School Time 9/27 - How We Use Rocks

I asked Becca if she wanted to do school time today, she said yes. I told her today we were going to go outside for school time and learn about how we use rocks to make things. I asked if that sounded interesting to her and she said yes. We got everyone outside and walked down the street to a house that had big rocks in front for decoration. We looked at them. Then we walked up to the actual house and looked at the bricks the house was made of. I asked Becca if she knew what they were and she said yes. I said they were bricks. I asked if she knew what bricks were made of and she didn't say yes. I told her they were made out of rocks, kind of like how we made mud yesterday when we mixed dirt and water together. Then we walked back down to the sidewalk, and I asked Becca to look down. She did and we saw that there were rocks in the asphalt, and that the road and also the sidewalk were made out of rocks. We walked around the neighborhood and saw that all the houses were made out of rocks. We also looked for things that weren't made of rocks, like trees and fences.

I asked Becca if she was tired because she wasn't opening her eyes very wide, and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to go home and she said no. So we walked around a little longer, while her siblings ran around and played and we looked at flowers and yards (also not made out of rocks).

When we finally got home I asked Becca if she wanted to be done with school time, and she wouldn't say yes. I figured we'd review what we learned another day, but when I asked if she wanted to play a review activity she said yes. So we printed out a bunch of pictures and had two big squares on her plastic board, rocks and not rocks. I told Becca that mommy wanted to work with her this time and was that ok, and she said yes.

Paula held up a picture of a brick wall between the "rocks" and "not rocks" pictures and asked Becca if bricks were made out of rocks or not rocks. Becca looked back and forth at both pictures. Paula prompted again, and Becca looked at "rocks" and then back at Paula very quickly. It was so quick Paula wasn't sure if it was a choice, so she asked for confirmation and Becca said yes, she thought bricks were made out of rocks. Paula said yes, they were, and we all cheered.

Next Paula did a tree, and Becca chose "not rocks" after looking back and forth a few times. Again Paula wasn't sure if that was actually her choice, so she confirmed again and Becca said yes to her choice. We cheered and said that was right, and attached the picture to the "not rocks" section. Next Paula held up a picture of Becca as a baby. Becca wouldn't pick "rocks" or "not rocks" at all, even after lots of prompting. I chimed in and said we hadn't talked about whether people were made of rocks, but she could just guess if she wanted to. She still wouldn't pick one. Eventually Paula set that one aside. Next she did a picture of sidewalk, and Becca chose "rocks" very quickly. Next was a window, and Becca chose "not rocks" very quickly. It seems like when Becca has a choice board where the options aren't moving (i.e. two new options every time) she doesn't need to look back and forth much before picking. On asphalt Becca wouldn't pick without a lot of prompting. Eventually she chose "rocks". 

Next was a picture of dirt. Becca looked at the picture of dirt for a little while, then might have picked "not rocks". Paula reminded Becca about what we talked about yesterday, that dirt is made up of little tiny rocks. Then Becca chose "rocks" on her own. Next was a picture of a car, Becca chose "not rocks" very quickly. Paula said that was right, and talked about how it would be silly if cars were made out of rocks because they'd be so heavy and they'd fall apart into dirt. After that was a picture of a cow, which Becca quickly chose as "not rocks".

Last, Paula held up the picture of Becca as a baby again. Becca wouldn't pick right away, but after some prompting it looked like she chose "not rocks". Paula wasn't sure so she confirmed, and Becca said yes. 

School Time 9/26 - Rocks & Experiments

Today was a yes for school time. I got Becca situated in her chair and she was couching a little bit to start. I told her no worries, today we're just going to learn about rocks and dirt and soil, no tests or anything.

First I asked Becca and her sister if they knew where rocks came from. Neither one would say yes. I talked about mountains and how in the rain and earthquakes and things the mountains start to break of really big pieces of rock, and those break smaller and smaller until they become rocks like I'd gathered from the yard onto a plate. I held it up and Becca looked at it. I took a rock out and put it in her hand so she could feel it. I talked a little about how some rocks are hard and some are smooth, usually because they got rolled around in the water until all the hard parts got chipped offed. We felt both a hard rock and a soft rock.

Then I got another paper plate with small rocks on it and talked about how those came from bigger rocks that broke into smaller pieces, and we felt those rocks as well. Becca looked attentively down at the plates both times. Then I got a plate with dirt on it and talked about how dirt is really just really small, teeny tiny rocks that had been broken up. I put a little bit of dirt in my hand and held it up to Becca's sister and asked what it looked like. She said, "rocks". Then I held some up and Becca looked intently at it as well. I asked if she wanted to feel it, and when she said yes I helped her feel it.

After that I talked about how when dirt mixes with dead plants and animals and pieces of wood and animal poop then it looks a little different, and I held up some soil from our garden on another plate. We looked at how it was different than the dirt, and had tiny pieces of wood in it too. Then I got a plate with grass clippings on it and talked about how grass and other plants grow in soil, because all of those things mixed together make "vitamins" for the plants that make them healthy so they can grow. I helped Becca feel the grass as well.

Then I held up the soil plate and the small rocks plate and asked Becca which she thought would be better for growing plants. She looked back and forth at the two plates a lot of times, but wouldn't pick one. She looked noticeably more at the soil plate, but she wouldn't look back up at me after looking at it, like her cue is normally.  After a little while she looked like she picked the soil one, and when I asked to confirm she wouldn't say yes. I asked if she was choosing the other one, then, and she wouldn't say yes. I said, "you need to pick one, are you trying to trick me?" and she laughed and looked at me. Then when I asked about the rocks one again she didn't say yes, but when I asked about the soil one she said yes. I said that's right and we talked again about the "vitamins" in soil that would help it grow, and how rocks aren't good for plants to grow in.

Next I asked Becca's sister a question, I can't remember which. After that I held up the grass and the dirt, and asked Becca which came from the mountain rocks. Which one did the big mountain rocks become after they fell down and broke apart, the dirt or the grass? She looked at both again but then looked away. I realized she was staring at the plate of small rocks to the side. I said yes, mountain rocks do become those size of rocks eventually. I moved them away and asked about the dirt and grass again. She wouldn't pick, so I started asking one, then the other. She still wouldn't confirm. I reminded her it wasn't a big deal, and she could pick one if she wanted. Eventually I started pausing longer after asking, and she said yes when I asked her about the dirt. I said yes, the dirt was just little tiny rocks after all.

After this I proposed we do some experiments and see what happens when we mix things with water. I had a clear plastic container. First I put in some rocks and asked Becca and her sister if they thought the rocks would change when we added water. Becca's sister said she thought they wouldn't change. I asked Becca if she thought they would change, and she didn't say yes. I asked if she thought they would stay the same and she didn't say yes. I said, it's got to be one or the other, silly girl! The next time she said yes, she thought they would stay the same. We poured water on them and, sure enough, they stayed the same.

Next we did the same with dirt. This time Becca answered first, and she said yes she thought the dirt would change, first time. Becca's sister thought the same. We poured water on, and it turned to mud! That was definitely a change. We felt the mud and Becca got a big smile, I think partly because I forgot to get a towel so I just had to hold her hand while Paula got a towel for us.

