Today was another fun(ish) day (we had a couple of rough moments). The first little guy I worked with was funny. He has an issue with sitting on the outside colours of the carpet during circle time (his favourite colour is dark blue and that is the centre of the carpet's colour). However we can't sit in the middle of the carpet during circle time, so this is an everyday battle with this little guy. However, today I purposefully made some of our activities take place on the circle carpet. I explained to him that while it's not circle time he can sit where ever he wants on the carpet, but as soon as it's circle time we have to pick an outside colour. This worked. When it came to circle time he knew the drill and didn't put up a fuss. He didn't even fuss when someone else sat on the light blue (his second choice) and happily sat on purple. Wow! What a successful day! (Again gotta celebrate the little things). Another event of today with this little guy that also demonstrated how far he has come was during his favourite game (candyland) another little boy had selected the dark blue piece. At first he grabbed it from this other little boy and said, "I want to be dark blue" where the other little guy was like, "oh ok". But I stepped in and said, "no, he had already picked that one, so we'll just have to pick a different colour". Again, this use to bring on a meltdown central. But today, he obliged and picked the green piece. Success!!! Little guy is getting so much more flexible which is awesome! (The little people I work all have control issues, so to see them start to give up the control is a huge hurdle cleared!)
After that fun and successful shift I had my last home session before Christmas break. The craft that I took along turned out really well. So well that I want to do it again. It was awesome! It was a Christmas ornament that opens at the top, then we poured different colours of paint inside (which ever colours they wanted) and then we closed it up and the shook the daylights out of it and kept shaking it until the entire inside was covered. They came out so neat looking, all marbled and swirly and I really like it. I want to make one for my own tree. That session started out rough, but the ending was sweet! It made for an overall really fun day.
Then I came home and found the culprit in my kitchen that was stinging my nose since this morning. (A little bit of left over hotchocolate in a cup on the counter). So I washed that out and finished cleaning up the kitchen a bit. Cleaned up Inigo's mess. I had left a millet stick on the counter (thinking it was safe there since he never leaves his home). Well he must have followed his nose because not only leave his house and find it, he proceeded to make a huge seeded mess on the counter and on the floor. I thinks me bird had a party while we were out. I wonder if millet stick has the same affect on birds as catnip has on cats. If so, I would have loved to see what Inigo was like. He's already a funny duddy!
Well that was our Tuesday. 2 down 3 to go until Christmas break!
Michelle
1 comment:
What a brilliant strategy! It's not like wanting to be on the dark blue circle is an unreasonable desire, but within the proper context. You are so smart to give him his desires at "appropriate" times so that he's able to give up control and his desires when it's not appropriate to have them. I think we often forget that children's desires are valid, but we have to teach them context and appropriate times (geez... I'm still learning that myself. No hot chocolate right before bed or my tummy will be big. Boo). So identifying the important things to this little guy, allowing him to have those things in a controlled environment gives him a sense of empowerment which turns the desired thing into less of a battle field when it isn't appropriate to have them.
Again, Michelle, I'm so proud of you! These children are so blessed to have you in their lives because you are flexible and wise. What a great mentor you are as they navigate their way through life lessons. You rock!
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