Where Am I?

Will was recently exposed to the wonder of maps at preschool. He's always had access to various types of maps.. from a simple laminated place mat to the big USA floor puzzle that he got for his birthday a couple of years ago. But somehow this exposure at school brought this interest to life and it's all he cares about now. If he's not putting together the puzzle.. or carrying the place mat around the yard.. he's eyeing more complex maps in the various books he has at his disposal. It's amazing. How many 4 year olds know all their state capitols? How many can point out all the states on a map when asked? Will has magnificent powers of memory.. perhaps this will be one of his splinter skills and he'll wind up as a cartographer. I cherish the times we can play this game.. he brings me his USA map place mat and we begin.. Where's Vermont? He points right to it.. doesn't have to think for even a second. Where's Sacramento? This goes on for an hour. He knows them all.. how many 40 year olds know all their state capitols? I'd venture to guess not that many. And here this little 4 year old boy, this amazing little creature who surprises me daily, knows them all.

Oh Wow.. New Toys! Thanks Mom!

I've seen these Leap Pad Learning Systems in the store and thought that they might be something all my kids would enjoy.. but Stinky Pete was right and children DO destroy toys.. so I have resisted spending the money that would bring one of these into my home. But here I was at the thrift store not long ago and they had one of these.. a "My First Leap Pad" complete with the cartridge and book for only $2.00! I looked it over as it appeared to be in pretty good shape. One element of this particular system that I really like is that it doesn't rely on contact switches to work. You just hover the "pen" over the selection and it magically works! So what that means is that there's no reason to push at all.. let alone hard enough to damage the book or the pad. So I got it. I took it home and it was such a huge hit that I went over to eBay and bought a bunch more books & cartridges. It's really helping my son with his vocalizations as he can hover over words and pictures and have a reasonable sounding voice say what they are. My 2 year old son loves it as well as he's able to operate it and learn more about letters and their sounds, counting, shapes and colors. Just a great toy. So.. I'm just here to recommend these. I don't work for the company or for any retailer from whom you could purchase these and I'm not trying to "make a sale" in any way, but.. if you have a child struggling with verbal communication and can get your hands on one of these I highly recommend them! It's already helped tremendously in a very short time!

A Great Game!

It's sometimes hard to play with my son as he doesn't really interact in a "typical" way. He has yet to learn how to catch a ball.. but we're working on it. He's bored with his letter blocks and doesn't really like playing with the refrigerator magnets too much anymore. But we recently found a great game that he LOVES! On a doodle pad or even just a piece of paper we'll write a word leaving out a letter or two, depending on the length of the word and its complexity. He'll fill in the missing letter(s) and then say the word. Try it and let me know how yours did. =)