Last day of camp

So this is not such a great photo but it's what I got and it is the last day of camp! Like every other day the last 6 weeks, Julia came home hungry and in a great mood. We didn't get any anxious phone calls or any complaints apart from an occasional word that she didn't feel well on the bus. I watched Julia try to socialize many days as we waited for the bus and by the end, some of the other kids would talk to her or answer her questions. Still, she has a long way to go to really fit in with kids. Julia has such spirit and such endurance. I admire this about her and sometimes wish I could I could borrow some of her spirit.
So, a little better picture. And doesn't she look happy.

Julia and I worked tonight. She was able to work for an hour and work through a rough patch about connecting dots. Oh, connecting the dots. I think we are into a battle of wills. I am trying to teach her this skill, and not doing such a good job. I went from trying to get her to go from a dot labeled with the alphabet to two dots that I wanted her to draw a line to connect. At some point she absolutely refused to do it, but in the nicest way possible. "It hard." "I no want do this." "No thank you." We tried on paper and then on the magna-doodle. I explained every part of the task; I demonstrated; and she did not want to do it. I got close to very frustrated and angry, but held it back and drew BIG dots to connect. She finally did it and then did it thre more times. Hopefully, we can move to labeled dots very soon.

She did do wondefully as we worked on the alphabet. We did our putnik cheers; she wrote letterw when I made signs, and I again tried to point out letters and have her make the sound. She is getting better at separating the putnik cheer and giving me the part of it that I am asking for. We also did the "an" page on starfall.com. It is the very beginning of learning to read and we got through the first page very successfully. Julia put the c, p, r, and another letter in front of the AN and made the words to match the pictures. I was surprised that it was so easy for her, and we will be doing this more often now.

I bought a CD player and found a belt with a CD pocket. We are using an old set of sony headphones that basically complies with the requirements of headphones for the listening therapy. So, we can proceed. We missed an evening and morning playing -- not that bad at all. Julia no longer resists playing her music, and actually asked about her music the evening that we did not have the equipment.

I put together a binder of printouts of alphabet sheets, direction sheets, and connect the dot sheets. Hopefully, we will be able to take time during our vacation and do some of the work. And it will be fun. I hope.