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v-girl
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 1:16pm | IP Logged
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and am trying to teach him myself. He truly disliked going to school (4 days a week for 2.5 hours a day). He is still receiving speech therapy from the public school. His ped believe occupational therapy would be good for him and recommended my husband call the OT dept at the ped hospital he works at to get him seen.
Until then, I am expected to teach this child. Thanks to LeapFrog DVDs, he knows his ABCs and the sounds. But LF doesn't teach him how to hold a crayon or any other motor skills. Or life skills. Or potty training.
I bought a few workbooks at Mardel, a book of bible stories from the Catholic bookstore and religious ed curriculum from Ignatius Press. I can get about 30 min of "school" out of him in a sitting, but haven't found a craft that gets his attention and he isn't a fan of bible study. Or Mass. I think he needs to be re-baptized -- the first one must not have "took" back when he was a few months old. 
Any recommendations for resources I can use until DH gets around to calling the occupational therapist? I hate to nag him (he has his own patients to see), but I do need to gently remind him I guess.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 1:32pm | IP Logged
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how old is he? what does he choose to do on his own?
there are many things that build small motor skills that don't include doing school work with a crayon or pencil and don't include doing crafts.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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v-girl
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 5:18pm | IP Logged
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He just turned 4 March 18th.
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v-girl
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 5:22pm | IP Logged
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Oops...hit reply too soon. He loves Thomas trains, cars, bubbles, chalk and scribbling on his sisters' school work...while they are working on it. He also loves jumping on the couch, climbing the entertainment center, running away from Mommy and squealing with delight for no apparent reason.
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KC in TX
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:30pm | IP Logged
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Try using Handwriting without Tears. It was developed by an OT and it worked wonders for my son for handwriting. Your son is very young. I'd work with him by playing to help with any of those issues.
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KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
The Cabbage Patch
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Dove
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:30pm | IP Logged
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I LOVED teaching mine at that age. They can ask the most intriguing questions.
Let me see what I can remember doing....you mentioned motor skills?
Clay and art supplies, lots of BIG paper, encourage wild creativity and put it up on display. At one time I had newsprint running the length of the livingroom for several days while it was decorated.
My parents were horrified but I used a wall in the livingroom for kids art. We taped every picture to the wall. Kid chosen locations and never took anything down, simply kept adding layer on layer. It was fun. Years later I needed to paint and peeled the layers down and enjoyed looking at the development in reverse.
It encouraged them to make more and more art. Art supplies are manipulated pretty much like crayons and such, but encourage exploration.
I listened a lot. Kids make more pictures when the adults ask them to tell us what is going on in the picture. My oldest could spend 15 minutes telling me all about the complex tale that went with pictures of stick figures and brown blobs....
Oh and I'd ask them to draw me a picture to answer the question..."What color is 3 if it loves to eat broccoli?" or some other silly question--some kids love this one, my oldest would just look at me like I'd lost my mind but the younger one would make a picture.
I did a lot of messy things with my first two. Messy explorations seem to encourage motor skill development. And if it art, then there is no wrong way.
I like messy. But then again, I had an old carpet that needed replaced, and the walls needed paint, and I chose not to do those improvements because it served my needs better at the time to have a carpet so ruined already that any accident that occurred to it was no big deal.
Not everyone is blessed to live in a dump at the right time in their lives but in summer a lot of art can be done outside and save the nice stuff inside.
Do they still make the soap sticks that you paint the walls of the bathtub with and that just wash right off?
I tolerated a lot of mess with my kids although I did have a fit the day they decided to paint the ceiling in their room with black crayon while I thought they were taking a nap...bunk bed, textured ceiling, black crayon....
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:43pm | IP Logged
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oh yes tons of touchy feely art project.. clay and try making pictures in pudding on a cookie sheet (messy and yummy) and conventional finger paints, and shaving cream and a neat one is corn starch with water.. it collects up and seem hard and then spreads out.. it's really neat to play with.
get creative with the paper you do art on.. give him a big circle instead of a square sheet.. see what he might make of a circle cut into the middle of a piece of paper..
building blocks and legos and hot wheels cars.. great big blocks can be fun.. any cardboard type container you can snag and tape closed after cleaning if necessary.. and oatmeal tub or plastic peanut butter jars, empty cereal boxes.. any other sort of boxes.. you can build big things and they're light weight enough not to seriously hurt when they fall on your head
A super book on art with children is Don't Move the Muffin Tins by Bev Bos
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:55pm | IP Logged
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One great motor skill activity involves an eye dropper and a bunch of containers with some water in them. I took a child development class when my ds was 4 (so I could figure out how to work with him instead of against him!) and all the preschool teachers swore by this activity. Transferring water from one container to another via an eye dropper is apparently wonderful for developing fine motor skills. Kids love it, too! (You could move this activity outside and add food coloring to the various containers of water to jazz things up...)
At age 4, "school" is still mostly play, with a focus on activities that develop various skills and abilities. You don't have to teach him to read right now or to recite the Catechism. He's too young. If you can get him to sit for 30 minutes and do any kind of school/seat work, you are very fortunate. Preschool boys have SO much energy!
Shaving cream!!! Fun!!! If you don't have space for a sandbox, try a large plastic container filled with uncooked rice (and put it outside if weather is nice) - fun to scoop and pour.
When the weather warms up, water play is fun, with buckets, cups, containers and plastic boxes filled with water. Blowing bubbles is wonderful, too - and requires concentration and motor skills.
And...honestly...I was a DRE...I have met very few (okay, like, one) preschool-age boys who really and truly LOVE going to Mass. This is a long-term process, beginning with behaving appropriately, then listening, then understanding what the Sacraments mean...it is okay if he's not totally cooperative now. I tell my co-op (teen) students all the time that our Faith is something you continue to grow into - as you mature, so does your faith, and your understanding deepens accordingly if you participate in the Sacraments, read the Bible, involve yourself in parish life, etc. He'll grow up and stop wiggling so much, I promise! 
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged
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And a treat after Mass certainly doesn't hurt 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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v-girl
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 11:52pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much! I'm going to try some fun stuff with him tomorrow. He has a wild imagination with his Thomas trains. We played with those for a while today and he was cracking me up the whole time!
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3Giftsathome
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| Posted: April 13 2011 at 9:55am | IP Logged
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I'll have to try some of these ideas! I find it difficult at times to teach my daughter when I have two boys (ages 4 and 3) running around. My daughter becomes frustrated when she is working on her reading and the boys constantly interrupt her. They want to be a part of "school" yet they don't want to sit for too long (maybe 10 minutes for my 3 year old  ).
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Took my son out of the PPCD preschool...
