Lily has long wanted to be an otolaryngologist, teacher, pediatrician, Cochlear Implant designer, Mom and a million other professions, when she grows up.
However, a new profession, Forensic Scientist, has now entered the mix. Although Lily has no interest in blood and guts, this new career is closely related to her love of spies and mysteries.
Lily commonly reads upside down. She and the book are totally flipped over while her legs wave around in in the air. Not sure what it means or if there is any research around something like brain stimulation when reading. Maybe this could be Aunt Kelly's new reading research focus???
Lily continues to devour books and grow in her literacy skills. We check out bags of books, instead of just a few, because they don't last very long.
With all this time spent upside down and flipping around, Lily is now enrolled in gymnastics. We briefed her teachers on tips for communicating, but parents sit behind a glass window in one corner of the gym, so I'm not sure how much she is actually hearing or missing. The gym is a very challenging listening environment. However, even with the difficulties hearing, Lily is loving the experience.
Her Neptunes make a little bump under her leotard, but don't seem to give her much inconvenience. The headpieces stay on well in their ponytail setup, even when she's spinning around and around and around. No limitations for this kid!
Being Lily's brother/shadow has its good times and bad. Mostly good. We already have Bodie swimming and he has taken to it incredibly quick. No fear, just floating on his back. Lily stands ready during the lesson to assist with high fives and waving under the water.
Last week, I also found Bodie perched next to Lily eating an after school snack and devouring a book. I think Bodie already has that love of reading like Lily does. While Lily doesn't read 10 books a day anymore, we try to encourage her to read at least one book or an hour of reading each day to build her language skills. When not nestled up to Lily, Bodie's favorite spot to read is on Grandpa's lap. They cover such favorites as The Fire Truck book, Tiny Hands and Max and Ruby.
After being invited to a Harry Potter birthday party, we figured that Lily/we needed to get up to speed on all the lingo, names, potions and culture surrounding the book series.
Since that time, Lily has read the first Harry Potter book and watched the movie. There are so many details, stories and characters to remember. I can't keep them all straight. After the party, Lily came home and turned our foyer into Diagon Alley, a street where Wizards buy their tools. Note the hat, cape, wands, owls, potion books, etc. Such imagination and a switch from the "Lily's Rainbow Spa" which is a permanent fixture in our bathroom.
Over the holiday break we've hit a few of Lincoln's newest Little Free Libraries, a library craze happening all over the country. Their theme is "Take a book, leave a book."
It was quite an adventure finding the libraries, discovering what was inside and then convincing Lily it was alright to take a book at each stop. She had them all read by the next day so we'll have to make another journey to return a few books in their place.
By January 2014, thre are supposed to be 10,000 Little Free Libraries all over the country.
Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy by Bill Wise is a facinating baseball story for pre-teens about a child with hearing loss overcoming adversity and what is "expected" of him. Even though Lily and her Dad are serious Yankee fans, we thought we'd better take a look after Lee and Low Books asked us to consider writing a review.
Growing up in the 1860s, William Hoy dreamed of being a major league baseball player. However, this dream seemed unlikely because he was deaf. Hoy eventually became a expert shoemaker, but kept his dream alive by playing baseball behind his shop. By chance, an amateur team coach saw Hoy playing and the rest is history. He moved up through the minor leagues and eventually to the Washington Nationals, where he played outfield and became the first player ever to throw out three runners at home plate in one game.
The book is filled with interesting examples of how Hoy faced adversity and overcame it. For example, Hoy couldn't hear the umpires calling strikes and balls, so he eventually worked out a series of signals with the third-base coach. This helped him move from one of the worst to one of the best batting averages in one season. The book also describes how the crowd would throw confetti and wave their arms wildly to recognize a great play by Hoy.
The book concludes in the spring of 1902 with Hoy, now on the Cincinnati Reds, batting against Luther Taylor, another deaf player who played for the New York Giants. The Giants eventually won the game, but it was a historic day in baseball.
With beautiful illustrations by Adam Gustavson, this book captures a little known story and brings it to children and adults through an easy-to-read format and a historical lens.
