Today is my first real diary blog. Previous blogs have been catching up. I've got the hang of this blog software now - sort of. Today I had planned another trip to the library after dropping Zoe off at school. We parked up near the library, but Sam was adamant that he wanted to go home. We have an issue with his sleep at the moment and although he goes to bed at a reasonable time (and yes, we have tried keeping him up a bit later), he always wakes around 4am. So by the time we get to mid-morning, he is tired and very grumpy. This did not help while he was at school. Tears and tantrums followed and we had no hope of teaching him anything. So, I had to regroup and come up with an alternative. "Hey, Sam. How about we go to the park?" Yes, that was acceptable. Thank goodness.
So, off we went to the local park. Hypertonia, or low muscle tone, is common with Sam's syndrome, so exercise is very important. Also, exercise helps with focus and concentration, so a session in the park would likely help when it came to the more academic activities I had planned. The park was a hit and we had fun. Not only do they have playground equipment, but the park also has walking paths and gym equipment. So we kind of tagged along behind a couple going through their morning fitness routine :) They didn't seem to mind.
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| Sam on the Cross Trainer. |
Once we got home, we had some morning tea and then I tackled a writing exercise. Our morning spent in the park seemed an ideal subject, so after a considerable amount of resistance and grumbling, Sam finally joined in. We talked about what we did and I wrote it on the white board. He then copied our story into his writing book and I asked him to draw a picture of us in the park.
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Sam writing the story of our morning in the park.
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| Sam drawing a picture of our morning in the park. |
After that activity I let Sam have some 'chill' time on the iPad. I've just downloaded a new app that gives us access to hundreds of online stories and videos. It is hosted by Levar Burton. Those of you who are Sci Fi geeks (as I am), will know that he played Jordy in Star Trek - New Generation.
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Story time on the iPad.
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Our middle session focused on Maths. Again I opted for activities that involve physical interaction, rather than just a work sheet. Kids with 22q (I'll go with this shorter description from now on), have a very specific learning profile. They need more time to grasp a concept, instructions need to be simple, you need to model the action/behaviour and then it's repetition, repetition, repetition.
Today I worked on the numbers 1 to 20 and matching the 'word' number again, but in a slightly different way. I also tackled a bit of basic addition. Of course, he resisted joining in at first. He's stubborn (no idea where he gets that from) and likes to do things when it's his idea and not someone else's. So, after a bit of psychological tennis, he decided to give it a go. And here is the result. He did really well. High ten's all around!
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| I had written five basic additions in his book. We had three cups and a bowl of wooden 'cheerios'. We counted the rings into the cups. E.g. 1 + 2 = was 1 ring in the first cup and 2 rings in the second cup. |
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| Our end result. Sam would write the answers in the boxes. (Sorry about the orientation of the picture. I forgot to rotate it before uploading, but you get the idea.) |
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| We used the paddle pop sticks with the number words written on them again, but this time we used blu-tac to stick them to the whiteboard. |
And to finish up our day...
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| 'Cheese!' Swim time. Great for the low muscle tone. |
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