Is it Christmas yet?

We are tired, the whole family is tired but on we plod. This weekend was lots of fun as the house is now all covered in Christmas stuff (we had to do it in phases so as to not overwhelm anyone) and we went to the Kings Panto in Edinburgh. It was Alladin and amazing! Vee found it scary and loud but within about a minute I put her ear defenders on and then all was well - she loved it, but did need to wear them throughout. We took a picnic for on our laps and had ice cream at the interval, it's great she is now part of the tradition with her older siblings.

                                   

Her school nativity is on Friday, she is a 'townsperson' and she keeps calling it her danceshow. I think I'll give up correcting her, she doesn't understand or get religious festivals anyway but the advent calendar does come in handy for various countdowns. She does love the presents on the big day though...

Reading is coming along nicely although in true style of someone her age, she is memorising a lot of it and/or guessing but she is doing so well.  I am so impressed with how engaged she is in it and how well she tracks. Books are very important in our house, all of our children are read to daily and were from when they were very small. We embrace technology and use a Kindle too now! 

                                    

Pencil grip is still inconsistent and wobbly for her, I am hoping the OT will assess her properly soon, especially before she has to do more written work as I can see this will evolve into an issue like for her older brother and sister. 

                                    

How motivated Vee is as a learner is what makes this all so much easier for her and for me too! She is full of joie de vivre! 

    

       

Very First Reading Book

Today is a big day. Vee has come home with her first reading book. She is very excited! 

                                   

Week Three.

A new week and some new tasks to get to grips with. School sent children home with their magnetic boards to help learn phonetics (a new letter added daily) and Vee just doesn't take in information in a conventional way so we need to get some assessment of her learning style done formally (she isn't a phonetic learner either). That may be tricky...

We don't do a lot on a Monday afternoon, she is often quite shell shocked almost and incredibly tired. So we did the magnetic board and she then chose to play some games on the computer. Her style of holding the mouse is unique but it works for her and gets the job done! I can leave the room for a few minutes and nothing bad happens, we did have a few missing files in the first week though!

After she had some computer time we had another play on one of the dinosaur apps and she then went off to play with her favourite toys and to relax. 



On Tuesday there was more work on the magnetic board and we practised more base skills for learning handwriting. A few weeks ago I found this wonderful book in Waterstones, I can recommend the Collins range, great for the core skills require to hold a pencil and maintain control. 

 This sort of movement is quite tricky and I was really impressed at the control Vee had once she was focused.

I ordered and received a writing slope this week. Vee's hypermobility and hypotonia (coupled with an interesting pencil grasp) mean it's hard for her to retain control and maintain her writing consistently. We use pencils with a ribbed circular grip to cushion the pressure on her supporting middle finger. 

The Posturite writing slope was really expensive but for us it is worth it as our other two children benefit from using one and use one at their school desk. This thing will never break so we'll be using it for years. Up until now I had been using an A4 ring binder which is sufficient. 

 To round off the week we visited the library on Thursday, we had a chat about the lovely Marigold's on our way in too. Her class go to the library on a Thursday afternoon and as ours is only 10 minutes walk it is a lovely way to end the week (Edinburgh operates a half day on a Friday so no home learning on a Friday afternoon). 

 Vee helped to scan the books she chose using the 'self help' machine after choosing and playing with the library toys!