LOGISTICS of our SonRise program

We went through these logistics in our last group meeting, but for those of you who could not attend, here is an update of the logistics of running our 3 programs for our 3 kids. Please help us to continue running these programs without falling into too much chaos. If there is something you do not know about, please ask Antonio, Kaffie or me. Here are the details to remember:

1. Things to remember at the start of every session

- Start the session with an empty playroom so that you don’t have competition for the kids’ attention.

- Put cell phones, iPods, etc., away from the kids (e.g., in the closet) and avoid calls and texting. Also, don’t use games or videos from phones with the kids.

- Make sure Duchis has water to drink and make sure Liam has milk to drink.

- Brush the kids with the brushes that are hanging from the doors of the playrooms. This will increase their attention and calmness during the session. You will find a video of the brushing at: http://dusyaandliamsonrise.blogspot.com/2010/07/videos-of-dusya-and-liam-being-brushed.html

2. Activities for 8am and 2pm

8am and 2pm: Brain Balance exercises (5-10 minutes):

- Squeeze balls 50 times in two hands. Balls are hanging from the doors.

- Do abs, situps, wheelbarrow walk, bear walk, crab walk, snow angels, crawling, crawling on the back. For abs, you can use a tube that is in closet.

- Please mark the chart after you do the exercises.

8am and 2pm: Therapeutic listening (30 minutes):

- Instructions are in the playrooms. Check the volume of the headphones. Put the headphones on the kids. You can continue playing while they listen to the music.

- Please mark the chart after they listen to the music.

8am: Every bathroom has toothpaste and a toothbrush, so inspire the kids to brush their teeth.

3. Things to remember at the end of every session

- Finish your session 10-15 minutes early, so that you can:

- Clean up the room. Ask the kids for help in cleaning up. If they want to keep some toys on the floor (e.g., little people and sesame street), that’s ok, but try to clean up as much as possible.

- Write in the notebooks downstairs telling us a summary of your sessions with the kids. Tony's exercise notebook is in his room.

4. Self-help skills

- Meals: Motivate the kids to eat all their food. You can feed them the part that they don’t like too much (e.g., the vegetables), but try hard to inspire them to eat by themselves.

- Dressing: When they have to go to therapy and need to get dressed, take your time in the dressing process. Help them to the minimal degree.

- Potty: Our potty goal is to emphasize wiping (after both peepee and poopoo) and washing hands. Make it fun, show them, and help them. Play games in the playroom related to wiping and washing hands. The Animals can wipe, Sesame Street can wipe, the cars can wipe. Bring toilet paper and practice wiping with clothes on.

Various

- Remember to eat and drink your snacks outside of the playroom because the kids are on a special diet.
- After you play with play-doh with Dusya, please take the play-doh out of the room because she is getting access to it and eating it.
- Keep the shelves and closets organized. Rotate the toys from the different closets, but keep all pieces of toys together and in place.