September 2-8, 2012

Another week in the books.  Barely.  Matt was out of town over the long weekend, so it was just me and the Horde for five days.  Let's just say that I'm still catching up on sleep.  And sanity.

Ahem.

This week:

Henry

• Saxon Math 1: Lessons 32-34 (writing the number 29,ordering numbers to 20, adding one to a number; writing the number 30, writing number sentences for some, some went away stories; writing the number 31, counting backward from 10 to 1, adding one to a number)
• The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: Lessons 85-87 (the vowel pair AI as /ā/, the vowel pair AY as /ā/, the vowel pairs EA, EI, and EY as /ā/)
• Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Kindergarten: Pages 89-94 (Hh, Rr/Nn/Mm/Hh review, Vv)
• Who Am I?: Lesson 3 (I am Special to God Who Made Me)

I'll add in here that I'm really amazed at how well Henry is doing with OPGTR.  He's really reading.  He's able to use his phonics knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.  He's not just barking at the page, though.  He's laughing at the funny stuff, asking for definitions of words he doesn't know, summarizing the little stories... reading!  One of his latest lessons had this little "story:"

The king did state, "I shall test a brave man of strength.  I shall send him on a quest.  Can he quench the flame that is a mile wide?  Can he save the life of the man stuck in the Black Depths?  Can he run the maze and slice the strong rope that no man can cut?  I shall grant a prize to this man.  He shall be the next king!"

He read it and understood it and found it rather thrilling.  We'll make a reader out of him yet.

Oliver

Oliver had another really good week.  He's got the 'pretzel' mand down pat.  He's using 'cereal' also.  His therapist is really happy with his progress, but the best part is that I can tell Oliver is really happy with his progress.  He gets so excited when he is able to communicate with us.  I can't tell you how many pretzels we went through over the last week!

We received this chart yesterday.  It shows the progress he's making with independent and partial mands.  It does not show, however, that he completed 39 independent mands yesterday!  He did another 24 independent ones today.  Huge. 

I love seeing this.  My biggest frustration with ST and OT was that it seemed so haphazard.  It never felt like there was a clear progression of therapy.  His sessions were (at least to me) very random.  I love that the ABA therapy program is so focused, and so logical, and so documented.  It's making a huge difference for Oliver and we can actually see what's going on.

Jane

Jane's still working on orange and still carschooling.  LeapFrog Letter Factory was the pick this week and she's happily imitating all of the letter sounds.  This weekend, I'm going to quiz her a little and see how many letters she can correctly identify.

Wee Miss turns two next week, although she entered the Terrible Twos about six months ago.  She's getting so big, so fast.

Peter

He is just all smiles lately.  I try to get pictures of him with his big grins, but he gets a puzzled look on his face every time he sees the camera.  He's getting to that age when he wriggles like a puppy whenever anyone talks to him.  That and the full-body stretches are my favorites.

Tomorrow is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.  We're going to read from Mary: The Mother of Jesus.  We'll probably forgo the cake this year, though.  It was a bit much last year when we had Jane's birthday cake a few days later.  I think we'll make a construction paper cake and decorate it instead.