Last fall, I started teaching my four-year-old son how to feed the dog. I was pleased that we had found a chore that he could claim as his own. With some prompting, he would scoop a cup of food from the bin in the laundry room, carry it into the kitchen, pour it into the dog’s dish and return the empty cup to the bin. He seemed to really enjoy the ritual of this chore.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before sensory-seeking beat out routine for dominance. Philip soon discovered that it looks really cool if you spin the cup of dog food rather than just dumping it in the dog’s dish. …continue reading
A Renaissance Faire!
After all, what do knights do? They crash. They mash. They bump and they thump and fall to the ground in a lump. Heck, they dress in weighted chain mail vests, with even heavier metal clothing on top of those vests, charge at each other full-tilt on the backs of 2000lb animals, for the express purpose of smashing into each other and then loudly bashing each other with metal swords and lances and shields! And for my little seeker, this one day a year is his favorite. It beats Christmas and birthdays and Thanksgiving and Halloween combined. Dragons walk up to him and *invite* him to bash them with swords. Knights (i.e. People Who Really Get Him), speak to him seriously and respectfully and treat him as an equal. He sees adults not just doing what every molecule in his body wants him to do every minute of every day, what he’s always being told he cannot do at school and with kids his own age, but he sees them being cheered for it — by crowds of adoring fans! …continue reading
