What We Have Been Up To

We have been absent for a while and I wanted to give an update on some of the things we have been doing.

1.  Reading these wonderful Biscuit books almost every day!  Adeline loves these and so do I.  They are simple and use repetitive language, making them very predictable.

  2.  Playing with Unfix Cubes.  These are great little manipulatives that really work fine motor skill.  These cubes are also used to teach many math skills such as patterning, counting, sorting, counting, etc.  Right now we are just learning how to put them together.     

 

3.  Coloring our ABC's

4.  Learning animals,  I recently found a great box of social studies and science cards.  The cards are actual photographs.  We have been working on the animals first.

 
5.  Putting clothes pins off and on a box.

These are a few of the thing we have been doing during the past few week.   Adeline is scheduled for heart surgery in about three week.  We are praying that she stay healthy until then.

Activities For a Platform Swing

The weather is amazing here and we have been playing outside.  Last summer Adeline's grandpa built her this great platform swing and we have been doing many different activities on it.

First - Puzzles, both sitting on the tummy.  The whole time the swing is moving gently to challenge her balance and work the core strength.

Being on her tummy works on upper body strength. 

 Second - Adding rings to stacker both sitting and on the tummy.

Third -  Adding pegs to a pegboard.  I had to hold this in front of her but it worked great.

Fourth - Reading flashcards.

Fifth - popping bubbles.  I do not have a picture of Adeline popping bubble but this is also fun to do. 

Favorite Posts of 2012

2012 was a great busy year for us around here.  Adeline learned so many new skills.  As I look over our blog posts from this past year I am reminded of how far she has come.  I am so encouraged to press on.  Children with special needs can learn.  At times it takes figuring out how they learn, but once that is tapped into you are on your way to MAGIC.  

Here are the favorite posts of 2012;

Trays On The Go!

Holiday Sorting and Matching

 Push and Pull

Milk Caps and a Box

Pull Box

 I Pad Apps For 2 and 3 Year Olds

25 Of Our Best Fine Motor Activities

Using Teddy Bear Counters With Young Children

 12 Activities For Teaching Colors

 Well this is our list for 2012 can't wait to see what 2013 brings!  Blessing on your new year of learning.

Learning With MilkCaps

Learning games and toys can be expensive.  Adeline is a hands on visual learner and learns so much better with a toys or game so I try to make as many as I can.  One thing I love to use is milk caps or juice caps.  I keeps my special fat Sharpie to write on them and it works great.

Today I want to share some of the things we have done with milk caps.

Milk Cap Circles  - matching caps to circles

Snowflake Numbers

Letter Matching

Milk Caps And A Box

Milk Cap Counting

Learning Shapes

Milk Cap Fine Motor

Learning Colors

I am on a milkcap run right now.  They are great free learning!  I made this game way to difficult for Adeline but I wanted to have it done so that she could grow into it.

For this activity I used milkcaps and paint chips from a paint department.  You will need two chips of the same color, one for the cap the other for matching.  I cut circles out and glue guned them onto the lid.

You can start however simple or difficult your child needs.  I used about six colors with Adeline.

    

Learning Shapes

This is a simple game that can be adjusted to your childs needs.  I used a file folder and milk caps and drew the shapes on each.  Adeline matched the caps to the correct shape.

If you are just starting matching or shapes you may want to use two different shapes and less shapes on the folder.  This is completely adjustable.