A Bub's Life: How-To

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

How-To

I've been thinking a lot lately about those "how-to" projects I did in elementary school. You know, those assignments where you have to write out every single little step it takes to complete a task. By the end of it, I was usually frustrated about having to break it down so completely. It's a pretty well-rounded lesson, I think, that we have been learning again working with lil'bub. I can probably sum it up well with one word. PATIENCE, my friends. It's something that I've never had enough of, something that I am constantly working on, and something that Bub the hub already has a wealth of (annoying right?). PATIENCE is required to be a good teacher.

A good example is working on Avery's pincer grasp. So, like picking up really small things using just her thumb and pointer finger. She'd rather just rake things up. This task usually comes pretty easily to children that have not had 5 brain surgeries. But before we can even focus on pincers, we have to start at the beginning. Which first means getting her to isolate her pointer finger. So we press on play-doh, we press on light switches, and we press on toy buttons. Let me tell you, this has totally done the trick. It's actually done the trick so well, that lil'bub wants to use her pointer finger now for everything. It's cracking us up. She wants to open and close big heavy doors and roll her ball using just her pointer. She even wants to point on (poke) us now! But in fact it did lead to her using pincers more, and more accurately. Cool huh?

When I type "how-to" into google search, a list automatically pops up. I am assuming it is the most searched how-to's. Interesting that this is what our society cares about most:

how to make baby food

how to tie a tie

how to kiss
how to get pregnant
how to lose weight

how to make a website

how to write a resume

how to solve a rubix cube (those cheaters!)

Here are some shorter Avery "how-to's":

How to best enjoy Mickey Mouse Club cartoons....