After that we did grass. Becca's sister thought the grass would change. Becca had a coughing fit in the middle of me asking, but after her cough was over she said yes to the grass staying the same. Sure enough, the grass stayed the same. We did flour next. Becca picked first and thought it would change. Becca's sister thought it would change too. It did, and we felt the paste that it made, and Becca smiled again at that. Next we did oil. Becca thought it would not change and her sister thought it would change. We poured water in and looked at it (Becca would look attentively at the container after each time I poured water in and mixed it around) and noticed bubbles in the water where the oil was coming through. I said that's because the oil and water don't mix together, the oil doesn't change when you add water. Last we did some juice. Becca's sister and then Becca both thought the water would mix with the juice, not stay separate like the oil. Sure enough, that's what happened. I told them that oil is one of the few things that doesn't mix with water, but other things like milk and chocolate syrup and juice and soda pop all mix with water. I talked a little bit about what an experiment was, trying something new to see what would happen, and how even things like trying new food can be an experiment. Then we called it good.

I asked Becca if she had fun with the activity and she wouldn't say yes. I said I thought she was tricking me again because she was smiling when we were feeling all the goopy things mixed with water. I asked her again and this time she said a definite yes, that she had fun with school time today.

Side note: I was really surprised that Becca got all the experiments "right". With something like experiments I didn't feel like there was pressure to pick a "right" answer, we were just guessing and then discovering, so I was less worried about me introducing my own bias because it didn't matter to me which answer she picked, I was kind of hoping she wouldn't get so many right actually.

School Time 9/25 - Measuring Round 2

School time got a yes response. When I sat down on the couch by Becca she was just staring at me expectantly, like, "are you going to ask me or what?" I wasn't planning on doing it today, but I couldn't say no to that look.

I told Becca we would work on measuring again today, and asked if that was all right. She said yes. Becca had more congestion than she has in a little while so we had to stop a number of times to take a break. She also seemed less motivated in general.

This time we just did the "think of a number in your head" guessing over and over. I would hold something in front of Becca and we'd talk about what it was. Then I said, let's all think in our heads how many blocks tall we think the object is. I told Becca to let me know when she had picked a number. On the first object, a wood square that was 2 blocks tall, Becca wouldn't say she was ready and when I asked her numbers she wouldn't pick one. I assured her we were just guessing and it didn't matter if we got it right or not. We were just trying to learn how tall things are. After that I started asking if she thought the wood was 1 block tall, 2 blocks tall -- she thought it was two blocks tall. I told her I thought it was 2 blocks tall too, and that's what Becca's sister chose as well. We measured and got to 2 blocks when we reached the top of the toy. We cheered for all of us since we all guessed the right number.

Next we did a box of crackers from yesterday. I asked Becca to let me know when she had chosen a number and after a second she looked at me. I asked Becca if it was 3 blocks tall, 4 blocks tall - she thought it was 4 blocks tall. Her sister thought it was 5 blocks tall. I said I thought it was 4 blocks tall. We measured up to 4 blocks and I pointed out that it wasn't tall enough. It was 5 blocks tall! We cheered for Becca's sister for getting it right.

Next we had 2 objects that were both about 2.5 blocks tall that Becca's sister had picked. The first one Becca's sister guessed first and said it was 2 blocks tall. I waited for Becca to tell me she'd picked a number. I asked if it was 1 block tall, 2 blocks tall -- she said it was 2 blocks tall. I chose 2 blocks tall as my guess. We measured to 2 and I pointed out that it wasn't high enough. Then we measured to 3 and it was too high. I said, oh no! It's in between 2 and 3. That's a tricky one. We were all as close as we could get so we cheered for everyone.

The same thing happened with the other object, except Becca's sister chose 3 blocks after Becca chose 2 blocks. I chose 2 blocks. We measured again and it was another tricky one, in between 2 and 3, so we cheered for everyone.

Next we measured a water bottle that was 4 blocks tall. I talked about how we had some reference points with a 5-block-tall box, a 3-block-tall cat, a 1-block-tall tomato, and that might help us. If something was the same as the box it must be 5 blocks tall, etc. I waited for Becca to tell me she had her number. She decided very quickly after looking at the bottle. I asked her if it was 1 block tall, 2 blocks tall - she chose 2 blocks tall. Becca's sister chose 4 blocks tall, and I chose 3 blocks tall. We measured up to 4 blocks tall. We cheered for Becca's sister for getting it right.

We then did 2 other objects that were 2 blocks tall, one from yesterday. At this point Becca slowed down in her selections. On the first object I think she might have picked 5 blocks tall, but I wasn't sure. I talked about the height relative to other objects again, and how that might help us know how tall it was. I went through all the numbers again and then once more very slowly. That time she picked 2 blocks tall. The second object was similar, we had to go through the numbers twice and wait on a coughing fit before she picked 2 blocks tall. I try not to over-emphasize the "right" answer with Becca, especially on something like that where it doesn't really matter, but the second time through I leaned in while asking and she engaged on that option. She didn't do that before when I leaned in on a different number, but I'm still not sure I wasn't affecting things.

Next we did a sandal. Becca indicated right away that she had picked a number. She smiled big when I asked her if it was 1 block tall and she looked right at me to confirm. I thought it was 1 block tall, but Becca's sister thought it would be 2 blocks tall. We measured and it was 1 block tall, and Becca laughed. We cheered for getting it right.

We did one other object, I can't remember what it was or the height, but Becca had a hard time picking. I had to go through the numbers three times before she would pick one. I think it was 3 blocks tall and I wasn't sure if she picked 5 when I got to it, but then we talked about 

At this point Becca had a coughing fit and we had a wait a few minutes. I asked if she wanted to do one more and she wouldn't say yes. Then I asked if she wanted to be done and she wouldn't say yes. I asked again if she wanted to one more and she eventually said yes.

We looked at a 4-block-tall glass. I acted out what we do with a glass. About five seconds after the prompt Becca said she was ready with a number. I asked through all the numbers up to five and she wouldn't look at me for any. I went through comparing to other shapes and then I went through the numbers again, this time with very long pauses. 1 block, 2 blocks, 3 blocks, 4 blocks -- she might have said 4 blocks. I asked for confirmation and she looked at me quickly and then started coughing. I should point out that there were a lot of times today when she would say "no", as opposed to not saying yes. She would look at me for a split second and then look away, and I would tell her I understood that to mean "no". If she sustained eye contact then I would interpret that as "yes". This time it was a short "yes" interrupted by a cough, but I took it since she'd already had a couple coughing fits on this object. We measured up to 4, which we all got right. We cheered and celebrated and called it done.

After that I asked Becca if she had fun and she might have said yes, I was unsure. I asked again and this time she sustained eye contact to say yes.

School Time 9/24 - Measuring

School time was a go. I told Becca I wanted to practice measuring things today. I asked her if she knew what measuring meant and she said no. I said we wanted to take a bunch of things and see how tall they are. We wanted to see how many blocks tall they were. I asked if she wanted to do that with me and she said yes.

First we took six blocks and stacked them, counting as we went. Then we took some household items like a box of crackers, a tomato, and a puzzle and measured how many blocks tall they were. We would take the object and then stack blocks next to it until it reached the height of the object. We had things that were one, three and five blocks tall. After the first few I started asking Becca to guess in her head how tall she thought each object was. I asked her to let me know when she'd picked a number. She would look at me and I'd ask if she had a number. When she said yes again then we would measure just like before.

The first time it was five blocks high I asked if five was the number she picked in her head. She wouldn't say yes. Then I asked if she picked a different number than five in her head. She wouldn't say yes again. I said, "you forgot to pick a number!" The second time it was three blocks high and I asked if three was the number she picked, she said yes. The third time was similar.

Then I took an object that was three blocks tall, a can of formula, and put it in front of Becca. I held up her plastic board with a 1, 3, and 5 on it. I asked her if the formula can was one block tall, three blocks tall or five blocks tall. She looked at all the numbers and then up at three and back at me with a big smile on her face. I asked if three was her choice and she said yes. We measured and it was three blocks tall! We cheered and did a celebration dance and she laughed a lot.

