Jordy is doing a lot of counting at the moment. He is getting up to 14 ok but then gets a little muddled. But he is really counting, ie he is understanding the quantity of each number to a degree that is a little surprising.
Even though i knew he enjoyed numbers (hence me introducing the spindles earlier than i may have otherwise) the last few days have seen a bit of a leap in his understanding. He is now adding things up. The first basic example for me was on Sunday when he said there were two chickens in the yard and two chickens in the house so there were four chickens. Fair enough. Not rocket science but enough to surprise me.
Today he asked for his talking calculator for the first time in a while. It’s one of those annoying battery operated things that never shuts up (that he totally loves) and i have often discouraged him from using… well not anymore. Today he sat on the floor and added over and over again things like 3+4=, and 6+2=, and 7+1=…. etc. And did number quizzes counting forwards and backwards (surprisingly he got the counting wrong more than the addition which i don’t quite understand but there you go…)
We worked together with the stereognostic bag. He enjoyed feeling the shapes and rolling them. He won’t always feel the shape properly before pulling it out of the bag- he just reaches in to surprise himself with what he gets 
so we’ll have to work on the nature of the game a bit more.
I did a basic presentation of zippering the other day. He wanted to do it himself and got it once but then got frustrated when he did not immediately get it the next time. He hasn’t gone back to it although i offered it this morning.
What else have we been up to…. oh, been doing a little with the classified pictures. I’m not all that happy with the work that i have been presenting him and have had to rethink my method a little. I think i might sit with him and just look at a dozen or so pictures and talk about them a little and not try to classify them just yet. I briefly tried to sort 5 mammals, 5 birds, 5 reptiles today and show him a feather, the feel of scales and fur etc but although he went with it and we had a play i don’t think it really sank in.
I am now going to go with two separate paths with the pictures i have made so far- simple sorting with 5 cards from each of three very distinct groups (animals, flowers, kitchen utensils) that he can work with without assistance so that he gets a good uncomplicated example of the task. And then present several at a time from the full range of cards from each group (eg mammals or fish etc) and just talk about them and relate them to our environment where possible.
I also took Jordy for his swimming lesson for the first time in several lessons (my mum has taken him) and it was wonderful to see how well he is doing and how much he is totally loving it. Now when we do ‘Under the Sea’ i can hold the back of his head and push him under and along and then let go and he kicks up to the surface, reaches for the wall and pulls himself out quite well (there is the occasional delay or flap and i can’t help but give him a little assistance!) His kicking and paddling is much stronger and he is holding his breath or blowing bubbles with no effort at all.
