The first day of Easter Seals "summer camp" went well yesterday. The drop off was a little rough. We arrived at the same time as a little girl who was very adamant about NOT wanting to go in. She was actually a pretty large and strong-seeming little girl, and her parents were struggling with her to get her inside. Of course both my boys were staring at her with the widest eyes. I noticed that her parents' van had an autism awareness magnet too.
When we got to the classroom, Henry spotted some puzzles up on a shelf. The teacher said "we got those just for you, Henry" and I think they really did.
This morning his teacher told me that yesterday was great, and they were all pleasantly surprised that Henry participated in circle time, etc. with no protest. I gave her some notes from Ms. H about motivators and certain techniques that work with Henry. Today is their class's swimming day, so that should be fun and should wear Henry out!
When we walked in this morning Henry kept saying that he didn't want to go in, etc. I hesitate to put words in his mouth for him, but at one point I said "do you feel nervous about starting something new?" And Henry said "yes. I'm feeling nervous." He kept repeating it while I talked with his teacher. I said "I know, Henry, I feel nervous when I start something new too. And I feel nervous when YOU start something new. But you'll have a fun day today."
While waiting for a prescription yesterday, I picked up the Chicken Little storybook for Henry. We already have 2 sticker books and a different story book, but you know that he likes to have the entire library for each movie. I felt a little sheepish, buying him a present for no reason, and thought I might keep it hidden until a special occasion. Well of course the special occasion came last night!
The past couple days he has been fixating on this part of the DVD Mulan: rent the DVD and go to the "special features" menu. This calming new-agey music plays while line drawings of Mushu and Cri-kee are drawn and then disappear and then are drawn again. Henry watches it over and over. I can actually see why he enjoys it- he likes to watch people draw anyway (a subject for another post). So he watched that for probably half an hour while the rest of us chatted and played with legos. When Henry took a potty break, Bill turned off the DVD. Henry was upset, so I told him that I had a surprise for him. He said "I want to guess what it is!" This surprised me, so I said "ok", and waited for him to guess...
Well he must have just heard that phrase before, because he got irritated when I prompted "what do you think it is?"
Anyway, he was so excited about the book, and many times during the night he said "thank you mommy for getting me this Chicken Little book from Kroger!" (He also asked a couple times which aisle I had gotten it from- I guess trying to picture the spot in the store?)
I just read this great essay that Alexander's Daddy posted. Go read it.
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3 comments:
There's nothing like a new "collector's item" to cure what ails you! Hope day 2 of summer camp was great! (I almost wrote "went swimmingly," but I could hear the groans from here...)
Henry is so sweet how he thanked you for the book. Just a little surprise like that works every time with my boys too. It makes ME feel better to give the little surprises too.
Maybe you have a budding artist :o) I wonder sometimes when Gabe is intently watching something what it is about it that he is so drawn to, what does he do with the imnformation and then, most importantly, when will I get to see the impact it had on him.
I also think Henry did great when going into school, especially when another child is screaming "No!" about going in. That could be really confusing.
I have been wondering lately what Disney is doing to get all our children so obsessed with their characters and products? All girls my daughters age are into the Princesses, Gabe all of a sudden LOVES Mickey Mouse??? If only they could make vegetables seem that great.
Kristin
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