Next I grabbed a tower of Duplo blocks. I asked her how tall the tower was, 1 or 3 or 5 blocks tall (it was 5 blocks tall). She looked at all the numbers and wouldn't pick. It looked like she picked three and when I asked she wouldn't say yes. Then she looked at five and back at me, and when I asked if that was her choice she wouldn't say yes. She looked around at all the numbers a couple more times and then wouldn't pick. I realized I didn't explain that these objects were definitely 1, 3 or 5. Not sure if that was the problem, she was thinking of a different number. I then asked if it was one block tall like the tomato, three blocks tall like the bubble toy, or five blocks tall like the crackers (I used this comparison on all following questions when she struggled, too). She still took a while, but eventually she picked three again and said yes when I confirmed. We measured and when we got to three I pointed out that it wasn't enough blocks, so we kept going. We got to five blocks. We celebrated getting to the right number.

Next we measured a stuffed animal (5 blocks tall, trying to avoid process of elimination). I asked how tall it was and Becca wouldn't pick again. I assured her we were just guessing and it didn't matter if we got it right or wrong. It was really hard to tell if she was picking, and it looked like she picked 3, then 5, then 1, but each time she wouldn't confirm. Eventually she picked 5 and might have confirmed, or it might have been me putting words in her mouth, not sure on that one. I said I thought it was only three blocks tall. We measured and when we got to three it wasn't tall enough. It was 5 blocks tall. Hooray!

After that we grabbed and Eeyore toy (1 block tall). Becca got a big smile on her face. When I held up the numbers and asked she quickly picked one block tall and confirmed when I asked her again. We measured and sure enough, it was 1 block tall. Hooray!

Next we measured a bar of deodorant (3 blocks tall). Becca wouldn't pick again, and it felt like she wasn't liking the quizzing version of the game so I made a mental note to just go back to just measuring after this one. She picked 3 but wouldn't confirm, 1 but wouldn't confirm. Once I compared the numbers to things we'd already measured again then she picked 3 and definitely confirmed. Becca's sister said she thought it was one block tall. We measured and when we got to three I pointed out that it one black wasn't enough. We kept going and sure enough, it was 3 blocks tall. Celebration time!

After that we went back to holding up an item, guessing in our head how tall it was, and then measuring. We had a wood plaque that was 2 blocks tall. I asked Becca if 2 was the number she picked and she said yes with a smile. Then we measured a toothbrush. Becca's sister thought it was four blocks tall. I asked Becca if she though it was four blocks tall but she wouldn't say yes. I asked if she thought it was three blocks tall and she said yes. I said I thought it was three blocks tall too. We measured and when we got to three it wasn't enough, so we kept going and it was four blocks tall! We cheered for Becca's sister.

We measured a few more things without the plastic communication board. Becca confirmed 3 blocks for the 3-block-tall toy and 1 block for her shoe. She picked 4 for the 4-block-tall toothbrush before her sister also picked 4, 4 for the 3-block-tall deodorant after her sister also picked 4, 3 for the 3-block-tall shower scrubber before her sister also picked 3, and 3 for the 2-block-tall popsicle holder after her sister picked 3.

Afterwards I asked if she had fun and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to be done and she said yes.

School Time 9/19 - How Cities Change

Today Becca said yes to school time again. I told her we were going to learn about Utah today and how Utah grew over time, but first we needed to go over jobs again. We reviewed jobs and where people work. I would show her a picture and ask if she knew what it was. When she said yes I would say "yes, that's the post office" or "school" or whatever. Then I said, "can you think of somebody that works there?" and when she looked at me (usually after a second or two or three) then I'd say "a doctor works a the hospital" or whatever. After we did all four workplaces then I asked her where she goes every day, to school or to the farm. She wouldn't pick for a little while, and I asked her if she'd ever been to a farm. She wouldn't say yes. After that she looked at the school and back at me. I told her she had been to her grandpa's farm before and seen a horse and a pig, but it was a long time ago. Then I asked her which she thought would be more fun to visit, the farm or the post office. She looked at both pictures a couple times, then at the farm and back at me. I said I'd rather see the farm too, with all the animals and plants it would be so fun. Then I asked Becca if she were a grownup, where would she rather work, the hospital or the post office. She looked back and forth a couple times, then I think she looked at the post office and back at me. I held the post office closer and asked, did you pick the post office? She said yes, so we talked about why the post office is fun. I asked Becca's sister which she would rather work at and she picked the hospital, she said she wanted to be a doctor because she could help people feel better.

After that I said I wanted to talk about how Utah has changed over time. I talked about how Becca's grandma grew up in Utah and her mom and dad and their mom and dad grew up in Utah, but that lots of people didn't used to live there. Some people came to live here and they built some small houses out of wood, and I showed a picture. Then I showed a picture of when people started to build things out of brick and the city got a little bigger. We talked about how people would have kids and their kids would want their own houses because they didn't all fit in the houses anymore, and so they kept building more houses and bigger buildings. Then I showed another picture of when there was a downtown and some large building. Last I showed a picture of Salt Lake City today and showed how very big the buildings are now.

Next we had a quick hand game.

After that I showed the old Utah picture again and talked about what classrooms used to be like back then, one-room classrooms. Then I showed Becca a picture of her school and asked her if she knew what it was a picture of. She wouldn't say yes, so I asked Paula and she said it looked like Becca's school. Then I showed Becca another picture, this one of the pool at her school. I asked if it looked familiar and she looked over at Paula again. Paula said it looked like her pool. I talked about how now there are lots more people at the school and lots of different classrooms and fancy things they didn't used to have. 

After that I asked Becca if she knew what a neighborhood was. She wouldn't say yes. I explained that a neighborhood is a bunch of houses all close together. I talked about basically if we have to drive to someone's house then they're not in our neighborhood. I said grandma isn't in our neighborhood, but Samuel (a friend from her church class, but I didn't point that out) was in our neighborhood. I quizzed Becca and her sister on various people and if they're in our neighborhood. I asked Becca if her Olivia from her church class was in our neighborhood, and she said yes. I asked her if her cousin James lives in our neighborhood and she said no (she looked far away, not just not looking at me if that makes sense). I asked Becca if Berkeley (our next-door neighbor) lives in our neighborhood and she said yes.

After that we did another hand game.

Then I somehow tied neighborhoods back into school and asked Becca which school she'd rather go to, her school or the old school where everyone was in the same classroom. She looked back and forth a couple times and then looked at her school and back at me. I said her school does have a lot of fancy stuff in it, and it was a fun school.

Next I asked Becca which came first in Utah, the old wooden houses or the fancy buildings. She looked at booth and then looked at the old picture and back at me. Next I said I was going to do a hard one, and I showed her the two pictures of Utah that were somewhat similar, but one was a little newer. I said one had some wood and some brick buildings and the other had brick buildings that were a little taller. She had a little coughing fit and wouldn't engage, so we wiggled her arms just a little bit and then I switched the pictures (I realized I'd been putting the right answer on hear leaning side more than half the time) and asked her again. She looked quickly at the older picture and back at me, so we put that one next. Then I asked her which picture came last, which was newest, the picture with tall brick buildings or the picture with fancy metal and glass buildings. She looked back and forth for a little while and I had to prompt her a couple more times, but then she picked the newest picture.

After that we did a three-way clap because I was so impressed with how well she answered questions today. We cheered and cheered and sang a silly song.

School Time 9/18 - James and the Giant Peach

Paula tried again today. I went over and talked to Becca when she first started and explained that me and mommy needed to take turns, and that she needed to be a good sport with both me and mommy doing school time with her. I asked if she would be willing to let us take turns and she said yes.

