Hue & Splash Bath

At the moment we're working on Bee's colours with her, starting with the four that are the most common in her toybox: red, yellow, blue and green. It's been difficult, I mean, how do you explain what colour is?? So I've been trying to think of new ways to reinforce colour for Bee and try to make it a little easier for her. 

One of Bee's favourite activities is to play in the bath (or any kind of water really) and so, armed with a selection of red toys and red-coloured shaving foam, we tried our very first Hue & Splash Bath!

 It was lots of fun and Bee really enjoyed painting everything in sight with the shaving foam! We used building blocks and toy cotton reels to make prints on the tiles, painted both Bee and her doll, used the spade to scoop water, played 'peepo' with the shopping basket and generally made a great, big mess!

This activity actually turned out to be really good for Bee's sensory issues. The foam was very messy and a texture Bee would normally shy away from but in the bath she was quite willing to use it as a paint. It helped that she was able to immerse her hands in the water to wash them if the sensation of the foam got a little overwhelming. 

The activity took a little trial and error: red food colouring just turned the bath a really muddy brown and did not mix at all with the shaving foam, much less turn it red. I decided to try some water-based kids paint with the foam and it worked really well, needing only a small drizzle to make sure it was red and not pink. I decided not to use any colour in the bath, by the end the water had graduated from pink to red anyway thanks to the foam!

I had been a little worried that the red would stain either the bath or the tiles but thankfully it washed straight off. The grouting might be a tiny bit pink in places but a small price to pay for so much fun! Up next: green!

Materials used:

• Normal bathtime items: towel etc.
• Coloured toys of your choice.
• Shaving foam (not shaving gel)
• Water-based washable paint
• A container for your shaving foam
• Something to mix the foam and paint

Happy Easter!

A big 'HAPPY EASTER' to everyone!

This year has been the first year Bee has been allowed to have easter eggs and we were very excited to buy her one. We decided on something small as we knew (with it being the first time) everyone would buy her some chocolate and we didn't want her to be overwhelmed. We went with a small Minnie & Mickey egg and some little Lindt bunnies, just big enough to have in a single sitting!

Of course spoiltsport Mama said no chocolate for breakfast but Daddy insisted as it's Easter! 

We had a lovely afternoon, spent with Foz's parents and overall a quiet weekend warm at home as the weather turned out to be cold, wet and miserable, boooo! Bee very much enjoyed her chocolate and has plenty to last her for weeks to come!

The March of Progress

Back in October 2011, about a month after starting nursery, Bee was assessed and set goals for her Individual Education Plan. Her nursery has spent some time getting to know her and then set out some targets they felt were achieveable and specific to her development needs. The nursery asked me in for a meeting to explain and confirm these goals, to make sure I was happy with the direction they were taking with her and ask for any input. They had chosen three main goals and aimed to review them in March 2012.

• Turn-taking and socialisation - To become involved in turn-taking activities with an adult e.g. simple games, building a tower, filling a bucket with sand.

• Using two-word links - For Bethany to demonstrate a range of two-word links e.g. 'baby sleeping', 'boy running'.

• Fine motor skills - Bethany to gain confidence in relation to her fine motor skills and the use of a pincer grip and finger isolation.

Just recently I was asked back into nursery for a review on Bee's progress which I was a little nervous about as, although we see a lot of improvement with Bee at home we know that she doesn't neccessarily display it at nursery, especially when it comes to her use of language.

Wonderfully Bee's teacher (K) couldn't have been anymore positive about the strides Bee has taken and how well she's adapting to life at nursery. K talked at length about what a happy, sociable, curious, interactive and sweet little girl Bee is and what a pleasure she is to teach. She went on to talk about the goals that had been set and how well Bee had achieved them:

Turn-taking and socialisation: Bethany is now much more settled at nursery and has established good relationships with familiar staff members. She is able to engage in simple turn-taking activities with an adult and responds well to prompts given to her, e.g. 'Bethany's turn'. She also responds well to being praised for her success.

Using two-word links: Bethany is keen to use spoken language and her confidence has grown significantly during recent months. She is using many more two-word links and will listen, and sometimes repeat, the phrases she hears adults using. Staff are pleased with Bethany's openness to spending time with them and engaging in sociable interactions.

Fine motor skills: Bethany has been happier to become involved in a variety of activities which encourage the use of a pincer-grip and require her to develop fine-motor skills. Staff are pleased with the progress she is making and feel that her accuracy and confidence are improving. She will continue to benefit from involvement in such experiences.

Overall it was a wonderful report and we're thrilled that Bee has settled into nursery so well and is achieving so much. After some discussion with K we've set some new goals, which will be reviewed in June 2012:

• Turn-taking and socialisation: To become involved in turn-taking with another child. 
• Increased use of spoken language: To continue in her use of spoken language to express her needs, engage in play experiences and comment on the world around her, e.g. using 2/3+ word links. 
• Involvement in creative/'messy' play experiences: For Bethany to become involved in a wide variety of sensory mark-making and exploratory experiences.

I'm especially happy with the last one. Already since starting nursery we've noticed an improvement in Bee's tolerance of different textures (like the sand in Southport) and knowing that the nursery are working on it specifically can only help even more.

I'm so proud of my girl for all the achievements she's made and how she continues to defy all those doctors and medical professionals that said she wouldn't.