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Today John ran a fever. This could explain some of his erratic behavior over the last couple of days. I've noticed that when anything out of the ordinary makes John not feel well, the stereotypical behavior is brought to the forefront. With my husband out of town on business and John coming down with something, we have had a rough day every day since Monday.
Today, John was triggered when my mom wasn't staying for dinner. He wanted her to eat with us, but she was heading to her home to eat. He purposely spilled his orange juice, which then set him off, bolting to another room, spinning in circles, crying and disrupting "order" by taking balls out of the ball pit and throwing them. He was put in a time out, but wouldn't stand against the wall and ran to the freezer, opening and closing the door. A second attempt sent him bolting to the ball pit, throwing his whole body clumsily into the edge and over the top, laying very still saying "mommy don't take me out. no time out." I told him he had a few minutes to calm down and then he needed to finish the time out. It took coaxing and a stronger will than his and I managed to get through the time out. As soon as the timer beeped, the smile appeared on his face and he came to me for the hug. The beep of the timer not only ends the time out, but is ending the behavior. I need to use that.
Showing posts with label ball pit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ball pit. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Breaking the Rules
For the "active" child who needs physical activity before he/she can settle down to work, consider breaking the rules a bit!
With supervision, encourage pillow fights, jumping on the bed, and making crash pads! In our living room, we take all the pillows off the couch and make a semi-circle from the edge of the couch. Each kid (and adults) collect the pillows from the bedrooms and bring them to the living room to fill the crash pad. First, we lay down the decorative pillows to make a base. Then, pile on top all of the soft pillows from everybody's bed. Katie, John, (and Daddy) enjoy bouncing on the springs of the couch and landing in the crash pad. Sometimes they jump off the ottoman like the Olympic divers and other times, the couch works good. Katie does running starts from the other side and does somersault flips into the pillows. It works as a great release for all of the extra energy that needs to escape!
Our family room has also turned into a gym itself! We have a mini-bounce house and large ball pit. The kids enjoy bouncing and rolling around in the bounce house, as well as flipping, diving, jumping, and rolling into the ball pit. John hides toys at the bottom of the balls and goes looking for them. Different textured balls are also good to hide so he has to feel for it.
Everything can be put away if we are having company, but for the most part, our house is for the kids. Bill gets into the ball pit with them. Most ball pits you can buy are a bit too small, so we just bought a blow-up swimming pool and a bunch (750) plastic balls from Toys 'R Us. It's actually considered great therapy for the sensory child to play in the ball pit.
Even if a child does not have sensory integration issues, what child wouldn't love to jump on the bed, dive off the couch into a mound of pillows, have a bounce house in the family room, and flip into a ball pit? It's fun letting them be kids.
With supervision, encourage pillow fights, jumping on the bed, and making crash pads! In our living room, we take all the pillows off the couch and make a semi-circle from the edge of the couch. Each kid (and adults) collect the pillows from the bedrooms and bring them to the living room to fill the crash pad. First, we lay down the decorative pillows to make a base. Then, pile on top all of the soft pillows from everybody's bed. Katie, John, (and Daddy) enjoy bouncing on the springs of the couch and landing in the crash pad. Sometimes they jump off the ottoman like the Olympic divers and other times, the couch works good. Katie does running starts from the other side and does somersault flips into the pillows. It works as a great release for all of the extra energy that needs to escape!
Our family room has also turned into a gym itself! We have a mini-bounce house and large ball pit. The kids enjoy bouncing and rolling around in the bounce house, as well as flipping, diving, jumping, and rolling into the ball pit. John hides toys at the bottom of the balls and goes looking for them. Different textured balls are also good to hide so he has to feel for it.
Everything can be put away if we are having company, but for the most part, our house is for the kids. Bill gets into the ball pit with them. Most ball pits you can buy are a bit too small, so we just bought a blow-up swimming pool and a bunch (750) plastic balls from Toys 'R Us. It's actually considered great therapy for the sensory child to play in the ball pit.
Even if a child does not have sensory integration issues, what child wouldn't love to jump on the bed, dive off the couch into a mound of pillows, have a bounce house in the family room, and flip into a ball pit? It's fun letting them be kids.
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