"Come look! Quick! My tooth, my tooth fell out!" - Finally.............. a quick update!

Often, almost daily, as I drive the kids to one event or another I compose a blog post in my head.............getting time to sit down & type it on the computer is quite another story though. Too bad I haven't found a program to effectively take my thoughts or words & retype them into blogger for me as I'd have lots to say!

Today however, I'm at the library while K is attending a summer speech program which has been going on all week.  They are working on specific sounds, most of which she can say but needs help remember to say clearly so I think this is helpful to her.  She has again only had about 4 speech sessions in the last year so every little bit helps.

K turned 6 back in May & I'm hoping to do up a video of her last year...................hopefully before her next birthday I'll find time!

As for a very recent update, she's had an exciting week.  One of her front teeth has been very loose for a couple weeks.  We've been reading lots books on loosing teeth & she was anxiously awaiting the big event!  Over the last couple of days it got really loose & last night she called excitedly from her bedroom "Come look! Quick!  My tooth, my tooth fell out!"  Of course 1/2 the house roared up the stairs to celebrate with her.  She looks so adorable but so much older with that front tooth missing & of course I had a teary mommy moment watching my baby become an even bigger kid.

They're working on the TH sound today which is one that K can say but it is tough for her.  When reading she consistently says "bu" instead of the.  I'm wondering how much that missing tooth will affect this sound though!


Okay, I'm hitting publish now but I'm starting on a new post.  It's time to post an update favorite apps list.  See you soon!

31 for 21 - Growing like a weed?

Here is a picture of our informal growth chart.  We measure all of the kids on the doorway between our onsuite bathroom & walk in closet.  It's a pretty sophisticated method which seems to work well for us:)

 

The other day I heard K in there & peeked in to see what she was doing.  K had the measuring tape & a marker in her hand & was attempting to measure herself.  I helped our & this is what I discovered:

 

 

Notice how much K grew in the last 6 weeks or so?  She just had quite a growth spurt & I guess kids do have them randomly but the thing that frustrates me is that I often hear parents say that their kids grew when they gave them this supplement or that vitamin. Maybe I shouldn't expect her growth to correlate with her vitamins, I know they should be for general, long term health but it sure would be nice! We were more sporadic than usual with K's vitamins towards the end of the summer as we got busy with several mini holidays.  Then in September I decided to give K a break from her vitamins altogether & to reintroduce them slowly to get a better idea of the effects.  I had only restarted K on any vitamins the day before I took this picture.

 

What are your thoughts & experiences on this?  Do you notice many specific changes when your kids are taking different supplements?

31 for 21 - More Light at the End of the Tunnel

It's 1:26 am - a rare night out with my husband & a few other couples. Technically I've missed today's 31 for 21 post but even though it's really late, I want to quickly share today's events. Oh my, I'm tearing up again! I'm so proud of K.   She started swimming lessons again today. I was holding my breath a little as she got started because she had a bit of a rough start with her lessons this summer & although we had figured it out & resolved the problem I still had some nagging worries. I know I shouldn't but I did...............K aced it today. I could not have asked for a better behaved little girl & although she was only about chest high to the rest of the kids in her class who all happened to be 1 or 2 years older, she fit right in skill wise. According to her instructor, "She did great!"

The light at the end of the tunnel is looking more beautiful every day!

31 for 21 - Fostering Curiousity

We focused a lot on this when K was little. We explained things from the time she was a baby & very likely too young to understand. By the time she was old enough to ask questions, she expected us to explain everything! We pointed out & labelled everything with spoken as well as written words when she was a baby too. When she was at the age when most kids are asking why, her language was slightly behind, so we explained that too. We basically just tried to give her the answers to questions kids would typically ask at that age or perhaps than when they were even a little older. We also stopped to look at things in nature & our environment & talked about how interesting they were. We have the most fascinating conversations about anything from animals to antique vehicles to windmills.

 

Who knows if it was because of all of this or not but I now have the most curious 5 year old that I know!  

31 for 21

It's that time if year again!  October is Down syndrome awareness month. 31 for 21 is a challenge to write 31 blog posts during the month to raise awareness for Down syndrome. Last year I did it back to back with Canadian Down syndrome awareness week for a total of more than 38 posts but I have been so busy this fall that I'm not sure I'll make the 31 posts. I thought I'd perhaps I'd try for 21? We'll see how it goes but in the meantime


Happy Down Syndrome  awareness month!

