Wednesday: Kitchen Table Adventures: SOCK-KER!

Christmas is coming!!!

We’re excited for Christmas at our house.  This year, we used a red and green paper chain to count down the days until Christmas.  Each morning after breakfast, one of the boys would tear off a chain and then they’d all count how many chains were left.  I thought this was great for my 3 year old to practice his numbers.  Did I mention that I am a homeschooler? I like to look for every opportunity to teach my youngest the basics – get him a head start before Kindergarten.

Speaking of which, Kitchen Table Adventures today is all about pre-schoolers.  The kitchen table can offer endless possibilities to excite the imagination of my 3 year old.  Today, we played a game on the table called “Sock-ker”.  And yes, it involves using socks.  The items required for this game are:

One pair of men’s sports socks – like the white Hanes kind.

One bouncy ball.

The game is played with laying the socks in a curved shape on either end of the table to be used as goals.   The players stand opposite of each other and take turns rolling the ball as carefully as they can into each other’s sock goals.  There is no blocking, or swatting away of the ball.  You just need to get the ball “nested” into the sock to get a point.  It’s harder than you think and the boys had a great time trying to get the ball into the sock nest.  The ball would often roll off the table, but that was fun too, because then it could bounce and Mom wouldn’t get upset with having a bouncy ball upstairs.

This game is great in helping my preschooler with hand-eye coordination and learning how much pressure is required to get the ball where he wants it to go.  Plus, when he makes a goal, he is jumping up and down working those large muscle groups.  And when the ball falls to the ground – he is scrabbling for it.  A great work out for a 3 year old.

Until next time:  Eat well, be well and be happy.

Mondays with SPD: The Quest for a Balanced Sensory Diet

I’m on a quest. A quest to discover the different ways I can facilitate the sensory needs of my children. 

When Diane, our Occupational Therapist, came by last week to work with Bruce, I observed my son begin to put assorted objects in his mouth and chew on them.  It suddenly dawned on me that he does this when he is anxious.  First, he started chewing on a piece of paper, which I took away from him. Next, he found his little black comb and began gnawing on it.  Diane took it away from him and supplied him with a battery operated “wiggle” pen.  I watched as Bruce placed it against his jaw, then his nose and under his arms as Diane and I discussed creating a sensory diet for him, as well as teach him self-calming skills.

Diane also discussed how important it was to meet his sensory needs before he had meltdowns and to help him figure out on his own how to calm himself.  Unfortunately, it was my misunderstanding of dealing with Bruce of taking it upon myself to calm him down during his meltdowns.  When I first learned of Sensory Diets a little while ago, I didn’t quite grasp the concept, nor did I have anyone to hold my hand and show me how it worked.  I was told by another OT to read “The Out-Of-Sync Child” by Carol Stock Kranowitz and I would be good to go. I would know everything I needed in order to meet the needs of my sons.

Personally, I found the book to be dry, boring, and would inevitable put me to sleep faster than reading the Bible.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a well researched and very informative book and I use it as a resource.  But reading and doing – are two different things.  And for something as overwhelming as SPD, I really felt I needed an expert to walk me through this process.  Turns out, it isn’t that difficult.  I tend to interpret things as being more complicated than they really are.

So, with Diane’s encouragement, I am creating a Balanced Sensory Diet for my kids – which seems kind of funny to me.  Since I’m already highly aware of the nutritional value of foods I give to my kids (making sure that it’s balanced and wholesome) switching gears into the realm of sensory integration shouldn’t be a problem.  Although, there are no RDA’s for the amount of pressure my child should be receiving while he lays between the mattresses, or how long I need to brush his arms and legs, I need to listen to my child for when his needs are satisfied.

The Balanced Sensory Diet is like a fitness plan and is outlined in the aforementioned book.  Carol writes that “It will enhance every child’s ability to function smoothly, whether the child is in sync or out of synch”.

Next time, I will have Bruce’s Diet created and posted.  Until then, eat well, be well and be happy.

Aloha Fridays: Roof Water and Rain Barrels

As mentioned before in previous posts,  my family moved to Samoa for the second time in 1992.  We lived in the village of Amouli in a hurricane house that belonged to my grandparents.  The house was constructed of cement blocks and topped with plywood roof overlaid with corrugated tin.  The only indoor plumbing was the kitchen sink and it produced nothing but thick sludge when turned on – therefore, it was struck off our list as a source of fresh drinking water.

