Badger's New Craze: Purble Place

This game comes free with Windows Vista. Badger really loves it. There are three games in Purble Place:

• Comfy Cakes - Badger liked assembling cakes based on a picture order. It helps him follow instructions. He's great at it. And he even cheers for himself when he gets a cake delivered.
  
• Purble Pairs - is a simple memory game. Badger does trial and error here but I'm really amazed at how he remembers where the right pictures are. 
• Purble Shop - this is a game of logic and recognition. Badger's goal is to guess the right features of the character hiding behind the curtain based on previous choices. By using logic, he can guess what other features are missing. According to Vier, Badger was able to guess correctly with just a few tries the first time he played it. 

Aside from Starfall, Badger likes this playing this computer-based game. It's still fresh for him and it's pretty challenging. After a while he might get bored, though, because it's PC installed and not a game that keeps adapting (unlike the Starfall website). It's a great teaching aid because it's so much fun.

I just make sure to be with him while he plays so that he can share the game with me and it becomes more interactive as I cheer him on or when he asks for my help. 

(Oct. 20, 2009)

Teaching Badger at Home

I started finding ways to teach Badger at home ever since Badger was evaluated as speech delayed last January. Everyone kept telling me that it's okay because "boys are usually late to talk." But I didn't see the harm in giving it our best shot. Because I was busy at work and Vier was busy with our business ventures, we enrolled him in occupational therapy (OT) and we pitched in based on suggestions from his teacher. Badger would still attempt to talk but we still couldn't make sense of what he was saying. It was hard to get him a slot with a speech therapist so we just continued with his OT. I discovered a free website resource for home schooling and teaching speech and reading to toddlers, starfall.com. It was a really great way to interact with Badger. He became adept at using a mouse and he would squeal with delight whenever he saw a new letter and played an online game.

Last April I had an ectopic pregnancy. It was a sad and traumatic experience for me but my maternity leave gave me two months to just concentrate on Badger. I even explored youtube videos on speech therapy strategies and attempted some of the activities with Badger. Then, something magical happened. During a friend's birthday party, Badger became antsy because it was getting late so I tried to play a game with him. I would say each letter of the alphabet and wait to see if he would follow. And he did! Right up to his funny pronunciation of "z." I wanted to cry. All my friends were amazed at how he was just going on and on. It was as if all the sessions with starfall and all my crude speech therapy attempts with him came together and something clicked. He was saying the alphabet! It was also wonderful that he could also identify each letter that he was saying because of his OT classes.

I was awed by what a little more time and a lot of love could do. I now believe that homeschooling is something that I should aim to do when he is ready for nursery.