Posts

Coffee Time!

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When I think about my life priorities, they fall in this order: 1. God 2. Family and Friends 3. Coffee. In C’s 25 months of life, he’s picked up on that. Coffee (or Cokee) was probably one of his first 50 words. When C was 6 months old, my best friend bought him What Every Child Needs To Know About Coffee ,  and his love for coffee has only grown from there! A few weeks ago, my best friend, C and I went to a fun little coffee shop in the town where we work. The have a great play nook for kids complete with...a kids coffee machine! C LOVED it (I think because it helped him feel like an adult), so we rushed to the store and found him one of his very own ...                                                          This has been one of his favorite toys of the past month! I LOVE Melissa and Doug toys. They are great quality and so colorful and engaging for young children. There are so many learning opportunities with this fun toy! To name a few… Sequencing First
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Friendship and More with Little Blue Truck

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Confession: Before I had C, I literally knew NOTHING about little boys. Sure, I’d worked with 75% boys being a SLP in schools for 5 years, but I knew nothing really about parenting little boys. Two of my worries included How would I teach a little boy to be a nice person and What type of quality literature was written for little boys (my mom is a reading specialist, so quality literature is important….and you never truly understand the importance of quality literature until you’re asked to read Happy Troll-o-ween! (DreamWorks Trolls) (Pictureback(R))   on repeat for a week, just a side note). At my first shower, one of my oldest friends gave me Little Blue Truck board book .  I read it once and fell in love. It’s one of C’s favorites, too, with the sweet truck and lots of fun farm animals. Luckily for us, there’s a whole series of Little Blue Truck  books now! Each book has a sweet theme, teaches social skills and packs in lots of early speech/language skills, too! Li
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Sunday Lessons #2: Mazdas, Manna and Mourning

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About 5 years ago, I was picking up an almond milk latte on the way home from work when I received a call from my husband, Jacob. “Hey,” he said, “I’ve been in a car accident. I need you to meet me.” At first, I figured it was just a fender bender, but as I drove my thoughts got the best of me and I started to worry. He’s fine. It’s fine. I told myself. If he wasn’t ok, he wouldn’t have been able to call you. He didn’t say anything about being hurt. I drove the 15 minutes (which felt like 15 hours) to meet him in a McDonald’s parking lot. He had just finished getting me a new tire when a teenager driving an SUV slammed into my poor Mazda 3. Tears rushed to my eyes and broke through like water bursting through a levy. Jacob was completely fine, buy my car was crushed, airbag deployed and everything. I sobbed thinking about how bad this could have been and praised God for His mercy on the situation. My car was towed and we became a 1 car family until we could get a rental from insuranc
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Polar Bear. Polar Bear FUN!

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My FAVORITE book as a toddler was Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I adored bears and, therefore, the book. I asked my mom to read it to me every night. So often, in fact, that I had it memorized when I was about 2 and a half and my parents recorded me “reading it” (glided R’s and lisp included). So when C started getting interested in Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? (Brown Bear and Friends) ,  I ran with it! This book as SO many speech and language targets appropriate for toddlers! I LOVE to read books more than once. The first time, I’m all for reading the book in it’s entirety and just letting the child listen and learn. Each subsequent time, I like to choose a different target to focus on. Every time I read a book, I don’t always read the words (I like using a technique called dialogic reading to increase oral language skills). Here are a few of my ideas: Colors Learning to identify and express colors is a milestone for 2-3 year olds. C doesn’t know his yet...which i
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Sunday Lessons #1

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On Sundays, I'd like to write a little about how God is shaping me and teaching me about Him through being a parent. God has really molded, shaped and taught me about His love for me through given me C. Although I know that right now I only see dimly, and won't fully understand God's love for me until I meet Him ( 1 Corinthians 13:12 ), I truly believe that He uses all circumstances in our lives to help us better understand who He is.  Yesterday, my mom, best friend and I had a little girls day (and we let C tag along). We went to brunch and to the mall. C is at the stage where he enjoys being in the stroller for a few minutes, but then his independence gets the best of him and he wants to run free! It was a Saturday, and the mall was pretty crowded. In an effort to keep him safe and not get another bruise on his forehead, my rule was that he could walk but he needed to be holding someone's hand or the stroller. At first, C was quick to comply, thankful for the small
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Toddler Tantrum Tips and Tricks: Emotions and Coping Strategies

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My son turned 2 a few weeks ago, and we suddenly have a full blown toddler in our house. To be completely honest, I LOVE 90% of this age! It’s so fun to watch C develop a personality and opinions. He’s growing into such a sweet and caring little boy. Last weekend we went to a friend’s house for a party, and C (who is usually on the shy side), went and asked a boy we had met once to play because he was sitting by himself. It was so sweet to see him be so inclusive. He’s also started to tell me stories about what happens while he’s at daycare. Although he has a wonderful babysitter and friends, it’s still tough to leave him, so I love that he’s able to relay memorable parts of his day to me. Along with the amazing things that C’s developed have also come the dreaded toddler temper tantrums ! Working at an early childhood school. I’ve become very familiar with what they look like, however I’m new to the embarrassment that comes when it’s YOUR child that’s screaming and incons
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Racing Toward Great Language Skills... with CARS!!

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If there’s one thing I have learned working at a school, it’s that kids LOVE cars! When I got my first job working with preschool and elementary school students, my mom bought me 5 wooden cars from the dollar aisle at Target. They are the most well loved and favorite toy in my speech room! Luckily, there are so many language skills you can target using cars! 1. Basic Concepts According to Super Duper publications , “Basic Concepts are the foundation of a child’s education. They are words that a child needs to understand in order to perform everyday tasks like following directions, participating in classroom routines, and engaging in conversation.” Basic Concepts include words pertaining to colors, directions, prepositions, quantities, shapes, sizes and more. Cars provide such a fun and natural opportunity to introduce your child to these words! Practice playing a little “red light, green light” or racing with your cars and embed words like “stop, go, fast, slow.” At fir
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