Happy New Year! What to Look Forward to in 2012 at PWW365

Happy New Year from my family to yours…

We hope this year brings you all joy, happiness, love, laughter and most importantly, HEALTH!

What’s Coming up at PWW365 in 2012

I am excited about blogging into 2012! I’ve only been blogging a few months and I am slowly starting to “find my voice” so-to-speak. I have gone from zero readers to over 250 email subscribers, over 260 Facebook Fans, and over 270 Pinterest followers!  I am having a blast getting to “know” so many different other bloggers and followers and I have so many great ideas for this year! Here are few of them:

• Adventures with Baby (and Preschool) Signing: I am a huge advocate of teaching babies sign language…thought I admit to slacking a bit with my son. However he is starting to really “get it” and imitating a TON so I had decided that I was really going to get on it in 2012. For Christmas I got Ev four DVD’s from Signing Times. We already watched one of them (three times in a row, at my daughter’s request, lol) and I plan on watching these with my children so I can facilitate their learning of the signs on a regular basis. Also, I am going to really step up using sign all day, every day. Today I decided to teach Ev the sign “fish” for his goldfish crackers, and my daughter E was SO into it! So, she learned how to sign “more fish please.” They were both having a blast….until we ran out of goldfish crackers! (Good thing we are going to Costco Friday…) And of course, I am going to be blogging about our adventures with sign language!
• Fine Motor Mondays: In an effort to keep up with my daughter’s needs for fine motor work to help strengthen her hand muscles (due to her Juvenile Arthritis), I am planning to post probably every other Monday about the fine motor activities we are doing. She finished up with her occupational therapy last week for now. Though she does continue to have weakness in her right hand- she is at age level for all skills except cutting and folding paper! Our OT was fantastic and thinks I will have a good handle on providing her with activities that will help to strengthen those muscles. I will probably take her back in in a few months for a quick check to make sure she is doing OK.
• Book of the Week: I am going to start doing more activities based on books that can be used by parents, educators, and my fellow SLPs to help teach vocabulary, concepts, answering and asking “wh” questions, following directions, etc. I am hoping to start using a little widget to help you all know what books we will be using every month. This month we are focusing on books with a winter theme and books that have to do with Chinese New Year which this year happens to fall on my dad’s birthday, January 23rd! (Ironically, last year it fell on my husband’s birthday, Feb 3rd!).
• Letter of the Week: I’m not sure when we will start this, but I also am going to start doing Letter of the Week activities at some point. I know most preschools do this and my daughter (and future students) can benefit from activities that revolve around letters.
• GIVEAWAYS! Yes, everyone LOVES a giveaway, right?? Well I am seeing some in our future here at PWW365! I am hoping to have the first one THIS MONTH! So…be sure to stay up date with me via email or Facebook so you don’t miss anything! (I am also on Twitter, but I am Twitter illiterate! HA!).
• Doing Speech Therapy! I have been on maternity/child rearing leave for over a year now. I am technically on extended child rearing leave through the end of the 2011-2012 school year from my school district…however I have decided to take on just a couple private clients starting in 2012. I am really looking forward to getting “back to work” even though I have been working my rear off as a mama this last year!
• Arthritis Walk 2012 and The March of Dimes March for Babies: We are looking forward to participating in the Arthritis Walk, 2012 this May. Last year we participated for the first time and started fundraising just about 8 weeks after my daughter’s Juvenile Arthritis Diagnosis. We raised over $17,500 dollars in 11 weeks. Our goal was $1000. I’m excited to share the fundraising journey with you all this year! We also will be participating in the March Of Dimes March for Babies in April this year in honor of my dear friend’s TWO children, both of which were micropreemies! Below are two pictures of my daughter E with her friend T whose due date was just a day before mine, yet he was born almost exactly FOUR MONTHS BEFORE HER. His little sister Ava was also born over 3 months premature. Two awesome causes to walk for this year!!!!!!!!

 

So many GREAT things to look forward to this year! What do you have planned this year?

Cheers!