Just had to post today...

Today has been one of those days when I get to see my 'hands off' approach with my youngest three beginning to bear fruit. Admittedly I feel they all spend too much time on the computer, but I am the world's worst example in regards to thats, so..! But today I did manage to prize Stitch off Poissonrouge and he has a much more 'productive' day :D But it wasn't just him...

Here's a glimpse of today (warning ~ photo overload upcoming!);

I bought a new game in ToyRUs on Saturday that I'd had my eye on for a while. DD and Stitch both found it easy to play, but they also both enjoyed it VERY much ~ here's hoping it comes out lots :D It was good for DD to work on his shape names (he almost remembers them all) and for Stitch to work on both colours - although he pretty much gets them correct now - and shape names which are newish to him. He can match them up though :D The big girls were wanting to play along too ~ so that was fine by me! They really enjoy playing with the little ones at times.

Lilo is rapidly falling in love with rods and she worked well on this today :D

Then I introduced her to another new game I found on the net last night ~ she enjoyed it (despite her face in the next picture, which I included just because it's funny!) and it was an easy way to point out some sequence patterns to her. She continued with ease until she'd used up all the dominos :D

I spent a large chunk of my afternoon making THESE & THESE (if you click the links you can download them). They are based on a Melissa and Doug toy that I have also had my eye on for a while, but can't justify the expense of for only eight words and some wooden letters (that I already have), so I decided I could make them ~ and did. I'm really pleased with them, but more to the point DD is rapt! He even wanted to help me choose which words to make (he chose panda, and bear). I've made them double sided. The colour side co-ordinates with the wooden letters I have and will make it easier for Stitch to play with too, but DD can manage the B&W side with relative ease. It was good to see that he is beginning to be able to recognise some of the letter (thanks to Ed City and Starfall !) :D

but DD also had his own idea about how he wanted to use these! Autonomy at it's best :D He wouldn't go to bed until he'd had a go at this and it was a REALLY good idea ~ better than he knew in fact. He wanted to open up Tuxpaint and use the 'writing' tool to write the words. This of course meant he had to look carefully at each letter and then try to find it's matching capital on the keyboard. Some he could do, others he needed me to tell him, but I can see that within a quite short time he could make the links this way and have the added benefit of then knowing where the letters are on the keyboard. The reward of course was that when he hit the correct key he got to see the lowercase letter on screen - further reinforcing the links :D BUT there was more to this too - it was really helping him take his time to hear the letter sounds and hear how they work to make words. He can identify beginning sounds and has been able to for a while, but tonight he was getting to grips with middle and end sounds too, which are always much harder :D

School at bedtime is not the ideal I know, but I decided to play it his way and I was so glad I did :D