Mama-on-Days: Tales from the Elf

Last year I bought an Elf on the Shelf.  We named it....something.  I forgot to write it down.  I lost it for about 2 1/2 weeks.  We have a little miniature pinscher and I spent my days running in the room before the Biscuit glancing frantically around for plastic bits of elf remains.

About a week before Christmas I found him sitting on the wreath where I'd left him weeks ago.  It's pretty bad when you can't even keep track of a little Elf in your house.  But I was glad that I didn't find his dead elf carcass because he cost me 29.99 and that's a lot of money to pay for a dog toy.

This year I started hearing rumors of Elf on the Shelf calendars and that PINTEREST was where to go to get Elf on the shelf ideas.  These are the CUTEST ideas I've ever seen-little Elf's in a bubble bath, a little Elf flying across the room, an Elf with a stick roasting marshmallows over a battery operated candle.  There are even whole Pinterest boards devoted to "naughty" Elf on the shelf ideas.  

Pinterest had me at the elf in a bubble bath.  I was in.  And then I wasn't.  Once you step foot into this Elf territory there's no way you can go back to just hanging him from different door knobs in your house.  OR lose him for 2 weeks.  Could I commit to reenacting fanciful elf scenarios for the next 10 years or so? How would I top the Elf in the bathtub scene? 

In the end my Pinterest obsession won out.  I set up a calendar with a bunch of fantastic Elf ideas and bought mini and jumbo sized marshmallows.

Week one:  I am not nearly as good at the Elf scenarios as the pictures I've seen online.  They all look vaguely disturbing.  Luckily for me, the Biscuit is in love with the Elf.  Some of the kids at his preschool have elves who have come to their house weeks ago.  He's excited that his house wasn't passed by. 

Supposed to be Elf lifting marshmallow weight.

Week two:  Biscuit HATES the elf.  I think he has decided Elf is a snitch.  He hasn't even tried to go look for it for three days.  After discussing this in depth with a girlfriend at happy hour, I decided to add a note component to the Elf saga.  I realize that a serious Elf discussion at happy hour is a pathetic waste of precious happy hour time.

Week three: Thanks to a note praising good behavior, the Elf is back in the Biscuit's good graces.  I accidentally placed the Elf in the same place twice which has led the Biscuit to decide we have 2 elves.  He spends his days trying to find both of them.  It gives me more time to read and prep for the Holidays. 

Week four:  I'm Elfed out.  Twice this week I had to rush in the morning to move Elf.  He's back to hanging on doorknobs and once I just threw him on the Biscuit's bed.  I'm going to save the rest of the Elf ideas for next year.  Biscuit also saw a huge display of Elf on the Shelf boxes at Target.  He asked if we BOUGHT our Elf.  I know that we will keep seeing the boxes so I admit that we did.  I said that Santa packages these little elves and people can buy them.  Santa knows that people might freak out if a small elf just showed up in their home.  I didn't realize that parenting could involve so many lies on the fly.  Elf left our house on Christmas eve leaving us with a box of comfy pajamas and a movie.  I've got until next year to hone my elf skills.

Do you do the new Elf tradition, what is your favorite thing you've done with Elf?  I'd love to hear about it below. 

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Christmas Tree Cones: Rerun Christmas Activity

December has turned into a really busy month for me. Since last December I was still running under 500 page views, I thought I'd rerun a few of my posts. This is one of my favorite crafts to do at Christmas:

*********************************************************************************
I love to make quick snack crafts in Speech therapy.  It's an easy way to include worksheet drill activities.  In between each step we can practice our word lists or answer wh questions.  It's also a great way to work on sequencing, paraphrasing and story retell.  Last week we made these cute Christmas tree cones.

I started by showing or telling the kids what we needed for the task.  Then we went into the little kitchen to see if they could remember what we needed...

Once the frosting is on, you could add any kind of candy, we used mini M and M's because I had some left over from a Halloween activity.  (There is probably something wrong with me, that I had candy left over from Halloween...)  

Here are some of the ways we incorporated our goals into the activities:

SYNTAX:  

We practiced the following verbs: mix, spread, get, put, place, and eat.  For each activity, I had the client say what they were going to do, what they were doing and what they did after.  Ex. "I will spread frosting on the cone, I am spreading frosting on the cone, I spread frosting on the cone."  This activity correlates with Mobile Education's TenseBuilder app.  

TEMPORAL DIRECTIONS:

We were focused on before/after, so just using colored m&m's seemed to help the kids focus on the direction.  Ex.  "Before you put a yellow ornament on, put the red ornament."  For students who continue to have difficulty with this, I would use a visual cue by pointing or manipulating the m&m's as I was talking to show them how they were supposed to put them on.  

GUESS WHAT I'M THINKING GAME: 

To play this game, you would need a variety of candies.  Then you can take turns describing and adding the candies to the cone.  Ex. "I'm thinking of a round candy with stripes. 

PROCEDURE RETELL: 

Following the activity, we used the pictures above to retell the activity using a First/Next/Last visual.  