They started with James and the Giant Peach again. Paula asked which character had more feet, the grasshopper or the centipede. Becca looked for a little while, then picked the centipede after a couple additional prompts. Then Paula asked which character couldn't see, the ladybug or the worm. After a couple additional prompts Becca chose the ladybug. Paula had her look at the worm and see he was wearing dark glasses because he couldn't see. Then Paula asked which character was a bug, James or the Spider. Becca chose the spider. In general she was answering questions but not very quickly and she didn't seem super engaged.

Next they worked on letters, D, H and F. Paula would show each letter to Becca and talk about some words that started with the letter. They went over the sounds. She attached all three to her clear plastic board and then asked Becca which letter matched the starting sound of different words (i.e. which letter does h-h-horse start with?). Becca chose H for horse and hat (together), D for dog, F for fish. She picked H and D very quickly, but F which was on the far side from where she was leaning her head. We gave her some additional sounds (family, food) and then she picked F.

After that Becca's sister wanted to show us her puppet show of the Three Little Pigs, so we watched that. Then we did a quick hand game and Becca perked up a lot.

After that I quizzed her on letter sounds one more time. I asked her what letter h-h-house (like the houses the wolf blew over) started with and she looked very quickly at H and back at me. Then I asked what letter d-d-down (like the houses fell down) and she looked very quickly at D and back at me. Then I asked what letter h-h-hippo started with and she looked at all the letters but wouldn't pick one. I prompted her a couple times before she looked at H and back at me. Then I asked her what letter f-f-fall (like the houses falling down) started with. After a delay she looked at F and back at me.

Then we called it good and ended school time for dinner.

School Time 9/17 - Review and Letters

Paula worked with Becca today, and I wasn't around, so this will be just a summary. She asked if Becca wanted to do school time her and she said yes. First they worked on where people worked, and Becca correctly categorized the workers. After that she wouldn't answer questions very well, she kept looking away. Paula tried asking her about characters printed off and cut out from the book she's reading with her, James and the Giant Peach, but she didn't do well with those. She also tried to do three new letters, D, H and F, but Becca wouldn't answer questions about those either. Specifically she tried asking Becca which was the letter D or H or F based on drawing them on a sheet of paper or also on a magna-doodle.

School Time 9/16 - Jobs and Workplaces

School time was a go, good, direct eye confirmation when I asked if she was interested. I told Becca I wanted to go over some stuff from before, so we reviewed seasons. I would talk about each season again. She looked at them all and payed attention, but wasn't much in the mood to answer questions. First I asked her which season we season we went back to school, Spring or Fall. She picked Fall. Then I asked her which season we make snowmen in, Winter or Summer. She picked Summer. I said that would be silly, the sun would melt the snowmen. She kind of smiled and then looked at Winter. Last I asked her which season the leaves changed, Fall or Spring. She wouldn't pick on, she kept looking away. I said I guess that was an easy one since it had a picture on the card, I held up Fall. I asked if she wanted to learn about something else and she said yes.

Next I said I wanted to talk about jobs that different people have, and I asked if she wanted to learn about that. She said yes. I said first we needed to learn about the places people worked. I talked about how people all have different jobs so they can take care of their families. I listed lots of different things that people do, and I talked about my job and how mommy's job is to stay home and take care of the kids (and that if she didn't then it would be someone else's job to be a babysitter for the kids). t showed her, one by one, pictures of a School, a Farm, a Post Office and a Hospital. I talked about each one, the people that worked there, what kind of things happened there, etc. She would look at each picture for a minute and then look away. I attached each picture to her clear communication board. By the time I finished she was started to have some coughs and be less engaged, so we played a hand motion game to try to get her back in focus.

Then I asked if she wanted to play a matching game. She said yes. I reminded her what each of the four job locations were, and then I held up a doctor and asked if she knew what that was a picture of. She looked at me to say yes. I said yep, it's a doctor. I asked her where the doctor works. She immediately looked at the hospital and then back at me. I said yes, the doctor works at the hospital, and attached it to the hospital picture. Then I held up a mailman but she wouldn't look at the mailman, she kept looking at all the job locations. So I pulled those out of the way until she looked at the mailman (I did this with all of the pictures after this, too). I said that was a picture of a mailman, and asked where the mailman worked, and she immediately looked up at the post office and then back at me. Then I held up a farmer and asked where the farmer worked. She immediately looked down at the farm and then back at me. Then I held up a teacher and asked if she knew what it was a picture of. She said yes. I said yep, it's a teacher. I asked if she knew where the teacher worked, and she immediately looked at the school and then back at me. Then I held up a bus and asked if she knew what that was a picture of. She said yes, and I said yep, it's a bus. I asked her if she knew where the bus driver worked, and she immediately looked at the school and back at me. I commented on how impressed I was with how quickly she was answering these questions, she was really nailing it. After this it was more like usual, a little bit of delay or sometimes a longer delay before answering.

I said next I wanted to do a hard one. I held up a stethoscope picture and asked if she knew what it was. She didn't say yes. I told her it was medical equipment, something doctors use. I asked her where she might find a stethoscope. She wouldn't look at any option, and she had a bit of coughing. I eventually said I guess I gave it away by saying it was a doctor's tool, and then she looked over at the hospital. We did another hand game to try to help her focus. She liked the hand games a lot today.

Then I held up a girl farmer (the other one was a boy) and asked if she knew where this person worked. She looked at all the options and then looked a long time at the farm, but not back at me, then up at the post office. I said I wasn't sure what she picked because she didn't look up at me. After a little bit she looked at the farm and then at me. I said that was right, and attached the other farmer. I said I had another hard one, and held up a picture of a mailbox. I asked Becca if she knew what it was, and she kept looking at the picture. I said it was a mailbox, with a letter sticking out of it. I asked her if she knew which place our letters got taken to. After a minute she looked up at the post office and then back at me. I said that was right, and we attached the picture to the post office.

I held up a pig and asked Becca if she knew what it was. She said yes. I said yep, it's a pig. I asked her if she knew where a pig might go. She looked quickly at the farm and back at me. I said that was right and attached the pig to the farm.

We kept going with additional roles and items. For janitor she looked at the hospital and then at the school. For librarian she looked all around but wouldn't pick anywhere. I told her the librarian works at the school. Then I talked about the library and how that's another place people work, even though it wasn't one of our pictures, and maybe that's what Becca was looking for.

I held up a couple more pictures, of a classroom aide, a principal, and a lunchroom worker and talked about how they all work at the school too.

Side note: I can't remember the question, but I asked Becca something that she wanted to say no to. She looked right at me for a split second and then away, very intentionally. I was impressed with that response and told her so.

School Time 9/13 - Letters Check

Today I explained to Becca that I wanted to see what she knew with her letters. I didn't know if she already knew how to read letters and what sounds they made or not, so I wanted to try and see. I asked her if that was ok and she said yes. She was very engaged and responsive in general today. First I said I wanted to see if she knew what a B was. I asked her if she knew the letter B. She said yes. I help up two letters (I was using fridge magnet letters), B and M. I asked her which one was a B, and the looked at it and back at me. I said yes, that was a B as in Becca. I told her the other letter was an M as in Mommy. Then I asked if she knew what the letter E was. She said yes. I held up an E and a P and she picked E correctly. I said that was an E as in Elephant. I asked if she knew what a C was and she wouldn't say yes. I held up a C and an M and she looked back and forth for a little while, then picked the M. I said that was an M, and Mommy or Monkey. We traced the M. Then we traced the C and I said it was a C as in Cat. Next I asked her to find the letter P. I held up a B and a P. She picked the B. I said those two did sound a lot alike, but that a B has two bumps and a P has one bump. B as in Becca and P as in Piano.

