Our First Holiday Themed School Day

First off let me just start off by saying Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! 

Today was kind of an exciting day for me to plan out. It was not only our second day of "structured" learning, it was also our first holiday themed day! 

After our devotion time, weather and calendar time, Vada and I sat down to play with her Hide n' Peek Chocolates play set. 

When I first sat Vada down to this sweet treat sight, she had to have thought it was a real box of chocolates just for her because she began signing "thank you", "thank you", over and over again. I felt kind of guilty but once we began to play I think she quickly forgave me.

We worked more on oral motor skills today. I was SO impressed when Vada and I were doing flash cards yesterday and I showed her the picture of the birthday cake with the candles on it and she began to blow. Last night at dinner I brought out an old pack of candles and let her practice blowing them out. And. She. Did. Did. It! She blew those candles out! I almost couldn't believe it! Since she was so successful with the candles I had to try more! So I did bring out all of our party whistles and we tried each and every one!

After the whistles we decided to take it one step further and attempt to bow some bubbles. I got to say that I am blessed to have all of Vada's therapists as friends because when I posted the Youtube video of Vada blowing out the candle and then mentioned that we were going to try to do bubbles today, Vada's speech therapist suggested to do it this way. She said starting off this would be easier for Vada. So I blew the bubble, caught it and then had her attempt to blow it off of the wand. She blew and blew but couldn't blow the bubble off! We wont give up though! She'll get soon, I can tell!

Today we played "Hide the Marshmallow". I used the ice cream scoops from our Smart Snacks Rainbow Color Cone set (which, by the way, we have had since Jasmine, my now thirteen year old was a tot!). 

I got the idea from Amy Dunaways FREE ebook Homeschooling Children With Down Syndrome. If you haven't already read this book, I would highly recommend checking it out, you wont regret it! Amy calls her version "Hide the Peanut".  

Today was the first time that I have introduced anything like this to V, so I started off by explaining everything while showing her what I was doing. I also gave her a "free" marshmallow in the beginning, so that she would see that she would have a tasty reward for finding her "peanut".

Vada did a great job when we used three colors! I was actually shocked! I think I must actually underestimate her without meaning to because I didn't know that she would be able to do this at all. 

Vada did struggle once I added a fourth color and since Errorless Learning is so very important when teaching a child with Down syndrome, I quickly pulled that fourth color out of the equation and went back to what Vada was successful at.

Vada and I also took time to work on her Bright Baby "First Words" book. About a six months ago I scanned the pages of this book and then laminated the copies. I also typed out just the words for later on when Vada progresses with Literacy.

She took to the book like we hadn't missed a day! 

The local Homeschool play group that we go to is having their Valentine'e Day Party tomorrow so I had to have Vada finish her "signature" on her Valentine's Day cards. I'm going to be honest here, I feel really cheap this year! Usually, I am a crafty sort of person. I would have liked to make and bake something sweet for Vada to bring but it just was not in my schedule this year, so she s bringing Airhead Candies! Bwahaha! 

Vada worked on her primary colors by using our Learning Resources Splash of Color Magnetic Sorting Set.

We made Justin, my husband, Vada's Daddy, a Valentine's using her sweet little hand prints...

We ended our day with a story about the meaning of Valentine's Day.