My father, ingenious man that he is, quickly worked to solve that problem.  In the picture below (which is the only photo I have of the entire fresh water reclamation system my father designed) you can see the rain gutter he rigged up to catch the runoff from the roof (never mind dirt and dust, bird and bat poop and other insect contributions).  The rain gutter would funnel the water into the barrel below which had several layers of netting and cotton fabric stretched over the top of it. 

Our high-tech water reclamation system.

Every morning, one or two  of us older girls would come out with an arm full of quart size plastic jugs (former Clorox bottles) and fill each bottle, add a drop of Clorox bleach, secure the lid on tightly and pack it inside to stack on the shelf next to the electrically challenged stove.  This would be our supply of drinking and cooking water for the day (for 11 people).

Teaching little brother and sister how to extract coconut juice. 
Poke hole in the "mouth" of the coconut and tip over a cup.

We’d also supplement our fluids with POG juice (Passion, Orange, Guava juice), from the local bush store, coconut juice and milk fresh from New Zealand.  I don’t know what it was that made it so, but the New Zealand butter and milk tasted far superior to American milk and butter.  Maybe their cows eat real cow food – like grass.

Wednesday: Kitchen Table Adventures with play dough and SPD

Tried and true – play dough is probably one of the best inventions ever!  My boys absolutely love this pliable toy and can sit for hours shaping and creating.  And best of all – you don’t have to spend a lot of money on the store-bought variety or the accessories for this activity.  Just make your own and use whatever is in your kitchen drawers to let your kids experiment.

Playing with the dough will increase strength in the fingers, increase manual dexterity and work on those fine motor skills.  If you add rollers, and cookie cutters to it, all the better.*

This is the best recipe for homemade clay I’ve come across.  There are two methods you can use to make it.  First, you can put the color in with the water before you add the other ingredients, or wait  until the dough has cooled and let your child knead the color into the dough.  I prefer the latter approach as it’s a great way for them to work on their gross motor skills and gives my SS (sensory seeker) son the sensory input he craves.

Play Dough

2 cups water

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
¼ cup cream of tartar
Food coloring or fruit or vegetable juice (carrot, apple, beet, grape, plum, etc.)

Mix oil, water and coloring (optional – can add coloring afterwards) in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add flour, salt and cream of tartar.  Stir frequently until dough pulls away from the pan and forms a ball.  Remove from heat and let cool.  When cool enough to touch, knead dough and use as is, or divide into equal parts and add coloring (if you haven’t already) and knead the color into the dough.

To store:  Keep in a closeable plastic bag in the refrigerator up to a week  or so if you use the natural juices to color the dough with.  I use food coloring and keep my dough longer in the fridge (up to 6 weeks).  If it dries out, I add a few drops of water.  I use my nose to determine if the dough is ready to be thrown out and a new batch made.

I let my boys use my cookie cutters, rolling pin, garlic press, butter knife, forks, spoons, slotted spoons, pastry cutter,  cupcake pan, canning rings and tops, plastic cups and lids, plastic dinosaurs and plastic people to create all sorts of fantastical lands and creatures. 

Enjoy!

* Fortunately, my SPD boys don’t have a problem handling play dough – but other SPD kids can have aversions to the texture of play dough.  I can’t offer advice on how to handle that situation, other than to direct you to an Occupational Therapist who will suggest another activity more suited to your child’s needs.

Monday Mornings with SPD: Warm up that brain!

I recently learned of an exercise to help get SPD kids warmed up for homework or other school assignments.  My son's OT showed me cross-overs which involves tapping the right knee with the left hand, and then the left hand to the right knee.  This is done a few times before the routine changes to tapping the left foot with the right hand, and right foot with left hand.  Then you switch it up again with the cross-over foot tapping behind your body.  Both of my boys struggled with this at first, but eventually got the hang of it. The OT says that these exercises can help the SPD child (or anyone):

• improve concentration
• reduce stress
• feel more centered and balanced
• increase energy

and I would add that it helps with hand-eye coordination.

This activity and more can be found at http://www.braingym.org/
So, today, we implemented this activity during our music lessons.  We turned it into a dance and stood in front of my full-length mirrors as we danced to Wee Sing Silly Songs (http://www.weesing.com/) The boys loved it and after about 15 minutes of this, we went right into doing math and it was the easiest lesson to give today.  Son #2 was relaxed and calm and able to concentrate.  Son #1 was very cooperative and finished his assigned work in record time.

It's important to switch the exercises up so the boys don't get bored - so I'm always on the look out for new ideas.  The OT did mention that having a swing and/or some spinning toy they can sit on to spin would be just as calming and relaxing for them.  So, it's off to IKEA to pick those items up. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80100251 spinning chair.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00065497 swinging chair.

