphasis is FLEXIBILITY with both kids. "It is ok if I don't get what I want all the time"
7. Duch is ready for board games with more "rules". Show them to her like it is the most amazing game in teh world.
8. Enter the room and start selling your game idea right away to the kids. Don't give it up too early and mix it up with whatever they propose to you.
9. Celebrate them a lot for all they are doing!
10. I will show videos of each other in our next group meeting.

Enjoy our group meeting pictures!

Some pictures of January games

Here is a little sample of games you guys have played with Liam and Duch this month. Enjoy!

Liam writing with Mary just supporting his arm a little

Liam building with Shelby

Duchis doing Valentine decorations

Duchis playing fishergirl with the big pool

Duchis and her castle

Duchis playing dress-up with Ashley

Great story from Cara about Duchis in OT

A note I got from Cara on January 6, 2011:

"Dusya had a great day today. She accepted a new and very challenging ball game in the swing room and was very talkative all day. She also accomplished one of HER "goals" she's been working on since before Christmas. In a cabinet in the fine motor room I have two boxes of sensory toys. One is full of light up spinning toys including a Christmas snow scene that really snows. Another is a box of wiggly balls she's always loved. Earlier this week she finally figured out how to ask for the wiggly balls and we bargained balls for fine motor work. But what she really wanted was the snow toy. She's asked for it several ways that weren't specific enough ("I want that" --pointing to box + saying "It's snowing"). Today she went to the cabinet and tried several unsuccessful requests then told me "I want to climb". I told her "go ahead." She tried for a while then grabbed my hand and pulled me to the cabinet. I stood there waiting for her to communicate and I could tell she was getting frustrated so I prompted "If you need help, you can say "I need help"". She tried several versions of that and I responded with "You need help with what? I would love to help you, tell me what you need, etc" Until she finally said "I need help climbing up there" + pointed to teh cabinet/counter at which point I helped her up and she got the toys she's wanted for almost a month. I am so proud of her."

- Cara.

That same day, I also got a second note from Cara with this drawing:
"Dusya made this on 1/6/11 with only Ms. Cara's finger touching her hand. She wrote Cookie with only about 15% help. I am so proud of Dusya!"