Your fingers can be powerful tools in helping your young child develop speech and language. The following are three ideas that I have found helpful in my speech and language therapy practice. I hope you find them useful too.

finger indication

Fingertips will help your child watch the movement of their lips and tongue to see how sounds are produced. Gently touch your lip with your index finger while saying words to your child. For short words, tap once for each sound. For longer words, tap once for each syllable.

marking the rhythm of the fingers

Finger rhythm will help your child: 1. Put more words together, and 2. Understand more of what you say. As she speaks, hold up one finger at a time for each word she says. This helps your child see how to put words together and see that her sentences are made up of separate words. The more you do this, the easier it becomes.

To tap your fingers and point at the same time, use repeat. Say the single word first with your finger and then say the word in a sentence with your finger or the other way around. Either way, the more you repeat, the more your child will learn.

Expansion

Expansion helps your child put more words together. When your child says a single word, she answers two words. For example, if your child says “ball,” she says “red ball,” “my ball,” “lost ball,” whatever fits. When her son says two words, she says three, and so on. To make this more powerful, use finger rhythm as you repeat the words.

I hope these ideas help. You will be amazed what your fingers can do!

Every family has them, everyone knows one, and we all struggle to find the right Christmas gift each year: the one person who has it all. And be realistic, a gift certificate isn’t good enough when you want to make a personal and thoughtful expression of your feelings. So she scours the malls and browses online, looking for something a little left of center for her hard-to-buy friend. And guess what? This is my secret tip for the holiday season: stop looking, here is the answer: a gift basket or a gourmet basket!

Let’s set the scene: your friend is settled, has a well-equipped house and all sorts of things, and lacks nothing. And you arrive for your holiday drinks with a handmade gift basket filled with a selection of their favorite foods, treats, and some cute hobby accessories. The perfect gift with enticing immediacy and personalized to exactly meet your tastes and preferences.

Or, better yet, you’ve arranged to have a gourmet basket delivered to your home in the days leading up to Christmas so you can share the produce with your family and guests over the holiday period. And she writes a memorable little ditty to accompany the personal greeting card that comes with the gift. Once again, it’s all about sharing the perfect gift, with a truly meaningful twist.

Inspiration can come from any of your previous experiences with your friend, such as the particular tastes and flavors that she likes. Simply purchase a gourmet sampler with these condiments in mind and you will have created a valuable and original gift for her without being lazy. And that’s what it’s all about when it comes down to it, we all remember the little gifts that have that extra something that touches our heart. Perhaps not the biggest or the most expensive, but the most thoughtful gift.

In my years as a gift professional, I recall several instances where an executive client received a particularly well thought-out gourmet basket, designed and packaged by our staff in extensive consultation with those who knew them well. It was a real knockout to hear the amazing feedback once the gift was delivered. It goes to show that careful planning, attention to extravagant personal details, and entrusting the actual construction of the basket to professionals can have a truly amazing impact.

Still not convinced that gourmet baskets or gift baskets are the ideal gift for the person who has everything? What if I told you that adding a variety of foods, condiments, and flavor products like coffee, chocolate, wine, beer, champagne, and flasks will make the gift not only the focus of your experience, but your next dinner party or family occasion? ? When will you be able to share the products? That’s when the gift becomes about more than just the recipient, and the focus shifts to sharing and caring for family. And that, after all, is what Christmas is all about.

Consider sharing a gift basket with your hard-to-buy friends this Christmas and see how well it matches your choice. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

There was a time in my life when I felt like I had lost my joy. I felt miserable. He didn’t want to do anything or be around anyone. But slowly and surely, my joy returned as I began to rest more in the Lord. My strength came back too. Nehemiah 8:10 says this: “…for the joy of the Lord is your/(my) strength.” This is a great verse for any Christian to know, whether young or old. Try this fun Sunday school Bible lesson to help your children learn this great Scripture by heart. It’s called “Popping for Joy!”

