Language and a fun activity for all ages!

Repetition!  Repetition! Repetition! 

Okay- I think I made my point:) Sometimes,  children need to be exposed to new words multiple times in order to learn them. Therefore, I believe repetition is a highly important and easy to use tool that we as parents can utilize to strengthen our children's receptive and expressive language skills.   WAIT!  Let's back up, what exactly is receptive and expressive language?  In very basic terms,  expressive language is the words spoken while receptive language is the understanding and comprehension of words spoken. What does repetition look like practically when conversing with your child?  I'm glad you asked! :):)

Newborn- Pretoddler

Babies can hear outside noise in the womb at 30 weeks!  Isn't that incredible!

I am amazed by God's creation and that He loves us enough to make us each special!

Psalm 139:14 states:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Lily is now a toddler and I find that repetition is more important now than ever!

1.  ALL AGES: When Lily and I see a picture of a new object/person/animal in a book, I will label the object and then continue to repeat what the object is in sentence form.  For example, "Lily look its a "hippo."  "Oh I like the "hippo." Third, I will describe it - "the hippo is big."  I overemphasize the new word being targeted.  Often times, by the third time I am referencing the object, Lily will repeat the word.  Then, I make it a point to show her the object in different books, or pictures that we see in our daily routine.  I am a huge believer in encouragement!!  The bible says in

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

Therefore, when Lily does point to the targeted object and identify the object, I am clapping and saying great job!!! Then, I continue to re-emphasize the word and say you said "hippo" Wonderful job! Animals are so much fun and provide great avenues for language learning!

FUN ACTIVITY:  Try going on an animal safari with your little one!  They will absolutely love it!
You can print off different pictures of animals found in the jungle and hang them in different places in your house.  Make pretend binoculars out of a paper towel roll cut in half and look for the animals!!  There are so many language opportunities for this activity that I am just brimming over with excitement!  Once, you find an animal and identify it, you can talk about how it feels, what it sounds like, where it lives, what it eats, its size, color, and more!! Then, have fun and pretend to be the animal, the more animated the better!!!
Please please please, if you try this activity, please comment below and send me a picture if you can!! I would love to hear any feedback!


 Please NOTE: (if your baby/child is non- verbal, you can use this same technique but without the expectation that they will repeat the word after you)

Lily loved this activity! We used plastic animals instead of paper 

but both work great!

She loved giving the animals a bath in the river (a plate with water)!

Increasing your child's language skills

Teaching my precious toddler new language skills just excites me and I would love to share some of my ideas with you! So, lets dig in!  I have put together five simple and useful ways to begin really encouraging growth in your toddlers language repertoire. Lets start with #1 for today! :)

1.  Narrate everything and I mean absolutely everything.  I know this will feels so silly at first but it is absolutely paramount in increasing your child's receptive language skills.  You can start this while they are tiny newborns but please don't feel discouraged if you did not!  For new moms, I would encourage you to start this as soon as you take them home from the hospital.  But how does that look practically?  Here are some things that I did with my Lily when she was fist born.  

Newborns-pre-toddlerhood

A. I would walk to the different pictures in our house and tell stories about her sweet family.  I would include information about each relative and describe where the picture was taken and the fun memories behind it!  

B.  I also would walk around and take her on "imaginary" trips!  I know this one is funny to imagine but I had so much fun with it!  I would say things like and now Lily we are going to take a trip to Alaska. And I would narrate the whole sequence of events for her.  We would pick up our pace as I told her we were taking off in the airplane, and would describe the beautiful sights we saw.  I would tell her "oh look at the moose eating grass and the grizzly bear uh-oh lets hurry up!  Since sweet Lily could not obviously not dialogue with me, it was a fun way that I could help garner her language skills!  

C.  I would explain everything I was doing!  I would explain even the simplest task like - "lets open the big black door," the more descriptive the better!  I love to pile on the adjectives!

Toddlers:

1.  I still narrate everything with Lily and she has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds! 

For example, when we go on walks I describe everything we see! Yesterday we compared "hard vs. soft"  This is how it looked: she picked up a few rocks that she was very excited about at the playground.  So, I said "oh you found rocks!  Wow!"  The more inflective your voice is the better! I asked her how many rocks do you have?  (Lily is able to count up to ten- only to 3 when counting actual objects) so I would not have asked her this question and waited for a response except that I knew she could complete the task. If she was not counting yet, I would have said: oh you found 2 rocks!  I like your 2 rocks.  Lets count them together!) Then, I said oh your rock is hard.  Let's feel it together!  And then I compared it with her stuffed bear and said "bear feels soft and gently put her bear to her face. But the rock is hard and I let her feel the rock again.  We talked about this concept a few times and I repeated the words hard and soft several times because repetition is essential and I will cover that next! I also described the plane in the air, the clouds outside, the children riding their bikes, the bunnies hopping by, the squirrels and what they liked to eat and more.  Do you see how this just becomes a lifestyle? I have truly seen the fruits of this recently or I would not be sharing this with you!  It reminds me of one of my very favorite bible verses: Galations 6:9

"But do not grow weary in doing good for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up."

