Jake's Journey with Apraxia

This September Jake will be four years old and I am breathing a long sigh of relief that he will not be starting Pre-K 4 due to his birthday. Thank goodness he will be the oldest in his class and therefore, the universe has granted us a whole extra year to catch up on developmental delays.

I wanted to share the ABC activities that I plucked from the book I Love Letters by Jean Feldman & Holly Karapetkova. As I said yesterday, I am going to focus on one letter a week and I will try and do an activity 4-5 times a week. My neighbor, the Pre-K 4 teacher, says that it is easier for kids to learn their alphabet when they associate a person’s name with a letter. Sounds like a plan to me. Our schedule is as follows:

•  Week 1 – “J” (Jake)
• Week 2 – “B” (sibling)
• Week 3 – “L” (sibling)
• Week 4 – “T” (parent)
• Week 5 – “M” (mom)
• Week 6 – “P” (Pa – grandfather)
• Week 7 – “G” (Grandma)
• Week 8 – “C” (Cooper – our neighbor & good friend)
• Week 9 – “E” (Eddie – Cooper’s dog)

I know this list seems a little OCD, but if I don’t have an agenda, I typically get overwhelmed and then end up doing nothing.  Last week I straightened up the hall closet to make finding supplies quick and easy. It looks like this:

Don’t you just love it? I saw this idea on the I Heart Organizing blog at the beginning of the year and knew that I had to turn my coat closet into a storage area for school and speech supplies. After all, I live in the south and we’ve had so many 100 degree days this summer, I’ve lost count. What a waste of space! Each family member’s coat went into their own closet and in the winter I have hooks by the front door that we use.

Having materials handy is the first step, but knowing clever things to do with them is a little more difficult. My goal in doing all of this is to have some quick go-to things that are simple and don’t require a lot of thought, time and materials. The following are a few letter of the week activities from the I Love Letters book that I think will work for us:

1. Put drops of glue on a piece of paper in the shape of a letter. Once it dries, let the child trace the letter with their finger.
2. Make pretzil letters – great for A, E, F, T, L, etc.
3. Cut the top off of a used Coke bottle or milk carton and label it with a letter. Fill it with things that begin with that sound.
4. Put magnetic letters on a cookie sheet and spell out a name. Have child close eyes and take away a letter. Once they open their eyes, see if they can figure out which letter is missing.
5. Make an “alpha-body book.” Have child lie on floor in the shape of a letter and take their picture. Print it out and form a book. May need to use fun props sometimes.
6. Print a letter on a page and cut out a picture from a magazine or snatch a food label out of the recycling bin. Form a book.
7. Cut letters out of sandpaper, felt, different textured fabrics, burlap, cotton balls, etc.
8. Draw a letter on the pavement with sidewalk chalk. Have child walk, tiptoe, hop, skip, and bounce a ball around the shape.

I’m excited to try these things. Jake loves to play school and I’m pretty sure he’ll enjoy doing all of these things. His attention span is much better than my other son’s was at this age and if he’s willing to sit and learn, I am willing to give it my best shot at playing teacher.