After that we went over the five letters a couple times, tracing them and talking about the sounds they made. 

Next I held up a couple pictures and asked what letter they started with. I held up a box and asked her if she knew what it was. She said yes, and I said it was a box. I asked if she knew what letter it started with and she said yes. I held up a B and an M and asked which letter it started with and she picked the B. Then I held up a picture of a piano and asked if it started with a P or an M. She got bored at this point and wouldn't look at the letters anymore, so we stopped and sang a silly song with actions. We sang it twice and she really liked it. After that she was engaged again. She picked a P as the first letter for piano.

Then I started quizzing her again on which of two options was the letter I was saying. This time she picked correctly for all five letters, B, E, C, M and P.

Then we started practicing sounds in general. We went through all five letters. I would hold up the letter and ask her to think in her head what sound it made. Then we would try to come up with words that started with that sound. Becca's sister helped her come up with some. Then I pulled out some pictures. I would ask Becca if she knew what each picture was. When she said yes then I would say what the picture was (snowman, piano, box, dog). Then I would ask her to think of the starting sound for the word. When she looked at me I would say the sound out loud.

Last we went over each of the five letters one more time, tracing them and making the letter sounds.

School Time 9/12 - Seasons and Weather

I asked Becca if she wanted to do school time and she said yes. I put her in her chair and asked if we could talk about the seasons. She said yes. I asked if she'd already talked about the seasons at school and she said yes, so I said good, this should be a review.

I had printed off four big colored boxes with the name of each season and a small picture representing the season. I took each season one by one and talked about what the weather was like, the temperature, fun holidays, etc. Then I'd stick them to her clear plastic board. After that I told her I wanted to hold up some things and have her tell me which season she thought they'd fit in.

I had a mix of pictures. Some were activities (playing in the pool, a snowman, planting a garden, etc.), some were holidays (a Christmas present, an Easter basket, a Jack-O-Lantern) and some were types of weather (rain, wind, snow, hail). About a third of the images she would get quickly on her own (pool, snowman, snowy weather, jack-o-lantern). If she didn't get them right away then I'd point out something else about the season that was related (i.e. we celebrate Easter about the same time we plant a garden, when it's not too cold anymore), and then she would look at the season and then at me. On a couple she would look at the wrong season and then back at me. I would acknowledge her guess, then say that the thing didn't usually happen in that season. I'd give her another hint and she eventually got it. I think only once she had more than one incorrect guess. School bus and school starting in the fall she got so quickly and so confidently, I was really impressed.

The first couple picture questions she would look around at all four of the seasons a lot of times before she would pick, but after a few times she wouldn't look around at all the seasons anymore, she would look right to the one she wanted to guess, or look away from the board like she does when she's not answer (not sure if that's disengaged, thinking, etc.).

On the weather questions there wasn't a single right answer other than for snow, and she picked all of them in a season that worked. When I showed her the picture of hail and talked about what hail was she got a smile on her face and laughed a little bit. I think she thought hail was silly.

School Time 9/10 - Days of the Week Review

I asked Becca if she wanted to do school time and she wouldn't look at me. I guess she wasn't in the mood today. Then when it was time for dinner we were waiting just a little bit, so I pulled out the days of the week and we sang through them again. I asked her what day it was today and she looked right at Tuesday. Then I asked if she remembered where Saturday was and she looked at it for a short second then back at me, then around at the other days. I mentioned that she seemed to look at it very quickly, then she looked over at Friday for a little while. I pointed back up to Saturday and she looked at it.

School Time 9/9 - Finishing the Creative Story (with pictures!)

I asked Becca if she wanted to do school time and she looked at me to say yes. I asked if she would be willing to finish her story with me and after a minute she said yes. We read through what we'd written and drawn already, and I asked her what she wanted to do next. I came up with four options now that Harold and Sarah had gotten it to rain, and she picked to have too much water. I actually thought she'd want to wrap up the story, but she seemed to want to continue it. I asked if we should draw Harold and Susan above the water or under the water. She wouldn't pick. I reminded her that it was her story, I wasn't going to pick for her. Then when I asked again she picked not above the water, but yes to under the water. I asked if we should draw the sun or some clouds above the water, and she picked the sun. I asked if we should draw it orange or yellow and she picked orange (even though her sister wanted yellow). We drew everything under water and she agreed on some phrasing.

Then I asked how she wanted them to get rid of the water. Should they wait for it to dry up, maybe the sun would shine bright and dry it, maybe the dragon could drink it… she didn't like any of those. I said maybe they could have a friend come help them, and she liked that one.

I asked what kind of animal the friend should be. Should it be a fish, a dolphin, a frog, a shark, a dog, a cat, a cow -- she picked a cow. I asked what the cow's name should be. Mat? She said yes right away, but then looked away. I wasn't sure if maybe she just didn't care about the name. I listed seven or eight more names before she picked Michael. t asked what color Michael the Cow should be, brown or black or red. She looked at all three colors, then she looked at red and back at me. I confirmed she wanted to have a red cow, and she said yes. So we drew the water, and a red cow under the water. I asked if she wanted to draw the castle next to the cow and she wouldn't say yes. I asked if she wanted to draw some fish instead and she said yes. I asked if the fish should be green or orange, and she picked green. We drew some green fish. Then I suggested we could draw some seaweed as well and she said yes. I asked if we should make it purple or green and she picked purple.

Next I asked what we should have Michael do to get rid of the all the water. I listed some options for her, including him drinking it all, using magic to get rid of it, and making a big splash. She wouldn't pick one and I reminded her again that it was her story. Then when I went through them again she picked to have him drink it all. I said that should be funny because then he'll have a big tummy full of water and she liked that idea.

So we wrote some words, then on the next page we drew Michael with a big tummy and the castle no longer under the water. I asked if we should draw a tree next to the castle and she said yes. I asked if we should have the trunk be brown or blue, and she picked brown. Then I asked if we should have the leaves be yellow or green, since leaves can be either color, and she picked green. I asked if she wanted to put some fruit in the tree and she wouldn't say yes.

Then I asked if she wanted to draw a magic tree on the other side of the castle and she said yes. I asked if we should draw the trunk to be purple or red and she picked red. Then I asked if we should draw the leaves blue or orange, and she picked orange. I asked what color to have the fruit be and she picked that as well. She was starting to get tired and not responding as well, so I suggested we have that be the last page, but she wouldn't say yes.

I asked what she wanted to have happen next, should the adventure keep going on or should it be over. She picked to have it be over. I said we could have Harold walk home, or Harold and Sarah could walk away, or Harold could just be happy. I said it seemed like it made sense to end with Harold since the story started about him. She wouldn't pick for a little while so I reminded her the story was her choice, then after a little longer she picked to have Harold go home, so we drew that and ended it.

Then we talked about how to make it into a book. I said each page needed a page number, and we needed a title page. I went through each page and put the page number on. I'd say the numbers that came before, then look to Becca to see what number came next. I'd wait for her to look at me before saying and drawing the number. 

Then we got out a sheet for the title page. I asked her what she wanted the title to be, Harold Goes on an Adventure, Harold Meets a Dragon, Harold and the Dragon, Harold Fixes a Castle… she didn't like any of them. I asked if she wanted to be done but she wouldn't say yes. I went through them again and this time she said yes to Harold Meets a Dragon. So we wrote that, then I had her help me write her name on the byline. Then we stapled it together so she could show it off.