If you'd like a copy of this book, we have one to give away. Leave a comment below of why you would love to have this book and we will choose someone at random.
We picked up a sweet little book at AGBell called "Let's Hear it for Almigal" by Wendy Kupfer.
The story is about Almigal or "Ali," a happy, spunky little girl with a BIG personality who feels unlucky because she can’t hear everything she wants to hear. Written in a similar style to Fancy Nancy and illustrated just as beautifully, Almigal loves to celebrate her friends differences including her own hearing aids. One day, Almigal can't hear as well and must get Cochlear Implants.
When I read this book to Lily, the moment I said Cochlear Implants, her eyes got big and her mouth fell open. I didnt realize just how impactful this type of story could be for her. Seeing a lively little girl who talks non-stop, loves pink and wears cochlear implants was definitely someone she could relate to.
The story continues with Almigal jumping in a pool and getting in trouble because her CIs aren't waterproof. Lily instantly started asking why she didn't wear Neptunes. (My how times change so quickly.) And then Almigal's dog ran off with her CIs. While this is something Lily's dog would have done if given the opportunity, there is no way Lily would allow this to happen. She doesn't take her CIs off.
The story ends with Almigal's parents putting her to bed and now she can hear them saying that they love her. Tears! Great book. Thanks for writing it Wendy.
We're always trying to introduce activities and experience that expand Lily's language and exposure to language.
More recently, we've begun to hear words like startled, ridiculous, cuddling, scrumptious and amazing. Where she learns them, we're not quite sure.
Lily announced at the grocery store this week that she "had a cart of nutritious food." I know this came directly from a Berenstain Bears book called Too Much Junk Food. It's fun to watch her experiment with a new word or stop the conversation and ask "What does that word mean?"
The holiday break will certainly be a time that we can focus on playing around, reading and thinking about what the next year will bring for all of us. It has certainly been a wild adventure.
Lily loves music, so dancing and singing to the String Beans, was a highlight last week. Lily described Curt as a "lonely bean" because he is the only remaining Bean still performing. She even recognized the music to "I think I need a Bath" before I did. Her music appreciation and developing skills are beyond our wildest dreams.
We were there to attend a Holiday Book Drive for The Alexis Verzal Children's Rehabilitation Hospital of which we are huge fans. Alexis and her family have become friends, as have a number of the staff members at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. My Rotary Club even raised funds to develop a Sensory Therapy Room. What an incredible place.
Playing in the leaves was a perfect way to spend a beautiful fall day.
Lily knew that leaves rustle and crackle. And of course they "fall from the trees because winter is coming." Leaves and trees have been a theme at Nature preschool which she continues to enjoy.
Speaking of Crackle - Lily is starting to read. The Rice Crispy Box was in front of her and she sounded out "POP!" "And there is an exclamation point," she said. We also put the bowl of cereal up to her microphone and she said she could hear it cracking. Now that is a very quiet sound.
Last week she also read her first sentence in a library book that she had never seen before. It said "I Love Dogs." What an exciting moment. Who would have ever imagined that she would start to read at 3.4 years old.
One of the things we try to do constantly is to expose Lily to as many different experiences and learning opportunities (combined with fun). We think it's been vital to her vocabulary growth, social development, and overall good character building ;-)
This weekend Lily had an opportunity to meet the Cat in the Hat at a local bookstore. We spent the evening at the Twilight on the Tallgrass fundraising event for the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center. Lily identified birds, pressed flowers, pet a horse, and of course rolled down the hill of prairie grass. Good times.
Had the opportunity this weekend to spend some time with Carol Flexer at the Aurora Leadership Center where she came to speak to parents and professionals about hearing loss. We've promoted her book Children With Hearing Loss: Developing Listening and Talking Birth to Six in our Amazon list since we started this blog and it was nice to finally meet her and get some first hand teachings and insights.
She spent two days presenting on a variety of topics - all relevant, engaging, and spot on to our hearing journey and others. Can't recommend enough to see her speak if you get the chance (She'll be speaking the AG Bell Conference we mentioned last post).
Anyway, here's a series of mini notes I took during the sessions.