Baby Be Blessed Giveaway

Go visit this website:

http://babybeblessed.blogspot.com/ and enter to win

Winner will receive a $56 voucher for a Personalized Baby be Blessed Doll of their choice!!''

Such a beautiful ministry!

Legacy

Today I feel incredibly blessed by God's provision of wonderful, God fearing friends. I love studying God's word with those who are passionate about Him! I just finished studying the book of Ruth with my Moms bible study group and I am amazed and in awe of Ruth's charcter and courage! She left her homeland, followed Naomi even after Naomi urged her to return home! She followed after God courageously and then with hard work and perseverance in the fields was noticed by Boaz. She was a woman with character and integrity and pursued excellence with her whole heart. Then, I love how the story of Ruth culminates with Ruth giving birth to Obed, who is the father of Jesse, the father of David! What a lineage! What a legacy because she courageously left everything to pursue God! I often pray Lord "Enlarge my territory" as seen in this verse in the Bible: ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory. Let Your hand be with me, to keep me from evil, so that I may not be grieved.’ (1 Chronicles 4:10) And I pray all Christians follow after Christ and leave behind what the world has to offer!

Easter is coming so I have been on Pinterest finding different ways to help celebrate Jesus and his resurrection with my sweet 20 month old! We loved planting an Easter Garden which can be found here: http://mediacache.pinterest.com/upload/218495019391568479_3wI73Ndz.jpg

We loved watering our Easter garden with our new milk watering jug which can be found here: http://ajourneytoadream.blogspot.co.uk We also loved making the palm branches from her palms which can be found here: http://impressyourkids.org/ We plan to make Resurrection rolls and have a feet washing ceremony and read John 13!

We also plan to bless our neighbors in small ways to show Christ's love! I love being a mom and sharing Christ's love and hope you do too!!! Oh and don't forget to invite your neighbors to Easter service!

Enter giveaway for Baby Be Blessed pink chenille lamb!!

I love love love this doll ministry! A scripture is included on each doll/animal they create and they are absolutely beautiful! Please don't miss the chance to win this beautiful pink chenille lamb- they will chose a winner on Monday! I have included a link to their blog for you!

http://babybeblessed.blogspot.com/

In Christ,

Ashley Howard

Marriage Mondays Part 1

I love romance! Yes, I am definitely the one my sisters call "mushy" and I definitely receive some good- humored poking fun about it! But I'm okay with that:)

I am forever a dreamer which makes me smile knowing my husband! He is incredibly practical and a definite realist! But God is the perfect match maker and truly gives us a mate that helps us to thrive and refines us to be more like Christ each and everyday! So I have a challenge! I have prayed about what God would have me do to serve my husband better and guess what? He answered!

Challenge 1: Wear joy

Simple sounding right? I thought well thats easy enough- I am a very chipper person! But I know with our spouse they are the first ones to see our worry, our lack of poise after a long day, etc. And I realized that often times what my husband needs after a long day of work is not for a perfect house, not a to-do list that is completed, not for my clothing to fit a certain way, or my make-up to be perfect, not even the perfect meal served to him. My husband excels the most, when he finds me at home and being joyful! It ceases to amaze me the times I've looked completely unkempt but have great joy and my husband just lights up. And I have seen the opposite as well. When I think I have done everything perfectly, I have completed all my errands, the house looks amazing (rare:) and my hair is curled....but I wear worry and stress and it is written all over my husbands face. We are called by God in....

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

So I have learned that sometimes the best gift I can give my husband is a joyful heart! Don't get me wrong- I know we cannot be constantly happy but instead we are to wear joy in all circumstances because we are confident in God's plan!

I pray that you will choose a joyful heart this week! :) Please leave a comment and let me know how the week went!

I love Pinterest for so many reasons!

(Okay I love love love this little blue-eyed angel!!!)

Pinterest is my new best friend- not really:) but you know what I mean! I was a little skeptical at first- a virtual pinboard- hmmm really? But then I decided to give it a try and soon afterwards I found myself plunging in! I felt at first that it could be a frivolous hobby and would be of little impact to my days but I have been surprised in an awesome way! I leapt into the craft section for Lily! We have made an ornament called Lily's favorites with her favorite things glued on (mickey, a bear, dog, etc.), and beautiful handprint cross with red and green alternating handprints and more. I feel so inspired! I also have a million new recipes to try both simple and complex and some wonderful biblical resources  Advent ideas, and more! I have found links to blogs to teach me how to manage clutter, schedules and time. And you know what? After much deliberation, I do not feel guilty! I so desperately want the world to see Jesus and I don't want to waste time so..... where in the world does pinterest come in???? I feel like we too often apologize for taking time to make our house a safehaven for our precious family, to make memories of our babies sweet little handprints, to teach them scripture in a fun and memorable way, to cook new meals to serve our hard-working husbands, and more. In Titus 2:4 Paul speaks to the nature of womens role stating: "Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

Thank you Lord for this New Year of 2012 that will soon be here! I CANNOT wait to bring in the New Years praising the Lord for all of the blessings in my life and for all of the amazing and I mean AMAZING friends and family that surround me! God is indeed so faithful! The Lord has just laid a verse on my heart the last few days which I would like to close with: Psalm 90:12 "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom"

Leave me a comment if you will and let me know what pinterest treasures you have found!! :)