Secret of Productivity!
It’s amazing how productive you can be if you wake up at 3 a.m. and go to bed at midnight! :::snort:::
School went well today. I was thrilled that we seemed to have figured out the secret of schooling with two roving toddlers….UNTIL the police called. It seems that Stacia dialed 911. She used the phone that doesn’t work. THEN when they called I tried to answer on that phone and it “doesn’t work” so he was worried that something really was up at our house. We’ll fine tune the plan tomorrow.
I’d appreciate any tips on helping a boy hold a pencil. YES – he’s my 4th boy to school but he’s 7 and I’m sure the others were holding the pencil by now. I’ve tried everything I know. It’s torture for him to write – but he’s going to have to write this year sometime.
Josiah went to work for 4 hours today. We planned HIS meal choice for dinner. He got called back in. LOL He had Chicken Divan at 10:30 p.m. Debbie, I’ll post the recipe tomorrow or the next day.
After school Arielle and I broke away to mail packages to Mike and the girls. Then we zipped to the grocery store to get everything we need for this week’s menu. I was blessed that whole chickens were on sale at HEB for $.49 a lb. AND I found some wonderful tasting organic Ritz like crackers! It was a good day. :::snort::::
I came home and assembled Divan, boiled 4 chickens, made Grams’ Italian Salad Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Catalina, made halibut salad and chicken salad….I felt very productive.
I even :::drum roll::: remembered to pay the bills! I also got to talk to Mom and Dad tonight.
It really is late – so that’s enough for tonight.
8 comments:
Do the cushy finger grips help? My 6/y.o AJ prefers the larger size it makes his pencil...He dreads writing & reading too.
d.
Well - D - I can try them. I had the giant pencils last year and didn't seem improvement but he does have a death grip on those pencils. I tried to help him RELAX....to no avail. The soft finger grips may help. He's really uncoordinated.....
there are various types of pencil grips. Some are triangular in shape. THere are others that are more like a squished circle.There is a star on the place you put your thumb (I think that's the right finger).
I would go to the local teacher's store and buy one of each type of grip..... it may help and then again it may not... my 15yo girl still doesn't hold a pencil properly (imo)
I'll tell you what Jon's PT told us to do. Only work on handwriting first. No formal writing until he can do a whole page of HW without acting like he's being tortured. Also, buy the hard clay and have him mold it for 15 mins 2-3x a day. Usually it has to do with low muscle tone in the hands and this works those muscles out. Make sure that he is forming each letter correctly. Jon liked to start from the bottom on most letters and she said that it was not helping him to form the correct muscle tone. So if he starts his letter C from the bottom, then you know that you need to work on that.
I have to say that I really thought the PT was hokey. I really didn't think playing with clay and doing HW was really going to help but after about 4-5 months of doing this, his real writing took off! He no longer had pain when writing and is now writing full pages without complaining. He did this PT when he was 11.
HTH!
Lisa
Thanks for the tips. Our therapist in AK was going to work with his motor skills. HERE she forgets to show up for IEP appointments. I don't even care if we GO....I'll do the work she was doing at home...but I need to know what to do. The clay makes sense. The first lesson yesterday was to make a line that looked like WWWWW - connected - up down - and that is what you are saying. He does begin at the bottom.....I will back off the hand writing (which we've not worked on consistently for the past years because we are waiting for him to be able to hold a pencil....and work on the clay, the H and W and I'll buy some grips. D is sending me some stuff her son does in therapy too. I may be able to pull this off without the help of our professional therapist. LOL Seriously, she was supposed to call me at the start of school to do an eval and set up appointments as needed. Talking with Mom last night I realized she's not called and school started here in August. I need to call the school therapist again. LOL
I think that's a good plan. You can also get him a racket ball to squeeze during times when you're out and about. Really, until the muscle tone is there, he's not going to be able to do the work. Consistancy is definitely key. I would just make sure that he gets these things done each day. You'll see a lot of improvement! Jon couldn't hold a pencil until he was 7-8years old. His hand just wouldn't work. Now he's working quite well and no longer needs the therapy for his hands. Now to fix his other issues.lol
Lisa
Another idea is to let him practice his handwriting with fat markers. This is what Trevor did at that age (and we had to go slow, just a little each day is fine, build up) and Tristan used fat markers last year at 6. This year at 7 Tristan can use the fat pencil.
The markers are easier since the ink flows so much easier than writing with a pencil. Much less frustration, don't know if this is super educationally sound but it worked here, just have to be careful with the ink leaking through to the next page, leave a blank sheet in between.
Funny Lisa mentioned clay. I'm pretty sure Trevor's current clay addiction is due to me using it as a form of therapy is his earlier years. He's 12 now and still loves to build with clay...and his handwriting is lovely these days too, neater than mine, when he can be persuaded to write rather than type!
I buy 4 packs of the cheap $1 clay whenever I'm in one of the W-Mart or Target type stores, my kids use it constantly. I Sometimes spring for the sculply and then they can bake the creations. Also the sculpy is harder to work with which is good for those hand muscles.
I'll be trying all tips. I have brought out the handwriting to try often in the last couple of years. I've always had kids writing by kinder age....but he simply can't get the pencil thing down....he WANTS to write...
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