Home school... No school!

I know... shocker... I actually posted something!

As most of you know, Justin had ear tubes put in about a month ago. He instantly showed signs that he could hear things he wasn't hearing before... and began making new sounds! He even said, "ME!" That was exciting to us considering he'll be 3 in May and can only say, Mom.

He can sign over 100 signs. Communication is not a problem, but speech is.

Well, the fun wore off. He isn't so excited about speaking after all. He can make many sounds... b, d, h, k, l, m, n, p... but only when he is babbling. I know it will come... but in the mean time... I need to work on it with him along with other things such as colors, matching, etc. He starts BIG BOY pre-school the 1st of May! He has been attending Early Intervention pre-school every Tuesday and a speech therapist comes to our house twice per month.

My girls are currently off track... and LOVING every minute of it so far. They are my biggest helpers. So I had a plan...

Here it is...

I start with a COLOR of the day. Today.... RED.
Can't have red day with out the red shirt!

I fill a container with RED items. To encourage the "n" sound, we KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK on the container. I wait for him to make the "n" sound.

...then we say, "Open" I wait for him to make the "o" sound.

I let him choose the item. We talk about it and focus on the color. We say "red", we sign "red"... and we repeat with each item.

When we are finished, I have him place the red thing (for lack of a better name) on the proper colored peg.

If he gets it right... we throw a major party! (you know that party...the clap and cheer kind!)
We will continue each day with a different color in the container.

I have also started to focus on one "turtle vowel" each day. Then we use and abuse that sound whenever we have the opportunity to. Oh... it's annoying... but I kind of think it might be working! Today was "A." (long sound) So you better believe that EVERY SINGLE TIME I called April's name, we focused on that "A" sound! Not to mention all the long "A" sounds that are used in books, food, toys... you catch my drift!
If he could just add these long vowel sounds to the b, d, h, k, l, m, n, p sounds that he knows... he'd have some words! Bye, hi, my, me, no... etc.

Now that part about my girls being off track... they won't let me slack off.... and that sure helps me! I'm not the only one that focuses on the sound of the day... they remember too!
Maybe... just maybe, in my next post... he might be making more sounds!