Until next time, eat well, be happy and be well.

Aloha Fridays: Stories from the South Pacific.

I may not have all the details exactly right, but I do know the facts.  My mom gave away my baby sister to a Samoan family (without realizing what she had done) and then had to "buy" her back with a case of beer and canned meat. 

We moved to Samoa, the first time, in 1977.  February, I think.  As we were unloading our few belongings from my grandparent's truck and packing it into the house next door, a strange Samoan woman offered to hold the baby (my sister M who was about 6 weeks old at the time) so that my mother could work unhindered getting us set up in the house.

A few hours later, when we were settled in and ready to enjoy dinner that my Samoan step-grandmother's house girls had prepared - my mother realized that the baby was missing.  A frantic search of the villages nearby located my baby sister sound asleep in the arms of her "new" Samoan mother.  My step-grandmother spent a few minutes negotiating with the woman and finally, with a case of beer and a case of canned meat, the woman reluctantly handed the sleeping baby back to my relieved mother.

I was three and a half and had only two little sisters at the time.  My sisters and I all had light blond hair, which fascinated many of the residents of the island.  Whenever we were out and about the island, strangers would reach out and pet our heads and finger our long blond hair.  It terrified me.  I had no idea why they wanted to touch me, but as a toddler, this attention would make me cry and I would cling to my mother and father, situating myself between them to prevent being touched.

L to R:  Me, Gary and A.

It was also about this time that I discovered ice-cream cones.  I was absolutely amazed that after I finished my ice-cream, I could actually eat the funnel shaped holder it came it.  I remember it was a hot, balmy evening and we had just seen the first Superman movie and as we were walking back to the market to catch a bus home, eating my ice cream, I heard singing up the way and listened in rapt attention to the beautiful voices calling out Samoan folk songs.  I came to understand that Samoans (some of them at least) love to sing.  They sing a lot and have naturally beautiful signing voices. 

And Samoan boys can sing so beautifully it would melt your heart.  I loved listening to the singing.  One such Samoan boy, that I fell in love with when I was five years old, was my uncle who was only two months younger than me.  But I loved him and wanted to marry him anyway.  I was crushed when I learned I couldn't marry him.  Gary has a beautiful singing voice and has produced at least one album I know of.  Check out his website: http://www.myspace.com/garykingmusic

Until next time, eat well, be well and be happy.  Tofa soifua.

Wednesday at the Kitchen Table: Fun with your table!

How many adventures can you possibly have with a kitchen table and chairs?  Endless!  Especially if you use a little imagination and some common household objects.

The kind of games my children play around and under the kitchen table involves turning the chairs around and pushing the backs against the table to create cages for a zoo, or a spaceship, or a jailhouse for villains. 

For the Zoo game one child or more dresses up as a tiger (and orange shirt, or face paint, or shaggy brown wig would work - we have an old tiger costume from Halloween) and the other child(ren) play the zookeeper(s) who take care of the tiger(s).  The tiger(s) escapes and there is much whooping and hollering as the children chase each other around to either avoid capture, avoid being eaten by the tiger(s), or avoid having the tables turned and the zoo keeper(s) getting put in the cage. 

For the spaceship game, lay a chair down so the legs are under the table.  These will be the "steering" sticks and missile launchers.  Get a couple of #10 cans and several small balls of various sizes for the "fuel" that has to be changed out after a major battle. One can being the re-charger can and the other the engine of the spaceship. Other variations include using the balls as actual missiles, but I would suggest you use ping pong balls.  You'll need a "food processor" which can be another chair in it's correct position where food can appear once the child places his/her order.  Of course, you'd be supplying the lunch or snack on a plastic plate.  An old keyboard can make an excellent addition to the "spaceship" as well as making tin-foil space helmets and pajama spacesuits accessorized with tin-foil badges and medals.

Shoeboxes hold the treasures you find on alien planets!

I made the helmets a little too tall.

For the Jailhouse game it's superheroes vs. super villains.  Turn the chairs around to make a jail like the zoo game, and have pillow cases available for capes, and tin foil wristbands and anklets if desired.  Sometimes my superheros have swords and we use foam tubes that we cut in half and wrap one end with duct tape for a handle. Once when we studied about Greek Mythology, it was the gods vs. gods and we used cardboard lightening bolts wrapped in tin foil, cardboard shields wrapped in tin foil and decorated with markers, and foam swords.

Next Wednesday I'll share some ideas to keep sensory seeking SPD kids busy at the table.  They LOVE this game.

Monday Mornings with SPD: What is SPD?

