More Summer 2012 Reading

Here are three more books that James and I read together as part of his summer reading program. We had mixed successes with this group.

"We Were Tired of Living In a House:"

James liked this book, but lost interest 2/3 of the way through the story. He liked the pictures and the adventure, but was not keen on keeping track of what they carried and lost along the way. If the book had been shorter, he probably would have liked to reread this with me.


"Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, and Spheres:"

I thought this was going to be great, as James was obsessed with shapes last year and retains an interest in them. However, there were no words in the book, and while some photos were interesting, several were also like the one directly above. James was totally not interested in talking about finding 3-D shapes in real-life photos. I think words on a page would have anchored him more to this book. Having children play with the shapes would have been best. All in all, disappointing.


"Spot Can Count:"

James' pick to take home, and by far his favourite book of the week. The pictures were engaging and Spot counted barnyard animals up to 10. An easy-to-read, engaging book for James. He loved the fold-out portions of the book that revealed the number of animals for each page. Some were missing, which sadly can happen with well-liked board books.

This coming week we selected only two books. I think that's good, as I am rereading his SpongeBob books with him as well. For the eleventy-seventh time! We'll check back later to report on our last summer reading selections.

Two Bits (bit 1 of 2)

For the longest time, James was pleasantly pleased by everyone and everything (excepting vacuum and blender-type noises). Although I was pretty sure he knew who I was, I felt like I was on par with the cat, a bottle of milk, or anything that spun: pleasantly enjoyed while it lasted before being succeeded by the next pleasant thing.

After reading about some common signs of autism, I noted that while he did go up on his tip toes, flap his hands, turn in circles, and jump up and down when excited, he did not line up his toys or exhibit compulsive behaviour. Until he started closing all the open doors in the house. Then all the lights had to be either on or off (and our house has multiple light switches for the lights, so he'd put on quite the light show trying to get everything either lit or unlit).

Then he started latching on to his blanky, carrying it with him wherever he went. This made me happy, because it's a key developmental milestone, and made me feel I was getting to know James better as he showed real preferences.

Here is James with his Bear Bankee, a hand-me-down from a cousin (thank you, cousin!):



Now James adores his Bear "bankee," and wants it to go almost everywhere with him. He must be tucked in with him before going to bed. There is only one thing he wants more than his blanket, and that is his family. This makes me super happy. His number one favourite right now? His Mommy. This warms my heart, except if I need to go to the garage to do laundry, or say goodbye to someone out front. Then there is a problem at Mission Control ... it's called a meltdown.