Guess Who's Back, Back Again

It's not Eminem. It's me!

Yes, I know you can hardly believe your screen but it is I, LD, CCC-SLP, coming to you in the flesh...in the form of a blog post. I took a self-imposed blog vacation because simply I was burned out. And that's okay, and to be honest I don't feel bad about it. As all of you home-health therapists know, end-of-the-month is a little bit cray. Here are some of the things I have been doing therapy-wise lately:

Watermelon Week
- Classic color, cut/glue seeds to a watermelon slice found on Google images;
- Integrated language and fine motor activity of scooping watermelon "seeds" from a bag using a spoon and walking them across the room to put them in a bowl without spilling them;
- Language activities related to "Mouse's First Summer", in which they eat a giant slice of watermelon.

During one session, I experienced this little gem:

"Uh oh! What did she do?"

"She's drowning!" 

Lol I mean let's not get ahead of ourselves, I'm not sure the situation is that serious.

Other than that I've been piecing together the most random activities, from using alphabet puzzles to target final consonant deletion by sorting them into groups of final sounds, to frantically searching for Barney songs online during a session on my phone to quiet a screaming child. It's been fun.

I also put together a new all-in-one articulation and language packet for the Summer! Rather than re-state myself completely, here's what I had to say about it on TpT:

On the Road Again! (Beach Edition)

This summertime speech packet is part of a vacation series! In this "Beach Edition", you'll receive 10 pages of easy-to-implement themed activities for preschool and elementary including:

- Visuals for transportation/locations: "what", "where", and "how" questions;- "What Should I Pack?" cut/paste game for categories, wh- questions, different/same/sorting, attributes, negatives;

- "Beach Ball Past Tense Flashcards" for regular/irregular verbs related to playing with beach balls (easy functional activity) along with matching for colors or requesting using 1-2 attributes in a Go-Fish-style game;

- "Shell Search"- Using a shovel for a "viewfinder", kids can search for shells in the sand and then produce their target word the number of X pictured on the shell;

- Cut/Paste Bucket for corresponding cut/paste to "Shell Search"; provides choices for the child to analyze their own speech and need for prompting such as: "I feel like using my speech sounds was ___ easy ___ a little hard ____ tough today." Great for /sh/ kiddos, obviously. :)"Shell Search" can also be used as a simple cut/paste activity. I recommend laminating it, however, if it will not be used in that fashion.

Stay tuned for the "Camping Edition" coming soon!:)

Yes, I was quite excited upon putting together the packet. Hence the exclamation marks. But for real, this packet will stretch me all week and I hope at least one of you can get some use out of it, too.

In non-speech news, I have been:

- Working out more frequently. I just joined FitFusion.com which is a subscription-based service that is essentially Netlfix for workouts. And I love it. All of Jillian Michael's workout DVDs are there, including her new "1-Week Shred." I did the strength workout for the first time last night and it kicked my ass.

- Eating enchiladas like they're going out of style. I just learned how to make them. I won't shut up about them. Ask my roommate. 

Grass-fed beef enchiladas and a very frozen margarita. My manifesto.

- Enjoying these screen caps/quotes from "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days". One of my all-time favorite movies that I would integrate more in daily conversations if I could.

- Feeling this tweet. Even though the handle "The God Light" is a little much.

And that's all I got. For now. :) Have a great week, ya'll.