Scooter Time!

Levi has been interested in the neighborhood kids' scooters lately so I thought it might be a new way for him to learn and grow. He did a pretty good job! I'm glad he has something else to play with that will help keep him active. With all of the extra oral stimulation that he needs and the way that he loves to cook, we have really had to work with him to keep his weight in check. He was just way too large last fall so we started being very intentional about which foods he has access to. We hiked through the winter and spring, started keeping ice in the house for him to drink lots of ice water, began taking evening walks in our neighborhood, and eventually installed locks on our chest freezer. After eight months of hard work he has grown taller and lost seven or eight pounds!

Fine Motor Skills Work With Perler Beads

 

We have been trying to use up some of our craft supplies and Levi became curious about what the kids were making with perler beads. He decided to give it a go for himself since he loves to mimic what others are doing. These beads are pretty tiny, but he didn't fumble nearly as much as I expected. It took much concentration, but he was able to stay with the activity for a good while. I'm sharing his final project to help document his fine motor skills progress in the future.

 

Learning with Weather

 

Look who's no longer afraid of the rain! Seriously, getting caught in the rain used to be a very dreaded occurrence for us. For whatever reason Levi was very freaked out by both rain and snow. As he ages he is learning how to take appropriate measures for different weather conditions. He has recently learned that an umbrella can shield you from unwanted raindrops. He learned over the summer that all shirts are not the same. There are short sleeve shirts to keep you cool when it is hot out and long sleeve shirts when it's chilly out. It is exciting to watch him as he figures out the world around him.

More Size Comparison

This is the second time I've used this circle activity with Levi. I had noticed that he struggled a bit with differentiating between the small and medium circles. A friend had given this to us and I didn't think there was enough of a disparity between those two. I decided to trim the "small" circle to make its difference more pronounced. Levi did much better after I made this small modification. I just love his smiley face.

Cutting Skills and Naturalist Notebook Progress

I am feeling so proud of my Levi boy these days as I reflect upon all of the progress he has made over this school year. He has nearly completed the pages for his naturalist notebook. His latest additions were pages for mammals and reptiles.

The top picture shows how he is now able to manipulate the paper and cut around the image. I remember how I had to painstakingly take the paper out of his hand, re-position it, and show him where he needed to concentrate for every new cut. I am talking hundreds and hundreds of times here. He now recognizes what needs trimmed and can turn the paper as needed totally on his own. He used to only be able to cut straight lines, but now moves both the paper and the hand he is cutting with to change direction. He also used to begin a cut and follow it through to completion with no exception. Sometimes he was not properly lined up and would cut straight through a picture, totally ruining it. If you look at the second picture you will see that he has gotten quite good at determining where borders are located. At the beginning of the year he would have struggled tremendously to steady the scissors enough to make such a clean cut between those two small pictures.

You'll notice in the final picture that I trimmed his pages and put them in page protectors. (FYI: there are pages on the back of each of the ones shown. His addition of mammals and reptiles brings him to ten pages in all.) I showed Levi about five different 3-prong folders and let him take his pick. His choice? Very fittingly, he chose a green one. I don't suppose there's a color that better symbolizes nature than green. Good  job, Levi! He is not happy with this latest change to his year-long science project, but I am trying to get it presentable for his assessment. I also thought that it might make it sort of like a book for him to thumb through. I won't have to worry about him losing or damaging pages and it seems like he should be able to enjoy it better this way. Maybe it will grow on him?

New Kitchen Experiences

Levi adores doing anything in the kitchen. I had forgotten to share a few of his newer experiences such as learning what boiling means and flouring a cake pan.

More Learning at the Library

 I've been sharing Levi's progress at the library for over a year now! These photos are from a recent trip where a lot of learning occurred. First off, Levi has discovered that there are baskets available to tote your selections around in! I can't help but wonder if this reminds him of one of his beloved trips to the grocery store. He was able to get some heavy work in as he added a few things into the basket here and there. I had enough presence of mind to take a picture of the things he chose: a travel book about Florence, a video about the Trail of Tears, and a culinary arts DVD about food pairings. In case you're wondering, I did not actually bring them home with us... not this time. I must say that he looked rather comical at times as he struggled to lug his treasures (as well as ours) from place to place and up and down the stairs.

The bottom picture was taken in the elevator. I had never introduced Levi to the interior elevators at the library. Up to this point he had always taken the steps up and down between floors inside the building. I was a goner as soon as I decided to take him in this elevator! He quickly discovered that he could run ahead of me up the stairs to the third floor and push the elevator button at the top to ride down. And then do the whole thing over and over and over. I was able to stay with him enough that he never got on the elevator alone and we took probably a dozen trips exploring and taking in every little detail. I have a feeling that he was memorizing the layout of the library, but I have no way of knowing this for sure.

It was finally time to leave and Levi became aware of yet another elevator on our way out. Having had enough, I successfully navigated him away from it only to have him run noisily ahead of me across the bridge, out the doors, and to the parking deck elevators. He pushed the button, the doors quickly opened, he hopped on, the doors closed, and he was gone just like that. One of us went down the stairwell while another of us headed up. I found him one floor up standing in front of the elevator waiting for the door to open for him. I was not a happy mama and let him know as much.

I suppose this is all part of the learning process for him, however exhausting it is for me both physically and mentally. Life is always an adventure with this little guy of mine.

Thanks, Lord, for Your protection. Let my strength always be sufficient for whatever each day brings. It's only because of You that I could ever dream of doing this. You are so good!