School Time 9/6 - Days of the Week

I asked Becca if she wanted to have "school time" and she said yes. I said we were going to work on the days of the week. I'd printed out the seven days of the week each with a slightly different color. We sang a song Becca's sister learned in school listing the days of the week. Then we'd take each day, one at a time, and try to come up with something special that happens that day. We'd tape them up on a plastic board and sing the song again. Sunday I asked if she wanted to draw a church and she said yes. Monday I said was her first day of school, so I asked if she wanted to draw a school bus and she said yes. I asked what day came after Monday, Tuesday or Saturday? She looked quickly at Tuesday and then back at me. I said Tuesday is the day grandma comes to visit, and asked if she wanted to draw a picture of grandma. She said yes after a minute. I asked what came after Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. She picked Thursday. We sang the song to check, then realized Wednesday came next. I told her to remember that Thursday was the next one so she'd be sure to get that one right. We had a hard time coming up with something for Wednesday. I suggested a tub since she usually has a bath on Wednesday, but she didn't want that. I suggested a show, or a piano since I play music sometimes for her -- she liked that. Then we had a big distraction with her siblings for a few minutes. 

After that I asked what came after Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday. She looked at Saturday and then at me. I said. I restated her choice like I always do, and she then quickly looked at Thursday and then back at me instead. Maybe she was remembering what I'd said and going back for the right answer. We had a hard time with Thursday too. I suggested her shoes -- she liked her shoes. After we drew her shoes I asked if she liked it and she wouldn't say yes. I asked if we should draw something else too and she said yes. I asked if we should draw food or a car or maybe outside -- she liked outside. I asked if we should draw grass -- yes. And maybe some flowers, or clouds, or the sun -- yes to the sun. Then we sang the song again.

I asked which came after Thursday, Friday or Saturday. She looked at Saturday and then back at me. I said Saturday was definitely the last day of the week. We sang the song again and saw that Friday comes first. For Friday I mentioned that she swims at school and asked if she wanted to draw the pool. She said yes immediately. For Saturday I said we get to spend the day at home as a family, does she want to draw our family. She said yes.

Then I said I wanted to see if she remembered which day was which. Did she want to try showing me? She said yes.

I asked which day we go to church. She looked right at Sunday and then back at me. I asked which day was the last day of the week. She would only look at the first four days of the week, and she wan't picking any. I finally pointed her up to Saturday and she looked at it. I asked which day of the week was Tuesday and she looked right at Tuesday and back at me. I asked what was Friday. She would only look at the first four again. I eventually pointed to Friday and she looked over there. I asked which day was the first day of the week she went to school and she looked right at Monday and back at me. I asked her why she wasn't wanting to look at one side of the plastic board. I asked her which day she got to wear her shoes and she looked right at Thursday and back at me. That's the first time she would pick from that side of the board. I asked which day we spend as a whole family and she looked all over the board except at Saturday. I eventually pointed to Saturday and she looked at it.

I could tell she was starting to get tired so I let her have a turn. I'd hold the board backwards with her face in the middle and ask a question in a silly voice, then turn around and answer it.

School Time 9/5 - Comparing Snowmen

I asked Becca if she wanted to have "school time" with me again today. She said yes. We sat up at the kitchen table again, and I told her I wanted to make three snowmen with her. I asked if that sounded fun and she said yes. We had to pick different colors for the bodies, the eyes nose and mouth, the buttons, the hats and the arms and legs. Each time I would hold up two colors and ask Becca which she wanted. She wasn't super enthusiastic, but she would pick each time after a little while. Becca's sister was there watching and wanting to participate, and one time when I asked Becca looked right at her sister. I asked Becca if she wanted to let her sister pick the color this time and she said yes. Partway through I noticed that a couple times in a row Becca was picking whatever color was closer in her field of vision to my head (to "pick" a color I waited for Becca to look at a marker and then at me), so I started holding the markers one on each side of my head in her field of vision. After that she picked some from each side again.

Then I cut out the three snowmen and stuck them on a large flat board. There was one that was tall and skinny, a short fat female one (Becca's sister really wanted it to have girl hair) and a small one. Becca's sister called them a mommy, daddy and kid snowman. I asked Becca which one was the tallest. She looked at the mommy snowman and then at me. I said that one was tall, but the daddy one was even taller. I held her arm up to measure each snowman and see which one was the tallest. Then I asked her which one she thought was the happiest. She looked for a second or two at each of them, then at the mommy one and then at me with a big smile on her face. She would smile a lot for the mommy one, I think because it was pretty goofy-looking. The mommy one did have a big smile, incidentally it was a bigger smile than the other two. I then asked Becca which one was the smallest. She looked at the daddy one for a minute, then at the little kid one and back at me. I said it looked like she was picking the kid one, and that one was the smallest. We measured them all again. I asked Becca which one looked the hungriest and after a minute she looked at the daddy one and back at me. I said he was pretty tall and skinny, so he was probably pretty hungry. Then I asked Becca which one was the fattest. She looked right at the mommy one and at me with another smile. I asked her which one was looked the coldest to her. She looked right at the daddy then the daddy, then at me. I said she picked the daddy one, and that he probably was cold because he was so skinny, so even though he had a scarf it probably wasn't doing him much good. Then I asked which one had his arms up instead of down. She looked at the mommy for a minute, then the kid for a split second, then at the daddy and back at me. The daddy was the only snowman that had his arms up instead of down, and we traced all their arms. I asked if she wanted to be done and she said yes. We showed the snowmen to our mommy and Becca kept looking at the mommy snowman and smiling. It really was pretty silly-looking.

School Time 9/4 - More Creative Story

Asked Becca if she wanted to work on her book today. She didn't respond. I asked if she wanted to lay down on the floor instead, she didn't respond. I explained that it was almost time for bed so we could work on her book for a little bit or just get ready for bed. Then when I asked if she wanted to work on her book she said yes.

Side note: I think it's going to be hard for Becca to start communicating more because it seems like she wants to say exactly what's in her head, but she's so limited to the words we put in her mouth that she's getting frustrated. I don't know exactly what to do about this, hopefully we'll be able to get her more words soon, and hopefully she'll be patient enough to work with me.

We re-read the pages we'd already written about Harold. I asked Becca what color she would like her dragon to be, blue, green or purple. She paused for a little while, then looked right at blue. So we drew a blue dragon together. I told Becca we could make the dragon a nice dragon or a mean dragon, whichever she wanted. She didn't pick either one the first time. I told her I wasn't going to pick for her, but we could be done if she wanted, then I asked again. This time she picked to have a nice dragon. I said if the dragon is nice then we should come up with a name for it. I started suggesting some names, Tom, David, Susan -- she picked Susan. So we had Susan and Harold introduce themselves in the story. Then I asked Becca what we should have them do. They could go for another walk, they could fly around, they could try to fix the castle -- she wanted them to try to fix the castle.

I started throwing out ideas for how they could fix the castle. They could try to make it rain, they could use magic, they could find a river to water the plants, they could suck up some water and have the dragon spit it out. She didn't respond to any of those ideas. I told her I was having a hard time coming up with any more ideas. I suggested maybe they could cry and their tears would water the ground -- she might have reacted to that one but I wasn't sure, and when I asked again she said no. So I went through the list again, and this time when I said they could make it rain I also said they could fly into the clouds to make it rain and she reacted to that. So we drew Harold on Susan up in the clouds making it rain. I asked if she wanted the clouds to be blue or black and she picked blue, which was the color we used for clouds last time too. We drew the clouds. I asked if she wanted to be done for the day and she said yes. I asked if she liked doing this and she said yes. I talked about how it's probably hard having to only choose from what I say, and that sometimes learning and doing school stuff isn't necessarily fun, but it's still good and important and it will help her be able to communicate better in the future.