We really had fun making and eating (something about the combo of peppermint and sugar cone: YUM!) these cones.  

" 

Christmas Tree Cones

I love to make quick snack crafts in Speech therapy.  It's an easy way to include worksheet drill activities.  In between each step we can practice our word lists or answer wh questions.  It's also a great way to work on sequencing, paraphrasing and story retell.  Last week we made these cute Christmas tree cones.

I started by showing or telling the kids what we needed for the task.  Then we went into the little kitchen to see if they could remember what we needed...

Once the frosting is on, you could add any kind of candy, we used mini M and M's because I had some left over from a Halloween activity.  (There is probably something wrong with me, that I had candy left over from Halloween...)  

Here are some of the ways we incorporated our goals into the activities:

SYNTAX:  

We practiced the following verbs: mix, spread, get, put, place, and eat.  For each activity, I had the client say what they were going to do, what they were doing and what they did after.  Ex. "I will spread frosting on the cone, I am spreading frosting on the cone, I spread frosting on the cone."  This activity correlates with Mobile Education's TenseBuilder app.  

TEMPORAL DIRECTIONS:

We were focused on before/after, so just using colored m&m's seemed to help the kids focus on the direction.  Ex.  "Before you put a yellow ornament on, put the red ornament."  For students who continue to have difficulty with this, I would use a visual cue by pointing or manipulating the m&m's as I was talking to show them how they were supposed to put them on.  

GUESS WHAT I'M THINKING GAME: 

To play this game, you would need a variety of candies.  Then you can take turns describing and adding the candies to the cone.  Ex. "I'm thinking of a round candy with stripes. 

PROCEDURE RETELL: 

Following the activity, we used the pictures above to retell the activity using a First/Next/Last visual.  

We really had fun making and eating (something about the combo of peppermint and sugar cone: YUM!) these cones.  

" 

Avoid the Tinkerbell towel: Gift giving perspective taking

Gift giving is a great exercise in perspective taking.  Can your clients think of some things that their parents would like or their siblings?

This is a hard skill for a lot of neurotypical adults such as my husband.  One year, he bought me a child sized Tinkerbell towel at Target.  First of all, I am not a one of those fortunate child sized ladies.  Why would he get me a gift that I can't even wrap around myself?  When he gave it to me, he was so excited because I LOVE Tinkerbell.  Um....no.

Choosing a gift requires you to think about the other person.  It's a great opportunity to use our "people files" by remembering information about people.  Questions to think about when getting a gift

• How old are they?
• Are they a boy or a girl?
• Do they have any hobbies?
• Have they mentioned that they need or want something?  
• Who is in there family?
• Do they have any pets?
• What about favorite movies, t.v. shows or other special interests?
• Do you know what they already have?  
• Is there anything they really DON'T like?

Here is what we are doing next week.  You will need a Sunday Paper chock full of advertisements.  It would be great to have pictures of the child's friends, parents, etc.  I would use a sheet of paper for each gift giving subject.  Starting with first person, have your student or client determine what store would be appropriate for them.  Then they go through the circular and cut out 3-5 items they think the person would want.  

Then you can discuss how to narrow down your options.  Price might be one factor.  You could extend this activity by creating a "budget" and having the student determine where to spend the money or discussing concepts such as greater than/less than.  

I don't expect that my clients (or clearly, my husband) will be able to think of the "perfect" gift so as long as they are in the ball park of an appropriate gift, I would give them credit for it.  What activities are you planning for the holidays?

Dollar Spot Christmas Trees

So I found these cool oversized sticker sheets in the Dollar Spot at Target.  I got a Christmas Tree, a Gingerbread House, and a Snowman.  I laminated them so that I could use with more than one student.

We used the Christmas Tree in therapy this week and had a LOT of fun.  I wrote some articulation words on the ornaments before I laminated them.  If I had to do it again I'd probably just laminate the ornaments and then write on them with a wet erase marker.

In addition to articulation, we also worked on:

• Receptive identification of adjective + noun.  (Show me the red striped ornament.
• Receptive identification of clauses (Show me the yellow ornament with a snowflake.)  
• Comparatives (Show me the longest strand of lights.)
• Following multistep directions, before/after directions and directions containing spatial concepts.  

I really liked being able to vary the directions depending on the student.  Here are some of the directions we used:  

• Put a red ornament on after you put on a purple ornament.
• After you put on the red striped ornament, put on a purple star ornament.
• Before you put on the yellow ornament, put on the shortest garland.
• Find the plain yellow ornament and put it next to one of the purple striped ornaments.
• Find all 4 snowflakes and put them in the middle of the tree.
• Find a yellow ornament with a snowflake on it and put it between 2 strands of lights.
• Find 2 red striped ornaments below the longest strand.
• Put the purple ornament above the garland after you put on the yellow ornament.
• Put three ornaments on the tree.
• Put the red ornament under/above the garland.  

It was a really fun activity.