Back to School Thoughts

K headed back to school last week. I am having some mixed feeling this year.  She turned 5 about 3 months ago so is eligible for kindergarten but we have decided to wait one more year before starting.

Academically there is no reason for holding her back & it seems strange to me to see many of her little buddies, both in person & online head to kindergarten without her.  However, there are a number of reason for waiting.  Physically she is on the small side & not able to run as quickly as her same age peers.  K's speech is good & improving by the day, but is also not equal to that of most of her peers. I often think she is less mature than many kids her age although after spending a couple of days with her class I had to wonder at times! lol

My husband & I also wrestled with the question of whether or not to hold back one of our older daughters.  This particular daughter was born in mid December.  KJ was the only one of my kids who I wished would have been born 5 or 6 days late rather than a week early - this would have put her birthday in January & solved my concerns by missing the cutoff. I would have even put up with an extra week of  pregnancy - a 8.5 months of morning sickness type of pregnancy!

While looking into the option of holding back KJ, we researched as well as talked to a lot of parents. We talked to a number of parents who regretted sending their kids early but I have yet to talk to a parent who wished they hadn`t held their child back.

I believe that holding KJ back allowed her to be more confident & become a leader within her class.  School work has also come easily to her as it did her big sisters who were both born in the early months of the year.

This article on kindergarten readiness sums up what I feel as well.

 My expectation is that K will do everything that her peers will do in school & I feel that giving her one more year to prepare will help her to succeed. Once she starts kindergarten we will not hold her back as we feel it will be best for her to stay with the same bunch of friends that she starts with.

I admit to having another motive for holding K back. Her neurodevelopmental program takes quite a bit of time & by holding K back we will have one more year to concentrate on it.  The program has allowed her to progress much more quickly than any mainstream program so another year will be great.  Of course we will continue to do a neurodevelopmental program when she is in school but once she hits grade 1 it will not be possible to focus nearly the same amount of time on it.

As an added bonus, I get to enjoy having her at home for an extra year:) ..........Yes, it's hard for me to see my baby grow up sometimes even though we have worked with K practically since she was born to prepare her to be independent. 

We are so pleased that we are able to offer a preschool in our tiny community. It is organized & run by the parents who hire a teacher & fund raise to be able to keep fees very reasonable, buy toys & supplies etc. The preschool had a bit of a glitch with getting a teachers aide in place for the start of school on Monday so as president & founder of the organization, I was asked to step in as a parent volunteer to help get preschool up & running smoothly. 

After being able to spend 2 days in the classroom, I am confident that we made the right choice. My biggest concern at this point is still about K being bored when the other kids are working on academic concepts that are much to easy for K. For example, they did one activity involving placing some little glass stones on letters on the coconut tree from the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story. K's boredom became evident in her refusal to cooperate partway through the game.  She was eventually persuaded to join in again but wasn't thrilled with the idea.  Next they identified numbers from 1 to 10 & although this is equally simple for her, the fact that they swatted the numbers with a modified fly swatter made it so much fun that she had a blast.

K did well in gym class although she is often the first one to follow when another child is running around out of turn or jumping, playing etc when they aren't supposed to be.  For the vast majority of the time though she is doing well.  The extra year (& probably our summer running program) has made quite a difference in her ability to keep up with the others.  She also quickly understands the games they play & joins in easily.

I even notice little things like the fact that she isn't always the last in line on the way back from the gym as she often was in past years & that she is much more self disciplined about eating her sandwich before her snack at lunch time. 

Most importantly she seems to have really overcome her shyness & is playing well with the other kids in her class.  K has spent much more time with older kids & adults & in the past & because of that, has been a little more reserved with kids her own age.  It was wonderful to see her join in when the other kids were playing with horses & to initiate playing dress up.

"Happy Birthday to You, You Live In a Zoo"

K sang this to me today.  Word for word.  Unbeknownst to me, her sister KJ spent a little time one afternoon last week teaching this to K in preparation for my birthday today.  Unprompted, K gave me the cheekiest smile & sang the whole entire song.  The only variation was that for some reason she ended the song  "Happy Birthday, one, two."