This is what you do:

This game will require some preparation, but your children will appreciate your efforts. First, you’ll want to make an index card for each word in Nehemiah 8:10. You must have a total of 11 cards. Place these cards in the correct order of the Bible verses on a pocket chart or table for easy viewing by all your children. Now prepare 11 balloons. Inside each balloon you will insert a piece of paper with the following number of points and list of words:

1. 10 points: for, joy, Lord, strength

2. 10 points: the, of, is, Nehemiah

3. 20 points: joy, la, mi, 8:10

4. 20 points: from, Lord, strength, for

5. 30 points: he, is, Nehemiah, joy

6. 30 points: joy, my, 8:10, of

7. 40 points: of, strength, for, the

8. 40 points: the, Nehemiah, is, 8:10

9. 50 points: joy, 8:10, my, Lord

10. 50 points: of, by force, it is

11. 50 points: he, he, is, my

Blow up the balloons and place them in a garbage bag. Now you are ready to play this Bible Sunday school lesson.

How to play:

Divide your class into 2 teams. Ask a child from the first team to choose a balloon. Let him pop it by sitting on it. You will put the paper inside and find out how many points you can earn for your team. You will also flip the 4 words, listed on your paper, on the Nehemiah 8:10 screen. Now you must say the verse including the missing words. If you are successful, your team will earn the points found on your balloon. If you are unsuccessful, the other team wins the points. The game goes to the next team.

Before playing this activity, you can introduce it as follows:

Everybody get up and show me your best “muscle man” or “muscle woman” pose. (Wait for children to respond.) Awesome! Look at all those big muscles. You know, there are a lot of things in this world that can make you feel really strong, like watching your muscles grow as you age. Or having a lot of money in your piggy bank or wallet can make you feel a little strong. But do you know what the Bible says is our strength? It says that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” Today we are going to memorize this verse by playing “Popping for Joy!” But before we play, let’s say Nehemiah 8:10 several times together to get it into our hearts and minds.

At this point, you will recite the verse with the children until you feel they are ready to play the game. Have fun!

There comes a time in many of our lives when we are invited somewhere. Maybe to a party, a date, a ball game, etc. But for some reason, we may not want to go. We may not want to hurt the guest’s feelings, but we also don’t want them to bother us. Here are some ideas on how to decline an invitation in the most polite way possible.

1. Tell them no, but politely.

Yes, I understand that it is difficult to say no. But maybe you don’t feel like going to the event you were invited to.

In such a case, you can tell the invitation that you have already made other plans. And it doesn’t matter what your other projects are, because you don’t have to tell the guest what they are. But if you’re pushed, you can say it’s personal and hope the other person understands.

What you don’t want to do is make something up, like going to a baseball game. Telling a lie could get you in trouble with the other person and make you feel bad. Say you have other things to attend to.

2. Say you will go, but only if you can.

Here’s a pretty easy way to decline an invite. After you decline, then of course you don’t have to go. But you leave the option open in case you feel differently later.

3. Say that you have other priorities right now.

This excuse is also very easy, in addition to being polite to the other person. Letting the guest know that you have other priorities will let the other person know that you are honest and that maybe another time you can follow through on the invitation.

4. Ask if you and the guest can meet at another time.

Of course, this won’t work for a one-time special occasion like a wedding. But whether it’s an occasion that may or may not come up again, it’s a great and convenient way to decline an invitation by opting out of a meeting.

You can also add to the invitation the possibility of meeting at another time. But of course, only say this if you mean it and have a plan in mind.

Bonus idea: send a thank you gift.

Sending a gift is especially good if the invitation was for a wedding or birthday. The present does not have to be elaborate or expensive. It can be a simple trinket of some sort, with a thank you note and thanks for the invite.

So if you want to decline an invitation, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ask yourself how you would feel. A simple thank you but no thank you goes a long way in letting the guest know you care and appreciate being considered.

And one last thought: be careful with lies. Even the smallest lies have a way of catching up with you.

The humble robin is a traditional symbol of Christmas in the UK, the colorful bird often depicted on our festive greeting cards and Christmas gift wrapping. We also use robin ornaments to decorate our Christmas trees and our Christmas cakes or chocolate logs. It is no wonder that we appreciate this beautiful and cheerful little bird as part of our Christmas festivities because it is so colorful and most other birds have migrated to warmer climates. And during our long, bleak winters, we are uplifted by hearing the joyful song of the festive robin.

