I did not sleep well last night. Actually, insomnia and I are on a first name basis. Last night was particularly bad though. I fell asleep around 10 pm, but then woke up sometime after midnight. Wide awake, listening to hubby snoring softly and with all the things I need to do this week whizzing around in my head I knew it was a lost cause. Sleep had gone walkabout, so I figured I might has well do something constructive until it chose to come back.
I'd been working on the video about Sam and 22Q to share on this blog, but was having trouble finding the right song to play in the background. I had originally liked the idea of Mariah Carey's 'Hero', but of course you can't just use a song you download from iTunes for $2.19 without possibly getting into hot water. Also, YouTube and Facebook won't let you upload it anyway. I Google'd my dilemma and hit on an article that talked about how people like wedding videographers, etc. get around the problem. One of the sites they recommended was Triple Scoop Music and they had a licensing option for 'Vlogging'. I have to admit that I had no idea what this was, so I once again relied on Google to show me the way. According to Wikipedia, vlogging is:
After a bit more research, I determined my project fell into this category, so I was good to go. I now needed to find a song. Easier said than done. The 'Browse Music' page had a variety of categories and drop down boxes, allowing you to filter your search. None of my combinations seemed to come up with anything close to the mark. Sleep still hadn't shown up at this point so I kept going.
As soon as 'Good Day' started to play I knew it was the one. Upbeat, happy, simple. It made me feel good instantly and I've been singing it all day. In fact, it will be my 'go to' song when the road is a bit too bumpy. If you haven't watched the video yet, do it. I promise it will make you feel better.
Finally, at just before 2 am, the video was uploaded and I went back to bed. I don't remember sleep returning, it just tip toed in. That was until Sam woke me up just after 4 am. Early night tonight I think.
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| Using an idea I saw Sam's teacher use in the classroom. She set a timer on her iPad to let the kids know how long they had to do an activity. I'm using it prepare Sam for a transition and when we start a new learning session. I'm also hoping it will help him to grasp the concept of time passing. |
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| I started off Session Two with a revision of Days of the Week. I used the same activity sheet from last week, but I tweaked it so the activity played out a bit differently. |
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| Sam had to cut out the day names and the stories, then put the days of the week in the right order and match the stories. He got them all right. He just needed help with articulating the week day names, but that is just a speech issue. He is grasping the concept and retaining the information, which is great. |
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| We finished up with another play on the Days of Week app. Next week, I'll do this activity again...with another twist. |
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| This is my version of an idea I saw on Pinterest. I made an ABC car park. The car park spaces had the 'Upper Case'' letter and on each of the cars I stuck labels with the 'Lower Case' letters. Sam picked a car out from the box and then drove it along the road and parked it in the right spot. |
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| Great parking Sam. Also, to help Sam connect the letter with it's sound, we made the sound of each letter as the cars drove along, E.g. Bb = b, b, b, b, b. |
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| This week I've started working on vowels with Sam. We began with the long A. I created a word list and added pictures. First I asked Sam to tell me what the pictures were. This gave me an idea of his vocabulary knowledge on this sheet. Then we read the 'words' together and talked about the long 'Aa' sound. |
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| Next we played a game matching the words and the pictures. I had created a duplicate of the word list above in table form and printed it on card. I cut out the cards. Sam picked out pictures and then looked for the matching word. He actually got most of them right without my help, which was great. |
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| Good job Sam! |
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| Then we read this book. I had used quite a few of the long Aa words from this book in my activity and then added some of my own. So when we came to read the book together, he was able to recognise and read those words with little help. It reinforced the activity and worked very well. |
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| Third session was Maths and we finished our Minecraft counting and writing booklet from last week. |
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| Sam traced the number and number word, then counted the Minecraft characters. |
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| I thought I'd introduce the concept of measurement today. I drew lines in his book and then we measured them with a ruler. This was also good for another counting and number writing exercise. Sam was getting tired and rather grumpy by this time, so I had to keep encouraging him and letting him draw smiley faces after he measured each line. We got there, but as you can see, his eyes are looking very heavy. |
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| Final Math activity was one he really wanted to do, so of course I saved it for last and used it as the proverbial dangling carrot. I stuck toilet rolls on the whiteboard with blue tac. Sam then put marbles in the top and they shot down to the waiting bowl. So for the sum 3 + 5, Sam counted 3 marbles and put them down the left tube, then counted 5 marbles as he put them down the tube on the right. |
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| Sam then counted all the marbles in the bowl to get his answer. |
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| And here are results of Sam's final Math activities for the day. |
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