Good speech & the ability to learn quickly is a good trait right?

K does know when it is appropriate or not too. She sang the song properly when everyone sang happy birthday to me tonight.

If my cheeky little monkey decides to cooperate, I'll try to post of video of her singing in the next couple of days.

Great Article on the Benefits of 4 Point Crawling

Edited to fix the link -  Thanks for letting me know Liz:)!

I found this article today & thought I would pass it along.  It has some really good points about the benefits of a 4 point crawl.

Baby Crawling: How Important It Really Ishttp://icpa4kids.org/Wellness-Articles/baby-crawling-how-important-it-really-is/All-Pages.html

A Quick Miscellaneous Update

We are 3/4 of the way through the skis race season & only have one week left in Jr. High basketball for the next set of playoff games & we seem to be still surviving!  It is a very fun time of year, but I do occasionally long for the summer months because while we still keep busy that time of year, we have no regular practices or obligations.

Anyways, here is a quick update on some miscellaneous things that Miss K has been up to lately.

She has conquered a new kitchen appliance.  K has been using the toaster for a long time,  & the hand mixer for a couple of years now.  I still don't let her plug them in though & I have to admit that this is not because I think she is not capable, but because I didn't let any of my kids do this until they were older because I am nervous about electrical things -  kind of silly, but better safe than sorry!

Anyways, it never really occurred to me to teach her to run any other appliances, until the other day when she "desperately needed" to have popcorn at snack time.  She even used her cutest new technique when she thought that I may say no. "Please can I have popcorn, honey?"  Who can say no to someone who uses the word honey to soften you up & uses please in the same sentence?

I decided that popcorn would be a fine idea for a snack, but as I went to get out the popcorn maker, I realized that there was no reason that she couldn't do it herself & besides me plugging it in & reaching the popcorn kernels in a tall cupboard, she did!  Making popcorn really isn't too difficult, but she did have to remember how all 3 pieces go together & make sure the bowl was lined up properly & be cautious about the hot air as it could burn her.  It was a simple task, but a good one to boost her confidence.

I have noticed some interesting changes in K's reading lately.  Since January she has been reading 3 or 4 books to me each day, as well as several to herself & the improvement is evident.  She is really understanding punctuation & is reading so much more expressively. If she makes a mistake on a word, she will go back & try again.  Sometimes this happens a couple of words later after she has read more of the sentence & she realizes that the word she said does not work in the context of the sentence. This is really proving to me how much of her reading she understands.

The thing that I am most excited about though is that she has grown 3/4 of an inch in exactly one month!  She is constantly asking for snacks, so I suspected she must be growing. Her thyroid was a little on the high side on her last blood test & I have been looking into ways to support it with the help of K's naturopathic doctor, some research & the advice of a friend.  All that I have done so far is to increase her iodine intake & I'm thinking that it is already making a difference.  Here is a link to some information on Andi's blog about stimulating growth in kids with DS.  

That's all for now!

I can't keep up!

........................with K's computer skills! I had planned to do a post with a movie of her using the computer mouse, but before I could get it posted, she moved on to something new & exciting!

For some reason, I never thought to show her how to use a mouse until earlier this fall.  I bought a child size mouse, with only 2 buttons and for about 4 or 5 days, showed K how to use it hand over hand.  The next day, she got impatient while waiting for me to start Little Reader for her, I was just about to go help her when I realized that she had already started it!

 

Isn't this the cutest little computer mouse you've ever seen?

K loves Winnie the Pooh!

She is getting quite good at using the mouse, however I again, hadn't really thought ahead about teaching her to use the built in mouse on my laptop.  Again, K was ahead of me as about a month ago, I looked over and realized that although the mouse was still in my computer bag, she had managed to start Little Reader anyways!  Maneuvering the mouse with your finger isn't easy - I think my laptop is really touchy - it takes good fine motor skills even for me!

31 for 21 - "W is for Wabbit"

I know its supposed to be 31 for 21, but I have completed my next 2 posts & want to do a Halloween post on Monday, so I'm going to add an extra.  35 or so for 21 is OK right?  This is a neat story so I really want to share it. You would think that I'd have run out of things to  talk about already:)!

