Unity Day 41: Fun Day!

From Facebook:

"Surprise for us: the S.C. had their Easter Fun Day for the kids, and invited the Unity families to join in. Ryan loved the activities! He did great. And how nice that their celebration just happened to fall on Mommy's birthday! It was a nice break from the usual routine. :)"

Today S.C. had their Easter Fun day for the STEPS program kids.  When we asked why it was today, they explained that Friday is a holiday, Thursday is an in-home day for everyone, and Wednesday, not all the kids are there (I didn't know some were part-time). That means today was the closest to Easter for them to have their special day. It worked for me, as it's my birthday, so it was refreshing when we were invited to try doing something new and fun.

Technically, the Easter activities didn't start until 9:45, so we had 45 minutes to do our usual programming. Coincidentally, today we did our first craft with the boys, so that was something new and fun, too.   D. was our therapist for the day, but H. had prepared the materials so we could make "rain sticks": a great musical instrument/sensory toy that you can make from paper towel tubes, aluminum foil, and small pieces of rice/gravel/beans.  Ryan and J. both had a lot of fun making this craft. I helped Ryan put a twisted piece of aluminium foil in the  tube, then taped up one end (I let him smooth the tape down).  I poured in the rice and gravel, and helped Ryan tape up the other end.  Next, B. was there, and she showed Ryan a choice of stickers to use to decorate his tube. He was attracted to the sparkly ones. So, I pulled off ones he was interested in and helped him smooth them on. Then, we taped the whole thing up, and he had his "rain stick."

close-up of Ryan's "rain stick"

Next we tried "clapping," and the result was predictable. He clapped well for the first two HOH trials, then got 3 -'s as soon as we dropped the prompt.  No surprise there.

Then we tried a new puzzle. It's still a three-piece peg puzzle with big knobs for him to grab, but it is an animal puzzle, so the shapes are irregular, and much more challenging to put in their places. Ryan removed all the pieces independently just like he used to do with the other one,  but for putting them back in, I had to HOH.  As I said, it's the first day with a new puzzle, and the pieces have irregular shapes.    However, D. said to watch for that opportunity to fade my prompt back soon, like getting Ryan to the point of hovering over the right puzzle spot, and letting him attempt to manoeuvre it in by himself.

After that, I set up "push train" at the train table with the four pieces of bumpier track.  Ryan did pretty well with this; he just got a little over-energetic on a few trials and pushed the train right off the tracks. Overall, he got 3/5.  The hardest part was he didn't want his usual reinforcers, and he kept grabbing and breaking the track apart between trials.  You have to have ninja-like reflexes to keep ahead of Ryan sometimes!

Then, it was time to start the Easter Fun Day. The first thing we did was an egg hunt. They way they arranged it was perfect:  we each got a special bag and a list of 6 shapes. In each room we searched, eggs with one of the shapes on it were hidden for each of the kids to find. For example, in the Rainbow Room, enough "heart" eggs were hidden so each child could find one, etc.  After we found/collected our 6 eggs, we returned to the Rainbow Room to open them up and see the prizes inside.  This way, all the kids got the same amount of eggs and the same kind of prizes.  Ryan was a bit confused as to why we were wandering from room to room, but he soon caught on that he liked this free time to walk around. While I spotted all the eggs, I encouraged Ryan to reach for a couple and pick them up. He also helped me open them when we got back to the Rainbow Room. His favourite prizes were the sparkly Mickey Mouse stickers (Remember he liked the sparkly stickers at craft time? What a coincidence!) and the little blue light that straps on to his finger.

After that, we had our circle time, and it was L.A.'s turn to run it today. She did a good job. I give her lots of credit for being creative, and using new activities and songs.  Ryan liked it when she read some Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Snack came next, but Ryan was too excited to focus on his food/drink.  It didn't help that they'd already set up the Blue Room for the Easter crafts, so we had the kids eating at different spots than usual. But that was okay because it got Ryan to finish snack more quickly than usual, so we could join in the Easter crafts.

The first thing we did was decorate a puzzle piece (the autism awareness symbol). I think they are going to use them to create a collage/bulletin board later. So, I got Ryan to help me press a sunshine sticker on his. Then we used a glue stick, and picked out a bunch of sparkly shapes to stick on it.  After that, I helped him, HOH, to put blue sparkles in all the bare spots. As we did this, L.A. kindly put together a little Easter basket (another craft) for us, since her husband was helping J. do his puzzle piece. Ryan was squealing and giggling throughout the craft. It was great to see how much he was enjoying it!

Then we went to another table to do the other craft, which was "planting flowers."  I put it in quotation marks because the dirt was real, but the flowers were artificial. LOL But the effect was very pretty when completed.  I helped Ryan spoon the dirt into a pre-decorated flower pot, and then helped him pick out some flowers. D. helped me cut the stems off the flowers to fit them in the pot, and then I HOH'ed with Ryan, arranging the flowers in the pot.  It went well, but I had to groan when I glanced over and caught Ryan with the spoon in his mouth: yes, the spoon we had been scooping potting soil with. And yes, his mouth had a ring of dirt around it. It was definitely a laugh/groan, "Oh, Ryan!" moment.  I took him into the kitchen and washed his face. He was fine. As the saying goes, "God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt!" [I'm not sure what their plans are for the flower pots.]

After that, we returned to the Rainbow Room, where several activities had been arranged. We started with an obstacle course of walking across things, climbing, rolling, jumping, and going through tunnels.  Well, for Ryan, we mostly just walked through the course. He stepped over one little hump, and I helped him bounce on the trampoline, but the rest we just walked through/around.  He was having fun, though, watching all the other excited kids racing through the course.  Then, we did an Easter-egg-on-a-spoon race. It wasn't exactly a race against others, just us doing our personal best. I HOH'ed Ryan holding the spoon as we walked from start to finish and back.  Ryan did pretty well; he stayed focused, and we only dropped the egg once or twice (both times Mommy's fault!).  They also had a little activity where the kids had to take a plastic Easter egg and throw it in the corresponding bin/hoop with the same colour.  I HOH'ed with Ryan. The problem was, he didn't want to let go of the eggs. He liked them. He wanted to keep the pretty eggs!

Ryan tolerated all the noise and commotion amazingly well.  He followed what the rest of the group was doing, and actually seemed to enjoy all the excited chaos! 

Ryan's scavenger hunt bag and loot; Ryan's "rain stick"; Easter basket craft L.A. put together for us

Just before 11, I could sense he was getting tired. He suddenly turned and snuggled his face into my legs. D. suggested it might be time to give him a break from the group.  So, we took him into the Yellow Room for a little peace.  Ryan was in a great mood, though. He plopped down and calmly played independently with a large bead maze. Once I felt he had rested enough, I pulled out the Thomas ride-on and coaxed him to hop on it.  Well, he started pushing it forward independently almost as soon as he got on!  We were in a smaller room, but still, he pushed himself forward all the way across the room, with ease.  I only had to stop him from rocking forward and backward once or twice, and then D. pointed out that wasn't necessary. We know he can go forward independently now. He simply enjoys the motion of rocking himself back and forth now and then. Wow: only three days with this toy, and it's going on the "mastered" list!

On this high point, we ended our day.  We both enjoyed the change of pace and had a lot of fun today. :)

Tomorrow should be interesting. Papa will be coming for his first day as support person, and I will be running circle for my first time. Wish us luck!