Birthdays!

last week in school, logan talked about parties and came home with a party hat on.

he had so many questions about birthday parties, so...we made another experience book!

Cool ABC language book...

I saw this on the Today show and thought it would be a great way to do an ABC experience book incorporating your own pictures. I made a-cheaper and more time consuming--version for my nephew...
(I had my 6 year old color the pictures)

but although this one is a bit pricy, I think it's fantastic and fun.

Our Christmas Experience / Vocabulary Book...

"Merry Christmas"

"Christmas tree" - "candy cane"

"elf" - "present"

"Santa Claus" - "Christmas lights on a house"

"wreath" - "gingerbread man"

"holly" - "bells"

"Santa's sleigh" - "the Wisemen"

"christmas lights" - "mistletoe"

"Santa going down the chimney" - "Santa's reindeer"

"ornament" - "snowman"

"turkey" - "Rudolph"

"Baby Jesus" - "Gingerbread house"

New experience book...

Holidays seem to be awesome ways of introducing new vocabulary to Logan, so I made a Halloween experience book of all of the "Scary" things that are involved with Halloween. I used pictures from the items that are around the house so that he can also identify them to me as he walks by them...

Skeletons...spider webs

Leaves...candy

witch...candy corn

black cat...scary house

Jack-o-lantern...monster

pumpkins...ghost

costumes..."Trick-or-Treating"

Thanks for the emails...

I have had a few other 'CI MOMS' email me and ask what kind of program/therapy we have Logan in. We are still trying to set all of that up, since we have just moved, but here is what we have been doing this summer to keep busy...

Logan attended the Preschool at the John Tracy clinic last year and that is where we learned most of the “therapy” that we do at home. They have free online courses, if you’re interested. Go to http://www.jtc.org/ to sign up. We just moved from California to Florida, so the only therapy he has received this summer is at home with me. I usually set aside one hour in the morning and one hour after his nap and play with him, making it a language activity. I am talking to him all day about everything we are doing. I ask him to repeat a lot. It took him a while before he would mimic me, but now he does it without me having to ask.

I choose a theme for the week (or sometimes two weeks) and we read books, do crafts, (try to) go on “field trips”, all having to do with that theme. I print off pictures of that theme (from the computer) and hang them up around the house. When we walk by the picture we say the name. For example, one week we did fruits and vegetables. We had pictures of apples, peas, corn, etc. around the house. We then went to a strawberry farm and picked strawberries. We also made carrots out of tissue paper. Then every night we read the same book, which has to do with our theme. My older (hearing) son enjoys the activities as well, and my 20 month old benefits from the language activities as well!

Right now we are working on the Alphabet. We do two/three letters per week, but don’t move on until he has mastered the current letters. There are letters hanging up around the house. When Logan walks past one, he comes to tell me what it is. When we read our book at night, we try to find the letters of the week, in his book.
You can find a lot of ideas off the Internet. Many preschool sites have free lesson plans; we use those, and then just tweak them to fit Logan’s needs.
Also, once he starts school, we'll find out their theme for the week and do our own activities at home that go along with what he is learning at school.

I am also a big fan of "experience books". Logan simply loves them and I find myself needing to make a new one about every month. I make experience books with Family members, daily activities, and objects/places that he sees everyday.

I would also love to hear any ideas, form any of you, who have done things that have worked as well. Please share!