My sister M and I have each have two children with Sensory Processing Disorder, and she recently sent me this link to a video titled "What is Sensory Processing Disorder?".  I have a lot of friends who ask me that question as well, and this video does an excellent job of explaining. 

In an effort to meet the demands of my blog's audience, I will devote Mondays to discussing SPD and how it affects our lives in particular.

Wednesdays will be devoted to Kitchen Table Adventures with fun recipes, arts and crafts, and stories aimed at helping SPD kids (and non-SPD kids).

Fridays are Aloha Fridays, where I kick back and share stories about Hawaii and Samoa, two places where I spent most of my life as a kid.  I love the islands, and love to share the adventures I had there.  I hope to be able to also share some of my friend's stories here as well.  My friend L has amazing stories of growing up on a coffee plantation in Hawaii. 

Until then, eat well, be well and be happy!

Hawaiian Christmas 1992: New home, Paka-lolo and Family Reunion

In September of 1992, my mother and I left our home and family in American Samoa to go to Hawaii and find work in order to buy plane tickets for the rest of the family to join us. 

Our goal was to have them with us by Christmas.  But, we weren't earning enough, fast enough to accomplish this.  We did, however, have enough money to bring my two teenage sisters over with the hope that they would find jobs and help with the money situation.

Once my tall, tanned, blond and blue-eyed sisters arrived, my mom gave them the task of finding us a rental home someplace near since she and I worked 12 to 14 hours a day for FEMA during the Hurricane Iniki disaster.  We left it to them to make the phone calls and travel by bus to look at rentals and secure housing for us.

According to them, it was a despicable job.  My two sisters are like night and day and asking them to work together was like tossing a cat and a dog in a basket and asking them to help each other get out.  They looked at one house in Kaneohe and called it good, paid the landlord the security deposit and rode the bus back to Honolulu with the news.

So, we moved out of my Aunty P.'s house (see previous post) and into a three bedroom, one bath home in the shape of an L.  There was a basement which had been divided into two apartments.  We had no back yard as it was perched on the side of a hill above a dense jungle.  We had no front yard either, as it was at the end of a small cul-de-sac and ccompletely paved over.

Our first night in the house was quiet and peaceful.  We had no furniture.  We made our beds on the soft, clean carpet with sheets and pillows we had purchased at the local JC Penney.  Our windows were covered with a screen and had glass louvers that we could adjust to allow for the south pacific breezes to blow in from the ocean about a mile away.  Faint reggae music could be heard from the apartment below and as I lay there in the semi-darkness, listening and chatting quietly with my mom and sisters, I detected a sweet scent wafting in through our windows.

I breathed in deeply, trying to place the scent, but could not identify it.  I took in another deep breath, and then commented to my family, "Do you smell that?  What do you think it is?"  My sisters inhaled deeply, as well as my Mom, who groaned and told me to close the windows.  Alarmed, I asked why.

"It's paka-lolo," she explained.  Paka-lolo is Hawaiian for pot.  I glared at my sisters who sat there with wide eyes, "How could rent a house with neighbors doing pot?" I accused.  My younger sister pointed at the other and claimed innocence in the housing decision.  The other sister, rolled her eyes and said, "Next time we have to rent a house - you do it!"

Me on the left with my two wonderful sisters.

A week or so later, we sent these two same sisters of mine to get Christmas decorations and do the grocery shopping in preparation for the arrival of the rest of the family that was due to arrive 2 days before Christmas.  My sister, the one with the mile long legs, dragged our other sister down the road to the nearest grocery store and bought the makings for our Christmas dinner. 

On their way back, they stopped by a roped off area of the parking lot where Christmas tress were being sold.  My long-legged sister is the queen of flirt and somehow managed to secure a large Christmas tree for us.  The other sister had to drag it home and together, (they finally worked it out between them how to get along) they propped the tree up in the living room inside a used tire they found alongside the road, strung lights around the tree and draped it with silver string "icicles".

We didn't have stockings for Santa to fill, so Mom and I collected the old coffee cans from our office break room and then decorated them as best we could with white copy paper that we cut into snow flakes and red and green markers to add festive color.  We even used the left-over party decorations from the office Christmas party to decorate our home with.

By the time the rest of the family arrived, on December 23rd, 1992, our home was decked out and everyone was so happy that we were finally reunited.  I was so excited to see everyone.  I missed them so much - more than I ever expected to. 

Reunited after nearly four months

When we got home from the airport, we spread out a white sheet on the living room floor, and had a feast of roasted turkey, rice, mashed potatoes, salad, pineapple, bread, pies, macaroni salad and candied yams. 

That Christmas was one of the best I ever had.