Then we played a colors game with Becca and her siblings. I would hold out two colored markers and ask whether something matched either of the colors (i.e. is water blue or orange). Becca's siblings both went first. I asked Becca if grass is orange or green. She wouldn't pick, then she might have picked orange, so I said grass is green. Next time around I asked Becca if the sky is orange or blue. She wouldn't pick for a while, then she picked blue. Last time around I asked Becca if tomatoes are red or purple. She wouldn't pick, and ended up staring at the tomatoes on the counter instead of looking at the colors. I said those tomatoes were red, obviously, and we called it good.

School Time 9/3 - Creative Story

I asked Becca if she wanted to do a new activity today, she said yes very quickly. So we moved over to her feeding chair at the table. I tried to get her close enough to the table to where her arms could be comfortable resting on the table, and where she could see the table clearly. She did have some coughing fits, there was ambient noise from her siblings, and her little brother kept coming over to reach out and touch her or whatever she was doing.

I asked if she wanted to draw a picture and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw an inside picture or an outside picture (no visual cues today, just yes/no for multiple options). She wouldn't pick, so I listed the choices for her again and then asked. She didn't want to draw an inside picture, and she did want to draw an outside picture. I asked if she wanted to draw a picture of our house, of the park, or of the pool. She didn't pick, so I listed the choices for her again and then asked them one by one. She wanted to draw a picture of our house.

I put a marker in her hand and helped her draw a picture of our house from the front. I asked if she wanted to draw the ground or the sky next (I remembered this time to list both choices first, then ask which she wanted). She didn't want to draw the ground or the sky. I asked if something was wrong with the picture and she said yes. I asked if the house was too big (I realized it filled up almost the whole page) and she said yes. So we drew it smaller.

Then I asked her again if she wanted to draw the ground or the sky first. She did want to draw the ground. I asked her if she wanted the grass we drew to be purple or green. She picked green, so we drew some grass together. Then I asked if she wanted to draw some flower and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw yellow or red flowers and she picked yellow. I mentioned that yellow is her favorite color, then I asked her if yellow was still her favorite color and she said no. I asked it again after the drew some flowers together because I was so surprised and she said no again. I asked if blue was her favorite color now and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw some blue flowers and she said no.

At this point she stopped responding well. She had some coughs and kept looking away from me to the side. I said, maybe this is boring and too easy. Should we turn your drawing into a story? She said yes.

I asked if she wanted her story to be about a person or an animal. She wouldn't pick for a little while, and then she finally picked animal. I asked her if she wanted her story to be about a dog, a cat, a mouse, a horse -- she reacted to horse. I asked her if she wanted to have a brown horse or a purple horse. She picked brown, and we drew Harold together. I asked if we should name the horse "Sam" and she said no. Then I asked if we should name the horse "Harold" and she said yes. I asked her what Harold the horse should do in our story. Should he go for a walk -- she said yes.

I asked Becca if we should do another page for the story. She was coughing a bunch and was getting less engaged so I wanted to let her stop there if she wanted. I probably asked too many times, honestly, but I tried to give her a little time to get comfortable again, holding her hands down to help her calm down, and then she said she would do another page of the story with me.

I asked Becca what Harold should see on his walk. Should he see a river, a garden, an alien, a bunch of baby frogs, a giant bowl of spaghetti, a castle -- she responded to castle. I asked her what color the castle should be, black or blue, and she picked black. We drew the castle and I put some banners on the castle. I asked if we should color the banners blue or yellow, and she picked blue. I mentioned that that was her new favorite color. She was having a hard time with coughing again. I said we should probably draw the ground around the castle, and we could do it happy and pretty like a nice garden, or maybe sad with a dead tree because nobody lived there. She picked to make the grounds sad, so we drew some dirt and a dead tree. I said we should write something for that page too. I asked her if we should say the castle was lonely, or that it was happy. She might have picked lonely, but I wasn't sure so I asked again and she wouldn't pick. Paula suggested it should be "sad" instead of "lonely" and Becca said that was ok. 

Then I asked her why the castle was sad. Was it because nobody lived there anymore, or because it needed a princess, or because there was a monster or a dragon there. Becca didn't want to pick. We talked about how it's hard to make a story and keep coming up with ideas, especially since she can only pick ideas we give her right now, and it might not be the ones she wants. We tried the same ideas again and this time Becca said she wanted there to be a dragon in the castle. We wrote that down and called that good for the day.

Then we read a couple story books with Becca and her siblings. I held up three choices to let Becca decide, and she kept looking back and forth between all of them. It was hard to tell if she was picking one, but I thought maybe Silverlicious was her choice, so we read that one first. Then it was a choice between two books. Becca's sister really wanted to read Diary of a Worm but Becca chose My Name is Bob (I suspect she does that on purpose sometimes). Since Becca's sister was a good sport we read Diary of a Worm as well.

School Time 9/2 - Numbers

I asked Becca if she wanted to play some numbers "games" today, she said yes. I told Becca I had no idea what numbers she knew or if she knew how to count, so I wanted to see if she could show me what she already knew. I didn't have a specific plan in mind, so I was just trying lots of different things to see what stuck.

First we stacked (and counted) towers of six blocks and then knocked them over a couple times (I would let her try to knock them over, then asked if she wanted help and if she said yes then I'd hold her arm above her wrist and help her get her hand in a position to flip or grab the tower with her wrist). Then I got out a board with a "1", "2" and "4" on it. I asked Becca if she knew which one was a "2" and she identified it correctly. She also did the "4", but then wouldn't identify the "1". She wouldn't try at all, making me wonder if she was just uninterested because it was too obvious. We practiced drawing each of the numbers with her finger and she seemed to like that.

I asked her if she wanted to do "math" instead of just numbers and she said yes very quickly. I made two stacks of two blocks each and we talked about 2 plus 2. I asked Becca what 2 plus 2 was, or how many blocks there were. She picked "2", so we talked about how there were two blocks in each stack and there were two stacks, and when we counted how many total blocks there were we counted four.

After that I told her we were going to do a really easy one. I placed one block in front of her and asked how many blocks there were. She refused to answer.

Then I asked Becca if she wanted to count something different. I got 4 tomatoes and asked Becca if there were 6 tomatoes there or 4 tomatoes. She picked six, so we counted to make sure and we only counted 4. I asked Becca if she wanted to make towers out of tomatoes instead of just counting them, and she said yes. I asked her if she wanted to make a tower of 1 tomato or 4 tomatoes. She picked 4, so we made a tower out of 4 tomatoes while counting. Then I asked if she wanted to make a tower of 2 tomatoes or 6 tomatoes. She picked 6, but so we stacked up 6 tomatoes (I had to hold them to keep them up). Then we went back to blocks. I asked Becca if she wanted to make a tower of 2 blocks or 4 blocks. She picked 4 so we stacked up 4 blocks, showing the number each time we added a block like The Count from Sesame Street. On the fourth block I asked her if it was number 4 or number 6 and she wouldn't answer, then I think she picked 6. We counted 4 blocks and I asked if she wanted to do 6 instead and she said no so we left if.

Last I put the numbers 1-6 in order and we traced them all with Becca's finger. She always says yes very quickly when I asked her about tracing the numbers. I asked if she wanted to try putting them in order after I mix them up and she said yes. I asked her which number came first and she picked 1. She picked 2 and 3 very quickly as well. She had trouble with coughing after that and wouldn't pick another number, so I told her the next number was 4 and she picked it out herself. Picking between 5 and 6 was hard for her, she didn't want to pick for a while, but eventually she did pick 5 without me saying the number five, then we added six and counted them again.

