Tickle Me!

It's been a rough couple of days at the house for me.  Not for Mark.  Mark has been doing very well. 

I was amused to discover that this is Spring Break week for the regular school system.  Note that I didn't know and we aren't taking a "Spring Break".  Mark has done much much better with a schedule that involves at least two school activities every day.  In fact, if we take days off it's much harder for him to come back to task for a couple of days.   This includes weekends.

Each day typically has much more than two activities.  In truth the minimum we do is three.  That normally occurs on the day that he has swim fellowship.  And swim fellowship normally makes it easier for him to get through the school work.

Word ID is still a problem.  So I'm adding to it in new ways.  We will still do the basic word ID cards.  But we are now in the process of making a set of cards with the word traced with glitter glue.  Mark really likes this activity, both the making and the using the cards later.  Next we will do a set with sand.  And one day we will be making a sand tracing mat.  Another day we will make one with thickened paint.  Mark definitely focuses more on an activity when he has had a part in making the tools we use so hopefully this will help him with words some.  And the glitter & sand add a texture to the cards that makes more of an impression when we are tracing the words.

Oh, and Math.  That's been the biggest surprise.  While Mark is still showing prompting issues with Word ID, he seems to have snapped out of it with math.  He can now hand me 1, 2, or 3 blocks/stickers when asked.  I'm stopping here for a bit and expanding the skill for him.  So he is learning to match items to the numbers (ex: 2 sticker with the number 2).  He is learning to count things in general life, like muffins for breakfast or items in the grocery store.  He is learning to count anything I can get him to count.  I want to help him make this skill as broad spectrum as possible as early as possible.  Mark isn't so sure that he likes that idea.

And the "Tickle Me" popped out, clearly and loud, this morning when Mark decided he wanted me to pounce and play with him.  I was standing at the side of the bed and had asked him "What do you want me to do?" since he had pulled me into the room and then climbed on the bed.  So he got tickled.  And he tried to tickle back.  And the smiles and laughter were golden.