Although K's speech is quite good for her age, we do have a lot of things to work on.  For example, she is starting to be able to say her R's, but still has quite a bit of trouble. It does lead to some funny situations sometimes. Tonight, Kassie asked me to play an alphabet game that she enjoys.   When we came to the letter W, she said "W  -  Wabbit"  I told her "No,  R - Rabbit".  Of course she insisted that W was for Wabbit & carried on through the alphabet. 

Although she was wrong about the spelling, it really showed that she is comprehending how to figure out the first letter of a word, because I'm sure none of us played this game using the word "Wabbit" or wrote "Wabbit" as a sight word.  She was able to sound the word out in her head & come up with what she thought was the first letter.

31 for 21 - A work in progress......................

Today we went to the funeral of an elderly neighbor.  It was a lovely celebration of life with a wonderful slide show showing his life story in pictures.  Our older daughters were all in school, but we took K along.................An hour long service sitting on a church bench can be a recipe for disaster, but I'm proud to say that she behaved wonderfully!  For over half the service (including the slide show) she just sat watching & listening.   She read books for the 2nd half, but did so in such a quiet whisper that she did not disturb anyone.

Then at the volleyball game later, she also sat for the full first game & most of the 2nd without complaint.  Eventually she did get bored & go play with some of the other kids who were coloring in the corner, but she sat for longer than she has at a game before.

WOW!  This is a skill that is really coming.

Of course, she is still a mischievous 4 year old, so I will share another story which explains why this is a work in progress.

At swimming lesson on Monday, really listened well & stayed with the group the almost whole time.  She is a good little swimmer, so paying attention the whole time really the most challenging part of the lesson for her.   I was very proud of K for listening so well, because there was only one incident when she decided to wander away.  The reason she got in trouble from her mom after wasn't so much the running away, but the fact that at one point when her instructor caught up with her, she took off running once again & yelled back "Ha Ha!!!!"

31 for 21 - Reading Comprehension

 These neat little cards from Discovery Toys are another  50 cent rummage sale bargain!  

They have short phrases & many of them are actions.  Most of them are really easy for K to read. Although we were very careful to avoid testing when K was young, we are much more relaxed about it now as she willingly reads out loud to us all the time.  I often read that kids with Down syndrome learn sight words, but that their comprehension lags behind their reading level.  I have always thought that k understood basically everything she reads, from simple words to more complex sentences. I purposely never taught her any of the words on these cards & have only had her read them to me.  They are a simple way for me to understand K's comprehension of what she is reading & I am very happy with how she is doing at this.  It is really confirming my thoughts that she is understanding what she reads.

K thinks it is quite a fun game to act out these cards:)!

31 for 21 - My Baby is Growing Up................

K is my youngest, & most likely my last baby, so sometimes little realizations that she is growing up & becoming independent are a little more bittersweet for me.  Before I had kids, I was not very comfortable with babies, even during my first pregnancy, my husband was surprised at how awkward I was when holding a neighbor's newborn. That all changed the instant my oldest daughter was born.  Holding her, & in time, my next 3 baby girls, felt like the most natural thing that I had ever done.  I am firm in my belief that I am doing exactly what I am meant to do right now & I am grateful for that. I'm getting off track though...........I notice that K's taste in entertainment is really changing lately.  She used to love Signing Time & at one point, thanks to Signing Time, knew several hundred signs.  I have rented a couple of the videos from a local library lately, & she is not at all interested.  She prefers to watch Super Why, various real life animal shows or movies, & even cartoons like Scooby Doo like her big sisters.  Her taste in music is changing too, & while she sometimes listens to kids songs, if she has control of my iPhone or the iPad, she almost always chooses the modern country & rock music that her sisters enjoy.  I am finding that my emotions are  very torn.  On one hand, we work so hard to help K become independant, but then she makes choices like this that show me she is growing up & the fact that my youngest is already so much her own person makes it a hard for me to know that I need to start to let go even in the small amounts that are appropriate at age 4.

I love you baby girl!

A few interesting facts about K

K is 4 years old & going to a typical preschool for the 2nd year in a 3/4 year old program.  She loves school & talks about her teacher & friends constantly. Sometimes she even insists that we sing & do some of the actions in the songs she learns at school.

