Back on the bike, and keeping secrets

Blondie got back on her bike for therapy again. It's been about 2 months because of the cast and weather, etc. She ended up riding to the ice cream parlor with her PT and got ice cream. Then OT tag teamed her and made her eat it with lefty - which was quite hard because the ice cream was so hard. Probably won't ride again because it is actually FREEZING in the south right now.

I was most upset because my camera stinks - it only runs on batteries, you can't charge it - and of course it runs out during therapy. About 4 weeks ago Blondie's OT had her copy a block structure with a set of blocks that matched it perfectly. Well, the camera didn't work that day either, but Blondie ended up building it fairly well, but reversed pretty much all of it. So I totally freaked out because what does that mean for her processing? Does she read things, and then have to flip things around in her brain to get it out correctly? I don't see her writing that way, but it is very labor intensive. So she and I have been working on spatial problems. If Blondie solves a puzzle (just a regular 25-50 piece thing) she does okay. She can rotate pieces just fine, but she doesn't flip them over and turn them if it is a 3-D block. So I bought two sets of the same small blocks so we both had exactly the same pieces, and I would build and she would copy. Little by little we have seen it improve. Sometimes she builds and then I copy, and intentionally do it wrong, and until recently she just said, "Yep. That looks great." This week though she started really looking at my mistakes and is beginning to point them out. UNFORTUNATELY, the camera died while this was going on at OT this week, so I couldn't get video. I'll try to do that this weekend so you can see what I'm talking about. Spatial reasoning is important to math, reading, etc (very important to this math teacher) so it isn't something I feel we can ignore. I'm probably overdoing it, but since children form so much of their learning in their early years I don't think I can waste a moment. Am I tired..... I won't lie..... yes... but it can't be ignored.

Meanwhile there are some serious secrets going on in the house. T-Rex has been listening to me talk about making different presents (like I have the time - but it WILL be done) for various people in the family, so she has decided to do this too. Obviously I can't post pictures anytime soon, but maybe the day after Christmas we can post our handiwork. Cheesie is also ramping up her potholders, so some people may expect to see those under the tree too - even Blondie is starting to think about it. Since Brian is taking over Big Al's last soccer games this weekend I may actually get some things done - in addition to finishing the paint job on Big Al's room. Maybe...