After that I said we could be done, and asked Becca if she wanted to knock down some towers again. She said no, so I said I was going to go get a game for us to play. I built a tower of blocks with a tomato on top and left it while I went to go get a game. She knocked it over probably ten seconds later.

After that we played Quirkle for a little while, and Becca would pick which sets to play when it was her turn (i.e. all the blue tiles, all the star tiles, all the diamond tiles). She got tired of that quickly and I asked if wanted to go outside instead. She said yes.

School Time 9/1 - Memoirs of a Goldfish

This is a repost.

We read Memoirs of a Goldfish (which is a really cute book, by the way). I asked Becca who the story was about, who was in it from the start, and she picked Cha-Cha (the story is about the goldfish, not Cha-Cha. I probably should have asked her something better, like who was telling the story). So we talked about it and how the goldfish is the one in the whole story, so that's who I would have picked.

Then I asked her which character she liked better, Mr. Bubbles or Mervin. She picked Mervin, so I talked about what was silly about Mervin, then we talked about what was silly about Mr. Bubbles. Then her sister picked between the guppies and Cha-Cha, she picked the guppies, then we talked about why she liked the guppies better.

After that we tried to identify which fish appeared in the story in which order. Becca and her sister took turns picking between two options, and they both picked correctly every time. Then I asked Becca which fish the goldfish liked better, Gracie or Cha-Cha. Becca picked Gracie, which makes sense since Gracie is also a goldfish and the goldfish likes swimming around the pool with her. Then Becca and her sister took turns putting the fish in order again, and there were no mistakes that time either.

Becca the Blog is going to get noisy.

I promised an update on the school thing, this is not that update. I'd say it's still in progress.

As part of the ongoing-ness, though, I'm going to start posting some sessions that we're doing with Becca after school.

Basically we didn't know just how capable Becca was, and we've been surprised with some of the things she's been doing since the beginning of summer, and I wanted to see just what she could do. Then that sort of evolved into an experiment to see how close we could get to a first grader's curriculum with Becca.

I took the state core standards for first grade and started marking all the ones I thought Becca could learn but probably wouldn't learn unless someone spent some time with her. I was surprised, actually, with how few I wrote off as out of her reach. Turns out the hardest thing in first grade is math, the rest is very approachable for Becca with some straightforward adaptations.

So then I took those standards and organized them into categories that I thought we could work on at home. Things like "order & organize", "sun & moon", "creative piece of writing", "jobs & roles", etc. I was curious just what we were up against in scope. In the end there were about 36 categories of work, and with 35-ish weeks in the school year this was starting to sound not impossible.

Since then we've been working with Becca on some of these categories. Every time after we work with her we take detailed notes of what happened, trying to keep out our own interpretations and noting our biases as we find them. Mostly we want to have evidence of just how capable Becca really is. Because it turns out she can remember a lot of things, and she likes interacting and communicating with her eyes. She likes "school time", as we call it.

But that means this blog is going to get a lot noisier than it has been, for the foreseeable future. Feel free to unsubscribe, we won't get our feelings hurt :-). If you hang around, I'm going to put "school time" in all the titles of these logs so they'll be easier to skip over.

Becca Can!

Becca really wanted to go the pool a few weeks ago.

We're in the middle of a little "adventure" dealing with the school's perspective on Becca. I don't want to go into it in this blog post, because I don't want to jump to conclusions, but for first grade Becca was put into the "medically intensive" room. I've been all kinds of frustrated and worked up making assumptions about why the school did this and how it's going to be this huge uphill battle to get what I consider a problem to be fixed, but that's a post for another day.

The only reason I bring it up is because as part of prepping for our meetings I've been making a list of the things Becca *can* do. I was pleased by the list, and to me it makes it pretty clear Becca is "in there" and she just needs people who believe that's true in order for her to succeed. We have made so much progress even just over the summer, I'm honestly a little scared to lose it if I can't get the school on board.

Here's what Becca can do:

- reach out in front of her when something she wants is in front of her (i.e. toy boat in the pool, toy dog on the floor, candy crush on the tablet, communication switch)

- make eye contact to confirm a question ("yes", i.e. "is yellow your favorite color" "do you want to go to the pool")

- not make eye contact to say "no" to a question (i.e. "do you want to go outside", "do you want to stay home from school today")

- not make eye contact when she knows the answer is "yes", then laughing when we "catch" her (i.e. "did you poop", "did you go swimming at school today", "do you love your brother")

- reach out and hit a large communication switch she knows is for communication without prompting

- look directly at something she wants (i.e. crackers, tv, a different pillow, etc.)

- look back and forth between something she wants and the person who can get it for her (i.e. tv to grandma)

- reach out quickly and grab something she is interested/bothered by (i.e. nasal canula breathing tube, syringe full of formula, baby brother's face)

Becca's sister is such a good helper

- laugh when she is able to physically touch or hit something in a way that causes an upset or surprised reaction (i.e. messing up Paula when playing Candy Crush, knocking over the syringe full or formula while feeding, hitting Christopher in the face to make him cry)

- make verbal noises when something is mentioned she is excited about (i.e. "we're still planning to go to the pool tomorrow" resulted in a "gie-ood" noise and excited laugh, "tomorrow is Christmas!" was similar)

- have opinions about decisions (i.e. grandma really wanted to get her to watch Brave, she kept picking everything but Brave)

- have a preference for who to communicate with (didn't want to tell Paula she wanted to go to school, she wanted to tell me)

- not say yes or no when she's not in the mood (i.e. shopping at target she wouldn't pick, wouldn't "engage" to be able to say either yes or no)

- pick the option that we're pretty sure isn't her favorite, just because her sister wants the other one (i.e. what movie to watch)

- eye gaze at a communication system (on a tablet) with 6 items, with person vocalizing the items "selected", then confirming she wanted where we ended up on the communication system

- look directly at someone when she knows they can help her communicate a desire/interest (i.e. someone she knows can get her communication board)

- look directly to something that is conceptually related to another point or idea (i.e. I helped her cheer "Go BYU!" and she then looked directly at my BYU t-shirt, "do you know what time it is" and she looked directly at my watch)

I also realized lately that a lot of the time Becca spends at home isn't very challenging or even stimulating for her, it's watching shows and playing with toys that she's mastered a long time ago. I want to start working with her at least some at home now, so I started that today. Here's what happened:

9/1/13

We read Memoirs of a Goldfish (which is a really cute book, by the way). I asked Becca who the story was about, who was in it from the start, and she picked Cha-Cha (the story is about the goldfish, not Cha-Cha. I probably should have asked her something better, like who was telling the story). So we talked about it and how the goldfish is the one in the whole story, so that's who I would have picked. 

Then I asked her which character she liked better, Mr. Bubbles or Mervin. She picked Mervin, so I talked about what was silly about Mervin, then we talked about what was silly about Mr. Bubbles. Then her sister picked between the guppies and Cha-Cha, she picked the guppies, then we talked about why she liked the guppies better. 

After that we tried to identify which fish appeared in the story in which order. Becca and her sister took turns picking between two options, and they both picked correctly every time. Then I asked Becca which fish the goldfish liked better, Gracie or Cha-Cha. Becca picked Gracie, which makes sense since Gracie is also a goldfish and the goldfish likes swimming around the pool with her. Then Becca and her sister took turns putting the fish in order again, and there were no mistakes that time either.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this exercise, but by keeping the tone very conversational rather than making it sound like a test we did a lot better than times I've tried before. I think we're in for some more surprises as we keep trying to help her get out of her shell :-).