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Continue reading "Carol Flexer - It's All About the Brain (Part 1)" »
Lily went to a special "Fancy Nancy Night" at the public library last night with Dad. We made Fruit Loop necklaces which Lily promptly ate during the story telling portion of the program. Then all the Fancy Nancys got to march through the library culminating in a sing-along. A grand time was had by all.
Barb with the Omaha Hearing School is such a delight. Each time she comes, she brings something unexpected that captures Lily's attention and imagination. These unique experiences create huge language opportunities, that Lily thrives on.
Last week, Barb brought the book Sadie and the Snowman. It is about a girl who builds a snowman in her backyard, which melts and gets eaten by various animals. Sadie is not deterred and rebuilds the snowman over and over again.
After reading the book, which Barb says is her favorite, Lily and Barb went outside and brought in a huge pan of snow. Then they built a little snowman in a bowl on our kitchen floor.
The final product was placed outside and has only melted a little since last week. The "macaroni" nose and the "pipe cleaner" mouth have fallen off, but the rest is intact.
It was a very cool (no pun intended) language rich activity that we could all do together.
There is not much Lily missed about Halloween. We had the whole experience including making cookies, reading loads of books, attending lots of wonderful Halloween parties and of course Trick or Treating. Thanks to everyone who added to the flavor.
Lily learned all about skeletons with bony fingers, cackling witches that say "Hee Hee Hee" and that a "Thank You. Happy Halloween" always follows the neighbors filling your basket with candy. We shared many fun experiences with our friends and family and Lily is already plotting next year's costume.
Lily has been getting lots of pre-Halloween experiences. She's read a dozen books about haunted houses, pumpkin patches and bony skeleton fingers. And the big news is that she decided to be a "puppy dog" for Halloween. Very cute pictures to come soon.
Here Lily and Barb, from the Omaha Hearing School, are trying to decide what Lily should be for Halloween. Maybe a ghost? Then they read/sang a book. Each page was a Halloween picture. This one was the Ugly Witch - The witch goes "Hee Hee Hee" and of course they made an ugly face.
The final picture demonstrates that it is getting colder here and Lily is dressed so stylishly in her leapord print and hot pink accessories. Pretty fancy!
Lily spends a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. While she's there, she attends "Papas" school. They read lots of books, talk about colors, numbers, shapes and letters. Lily has mastered most of the colors, the basic shapes, one through ten although two and seven are often missing, and many letters in the alphabet including A, B, L and I. Many of the lessons are on the computer. Her reward for good work of course includes M&Ms. Yes she knows the letter M as well. Thanks for your help!
Last week Faye brought Lily a couple of books to read during the week. Her favorite is Carl's Birthday about a big dog and the baby Madeline who go on an adventure. It's actually a series of books. They are marvelously illustrated, but except for the first page or so, no words appear on the pages. One of the things we learned early on in our journey was to read, read, read to Lily, but not to always be restricted to the words on the page. The Carl books are excellent at helping us do this. Lily loves looking at the pictures as we make up the dialog and explanations on each page. It's been an excellent way to try new language, expand vocabulary, and ask questions.
Karen Rossi, Director of the Omaha Hearing School, and our Oral Guru, has a new book out called I Promise to be a Good Parent - A Book for Families and Friends of Young Children. It highlights 10 key "promises" (aka language tips) for parents to make to their children. The promises are all based on creating meaningful interactions between parents and children and optimizing the young child's development of security, confidence, listening skills, and spoken language. The ideas are simple, yet spot-on, and highlight the fundamental language ideas that Karen has drilled into us like engaging your child, involving them in normal everyday activities, and talk, talk, talk. It would be a beautiful gift for a new parent.
Susan, Lily and I had a fantastic time at the AG Bell Conference in Milwaukee this past June. Fabulous information, insights, and inspiration. For those not able to make it, AG Bell has now made the presentation materials available online. I'd highly encourage you to browse and learn from these. Great research and great info from professionals from around the world.
Also, while not a requirement to download, consider becoming an AG Bell member so resources like these can continue to be available to parents and their families. Happy surfing.
