Army Sensory Bin

My oldest son is OBSESSED with everything army. His best friend from school started the trend and it filtrated through the entire kindergarten last year. So, army men and camouflage are the "in things" for the 6-7 year old crowd in this area. 

Friends of ours had an army themed birthday party, so the wheels started turning on the subject of a gift. I love giving original gifts. They are so fun. 

 I decided to make a military themed sensory bin. My boys basically live for their sensory table, and I love sharing that with others. I started by choosing the base of the bin. I went with rice. I made different greens with food coloring and alcohol. I would have liked more brown hues added to it, but oh well.

I went back and forth between a deep bucket or a shallow bucket, and the shallow bucket won out. I also made some "sand bags" by sewing burlap in a rectangle and stuffing it with batting. I decided to put in some squares of green fabric for the boys to use as tents.  And last but not least, I included the army men.

To finish it off, I added vinyl words all around it. I love how it came out. My boys were so jealous that it was leaving the house. I was also told that the first gift that the birthday boys wanted to play with was the sensory bucket! That is nice to hear after you put a lot of time and effort into something.

Turns out, I had to make some extra camouflage rice to add to our table as well. It's fun, and the boys have a blast playing in it. Happy sensory seeking!

*Hills

DIY schedule for Kids!

Children need structure, hands down! SPD kids thrive on structure more so than the typical child. So in our house we do structure! I searched and searched pinterest for a system that would work for us and nothing suited, which wasn't a huge shocker but a tad disappointing. I first started this almost two years ago. I can't seem to find a picture of the "original" system. (Time to organize the picture files!) This version has MUCH more on it than when I first created it. The kids are older and two are in school. It was time to ramp this baby up.

So during Christmas break I overhauled the system.  This is clearly not just a schedule. It's a daily tasks chart, behavior chart, and "Chore" chart all in one. I understand that having it combined may not work for everyone, but it works well for us. 

First off, I used a drip pan for oil changes. I bought this at Walmart for $12. I made my own drawings (don't judge) on normal copy paper, cut them out and laminated them. I put magnet tape on the back of each. That basically sums it up. I drew all the lines with a dry erase marker. (These are all the original outlines... in red... which desperately need to be changed!) Once I know that this new system works well, I think I am going to use washi tape as an outline.

Now let's pick this baby apart...

 The hands on schedule
      They get to move the magnets once they have completed the task. I originally had them stationary and they could use a marker to check it off. That last all of TWO days! Marker was EVERYWHERE! So now they are moveable! There is a column for our morning, afternoon, and evening routines. That actually wasn't my plan, but that's how it worked out, and now I really like it. I find that it's easier for the kids to follow. My husband had the brilliant idea of sticking "go to school" and "bedtime" in the middle. "Goose" is our big time rule follower and has to do everything just so. We didn't want him to get into bed and say, "I forgot to move my bedtime magnet!" So... this solves that issue. I'm so glad my husband is on top of 
things! 


 Privileges (aka screen time)
      The red dotted line boxes are their privileges. These are earned. If they do not complete their tasks or their behavior is not stellar then these can be taken away. They can also earn privileges at our discretion. The big box is for their t.v., tablet, and wii time. The small box incorporated into the schedule is our family movie time. This is when we watch a show together that we all can tolerate (almost always Andy Griffith). They have to earn this. This doesn't always happen depending on the day. If something changes in our schedule and we have to go somewhere after school the family movie doesn't happen because everything else gets pushed back.



Behavior
      A few years ago we started 1-2-3 magic by Thomas W. Phelan as our disciplinary program. It is amazing and worked wonders for our kids. We still use it but incorporated our own system into it. So, we have smiley faces. Our pediatrician recommended something similar with stars but I changed it a little and came up with smiley faces.  It's to help them be happy, right? Smiley faces = happy. Perfect sense. When I first incorporated this it was used for specific things e.i. "Goose" needed help with tantrums, so he lost smiley faces due to temper tantrums. "Bruiser" lost them due to anger management issues. It turned out that we used them for behavior in general and they responded to it well, so we got rid of the specifics. The way it works is for minor things, instead of time out, if I get to three they lose a smiley face. If they lose all three smiley faces then they lose a privilege. I don't generally let them earn smiley faces back. Ideally it would depend on which child I am dealing with, but for the moment rules are rules and they apply to all. I want to say that they could earn them back at first, but that doesn't happen anymore. They really need to learn that there are consequences for all of their actions no matter how small. We still use time out but that is more for things physical in nature (hitting, kicking, throwing etc). I continue to be amazed at how much my boys DO NOT want to lose their smiley faces. It was a much bigger impact than I ever imagined. 

