Taking the Scenic Route

This summer we added a literacy component to Zane’s ST schedule, focusing on Reading Comprehension.  Since he loves science and doing science experiments, that is the vehicle we are using to help develop comprehension and writing skills.

This session’s experiment was putting Mentos into various kinds of soda pop to see which had the strongest reaction.  By the end of the experiment, he was wet and sticky from pop hitting him.  He kept licking himself. 

(photos from a combination of my cranky cell phone (first one), and the video the Clinical Educator is taking in this photo)

Teaching Zora (and Zane, but he was earlier) how to play Suduko, via a Mario Bros. game board.  True nerd bliss.

After our weekly family meeting, we let the kids pick a game each (and do everything we can to dissuade them from Mousetrap, because that game is torture for adults) and play.  Zora chose the Dora Candy Land game, but since we only have one surviving original piece (Boots with Balloons) they raided the toy box to find other characters to play.

Zane chose Uno.  (and the adults cheer!).  Since both kids lack the hand size and motor planning that Uno often requires, I ran downstairs to my “don’t want to throw this away just in case I need it” pile and grabbed a piece of styrofoam.  A few slices with a knife across the top and you have handy dandy card holders.  I have seen these made out of those foam florist bricks wrapped in packing tape and it worked a little nicer, but this was successful, and FREE. (although the styrofoam snow was a tad annoying to me, it didn’t really bother anything).  The original idea was passed on by a local OT designing something to hold cards for stroke patients.  I thought it was pretty clever.

Oh, and Zach lost.  By a lot.

I had to giggle when Zora decided to make “bacon” out of Zane’s play-do.

At Speech Therapy/Friendship group they did a sensory/science experiment with cornstarch and water.  Of all the kids that had done it that day, apparently Zane was about the only one who thought the resulting substance was cool, and, being the nerd I am, I mentioned that we should make some when we got home to see if we could do the Big Bang Theory speaker experiment, and they gave me all their goop to take home.  (I must be crazy to have been excited about it…if you can imagine me carefully driving home to avoid spilling it all over the car).

Well, the experiment didn’t work, probably because our subwoofer isn’t powerful enough, but we did manage to contain our mess enough not to ruin the speaker (truly an accomplishment for us).  The goop was then banished outdoors for further experimentation, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

I did have a moment of panic the next day when I was putting Zane’s hair back for gymnastics and discovered what I thought was some horrible skin/scalp condition, called Zach over, and after some worry suddenly realizing it was dried cornstarch caked onto his head.  Duh.

Daddy takes his shoes off, Zora sees it, runs over, takes her shoes off and carefully lines them up next to dads. lol

Tuesday was packed with activity.  The day started with Zora at preschool (as usual) and Zane doing a bunch of literacy/comprehension testing (not usual).  Since both kids were occupied, and mom was slated to come up that day, she came early so that we could go out for breakfast (very unusual).  It was a really fun morning for us.  A wonderful, relaxing breakfast, followed by some quick shopping, then back to pick up the kids.

Zane requested Ci-Cis for lunch, and since he had worked so hard all morning, we went there over Zora’s objections (she wanted McDonalds…for the playground.  Zane doesn’t like McDs burgers and Zora often requests Ci-Cis herself, so he won this round).  Both ate well, then, in reverse of the normal procedure, Zane and my mom went to play (Exploration Place) and Zora went with me.  I had a WIC appointment to get that reinstated and she had to come with me.  The appointment took most of the afternoon, most of it in waiting rooms.  She was a trooper though.  She didn’t even cry when they did the iron test (finger prick) and it was almost alien for me to have a child that easily followed directions (like where to stand to weighing and measuring).

By the time we got out of our WIC appointment, Mom and Zane were leaving Exploration Place to come back to our side of town for some ice cream at Braums.  Zora and I picked up Zach and met her there.  Zora wanted chocolate chip ice cream, Zane wanted birthday cake flavor and orange sherbet.  Zach was in the middle of a project at home, but he stayed long enough to eat and socialize a little before heading back home to finish up his project on the computer.  (he met us later at swim lessons).

Here is Zora right after showing us where she got her finger prick, and not quite sure why the adults started laughing like 12 yo boys when she enthusiastically showed us her finger.

After a while, Zane picked up the camera.  Here are some of his photos:

And then Zora wanted a turn:

And me, from my cell phone

We had so much fun, but the adults were WORN OUT by the end of the day.

Since I was on the couch for the week, Zach took over the homeschooling stuff.  Zane finally seems to be seeking out learning again, after the disaster that was K12 Virtual Academy.  It took a few months of de-schooling and a lot of patience on my part not to push, but we seem to be back on track.

Zach and Zane decided it would be fun to do some math, so they pulled out the Miquon books and did a bunch of stuff on “time”.   They had a ball drawing different shaped clocks, square, triangle, amoeba (and a “no boundaries” clock) and drawing the hands as appropriate.

Then they talked about using the time to describe placement, like on a dinner plate, like this:

Zach drew a big clock on the chalkboard and wrote the problem on the board (Zane loves working on the chalkboard).  After he wrote out the problem, he had Zane draw it.  Mr. Literal Boy drew the contents on the plate in lines, in the shape of the clock arms. 

In other weirdness, Zach reviewed addition and subtraction concepts in a way only a guy would think of.  He drew people in a house, had people outside and did different word problems.  Many of the problems involved things like “if 3 people are struck by lightening, and 4 people run into the house, how many are left outside”.  There were also story lines about a “pit”, people falling into the pit, the smart people who built a bridge, the boulders that came down the hill running over people.  I could hear them laughing and giggling like crazy from upstairs and was amused to find out why.

In another “weird food by Zora” post, here she is enjoying her requested snack.  Sour cream on wheat bread.  Um.  WHY?