Parents As Teachers

All tuckered out after playing with Leanne. Of course you cannot sleep unless you have Baby, Froggy, Dolly, and P.J. Evan of course is passed out as peaceful as can be.

Today we had our first Parents As Teachers (PAT) meeting with Leanne. She came to the house and brought her evaluation toys for both kids. Arabella was intrigued from the beginning. She wanted to know what was hiding in those cloth sacks.

Leanne brought out a coffee can with a slot cut into the lid. She emptied out several orange juice lids that had various farm animal stickers affixed to them. She made the noises to Arabella as she would hand them over to see if Arabella could get them into the slot of the can. Of course Arabella is a whiz at this game. She plays daily with her wipe tub while sticking linky's through the slotted opening.

Leanne then gave Arabella a tub, with attached lid, of farm animals. She again made noises and watched as Arabella handed them over one by one and then played with the container; opening and closing it. She said that strengthening her "noise" skills gives her an advantage when learning consonants she hasn't sounded out before. Next we moved onto stacking blocks and cups. Both skills she has recently started doing. After that she got out two pieces of PVC pipe and a round clothes pin. She had Arabella stick the smaller pipe through the larger one and let it drop to the ground. She then repeated this with the clothes pin in the smaller pipe. She said she could tell Arabella was a mechanical thinker by her observations of the "task" and follow up of her attempt to replicate it. She is very studious in making sure she sees exactly how something is done so that she can do it herself. I knew she was an independent mind, but this makes a lot more sense to me now that it was pointed out.

After some discussion of Arabella's fine and gross motor skills she got a few books out and watch Arabella open the books and "read." She was rather impressed. While Arabella played with the books we moved our focus to Evan. We put him on his mat for tummy time and he instantly started to fuss and get agitated. So she pulled out a long piece of stiff paper with black and white images on top of red paper; she then placed the papers in front of his face so he could see them. He was still irritated so we rolled him over on his back. He then proceeded to stare at the images as well as a white cube she created with black images on it. She said at this age he can see approximately 15 inches and in black & white. He's very intrigued by the images and was quite content talking to them. She also brought out a mirror to put in front of him, but Arabella stole that and proceeded to give herself kisses. Last she handed us a black & white soft soccer ball to hold in front of him and he enjoyed it too. She said he may do better at tummy time if we can occupy his mind with things he enjoys. So she gave us some paper to make copies of the toys she showed him. I am now going to round up some construction paper and make a cube for him as well.

After that she picked him up and of course Ms. Big Butt had to plop on Leanne's other knee. They then went through the book of baby faces and both kids enjoyed it. I was really surprised to see Evan taking an interest in the book at a young age. She said that all babies like to see other babies, so as long as we can get it close enough to his eyes he can enjoy the book just like Arabella.

She was impressed with Arabella's skill history and seeing what she was able to do today said that she's on target and even advanced. Yay! So for now we need to continue to nurture both kids and have a few fun activities to help increase their skills and hopefully help them become better students when they begin school. There are a few things that I would like to round up to help encourage Arabella to continue to learn.

Shopping List:

• See N Say
• Wooden Puzzles
• More books that include basic shapes on colored backgrounds and a book of babies.
• Black & White construction paper to make an image cube for Evan
• Farm Animals so we can work with Arabella and her animal noises.
• Mirror to sit in front of Evan

Our next in-home visit will be in August because they don't see families during the "summer" break.