Money Makers

      We do not have assigned chores other than their normal routine. I want them to get that down pat first. Though we did feel that it was important for them to have the opportunity to earn money since we don't do allowance. We chose simple things that they can handle for the most part. Some of them are geared toward the older one but it has not been an issue so far. I allow "Goose" to run small bags of trash or piles of cardboard to the dumpsters as long as I am watching. (We live in a condo complex so I keep close tabs on them.) But "Bruiser" can earn the same amount of money for trash if he helps one of us accomplish the task. So, once they have performed one of these tasks they put that "money maker" under their name. That way I can keep track of who did what and if I paid them. As soon as they are paid the "money maker" gets put back. We have not yet had them both need the same magnet at the same time. If it comes down to that, I will make more. I am also not super picky on how well they complete the task. Obviously they need to do their best, but if there are still a few crumbs on the floor that I have to sweep up, so be it. The boy is FOUR, I think we can let it slide.


The Sticker Chart

    This is new. We decided to do a sticker chart as an incentive. Dinnertime is a headache in our house. Textures, textures, textures. Why does food have to be SO complicated!? Getting the kids to try new foods is not easy around here. So, if they try new foods they get a sticker. If "Bruiser" doesn't wet in his pull up at night he gets a sticker. If they do unsolicited acts of kindness they get a sticker. It is basically our positive reinforcement. And it's working... very well! Once they get 15 stickers we will have a special family night. They can chose either dinner or dessert (or maybe both... we'll see) and we'll rent a family movie from redbox. (This is kinda a big deal in our house. We don't have cable, local or otherwise, and we rarely rent movies... so this IS special!) 

We also put "Goosie's" weekly calendar up and the monthly lunch menu. It helps keep everything together. (It was going to be the place for a different incentive idea instead of the sticker chart, but it just hasn't happened yet!) But right now, that space is perfect for school papers so there they be.

So, that about sums up our system of life, routine, and structure for our children. If you have any comments or suggestions I would love to hear them!!! 

Don't forget to laugh!!

Hills

OVERLOAD!

I never thought keeping a blog would be so hard. So many people make it look so easy. But for me, it's just down right hard. I've thought about the reasons that I struggle. And these are the reasons for all of my struggles, not just the blog.

 First, is the fact that I have three children boys! Three VERY active BOYS!!

 Second, my oldest was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) just about the time of my last post (2011). We've made tremendous progress in the last three years but every single day is still a challenge. We have been going through therapy weekly, have restructured our entire life, and wake up every morning wondering how his mind/body will respond that day. He got into a fight at school this week. It was a HUGE blow to my confidence in myself as a mother. I'm still not completely over it. It's one of the few times in my life that I am struggling to incorporate laughter into this situation. Living with a child struggling with SPD is enlightening, exhausting, and so many other words all wrapped into one!!

 My next struggle is that I don't feel like I can sit down to write when I have things to do around the house. I understand that there will always be things to do, but I can't keep my house clean for 5 minutes! We live in a tiny apartment with three little boys. No washer and dryer, no dishwasher, no garage, no basement, no attic. We have way too many people and way too much stuff for this apt. I go through our stuff regularly and get rid of what we don't need, but it's still way to much stuff. Plus, the dishes and laundry pile up disgustingly fast. It's down-right overwhelming. I have friends that tell me to just let the mess go and blog anyway, but it makes me crazy! And, as soon as I decide that I don't care someone knocks on the door. I can't even count how many times I have called my mom SOBBING because someone walked into this house unexpected. It's mortifying and not the way that I wish our life was going. School was supposed to take two years, not five. We moved here with one child and never thought we'd leave with three! (I do love them dearly and would never wish for anything different!) But, I am whining now... so on we go.

 Lastly (well, not really, but I will end here), I feel like I have no time to create. I have the desire but not the time.

 I had mostly given up on blogging but my husband has said multiple times that he thinks I'd be good at it, and that it'd be good for me. Then he got all techie on me and saw how many blog views I've had after only posting four times and I was shocked! There were also two wonderful comments that really built my self esteem. So, here I am giving it another try.

 "Goose" has many times a day when he is on "sensory overload" and is almost disabled and can't function properly. It's a lot of work to get through it, but he is a trooper and pushes forward. I feel like I am on "life overload" and have been unable to function like I should. It's my goal to push forward like my son has to everyday of his life. His daily trials have helped me realize that I need to set aside my mama drama and move forward!

 Here's to blogging and searching for creative opportunities and lots of laughter!!