Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Julia and I are on the front porch. She is coloring, after spending some time with me working on two garden beds. She has gloves and I give her a scissors to dead head flowers. She gets captivated by some spiders -- loving them and being scared of them -- but still helps. We worked for a bit more than a half hour before I release her to color. We have about a half hour before her next therapy session and although I'd rather be doing some math work right now, she probably needs some alone time before engagement begins again.

Morning parade (stickers in some order) has progressed to something like: Blue is third, red is first, yellow is fourth, green is second. She was quicker today than she has been, still not independent. I've put in big and little of one color, and also used "people" stickers. She is able to maintain herself -- not go off on some tangent -- with those. I'd like to see her do this exercise in the mornings totally independently. My vision: Julia bouncing downstairs, doing morning parade, and then showing it to me to get her quarter -- yes, it is a big ticket item on her list of chores for money. I also want to work on: First, next, last, and before and after. Slowly, I know, slowly.

Talking to Marilyn yesterday and worrying about number ability, she said that in her observation, the left brain functions come in way after the right brain abilities. That rings true with Julia, and steadied me some. Why didn't I know that?

She is doing her reading journal each day with me or one of the therapists. Today, she's asked to do it twice. Give the kid a chance to draw! She reads a book or story, writes the title, a sentence and then draws a picture. She has a white bound book for this and before we are finished, I will ask her to draw the cover. She hasn't discovered that she can do this yet.

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After therapy, we went to the pool for the first time this summer. Midsummer last year, Julia decided she did not want to swim anymore. I had been letting her go into the pool alone, watching her most of the time, but losing her at times. She always seemed fine until one day, she didn't want to swim anymore. I had a nagging thought that something or someone scared her. I have no idea. So, we are taking it slow this summer. Once at the pool, I let her play in the sand pit for a long time. We were both hot and sweaty when we went to swim. I stayed with her all the time she was in the pool and I left as soon as she suggested in. It may have been nothing, but my disinterest last summer. This year, I will be on guard