Food and the Holidays

Well, looking at my early entries to this blog, it appears I am a shill for selling stuff to parents and educators....sorry about that. It's just that I was sooo excited with these items and they really helped our daughter, I felt I had to share.

Now, how about a little life experience sharing (and nothing to buy! :)

Here is a calendar entry we especially liked "Don't be surprised if your favorite food at home tastes different when you eat it at someone else's house or in a restaurant. Sometimes it's good to try new foods."

With holiday and family gatherings getting closer, sometimes our kiddos have a very restricted diet. With picky eaters we used a two-pronged approach. Instead of putting a ton of food on a plate, we used a small cupcake baking tin (with about 6 cupcake places). The amount of food could be small and it didn't touch the other food....again, sometimes a big deal. We used this when our girls were smaller and just took the cupcake baking sheet with us to family homes.

Getting back to manners (instead of insisting on cleaning your plate) we also followed a policy of a "courtesy bite". You don't have to eat all the food placed in front of you, but you did have to take one bite. It was polite to show respect for the person providing the food and you might learn to like something you previously hated. This "courtesy bite" relieved many dining battles, because both you and the child know that once the bite is taken....another one isn't mandatory.

Our daughter would actually dry heave when she SAW whipped cream...let alone taste it. We implemented the courtesy bite policy (along with a container for her to throw up in...which she knew she was responsible for cleaning up). Eventually, over many, many tries, she learned to enjoy whipped cream and now wants to shoot it in her mouth from the can....just like her Dad. Makes a mother proud....but you better believe I am not complaining!

What things have worked with your picky eater?

Hidden Curriculum Calendar

One of the things I love are page a day calendars. This time of year so many calendars have reminders to "reorder soon!" for the new year. Please consider checking out this calendar by Judy Endow for your older kids.

Entries range from "it is perfectly okay to rank your friends from best to worst, but not okay to share it with others" to "the purpose of dryer sheets is to take static out of your clothes. Using them is optional."

There is also a Hidden Curriculum calendar for younger kids as well. Those entries include "flavored lip balms for moisturizing your lips are not meant to be eaten" and "your teacher may express an opinion that is different from what your parents think. That's okay. An opinion is someone's point of view, and not everyone will agree with you or your parents."

I know some neuro typical folks who could use these calendars! :)

Anyway, we would sit this calendar near our dinner table and it became the conversation starter for some of our meals....we could share how adults also have to figure out social situations and one of the best fall back plans is MANNERS. If you have good manners, it can help you extract yourself from unfamiliar social situations.

When you let manners be your guide, then as parents/educators we are not constantly nagging about our rules....simply that good manners need to be followed.

"Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners." (H. Jackson Brown, author of Life's Little Instruction Book)

So thanks for reading this post/blog and have a great day! ;)

Middle School: The Stuff Nobody Tells You About

This is a great and easy read. Please consider getting this for yourself, your child, or your child's school if your child is heading to or is currently in middle school. Haley Moss is a teen with high functioning autism and shares her experiences in middle school.

She gives her impressions and advice and then the chapter is followed by an adult's perspective and advice.

Middle school is scary when you don't know what to expect. Knowledge is power and can help jump start the conversation with your child (and resource teacher!)

This book helped my typical daughter as well....really....Go Get This Book!

Revitapops -- Help with Focus?

Let me just say at the beginning, this posting is strictly anecdotal....we are getting no money or perks for talking about Revitapops.

These suckers cost about $35 for a bag of 30 from Amazon.com. They are supposed to help with focus and attention ...you suck on them when you do homework or some task needing your attention... and you let them dissolve...no biting!

Now that being said....when I asked our daughter on the spectrum how she felt after she used one, she said "it made my mind quiet down and I could pay attention better". My typical daughter felt it made her feel calmer. Hubby? "I don't notice anything." Me? Haven't tried it. Yep, that's right, talking about something I know nothing about...but really isn't that all advice truly is? :)

Anyway, just thought it was worth sharing, keeping in mind we are all an experiment of one!

Halloween

Well, it's here AGAIN....the time of year when folks put scary things over their faces and make really scary noises.....the perfect time for kids on the spectrum. (too bad there isn't a sarcasm font!)

Now is the time to practice, practice, practice. Dress up, ring the doorbell and say "trick or treat" and THEN say "thank you" when you get candy. The 5 pieces of candy rule worked for us too....they got a ton of junk, but could only eat 5 pieces that evening and had to save the rest for snacks later (or for daddy's work staff :) It was amazing how small our pile of candy looked in the morning :)

Walk around your neighborhood at night with a flashlight and let them see how different the familiar can look. Our daughter used to be sooo upset when in the car at night because she kept saying, "I don't recognize anything" and she had no frame of reference (even in our neighborhood!) She really felt lost and at loose ends.

My best halloween costume EVER (and yes, I am going to share it!) is a jellyfish! You get a rounded clear plastic umbrella and tape irridescent streamers along the edge...voila! You have a very unique constume and if it rains....you stay dry! We got a ton of compliments and no one had one had a costume like us! Trick or Treat!

Take a Peek at the Right Side Bar!

I have listed on the right side of this blog several websites that have been very helpful to us on our journey. Wrights Law is simply fabulous and has so much information for parents and educators (on both sides of the IEP table) it is almost sensory overload.

Lose the Training Wheels was created by geniuses who helped our daughter in 4th grade finally learn how to ride a bike....in one day! This allowed her to be active like her peers and bike riding dad and sister.

If you cannot find a social group in your area, please look into Model Me Kids videos. They use actual kids from grade school to junior high age and help model how to act in a club, as a member of a team, examples of how to compromise, how to tell someone if you are being bullied, how to act in the school cafeteria......just a myriad of situations. At the end of school, a teacher asked our daughter what she was going to do over summer vacation...."going to Mom's Social Skills Boot Camp"....and yep we did!