Election Day Fun

During Toddler Letter Adventures class yesterday, the toddlers took part in our very own election. Mat man, an activity tool use to teach body awareness and parts, served as the modorator. Our two candidates shared their platforms. Magic C Bunny shares his ability to magically turn an "C" into a "O" and "Q". While Frog Jump Froggy explained the Frog Jump letter "F".

No election would not be not complete without shaking the candidates hand and posing for a few photos. Do not forget that cannot miss photo for the candidate with a baby.

After all the photos opportunities take place, the toddlers casted their secret ballots by writing an "C" or "F" on their ballot.

AND THE WINNER IS ................. FROG JUMP FROG. Froggy's victory was a landslide.

Summer session THREE @ camp

Corner starting letters (H, L, and K) with pretzels. What could be better snacks and letters?

All you need is apple sauce and a straw to preform magic. The magic C letters (C, O, G, S, and Q)and (a, g, d, c, and q) were all preformed with ease.

Gold metals were awarded for the mastery of the diving letters (p, h, b, r, n, and m). Meet my proud swimmer metalist.

Sliding down to the end of the alphabet. Sliding down to v, w, x, y, and z.

Summer Session TWO @ Camp

Frog jump letters have never been better than jumping with friends to write letters (E, F, R, P, B, N, and M).

Where do you start your letters? AT THE TOP !!!!!!

Shaving cream writing with center starting letters (J, I, and T).

Sliding down to the end of the alphabet with the sliding letters (V, W, X, Y, Z). Do not forget the other letters with slides (A, R, Q, N, M, K, and k).

Summer Session ONE @ Camp

As session ONE comes to an end, we celebrated our handwriting success with an ice cream party. To parallel the Summer Olympic, the children participated in a swimming training program where they worked on the diver letters (r, p, b, n, m, h). As you can see from the photos, the children had fun wearing their swimwear while working on the letter formation of the diver letters. They all got a gold trophy and prizes for demonstrating proper formation. Who said learning how to form letters was not fun? I'm looking forward to working with more children next week in camp.

Toddler Handwriting Classes

Toddler Handwriting Adventure Classes emphasize letter formation using the award winning Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum and multi-sensory strategies for 2 to 3 year olds. This curriculum uses a child centered developmental approach to equip children with a solid foundation for handwriting success. Students will engage in fun hands-on sensory motor activities to solidify letter formation without using a pencil. Music, movement, and sensory experiences will be used to boost memory of the skills learned. Mat man will be used to teach the students body awareness. Students will work on coloring and drawing, practicing these pre-writing strokes will provide a solid foundation for writing upper case letters. Fine motor activities will be used to strengthen manipulation of writing utensils while improving pencil/crayon control. Pre-Scissor skills will also be addressed. The cost of these 90-minute classes is $95 for a 6-week session, which includes the cost of classes and workbook/materials fee. Class will start the week of July 9th. Private and small group sessions are available throughout on the year.

2012 Summer Camps

Students will experience a fun, engaging, multi-sensory method to learn the fundamentals of handwriting. Proper handwriting is essential to succeed in school. Our goal is to equip children with the necessary tools to write with CONFIDENCE and EASE. The end result is better academic performance. Handwriting Summer Adventure Camp emphasize pencil grasp development and the formation of letters and numbers using the award winning Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum and multi-sensory strategies for 5 year old and up children. This curriculum uses a child centered developmental approach to equip children with a solid foundation for handwriting success. Loops and Other Groups: A Kinesthetic Writing System is used to teach cursive letter formation. This curriculum teaches letters in groups that share common movement patterns. Easy-to-remember motor and memory cues help students visualize and verbalize while they experience the “feel” of the letters. All campers will engage in fun hands-on sensory motor activities to solidify letter formation. Music, movement, and sensory experiences will be used to boost memory of the skills learned and foster good handwriting habits. Wii Write Together is geared to solidifying correct letter formation, while working on speed and accuracy of printing and cursive handwriting. The Wii will be utilized to improve eye-hand coordination and provide motivation. Loops and Other Groups and Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum will be utilized. ✦Session 1: July 23-July 27 ✦Session 2:July 30-Aug 3 ✦Session 3: Aug 6- Aug 10 The cost of each session is $240 or just $50 per day, which includes the cost of class and workbook/materials fee. Camp will begin at 10am and run until 3pm, with before and after camp hours available. Private and small group sessions are available throughout on the year.

Preschool Handwriting Classess

Preschool Handwriting Adventure Classes emphasize pencil grasp development, letter and number formation using the award winning Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum, and multi-sensory strategies for 4 to 5 year olds. This curriculum uses a child centered developmental approach to equip children with a solid foundation for handwriting success. The students will learn the skills to write in upper case letters and progress to numbers. Students will engage in fun hands-on sensory motor activities to solidify letter formation. Music, movement, and sensory experiences will be used to boost memory of the skills learned. The students also will work through drawing a person and shapes. Students will work on coloring to strengthen the manipulation of a pencil while improving pencil/crayon control. Scissor skills will also be addressed. The cost of these 90-minute classes is $95 for a 6-week session, which includes the cost of class and workbook/materials fee. Classes will start the week of July 9th. Private and small group sessions are available throughout on the year.

AOTA Conference

With the American Occupational Therapy Association, AOTA, Conference being held in Indianapolis this year. I quickly jumped at the opportunity to join my fellow OTs. At conference, I learned about many new and old handwriting approaches use around the country. I came back with new handwriting tools and techniques ready to use with my current handwriting clients.

Meeting Handwriting Without Tears' Mat Man was one of my top conference highlights.

Spring Break Handwriting Camp - 2012

During this year's spring break camp, we worked on the letter formation of all upper case and lowers case letters. Number formation was also addressed in this weeklong camp. The campers used shaving cream, playdoh, popsicle sticks, magic sand, yarn, chalk boards, and bendaroos to practice forming letters. After the second day of camp, a 6-year old boy camper told another camper, his mother and father were amazed at how much progress he made in only two days. With a smile on his face he said they were real proud of him. With that statement, I knew this camp had already achieved my goal to equip children with the necessary tools to write with confidence and ease.

Preschool Handwriting Class at the Beach

Not wanting to conduct class inside we moved class to the beach. The Preschool Handwriting Class wrote letters in the sand, formed letters with sand, and wrote with chalk all while enjoying an early spring day in March.

A Surprise Cursive Lesson

The above samples are from 6 year who at the end of our tutoring session expressed an interest in cursive writing. After a brief 5 minute introduction to cursive the above sample was created. Currently, he looks forward to ending our sessions with a cursive handwriting lesson. The main goal of that day's session was to create a joke book using proper letter formation and spacing. Writing letters within the lines was also addressed.

Student of the Month

The above samples are from a 6 year old boy who currently comes to tutoring once a week. He has made significant progress during our sessions. I started working with him when he was having difficulty writing upper case letters. Now he is able to write entire sentences with lower case letters & upper case letters with ease. He only requires cues for letters and word spacing. His mother also reports improvement with his writing to do long written reports and homework assignments.

Preschool Handwriting Adventures

These photos are from 3-year old children in the Preschool Handwriting Adventures class. Both of these students entered into this class with little or no handwriting instruction at school. Currently, forming a new Preschool Handwriting class which will start March 29th, please call us to join this class.