Busy with extracurricular activities (Part I)

Cooking!

Patrick struggles in new environments, specially if these are enclosed with a bunch of unknown people. If on top of this, Patrick is expected to perform in a specific way, like following instructions to color or sing, well, forget it, we will have a guaranteed meltdown or at the very least a hyperactive child whose body can't get enough input.

We have discovered that it's not because he doesn't want to be there, but something is triggered in his brain and then in his body that cause such reaction during these situations. He doesn't know how to conduct himself so he gets a little rough. By now I know that it will just take to repeat these "new" situations a couple of times and he will be OK the third time. Instead of preventing my son from this experience, I have learned that exposing him more to this, will help him learn to manage these situations better.

We were thinking about enrolling him at a Summer camp, but he isn't fully potty trained yet (almost there, though!) and also they require that the child separates from parents easily, and as I mentioned above, it's likely that the first couple days would be a nightmare and he would probably be kicked out! So we decided to instead sign him up for a few different classes with parent participation and hopefully next year he can enjoy the summer camp experience.

Patrick took swimming classes at the beginning of Spring. He loves being in the water, and I think swimming is a great way to practice coordination. You can tell it's challenging for him to figure out how to coordinate his arms and legs to make the motion of swimming. But what's the point of taking classes if it isn't to learn? Right? Right! So he will get there, he just needs to practice more.

Swimming class

Due to his low tone in the mouth, Patrick kept his mouth open almost the whole time. The instructor and my husband kept telling him to close it, and he would try it but few seconds later he would go back to opening the mouth. I wrote a note to his school teacher saying P was taking swimming classes, and I made mention of how he kept opening the mouth. She wrote me back saying they made it the topic of the day, and they told the kids to remember to "zip" the mouth when they are in the pool or the tub. Patrick came home showing me how to zzziiiippp. Have I said how much I like his teacher?

When the swimming classes were over I wasn't sure what else to sign him up for from all what was available. So, we signed him up for a "variety zone" class at the near RECenter. It was 10 classes that included a taste of gym, cooking, gardening, arts and crafts, among other things.

First 2 classes were an absolute nightmare, but I knew that could be the case so I stood strong and patient! This time, I was prepared for the crazy behavior, and I just prayed that the instructor, the other kids and the other parents wouldn't be annoyed by him. Aside from one mom who gave me nasty looks at the beginning, all of them were very nice about it. He attended 45-minute classes once a week. Gardening and cooking were his absolute favorite classes and I'm planning to sign him up for just the cooking class this fall, and gardening class next spring. 

Cooking class

For the summer, Patrick will be taking 2 classes geared towards children with special needs, and I will talk more about it on my next post.