Nugra's short story

This is a short story Nugra did a few weeks back. I was playing with the MemoPad on my BB, typing details about myself such as my name, my age, my office, etc. My goal was to show Nugra the idea of introducing oneself to another. He took the bait and started to tell a story about his dog. Enjoy!

"Nugra is in home. Nugra has a dog. His name is Doggie. And he has a nose. His nose is one small nose. When it is itchy, he scratches with his feet. And he is hungry, he likes rice and bones. Big bones. Doggie likes big bones. But doggie does not eat small bone. Now he likes to drink milk. When he is asleep, he sleeps on morning and he wakes up at home. And the car beeps, we hear the horn, like this: beep beep. And Doggie barks like this woof woof. And pakde pujut open the gates. That's all today. Now we have to go to bed. Bye bye. Sweet dreams. We see you next time. Not now telephone. You have to go to sleep telephone. Good night. Sleep tight. "

Reading Aloud to Your Children

A new friend from work just lent me her book titled "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. For those of you interested on the content: "the book offers proven techniques and strategies, along with reasons, to help children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers".

I went straight to Chapter 4 "The Dos and Don'ts of Read-Aloud". What I learn from here is that you must always try to engage the audience, starting with the first time you show the book to them Ask them what do they see from the cover, can they guess what the story would be about, amd it between ask them of what they think will happen next. And to never use book as a threat, which happened before in my family, because the children can change their attitude about book once they see that we use it as a weapon.

I tried it rightaway. I have recently bought Keiko Kasza's books from that new friend. I was planning to save them for birthday gifts for Nugra's or Kahya's friends. But I got so intrigued by one of the cover and decided that I am going to open it, read it to my children and purchase a new one.

The book is called "Dorothy and Mikey", it has 3 short stories about a friendship between 2 hippos. I was drawn to it because I want to expose Nugra to more social story to help him interact more with his peer. Needless to say that I think I made the right choice, Nugra like this book instantly. I think he can see himself in the same situation, the situation where he always want to be the winner or when sometimes he want to just be left to play alone. I was hoping he can pick up some of the conversation in this book and replay it in his daily situation. Nugra is notorious in scripting, that is repeating what he saw and/or read from books or movies. So book like "Dorothy and Mikey" or other social story book is much better than fiction books that he likes alot.

The last chapter from the "Read-Aloud Handbook" has a list of books that are good for reading aloud. I search them on Amazon.com and decided to purchase these items:

• "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Barret
• "Eddie: Harold's Little Brother" by Koch
• "Ira Sleeps Over" by Waber
• "Miss Nelson is Missing" by Allard
• "The Seven Silly Eaters" by Hoberman
• "The Wolf Who Cried Boy" by Hartman
• "Two Times the Fun" by Cleary

Kahya's first week at Playgroup Gita Niti

Last week, the nanny was called to prepare Kay's lunch. Kay already sat nicely and waited patiently for his meal. The teachers and other nannies are still busy chasing around his classmates. After his meal is set, his nanny left him so he could learn how to feed himself. Not long after that, when the teachers are ready to lead prayer, they were shocked to see that Kay's plate is already empty....... LOL..... Poor Kay, he was so hungry that he could not wait for his friends to get settled down.


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Self Introduction

So this is the material that I have been going through with Nugra since last week. The goal is for him to be able to introduce himself and to talk a little bit about himself.

So it the sequence is
* My name is.....
* My birthday is on....
* I am .... years old
* I live at Jl.....
* My mom's name is.....
* My dad's name is....
* My brother's name is....
* I live with my.....

The next step is to talk more about his school, his friends, things he love to do, etc. My goal is by the end of next week, Nugra will be able to do all of the above without any cue. And after that is to be able to answer questions correctly involving all the previous details.
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Casein Free Gluten Free Soy Free

Starting last year, when Kay's eczema was at its worst, I decided to go casein free gluten free and soy free. Soy was the only allergen showing positive on his skin prick test. However I observed more itchiness and hyperactivity when casein and gluten were included in his diet.

So, I changed his whole diet and below is the list of what food he can have.

Breakfast: Regular flavor oatmeal by Quaker, fried japanese ubi, vegetable fried rice, home made french fries.

Snack: banana, apple, orange, pear, plain rice krispies cereal.

Lunch/Dinner: rawon, japanese sukiyaki, salmon croquette, empal, lamb or beef meatball, fried gurame, spaghetti aglio olio with salmon, vegetable soup

I am currently looking for more rice-based meal or snack to enhance Kay's diet. I will post lunch and dinner recipes later this week.
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"Ayo main"

Kahya is getting more and more verbal. Some phrases he uses everyday are " ayo main", "mama where are you", "see you soon", "hai mama". He knows almost everybody's name in our home. The pronounciation is still not clear and we repeat the correct way to say them everytime so he would mimic it. According to Kay's speech therapist, he is good at imitating 2 syllable word that ends with vowels, such as "papi dadi mami pipa" etc.


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First mobile blogging

This is gonna be my first mobile blogging from my brand new blackberry (thank you honey :)). So hopefully this works.

I am so excited to do this since I can write all the details on my children's progress right at the moment it happens.

As of Kay, this is his second week on speech therapy. Pak Rahmat, the therapist, told me that Kay is his best patient on his "under 2yrs-old" category. Kay is able to sit for the entire 60 minutes session and follow all the instruction willingly. Kay is now able to do 2 word commands such as: "ayo main", "mama duduk", "minta elmo". He also has learned good manner and always say "permisi" and "makasih".

As for Nug, I am now teaching him basic information about his birthday and his age. I am planning to teach him about his home address and phone number for this week material. I just realized how important repetition is and I must always remind myself to be more patient with him.

So I am posting this now. Crossing my fingers ;)


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