However, there’s more to this jolly fellow than just cute Christmas cards of him posing in snow-covered mailboxes and nesting in old copper watering cans.

Robins live throughout Europe (except in the far north) and Western Siberia. We notice an increase in the number of robins in the UK during the winter months, as robins from colder climates move to warmer gathering areas for the winter during the autumn.

Robins that live in close proximity to people can become quite tame, especially to avid gardeners. Some cheeky robins have learned to take advantage of unearthed worms caused by gardeners digging and turning up the soil.

Robins have also been found to be able to fish. However, not for large fish, as the robin is only 14 cm long and weighs between 14 and 21 grams. Robins can float and dive for fish in shallow water.

Male robins are very territorial and sing to proclaim their territory, what sounds to us like a cheery winter song is actually an occupancy warning to other robins in the area. Robins will fight to defend their territory.

Robins mate and nest in late March. The female robin builds a nest of dry dead leaves and moss in tree crevices, wall cavities, or undergrowth.

Because robins don’t build traditional nests out of twigs and sticks, but simply line holes and cracks, that’s why we hear stories of robins nesting in old watering cans and wellies.

The female lays 4-6 small white to slightly blue speckled eggs which she incubates for 2 weeks.

At two weeks of age, robin chicks can fly. At this time, the parent robin feeds her offspring for another 3 weeks until the chicks become independent at about five weeks of age, meanwhile the female broods her second young.

Chicks are not born with the trademark vibrant red chest feathers. They shed their chick feathers to make way for their touch of red on their breasts.

Not many robin chicks get to show off their new red feathers with photo poses atop mailboxes or snow-covered pine trees because more than half of the chicks die in their first year.

However, robins can live to the ripe old age of 5 years, which is something to sing about.

So think of this festive little bird this Christmas because he works hard for a living. Maybe leave them some tasty Christmas treats at their bird table, some bacon rind, and a ball of stuffing. And maybe leave some old terracotta pots for a homeless female robin looking for a place to build her nest.

Every day I practice kindness, meditation and prayer. I am not particularly religious or empathetic like some nun but I find my serenity and peace in those three actions. It is in those moments that I often find my answers to life and its importance.

Why should you care what I do? You shouldn’t, you definitely don’t need to, as it’s a choice. CHOICE. What word! There are days I hate that word, especially when those around me have no idea how to practice it. Every day I am challenged to make decisions, the right ones of course, and yet every day I meet people or receive emails that share little appreciation of what makes us human, what gives us willpower. . Yes, the will to have power to change our course, to do things right and have a new beginning.

I find that people are so terrified by this knowledge that they prefer to give their power to others or choose not to practice it at all. For example, staying in a relationship for years even though it’s a mediocre comfort is safe over CHOOSE to be with someone who loves you completely or even embrace singleness. When I ask people “why don’t you try something different? You’re living half your life! Don’t you want to feel safe and at the same time experience daily passion and love for another?” the sad answer is usually “This is all I know” or “She knows I’m safe” or my favorite “this time will be different”.

Choosing isn’t always about standing still and letting the earth swallow you whole. Choosing often means knowing when to let go and get on a different path, as scary as it may seem and as lonely as you don’t want to feel. How else would growth occur? How else would you learn about love, compassion, trust, and friendship? You learn things through change, you often learn through suffering and pain because the discomfort is enough to project you out of the shell or cocoon you have grown up to be.

Please, please, my loves, don’t settle. Never settle! Life is short and yes, there are many people worth fighting for, but there are also many who need to be freed. You need to surrender your pride and your fears and release what was never yours to begin with. How do you know it’s not yours? Well, because nothing is. Everything is an experience that we share with others and the universe.

Live fully and completely. Wake up each morning with the power that today is the day to change to practice happiness and love through the decisions and choices you make. Take responsibility for your life and empower yourself.