K is doing better with safety rules such as being careful in the parking lot & around vehicles & will now wait on the sidewalk while I load groceries & that sort of thing.  She is a farm girl, so doesn't get as much practice with this, so it is  nice that I can start to trust her to be careful.

Her favorite TV shows are Super Why & animal shows like Zoobamafoo.  She is a whiz on the iPad & although she uses it for games a lot, lately she usually turns on the tunes first!  She loves listening to the same modern country & rock that her big sisters like - she does listen to kids songs sometimes, but it seems to be getting less & less often.  She has even stopped watching Signing Times - she gave up signing over a year ago, but still watch the movies for entertainment up until 5 or 6 months ago - my llittle girl is growing up!

K took swimming lessons this summer & between that & lots of practice after, she can now swim 8 or 10 feet independantly with her head in the water & without any sort of floatation device.  It is a great skill for her, but a little scary for me as she is a little too confident.

K's favorite color is yellow.

When we order out at a restaraunt, her request is always "I want fries & pizza please", but at home her first request, at least for snacks, would probably be berries (of any kind), Annies organic bunny crackers or SnapPea Crisps.

Lately, K has to jump off of everything - the bottom of the stairs, curbs, out of the truck, - you name it! If she isn't jumping off of things, she is climbing up them - why would you climb through a fence when you can climb over, right?

K continues to love books & her reading is improving all the time.  She even read an easy story that was her 3rd grade sister's homework the other day.

She loves pretend play & her Little People & Dora go on quite a few interesting adventures.  She also loves her babies & is a good mommy to them!  Lately, she seems to be getting attached to a Raggedy Andy doll that my Grandma made - some days her & Andy do everything together.

K has always been quite shy with strangers, but is finally getting  better in the last 6 months or so & will at least say hello to someone she doesn't know.  Somehow, she has always managed a flirty good bye though!

K is as determined as ever, & somehow, as the youngest member of the family, her sisters all unanimously agree that she is the boss!

Another Longvida Curcumin Update

I have posted about Longvida Curcumin (LC) before, but I think it is time for an update - I love this stuff!  The last time that I ordered, I purchased 3 bottles to be sure that I did not run out.  I must have put the 2nd two bottles away very carefully, because I still can't find them. Grrrrrrrrrr...............  I kept thinking they would show up, so I put off ordering more.  Finally, a few weeks ago, I gave up & reordered.  K's speech, while still good for her age, was just not where I knew it could be.  She was struggling to find words at times & was not as clear as before.  K was still speaking in sentences just like before, it just didn't seem like speech was flowing as easily as it had been.  She was off of it for at least a couple of months.

K has been back on LC for a couple of weeks now & it is such a relief to here her speech flow easily again.  I had found myself getting frustrated (with myself) at my inability to understand her at times & realized today that her speech clarity has greatly improved. I started writing down some of the things she has said this morning.  These are just the first few quick examples that I wrote down, and she will often speak in longer sentences or say more complex things:

"Can I go to school too please?"

"You stand back & catch me."

"Mommy, you're hair is brown - Wow!"     ( I finally dyed my prematurely gray hair - it was after she went to bed.  It was so cute that she was so surprised that I had brown hair lol!

``Mommy, look, I dropped it, it fell.``

Don't ask me where she got this one from, but this morning while we were doing her BrillKids Little Math program, one of the icons was obviously not grown up enough so K said "This is for babies!" ..........can you tell she has big sisters? lol  

Most of the time K can be understood by anyone, when she can't, it is often because she is speaking too quickly.  She talks well enough that since she was about 3.5, we have been allowing her to order her own meal & drink at a restaurant.

I have read that LC is not recommended for kids under one year due to possible gastrointestinal issues, but  like everything, you should research LC for yourself to be sure it is appropriate for your child.  

I buy the powder because K is too young to swallow capsules.  Many people just open the capsules, but they are packed so tightly that I found it quite difficult to do.  The risk to buying the powder is that is can spill more easily, but it is well worth the risk to me if I don`t have to fight with those pesky capsules! 

K has been off of LC a couple of times since we started last winter. Each time we have put her back on it, we have seen definite changes within a week.  Even my older girls, who had no idea what this supplement was about, all commented on how much better she start to speak.   

