Weekly Wrap Up ~ The Festival Of Knowledge

 

We had another busy and productive week. The highlight of the week was the children participating in The Festival of Knowledge held at the Nature Center each year. This was a great opportunity for the kids to make a project and show what they had learned to the public. They also had to go through an interview with judges.

(Photobucket will not let me take out the Red Eye today!)  The girls standing in front of their display.

They decided to do their project on the Cherokee Indians. Each child picked their favorite part to write about of the Cherokee field trip we took last fall. Tom Sawyer concentrated on the houses and clans. Goldilocks really liked the language and setting up the village. Little Red Ridinghood enjoyed the beadwork and pottery that the women made. She also did most of the painting of the landscape and made her own pinch pot.

I am very proud of them. They did all the work by themselves. On the day of the judging, each did great with the interview portion. They were all eager to tell what they had learned.

Unfortunately, someone decided to vandalize their project (first time in the history of Festival of Knowledge). Somebody smashed the clay houses and stole some of the figurines and Lincoln Logs. The kids were really disappointed. We rebuilt everything the best we could with double-stick tape and twigs. The head of the event told the judges that the display arrived in perfect condition, and the judges said they would not hold it against the kids. The children ended up taking First Place in the cultural history category. HURRAY!

Since we were at the Nature Center, we enjoyed seeing all of the animals. It was a fun-filled day. The peacock was really showing off.

Our oldest works at the Nature Center. I caught him cleaning the inside of a snake enclosure. I couldn't miss the opportunity to take his photo in a glass cage! Yes, there are snakes crawling around inside that cage with him. HEHEHE! Since he was a young child, he always wanted a snake for a pet, but we wouldn't allow it. I am so glad he gets his "snake fix" far away from my home. LOL!!

Blessings,
Dawn

Therapy Thursday ... A Calming DVD

Our local hands-on museum always has the DVD, The Way Things Go, playing.  Ever since my son was a little baby, he has been mesmerized by this show. This amazing show is a Rube Goldberg machine in action.  The creators use fire, water, chemistry and gravity to make an exciting chain reaction of events. This is a fun DVD for the scientist/theater artist in all of us. However, it has a special calming effect on some of our special little guys. My son has never been diagnosed with autism, but he does have severe sensory processing disorder, which we have been told often looks like autism. When I had the opportunity to buy this DVD recently, I was talking to the staff at the museum. They told me that other families with kids on the spectrum had found great success with this DVD. They had a few amazing stories.

It certainly has calmed our son whenever he has watched it. I have no idea why it works so well. As I have said in the past, calmness is our theme word this year. With that in mind, we decided to hire one of our son's favorite Tomatis workers. She will be coming into our home 2 to 3 hours a week to help us make a better sensory diet for him. On her first day with us yesterday, I got more ideas than in the past 20 years living with two children with sensory processing disorder. I am so excited about her coming and getting us on the road to a calmer lifestyle! She said we had tons of tools (trampoline, balls, balance board, putty...) in our home, so it is just a matter of learning how to use them to help him more. We will be taking a long break from Tomatis. I have not seen any major gains in the last few loops, and I think we need to explore some other options for awhile. I have a feeling that having this worker in my home is going to make huge gains for us. I will be posting what we learn.

Blessings,
Dawn

Happy Presidents Day!

We started our day off with our traditional Presidents Day scavenger hunt.  My husband has a great pewter set from his childhood of the presidents.  He has all of them through Ford.  Every year, they are turned into educational tools and are hidden all over our house with a little fact about them.  This year we decided just to do a scavenger hunt with the most well-known presidents and what favorite food they enjoyed. 

Two of the foods were things my kids had never had or we were pretty sure they would not like.  They were dared to try them anyway.  Richard Nixon's favorite breakfast was cottage cheese with ketchup!!!  GROSS!

Only two of us were brave enough to try this one, Timothy and my Dh. They said it was worse to look at than to eat it.

Theodore Roosevelt drank a gallon of coffee everyday.  No wonder he was such an energetic person!

Only Daddy and Tim drink coffee.  Today, Little Red Ridinghood tried it, and said she would stick to tea.

Some foods were much more to the kids' liking.  Their favorite food was introduced by Thomas Jefferson.  They could not wait to eat their mac and cheese. LOL

They were also very excited about Ronald Reagan's jelly beans, too.  Jelly beans for breakfast is a very fun treat.

They also enjoyed oranges with FDR!  We all had a hardy breakfast and learned some history at the same time.