Exchange. This is how or at least a start:

1. Have faith and jump. She takes a leap into the unknown and see what adventure awaits you. It can be a new relationship, a hobby, a job, or moving to another country. Believe in your power and how amazing you are.
2. Take care of yourself first. Practice daily rituals that say I love you and it can be as simple as five minutes of deep breathing where you open your lungs and fill your body with the healing power of oxygen (simple right?).
3. Be yourself. If you. I want to meet you and all the weird, crazy, quirky, funny, and not-so-lovely things that make you.
4. Stop expecting the worst because unfortunately that is exactly what will happen. Expect the best, you deserve the best. You may not always get it, but it sure beats being anxious all the time waiting for the crap to hit you.
5. There is no such thing as failure. Yes, I said it and you better listen, you have absolutely NEVER FAILED. You couldn’t because you’re learning and that’s how we develop, when a baby is learning to walk and falls, we yell at him, we call him names and we talk badly to him. No, we get excited, we begin to hold and motivate the child to repeat the action and improve. We are excited. Dare to learn.
6. Stop telling me what you don’t want. You’re just focusing on that. Stop and look the other way and tell me what you want. Say it out loud all the time!
7. Show up, be accountable and stay motivated. Always remember “What do I want?”
8. Give yourself permission to be happy, free, in love and even sad. It’s good that you earned it by coming this far!
9. Forgive. That doesn’t mean it’s okay how others have hurt you, but it does mean letting it go so it can heal.
10. Be firm in what you will tolerate. You don’t have to be everyone’s doormat. I will not tolerate abuse of any kind, and that is final!
11. Set goals outside of your comfort zone. Achieving the impossible with passion and energy. Stop settling or living like a zombie because it’s all you think you deserve or need.
12. Fear. Unless you’re being chased by a bloody dinosaur, stop letting fear control you and take over your life. Be a warrior, there is absolutely nothing to fear because you have no control over the world, only the choices you make in the chaos of life (it’s all in your head)!

You are amazing! No one could tell me anything different. I don’t care what you have done in your past, I only care what you will do with your future. You are amazing! Because of all the sperm that shot out of your father, you’re the one who won the race. You are amazing! Because of the nine months it takes to create a life, you survived. You are amazing! Because you went through childhood and adolescence the toughest stage of development and you keep moving and growing. You are amazing and I want to thank you for your life and presence because without you I wouldn’t be here either because you are my doctor, nurse, waitress, chef, messenger, police office, plumber, cashier, banker, a person to share space with.

You are amazing and I need you to transform into who you want to be so that you can share that feeling of how amazing you are with me.

Alex Karydi ~ The Lesbian Guru

When teaching children to read and spell in the early years, the most effective method, as recommended by every government report for the last decade, is a ‘systematic phonics’ approach combined with blended activities to promote phonological awareness.

If parents are teaching their own children to read, write and spell at home, they can choose a ‘starter set of speech sounds’, for example the sounds chosen in the popular synthetic phonics program Jolly Phonics. These sounds are s, a, t, i, p and n, and children are taught to hear speech sounds in words and to recognize these ‘speech sound pictures’ as a way of representing this speech sound. For example, that ‘s’ is a sound image for the speech sound ‘sss’ (there are 8)
Why start with this particular group of speech sounds? This is because the word ‘sat’, for example, can be ‘pronounced’ for reading as well as spelling, allowing children to quickly learn to read, write and spell words using only those letters, for example tan , tin, pan, pat, sit, sat. , in in. With the introduction of a few ‘hard’ words, children can read, write and spell complete sentences in no time, eg I, was, the. Readers can be made so that children actually ‘read’ picture books. Many are available online for free to non-profit organizations such as Fantastic Phonics and SPELD SA.

When parents know what their children need to know before moving on to learn new sound images (letter sounds), the following list can help them, like a “checklist”. By using this checklist, parents can ensure that the child has understood the important concepts and can demonstrate the skills required for early acquisition of reading and spelling, i.e. code knowledge, blending, phoneme segmentation, and manipulation.

When children can decode a word, they can begin to learn its meaning. Fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary come after decoding. If a child cannot figure out the word (ie read the word) she cannot begin to understand it within sentences. If she can’t hear speech sounds, she can’t encode (spell new words) easily. So parents should focus first on teaching children how to decode, and then expand their teaching to include fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. However, as you can see from the list below, this can happen very quickly, and these additional skills (fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) will be incorporated into instruction alongside phonetics and phonological awareness training.