It is recommended that LC be given in the evening, however my daughter will be up half the night if I were to do that, so we give it in the morning.  My understanding is that this is not an uncommon reaction.

For more information on LC, here is a link to the website that I buy it from: NuTriVene

Here is a link to all of the posts labelled Longvida on Qadoshyah Fish on her blog Got Down Syndrome: Got Down Syndrome

Here is a link to a very informative post written by Andi Durkin of Down Syndrome: a Day to Day Guide: Andi's blog on Longvida Curcumin

I recently came across a site that lists books by reading level.
I put in the titles of K's favorite 2 books & this is what it came up with:

Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now! reading level 1.1 - meaning grade one, first month.  I have been estimating that K is at about a grade one level, so I was pretty pleased with that.

Next, I tried her other favorite - Duck in a Truck -  reading level...............get this!  Grade 2.5 - that's the 5th month of grade 2!

Have I said before that this little girl amazes me?

Here is the site if you would like to see how your little one is doing  but remember, make it fun, no testing right?..............or at least be sneaky about it :)

AR Book Finder

 

At what age did K first start reading?

I am not a good record keeper & lost track of how old K was when she started reading.  The other day I stumbled on the post I wrote on a forum when K was 15 months old. I copied it here:

K is 15 months old.  I have been doing a reading program since she was about 6 months, however it has been much more organized since I discovered the Little Reader Program.  I have never tested her before today.  We tested her with about 10 different word cards.  She got every one right!  K has down syndrome.  Thirty years ago I would have been told to put her in an institution because she was unteachable ( I could never have done that).  Even when she was born I was given old & outdated information about her potential.  I admit I had never heard of teaching babies to read a year ago & would not have believed she could do this.  The sky is the limit for my little girl!  Thanks to every one here for all the help and information & for a place to come to celebrate with others who understand.

Thanks again from one proud Momma!

Wow!  I'm glad I found this again!

Wonderful, Very Informative Post on Oral Motor Therapy

This is a link to an awesome blog post written about oral motor therapy. It has so much information all in one place - all new moms (& anyone else working in oral motor issues with their kids) should read this:

http://bitsofreallife.blogspot.com/2011/08/oral-motor-therapy.html



 I should also mention that there are a few words used in this blog post that you won't find on mine;)
Don't let that stop you from appreciating the information in this article & the amount of research that went into it.  The author is an awesome mom who is doing a great job with her adorable little guy!



And make sure you read the Talk Tolks article called The Oral Motor Myths of DS that she talked about. I've mentioned it before on my blog it is one of my favorite articles & is well worth repeating.

Here it is - 3rd article from the bottom of the list:

http://www.talktools.com/s.nl/it.I/id.20/.f

Swimming Lessons & Random Thoughts About Stamina

K did awesome at swimming lesson this week  She passed her level with flying colors.  And no......i didn't tell them she had DS when I registered her.  She is a more advanced than at least 2 of my older dd's at this age & I really didn't think it was relevant. As it turned out, she was also one of the more advanced kids in the class & was a willing participant in all of the activities...... well, except for getting out of the pool at the end of each lesson :)!


I have read a number of times that kids with DS do not have as much stamina as typical kids, but K's stamina really impressed me this week. 

We registered for the "cram session" of swiming lessons.  This means that we crammed 2 weeks of lessons into one. It is always a long week & my older daughters's were/are always exhausted afterwards.  K was in the pool at about 9:30 for her first lesson.  She had a 1.5 hour break & then was back in the pool for her 2nd lesson of the day.  In between lessons, she had a snack, then played on the playground.  We came home, then after lunch most days she went outside to play & was generally very active.  She went to bed at her regular time all week & although she hasn't napped since she was about 2, I had anticipated her needing one this week.  Of course she proved me wrong & didn't nap once during the week!

Swimming lessons ended on Friday & we had tickets to a large outdoor music festival which meant leaving home first thing Saturday morning.  I debated about not taking K because her week had been so full already but ended up bringing her along because she had enjoyed it so much last year.  We had a wonderful time listening to music, & enjoying all the exhibits & activities like the bouncy house.  K enjoyed every last minute & only fell asleep once the final fireworks were done signalling an end to the evening.  Now that is stamina!