Mommin' It Up!

November 17, 2011November 13, 2011

Things I love: More great speech therapy apps

My sweet husband got me an iPad for my birthday because he knew I wanted one to work on speech therapy with Sophie using apps. I was to-tal-ly surprised and excited, and immediately went crazy looking for apps to use with her.

One of the first ones I found was Language Builder from the Mobile Education Store, and it was just what I was looking for. It’s an app with beautiful, real-life pictures, and a record feature so that your child or student can record themselves saying a sentence about the picture, then play it back. There are options for different levels of play so that you can make the activity easier or more challenging. This was a great tool for Sophie and I to work on her descriptive language and sentence formation. It was very challenging for her at first, but she came to love it as she got better at it and could see the benefits of her hard work.

Since I liked Language Builder so much, I decided to purchase another app from Mobile Education Store – Story Builder. Again, this app completely met the needs of what I was trying to accomplish with Sophie – working on storytelling, sequencing, and descriptive language. Like LanguageBuilder, it has different levels of play so you can make it easier or harder, and hints you can turn on, off, or customize. It shows a picture and asks a series of questions about the picture which your child or student then records his or her response to. At the end, you play all the responses together and it makes a story. You can save the recordings and archive them if you want to listen to them later. This is SO fun and has resulted in some really cute stories from Sophie, and Joshua too. Joshua loves playing with it even though he has no speech delay whatsoever. It’s just really FUN! Sophie has done so well with it and I love being able to play her stories back.

Since I was so pleased with those two apps, I contacted Mobile Education Store to see if I could review some of their other apps. Next, I chose to try Speech Journal and QuestionBuilder.

Speech Journal was a natural follow-up to StoryBuilder and is just so much fun. It allows the student to create their own story from pictures on the iPad. They can either take a new picture to add to their story sequence or use photos that are already on the iPad. Then, they record a sentence or two about the picture, then add another picture – as many as they want to make up their very own story. I ADORE this app, and so do my kids. Sophie has taken her storytelling to a whole new level, and Joshua is enhancing his own creativity. I really encourage you to get this app even if you don’t have any speech therapy needs in your family. It is just a great way to play.

Lastly, I reviewed QuestionBuilder. This app displays a picture, then asks a question about the picture, giving the child several answers from which to choose. You can choose from Why, What, Where, and How questions or have the questions be asked at random. There are three levels of play and optional hints. This is great for helping a child learn to answer abstract questions. Some of them have been really challenging for Sophie and she is learning so much from it!

These apps are SO GREAT. Since I am just a mom, not a professional, I am so thankful for these tools that give me the materials I need to work with Sophie at home to help her reach her speech goals. We are having a great time together with these. Mobile Education Store has lots more apps for both iPhone and iPad, so make sure and check them out to see if there is one that meets your child’s speech needs.

Thanks, Mobile Education Store! Keep up the great work!!

I linked this post up to Things I love Thursday at the Diaper Diaries. Head on over there to see what others are lovin’ this week.

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Mobile Education Store provided me with Speech Journal and QuestionBuilder at no cost to help facilitate my review.

November 16, 2011November 15, 2011

Birthday Wishes, the sequel

Sophia Diane,

Happy birthday, baby. I can’t believe you are FIVE. When you were born, with all that almost-black hair and that perfect face, I could not imagine you as a five-year-old girl. And now, look at you:

You are sweeter and more beautiful that I ever could have dreamed you would be. My imagination just wasn’t capable of seeing and knowing all the many kinds of wonderful that you are.

Last year on your birthday, I made a wish for you. I wished that you would share your awesomeness with others. You were, at that point, not really spreading your greatness around so much. And oh, girl, these past twelve months you have really made that wish come true! You are SO social, so good at making friends, so sweet to others – I couldn’t be more proud. I am so proud that you LOVE being YOU. This year, I wish that you will always love yourself, that you will see yourself as God sees you – perfectly imperfect, and created exactly the way you are supposed to be.

Sweet girl. You have made me so proud this year. You can read. You can write. Your speech is amazing. You have gotten so strong in gymnastics! You make up the funniest songs, and just like me, you think life should be a musical and it is fun to sing what you are doing. I love singing with you about eating lunch or coloring a picture. I love being silly with you!

You are SUCH a good big sister. Last year on your birthday you were still the little sister, but now you are both! I was so afraid you would be jealous of your baby brother, but you’ve been nothing but loving. I have loved seeing you be so sweet and motherly toward Jonah. You are so good at taking care of him and at playing with him. I love how you talk to him and reassure him. I love how you can’t wait to share the exciting things in your day with him. I love how he lights up when he sees you!

You light up my world, baby girl. Five seems like a big, big deal to me. I’m a little sad because I always want you to be my baby girl. I always want you to say to me, like you often do, that I’m your best friend. But I promise I will be even when you think I’m not. No one could love you more than I do, Sophie.

Happy Birthday!

November 14, 2011November 14, 2011

It’s a slippery slope. And I’ve got oil on my shoes.

Today I went shopping for supplies for Sophie’s birthday party. She wants a Hello Kitty party, and thanks to all the other “fun moms” (I’m looking at YOU, Koproski, Berry, Loyd, and Perlow – and don’t even get me started on YOU, Princess Party Emmons) whose children’s parties Sophie has attended, the child now expects a pinata and goody bags at said party. So, my years of being a super-cheap mom are OVER.

But I was okay with that, to a point, because you see, I had a Living Social voucher to a local party store, which I’d bought with credits I’d built up. It was valued at $30 so I thought, certainly I could get out of the party store only spending a few bucks. So, even though every fiber of my being was screaming “NOOOOOOOOOO”, I purchased a Hello Kitty pinata for $20. That’s right, I spent twenty bucks on PAPER that is going to get ripped to SHREDS before the party is over. I also bought two packs of Hello Kitty plates, a pack of regular pink plates (for the grown-ups), a Hello Kitty banner, two packages of pink forks, and some wrapping paper.

My total before the voucher came to $57. FIFTY-SEVEN DOLLARS. So I spent $27 out-of-pocket when I went in there expect to spend less than ten! What the crap? Clearly I should have gotten into the “Party Store” business. I didn’t even get party HATS, or a game!! Sheesh.

I bought goody bags and favors at the Dollar Tree. Much more my speed. But since there are eleventy-billion kids coming to the mega party of the year, I still had to get a ton. Guess, what, if you are a boy, and you are coming to Sophie’s party, you are getting candy in your goody bag and that’s it! Sorry, dudes. The girls are getting a couple extra trinkets. Because there’s only 9 girls and there’s like, 678 boys attending.

But anyhoo. THE POINT IS:

I got my daughter a $20 pinata. Because she really, really wanted it. I would have rather spent another $20 on a gift for her but I caved. I caved hard.

I might not be a “fun mom” yet…but I’m definitely more fun than I’ve ever been..by Joshua’s birthday in February I’ll probably have rented each of his party guests their own pony for a day.

HELP!!! I’m slip-sliding away…