He came down at 6:30. I directed him to Carly outside. They came in and cuddled, then he ate oatmeal and watched Berenstain Bears. When he got dressed we put on his watch. He seems a little disappointed, in that it is smaller than mine, and it doesn’t have a stopwatch/timer. We got going, and had a smooth walk to school. Got in a couple minutes before the bus kids, and he went right to talking to the teachers, and showed off his watch. They were switching things up, and were going to start outside in the morning.
I went home and worked, then needed to run and get cash before going back to school. I rode up into town, went to the ATM, and then to school. I finished listening to Home Deus along the way and got to school a little early.
I did some typing in the breezeway, then as I went to walk to the preschool Marion and August came out of the preschool. August ran off a bit and I had to catch him. When I caught up we sat down and he told me there’d been a good half of the day and a bad half. When we went back Marion confirmed as much. He had been great through the morning. Part of it had been for planning his birthday. He stayed consistent on the kind of cake and the healthy snacks for Wednesday.
As we got ready to leave, he asked when he would eat lunch with his class again. That kind of surprised me, as he doesn’t seem ready to spend a longer time. Then, as we walked home I asked why he hit Andrea. He said because he didn’t think I was coming to pick him up. He thought he was staying until the end of the day. I thought maybe I hadn’t made it clear that I’d pick him up at noon. But later, I talked to Andrea and she thought it was because they changed the schedule. I’ve been picking him up when they’re on the playground still. But today they were inside an hour before I got there. So she thought he thought it was later.
We walked home, stopping a few times along the way to look at or discuss things. At home he wanted to catch an insect, but I wanted to hurry in and get him some lunch before 1. He was eating some lasagna and cantaloupe when Shani, the occupational therapist, showed up.
He was excited to see her, and had fun. She had me stay with them and explained things as she went. She started with pencil activities and had him copying shapes, then choosing which shape in a series matched the one at the top of the page. Basic pencil and IQ stuff. She then had him drawing a picture of a person. He then added to it, adding the dad, then putting them both in a dungeon, then adding all sorts of colors to the dungeon picture. She gave him a “magic coin” to hold in his pinkie and ring finger while he wrote, as he was holding the pencil upright, but with all his fingers. She then used two hair bands tied into a figure 8 to wrap around his wrist and help him keep the pencil tilted back. She called it the “magic bracelet.” She next had him completing dot patterns that had him draw lines between them, then had him cut the shapes out with scissors.
She then had colorful hair band sort of things and images on cards with the different colored bands on different fingers. She held up her hand and asked him to match the pattern. He did that, as long as he could be creative and make his own creation on his hand when he was done.
Finally, she had a game involving magnetic circles with shapes and colors on them. It was called ‘Clack clack’ in Hebrew. You rolled two dice and then picked up the circles that had pictures that matched. August liked the magnets, but when he found out it was a winning game he said he wasn’t playing.
So, her big recommendation at home at this point is playing winning games with him and modeling them. I told Carly we had to start playing dominoes in the evening. She said that at school she really wants them to have a safe space for him, and she suggested a pair of headphones to block out sound if he needs things quieter.
It went fine overall. Given his problems at school, I was annoyed when she spent the first 20+ minutes on pencil and scissors techniques. He’s picked up holding a pencil upright just fine with Vicky the last couple of months. And I can’t find any set of standards that stress penmanship before kindergarten or first grade. So it seems ridiculous for both Dr. Aviv and her to worry so much about it. Sure, keep working on it at school, but no need for an intervention. I’ll wait for the report, but if we’re (or the insurance company is) paying for sessions with her, I want to make sure time isn’t wasted on handwriting.
August wanted to play one of his games with her. Initially he wanted the shark game, but then he changed his mind and showed her the building set. He had her adding pieces, and she explored what decisions he’d let her make on her own.
We said goodbye to her, then got ready to go back to school for STEM class. We caught a crane fly out on our wall before we got going. We got to STEM class and he took the crane fly in. They read a book called Caps for Sale and then used playdough as a base, stuck spaghetti noodles in it (dry), and tried to build towers with beads and Honey Nut Cheerios. He now wants Honey Nut Cheerios. Andrea said they had an exciting moment when the crane fly got out, but they got it back in.
We then went and hung out in the library. He first played with the Legos by himself for several minutes. He then started playing with the rocking chair. He stacked books and book dividers on it, and put a stool on it. He then pulled over a chair and sat on that. The dots on the stool were his keyboard buttons, and everything else was part of a big music machine. This occupied him for quite awhile. I found five books for us to check out: two Elephant and Piggie books, Short Stories for Little Monsters by Marie-Louise Gay, Seuss’s Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, and The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Blume (since he’d liked Freckle Juice).
When he was ready to go I warned Carly we’d be showing up soon. We got to her classroom at 5:10. She got ready to go. Out on the table he spotted a bee that was just sitting there and we caught it. Looked like it was bout to die. On the drive home he started chanting “Tweedle dumb an tweedle dumber”, which is a line from Berenstain Bears.
At home they started to read Pippi Longstocking but didn’t get far as he was being punky. I went up to work. Carly made sushi and they ate that for dinner. When I came down they got a skype call from Andrea and Kayla to wish August a happy birthday. He and I read the Elephant and Piggie books. He laughed hysterically for I Will Take a Nap! and also liked Can I Play Too? Carly took him up for a bath. She was tired, so was going to put him to sleep as well. I left them around 8:30.
Working on his pencil technique with the OT:
Musical machine 1:
Music machine 2:
