On Ada and James and Games
We had a teacher conference for Ada last Friday, and one for James the Tuesday before Ada’s. James has been doing great at drop-off until recently when he decided to revert back to crying and screaming and such. Distracting him with food has always worked in the past, but not so much now. He eventually gets over it and is fine the rest of the day, but geez. What’s the deal? James is working on exciting things such as going down the stairs, and two word phrases and understanding that when he throws the ball against the wall, it will bounce back. He shouldn’t act surprised everytime it comes back and bonks him in the head.
Ada meet all of her goals for the school year already. I believe that they are going to continue working on the same areas, but just up her goals. Most of her work is in the life skills area. She does things like folding napkins, washing dishes, cutting apples and bananas, making toast, using a screwdriver, riding a tricycle, building things out of blocks and so on. She works with an OT and a speech therapist on Tuesdays still. Her speech is getting quite a bit better. She is still behind for her age, but she is improving quickly. She does some work in the academic areas where she is ahead of her age. If she makes the same kind of progress in her speech and gross motor skills during the second half of the school year, her new goals that will be done in May for the next school year will include the academic areas. I’m excited for her to start reading, and not the “mimic and memorize” that make most parents exclaim “My child can read!” She can do that now, as can most kids her age. She will get to work on actual reading. And math! Of course, with a couple of Christmas presents that I have picked out for her, she will be working on math anyhow.
Ada has also earned the label “independent and stubborn.” There was hesitation before the word “stubborn” was used, but she is. Her most common phrase is “No thank-you! Ada do it! No, Ada do it! ADA DO IT!!!” She doesn’t want anybody to help her with anything. It makes it difficult when people don’t really want to do it for her, but just guide her on how to do something when she is having difficulties. However, she is sometimes too proactive on her approach, and she will spurt out “No! Ada do it!” if she perceives that someone is coming to try to help her with something, even though they aren’t. On the flip side, she will work and work and work on something until she gets it. She will not quit. She gets frustrated with it sometimes, but she doesn’t give in. That personality trait will be the most beneficial to her than any other. I couldn’t be more thrilled that my daughter is independent and stubborn. She is also a little too possessive with what she perceives as belonging to her at home. She has a Hello Kitty crayon and marker holder. She was playing with it this weekend on the living room floor when James walked close to her. She started yelling “No J! No J! Mine!” and then she threw herself on top of her crayons, lying on them so James couldn’t get them. He wasn’t even trying. He was just looking at her like she had gone crazy.
We picked up Animal Crossing for the Wii yesterday before picking up the kids. Ada and I played last night for a little bit. We haven’t even paid our house off yet. We may play a little tonight. She loves just waking around and talking to the other animals and collecting and counting cherries. She also named the town, so we live in “Go Kitty.” She is having an equal amount of fun in Viva Pinata. Her favorite activities for me to do there are to have the pinatas eat fruit and to water and fertilize plants. She doesn’t have the motor skills yet to work the controls in either game, so I do that while she hints at what to do. However, she can take the controls in Lego Batman and collect coins. My favorite moment in that games is when she gets near an edge and exclaims “Don’t go there. That’s where I fall down!” I may work with her though in Animal Crossing. I think with some practice, she’ll be able to walk around town and collect stuff.
I still say I learned more English from PBS and School House Rock than school.