Breakfast included ~

• George Washington .... string beans
• John Adams ... corn
• Thomas Jefferson ... macaroni and cheese
• John Q. Adams ... sliced apples
• Abraham Lincoln .... cheese
• Ulysses S. Grant ... rice pudding
• Theodore Roosevelt ... coffee
• Calvin Coolidge ... pickles
• Franklin D. Roosevelt ... oranges
• John F. Kennedy ... bacon
• Richard Nixon ... cottage cheese with ketchup
• Jimmy Carter ... peanuts
• Ronald Reagan ... jelly beans

Blessings,
Dawn

Park Fun...Third Through Sixth

We did a lot of catching up on our goal of going to 52 parks this year.  The third park on our list was right in our neighborhood, but we had never been to it. It turned out to be really fun. The playground had several unique parts such as a Braille board, rolling slide and a swinging boat.

The fourth park we did not take any pictures at. It was one of our favorites and attached to the library.

The fifth park was in a neighborhood a few miles from us. It was a lovely day, and there was an amazing slide. Too bad we did not have any wax paper. The kids would have flown down the slide if they had sat on wax paper! However, our jackets did the trick.

What a neat swing set there, too.  Even my husband (in the black coat) got in on the action.  He went the highest by far.

The sixth park was a little out of the ordinary. We went to a large city cemetery. Some of you know I have a thing about graveyards. I really enjoy them. My husband and kids have learned to like them, too.

The girls really like tending the graves. Many of the flowers had blown over in the brisk wind.

The three kids loved running down the hills through the gravestones. I teach them to be calm and respectful if there is someone visiting their loved ones. However, today the graveyard was filled with joggers and us. So the kids were more free to run around, as long as they did not bump into headstones.

It looks like we are in for nice weather for a few more days. I hope to get to another park or two over this next week.

Blessings,
Dawn

Teaching Left and Right

This is a fun way to reinforce the directions of left and right. First, you make two cards with left and right on them. Add arrows to help give the child a visual. Then write "heads" on one card and "tails" on the other.

Now take a quarter and head out on a walk.  At each intersection let a child flip the quarter.  If you get heads you go left, or tails you go right. 

Then off you go on an adventurous walk. Who knows where you will end up? Our neighborhood is filled with hills, so we got a real workout, besides reviewing our lefts and rights.

The kids loved the mystery of not knowing which way we would turn at each intersection. This was a great way to add some intrigue into the same old neighborhood walk.

Blessings,
Dawn

Muffin Tin Monday...Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  What a perfect day to have a muffin tin.  This is the kids' breakfast muffin tin.

They had strawberry yogurt with sprinkles, red,white, and pink M&M's, strawberry tea, candy necklace (to make), strawberries, and heart shape peanut butter and Jelly sandwich.  What a fun way to start the day even though they are full of sugar now!

Follow the link to see more muffin tin Mondays.

Blessings,
Dawn

Therapy Thursday...A Controversy

Our Goldilocks sleeps behind an alarmed door. She has since she was 4 years old. It is for her safety, as well as the safety of our whole family. She loves her alarm and so do we! It gives all of us peace of mind and precious sleep.

I have heard so many families in crisis with a RAD or FASD child who are advised to alarm their child's door and do not want to do so. They feel that it will be like putting their child in prison or will damage their self-esteem. They argue that it shows they do not trust their child (which rightfully they shouldn't because of the child's behavior). I have even heard that their child will not obey it, so what is the use. 

My question to them is ~ how do they sleep at night? I will not go into all of her behaviors as a young child to protect her privacy. However, I will say that it was dangerous for everyone involved to have her loose in the house in the middle of the night. I was one sleep-deprived Mommy sleeping with one eye open all the time. When we were advised by her therapist to get an alarm, we went out and got one that very day. Over naptime, we made a game out of training her to stay in her room and not open the door. The 200 decibel alarm was enough to convince her to keep her door closed. She only opened it three times that first day. She has only opened it a handful of times in the past 6 years. Most of those times have been a mistake that were followed by an immediate apology. 

I think one of the most important factors in making Goldilocks comfortable with the alarm was to tell her it was to give her peace of mind. In her birth home, she never knew what scary person would come into her room and what they would do to her. We told her that only we knew how to get into her room without the alarm going off. She was finally safe in her own room. NO ONE could come in and hurt her. In addition, we told her that we needed to know that she was safe so that we could all get a good night's sleep. People who have lots of sleep have more fun during the day. We have always told her that in an emergency she can come out, and she should not worry about setting off the alarm if she needs help, such as vomiting or there is a fire. The alarm is truly a comfort to her, and she reminds us if she does not hear the beep of it being set when we close her door at night. 

I sometimes wonder how long we will keep the alarm. Will I still be setting it when she is 15, 16, 18.... She is indeed much younger than her age of 10. That is a result of FASD. We do not know how far she will mature. What I do know is that I am so grateful that we introduced it to her as a gift we were giving her and that she appreciates it. Although I do think there will be a time when she does not need the alarm anymore for behavior's sake, she may  always "need" it for her sense of security.

Blessings,
Dawn