Homemade Monday: Randoms

Here are some random goodies that aren't brilliant or even particularly clever.  But, they do seem to help out on a regular basis at our house, so maybe they'll help out at YOUR house, too...

Baby Book/Milestone Documenting
While the blog does a fair job of peeking into our daily lives, it's not a great resource for documenting the tiny milestones the squibs independently achieve on a regular basis.

I've said before I rarely find a mass-produced baby book that is organized in a way that works for my squibs, so our solution is a monthly/weekly calendar for each.

Here's a look at LC's...

I use the month calendar to list any medical appointments or therapy sessions.  If they're weighed at the appointment or start a Rx, I'll also note it there.

Then, I use the weekly section for 1-2 sentence anecdotes about the day.  It might be as short as "Today your good friend Eli came over to swim in your pool with you.  You two are excellent partners in crime".  Or, "You signed all the animals in your Peek-a-Boo Barn app.  It's your very favorite one". 

Just quick jots to remind me to look for their individual accomplishments during the day and record them to share when they're old enough to be curious.

You can use the calendars that are released in January, or pick up those that will be coming out in July that are designed as student planners.  They're usually tabbed and smaller and more kid-friendly in their styling and appearance.

Keeping Home Therapy on Track
LC and Jace receive therapy at home and at a therapy center.  I was always encouraged to keep a therapy notebook to record goals, exercises, etc. but it was never convenient for me and never seemed to do much to help remind me what to work on during the week or allow me to communicate more effectively with our therapists.

One of the most helpful tools we began using in January was a dry erase bulletin board.  The squibs receive home therapy in the same area of the house that we spend our time playing.  This board is the first thing you see when you walk into the room...

At the end of our therapy sessions, I note on the dry erase board what recommendations our home therapists have for activities and goal focus for the week.

Because the board is large and in the squibs' play area, it's easy to refer to the board and incorporate the recommendations into our daily play.  Even better, it's visible when our home therapists walk in the door.  They're immediately reminded of what we focused on during the week and we can easily build on our last week's session without having to go back and try to remember what happened during that session or how it translated into our schedule for the week.

Pre-Writing and Fine Motor Organization
I picked up a shower caddy at a garage sale for a quarter a few weeks ago and have loved having all of our pre-writing materials at our fingertips in a container that easily travels to whatever area in the house we're working on them...

The pre-writing caddy holds coloring books, white paper and color pages.

It also holds glue sticks, crayons, markers, Post-It notes and dry erase markers.

While it used to be against my every instinct to supply a toddler with markers, it's really the only medium that gives LC the visual feedback that motivates her to keep using them.  But her FAVORITES are the dry erase markers.

We have a large magnetic whiteboard that hangs on the wall and writing on vertical surfaces is great for strengthening the muscles used in fine motor skills.

But, even more than writing on the dry erase board, LC loves to write on her full-length mirror.  (No shock there.)  She adores covering "That Girl" in graffiti and the best part is the dry erase markers erase from a mirror as easily as they do from a dry erase surface.

Hope you found something in this Monday's list you can use and...as always...we'd love to hear about whatever you're using at your house that's working well for you!