I took Ellie to a friend’s house because I knew they’d get nothing accomplished with her there. ;) We headed to the Early Childhood Center where we met Maureen, a very sweet speech pathologist. She explained they would do the whole early childhood evaluation, as many times they get parents worried about “speech” but there are many other issues that are revealed in the screening.
Owen didn’t want to go in alone, so I sat outside the open door which was nice because I wanted to see what she did anyways. She asked Owen to do a series of things like stack 9 blocks, draw lines and shapes, and describe objects she laid out on the table. He had fun doing most of them, as witnessed by his hands in the air here:
She said (later) that she won’t ever forget Owen because of what he did during one portion of the “test.” He was asked to look at 2 pictures and then she turned them over. Then she held up a matching picture and he was to tell her where to lay it down so it would be on top of it’s matching card. Does that make sense? Well, he did the 2 cards just fine. But then she did it with 3 cards, a house, a duck, and cup. He placed the first one fine, but looked confused about the second. He pointed at where to lay it down and then looked at the cards (which were turned over). He said “that one is wrong.” She asked him how he knew that since they hadn’t turned them over yet and he said “the numbers don’t match on the back.” We both laughed! She said she’d never had a kid pick up on the fact that they were labeled with numbers (for her benefit) on the back before. But of course, she still had to dock him that point even though he showed a higher level thinking skill. (boo to standardized tests)Overall, he passed with flying colors and she said he an absolute joy to work with. She did hear the 3 sounds I was worried about, so I wasn’t a complete nutcase for requesting a screening. He replaces his /th/ sound with a /y/ sound. For example, instead of this, it sounds like yis. He also has trouble with a /r/ sound when it’s in a blend. For example, in crayons, it sounds more like cwayons. And lastly he struggles a bit with the /l/ sound. It sounds more like a /w/ or /y/. For example glasses sounds likes gwasses and leaf sounds like yeaf.
She said she never does speech therapy for the /th/sound because it almost always corrects itself. And for the /r/ and /l/, she said it is totally normal at his age. I’m supposed to just model over and over and she even suggested using a mirror so he can see what it looks like to make those sounds. So we’ll just work a little on those sounds extra hard as we start preschool here in a few weeks! It was an interesting experience to be on the other side of the teacher table for the first time. :) Glad to know that on paper, he’s right where he needs to be!
We had fun using candy hearts for math in school today. And Grandma spoiled them with a tons of goodies!
We had 2 grasshoppers that seemed to enjoy our pumpkins on the front porch.
We also learned about our bones made Mr. Skeleton. I cut, he glued. :)
We enjoyed the warmer than normal October weather a few days before Halloween.
After 
We walked across the street to Prairie Fields to participate in their little parade around the neighborhood.
It was a little drizzly, but the downpours we’d had all day stopped before we left and didn’t start again until we got home. Perfect! Owen totally got it this year and Ellie had no fear walking up, holding out her basket and saying “trick or treat.”
They got quite a loot for how many houses we made it to. I’m looking forward to helping them eat it. :) Ellie had quite the fun time and was pretty tuckered out at the end of the evening!
Instead of going home for a dinner of leftovers or sandwiches, we opted for Burger King (the super small play area is perfect for O, minus the germs). After eating, there was another cute family there with their 3 kiddos and we all starting chatting. Well, the dad started chatting with us as the mom was still feeding their youngest outside the play area.
That is one thing I really miss about teaching. The laminator. I may have to buy a small one if I ever decide to home school. Anyways, then I took 6 clothespins and colored them the matching colors.
The goal was for him to match the clothespins with the color. It was pretty easy for Owen as he knows his colors well. But he had a hard time pinching the clothespins so we’ll get it out again for that fine motor practice.
Then, we went around and found cards that were the right colors. He found this part a bit more up his alley. :)
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