At the end of the initial speech sound group, the children should be;

* ‘hear’ speech sounds in words – beginning, middle end

* recognize printed sound images and know which speech sound they correspond to.

* form letters correctly (this is possibly less important than the other concepts, before they start school as they can ‘spell’ words and form sentences using magnetic letters etc.)

* match the sounds of speech orally into words, and as they ‘read’ the sound images into words on paper (knowing they do so from left to right)

* ‘read’ words by decoding the sound images from left to right and combining the sounds into words, also exploring what the word means and how we use it in our language.

* ‘spell words by hearing the speech sounds in order – and (next step) knowing how to order/combine them on paper (using letters and also forming the letters themselves – you can use a pencil and also the keyboard with lowercase letters)

* ‘read’ the words (sat, it, at, in, pin, tin, sit, pat, nip, spin, tan, etc.) and then understand the meaning of the word and the sentence if the words are written inside a sentence (and in this case knowing that we read the words from left to right)

* learn some ‘tricky’ words, eg ‘I’ ‘was’ ‘the’ – to recognize as sight words

They will also be able to read sentences, using online decodable readers with these sound sets (also initial sound set in Jolly Phonics).

Whats Next?

If they are ready, they can move on to digraphs, learning that 2 or more sounds can make a new sound (s, h and sh- 3 sounds) You can use bold text to show children where the ‘chunks’ are in words- or ‘Sound Pictures’. So the store would be shown to have 3 sounds and 3 sound images: sh+o+p.

After the first set of speech sound pictures, children can go on to learn that sounds in our spoken language can be represented in a variety of ways (f could be ff as in gruff, ph as in phone, etc.)
And that some sounds on paper can represent more than one sound in our language -ay- like cow or trailer.

Parents should focus heavily on speech sounds at first to develop phonological awareness, rather than print. When we start with what children can do, that is, talk, then it is easier for them to understand how to crack the code. When they are encouraged to listen to speech sounds in words and to know where they are placed, it is easier for children to learn that there are ‘sound pictures’ that are simply pictures of speech sounds. So ‘s’ is simply a paper representation of the sound ‘s’, and so they can be called ‘sound pictures’ to make it easier for children to understand the concept. Even from a young age, children can learn to hear how many sounds are in words, even if they have not been presented with the picture yet. For example, hearing that ‘ship’ has 3 voice sounds and would therefore have 3 voice sound images. Then I would draw 3 lines on paper and kids can figure out which sound image is on which line to build the word.

Teaching your child to read and spell early is one of the best gifts you can give your child. It should be fun and help develop a love of learning and words. The Reading Whisperer is often heard telling parents, “Being able to read and spell even before they start school will give them greater self-confidence, and they can start ‘reading to learn’ much sooner than most. the other children, who are still ‘learning to read'”.

What parent wouldn’t want that for their child?

Easter is just around the corner and one of the great activities to engage in this and every Easter season is to color the Easter eggs. Easter eggs are simple and fun to color; you just need to take note of the following tricks.

Easter eggs usually start out with hard boiled eggs, so buy a dozen or two to color. Gently lower them into boiling water for about 10 minutes. The eggs will cook and become hard. Now just let them dry.

The easiest way to color your Easter eggs is to purchase an Easter egg coloring kit. These kits usually include dyes to paint the Easter eggs in various colors, stencils or stickers to decorate and design them, and an Easter egg holder to allow them to dry easily. Most kits only cost a few dollars and are very convenient.

You can also make your own color dye. You can mix about 1 tablespoon of food coloring with a half teaspoon of vinegar, then add about 1/2 cup to a third cup of water. Now simply dip your Easter egg into the cup of colored water. The longer the egg sits in the water, generally, the deeper and darker the color will be.

Also, you can hand paint your Easter eggs. You can find many watercolor paints or other types of paints to design and decorate your eggs. Even undiluted food coloring usually works. It is important to note that you should not eat any eggs that have had paint used on them.

Creating or decorating your egg is also fun and simple. Once the eggs are hard, you can stick stickers to the egg, use a brush to thinly cover a creative design, or glue construction paper cutouts to the egg. Many people even dress up their Easter eggs in doll or handmade clothes made from cotton or other types of fabrics.