All three were huge challenges, just weeks ago.
He showed no interest in doing puzzles for the last 8.5 years. This week, he did three puzzles with Baba. Priceless!
He had shown major signs of anxiety around anything called a gun. He played nerf guns with Shreya, Baba, and even his volunteers all this week!
He never showed any interest in reading books although he used to love reading take out menus a year ago! But this week he is glued to his book about the "1001 whys" gifted by Aai.
After dinner tonight, he AND Shreya both read in pin drop silence for 15 minutes straight. I had to request them to go to bed at that point. Shreya LOVES to read so this is not new for her. But Aditya? You couldn't get him to read even a few lines, only a few weeks ago!
Thank you Aditya, for showing us that change is easy! Provided you want change really strongly, without needing it (i.e. making your happiness conditional on it)!
In other news, he is trying to crack jokes all the time. They are totally un-funny at times, but we are loving them anyways! We have no doubt that with his amazing sense of humor and his enthusiasm in learning anything new, he is going to "crack" this one too:-)
Shreya is showing increased enthusiasm in joining Aditya and inviting him to play too. She is showing amazing consistency in saying "Okay" if she invites him to play and he says no. She is showing even more consistency in trying again after a while:-) (And being okay if he says no again!)
We are blessed to have you Shreya!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
End of the school year, Team meeting, Fathers' day!
The school year came to an end. Aditya, who attended only 4 hours of school per week last year, finished the year attending 30 hours a week, every single week, except for the weeks we were in India!
His year end progress report spoke of remarkable improvement in all areas between the winter and the spring semesters! For us, the coolest part of that report was a mention of Aditya taking inititiave and choosing his own activities to do in unstructured time, Aditya playing a variety of games with other kids in the class, and Aditya beginning to voice his disagreements (WOW!) in a respectful manner.
Go Aditya!
Shreya earned a rave review from her teacher too. She is taking on new challenges, learning, and growing tremendously, and having fun at it! It shows in her continued enthusiasm and energy about school, as well as that of her teacher's words about her.
As her token of gratitude for the twins who did so well, Aai gifted Aditya and Shreya with Time for kids' "Big Book of Why - 1001 facts" and "Big Book of How - 501 facts".
Once the summer began, we had a bit of a breather and we held a long pending team meeting in which we played a fun game of putting together a story with 3 random words picked from the dictionary, by the rest of the group (e.g. wishbone, insincere, tetanus or snowflake, navy, defraud). It was a hilarious and reassuring reminder that we all know how to let go and have fun-- no matter what!
On Sunday, Aditya and Shreya insisted Baba stayed in bed until they got done with baking special coconut flour muffins with Aai's supervision (but practically without her help). Aditya also brought a hot cup of tea to Baba in his bed (as he knows BABA LOVES BED TEA:-)) It was hilarious, though, when he earlier tried to keep Baba from waking up by putting a pillow right on his face!
Later that day, Baba spent an hour each playing with the twins.
Baba also re-introduced Aditya to jigsaw puzzles. He showed a lot more interest and readiness for doing puzzles than he has had in the past! The past is the past, it has no relation to the present!
After having cracked a smaller "Disney Cars" puzzle, this morning, he attempted a 100 piece "Spongebob Squarepants" puzzle with Baba. He could not finish it but he got done with about 25%. Bravo!!!
In related news, Baba and Aditya also play the Nerf guns regularly now. He appears less and less anxious every time we play. The last time we played, we took turns pretending to be the cop with his Nerf-gun catching the robber who is scaring Mickey Mouse with his pistol to give away his money!
His year end progress report spoke of remarkable improvement in all areas between the winter and the spring semesters! For us, the coolest part of that report was a mention of Aditya taking inititiave and choosing his own activities to do in unstructured time, Aditya playing a variety of games with other kids in the class, and Aditya beginning to voice his disagreements (WOW!) in a respectful manner.
Go Aditya!
Shreya earned a rave review from her teacher too. She is taking on new challenges, learning, and growing tremendously, and having fun at it! It shows in her continued enthusiasm and energy about school, as well as that of her teacher's words about her.
As her token of gratitude for the twins who did so well, Aai gifted Aditya and Shreya with Time for kids' "Big Book of Why - 1001 facts" and "Big Book of How - 501 facts".
Once the summer began, we had a bit of a breather and we held a long pending team meeting in which we played a fun game of putting together a story with 3 random words picked from the dictionary, by the rest of the group (e.g. wishbone, insincere, tetanus or snowflake, navy, defraud). It was a hilarious and reassuring reminder that we all know how to let go and have fun-- no matter what!
On Sunday, Aditya and Shreya insisted Baba stayed in bed until they got done with baking special coconut flour muffins with Aai's supervision (but practically without her help). Aditya also brought a hot cup of tea to Baba in his bed (as he knows BABA LOVES BED TEA:-)) It was hilarious, though, when he earlier tried to keep Baba from waking up by putting a pillow right on his face!
Later that day, Baba spent an hour each playing with the twins.
Baba also re-introduced Aditya to jigsaw puzzles. He showed a lot more interest and readiness for doing puzzles than he has had in the past! The past is the past, it has no relation to the present!
After having cracked a smaller "Disney Cars" puzzle, this morning, he attempted a 100 piece "Spongebob Squarepants" puzzle with Baba. He could not finish it but he got done with about 25%. Bravo!!!
In related news, Baba and Aditya also play the Nerf guns regularly now. He appears less and less anxious every time we play. The last time we played, we took turns pretending to be the cop with his Nerf-gun catching the robber who is scaring Mickey Mouse with his pistol to give away his money!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Nerf guns!
A few months ago, Aditya saw kids playing with toy guns at a social get-together at our friends' house. He appeared super anxious... and said aloud that he was worried about the guns killing someone.
In April this year when we went to India, he got a chance to see up close what someone can (play) and cannot (kill) do with toy guns. Then he tried using it! He saw how it worked! Hurrah!
This week, we got our own nerf gun and nerf pistol, and we spent this morning playing with those!
Little things we could not take for granted... are coming true... one by one!
In April this year when we went to India, he got a chance to see up close what someone can (play) and cannot (kill) do with toy guns. Then he tried using it! He saw how it worked! Hurrah!
This week, we got our own nerf gun and nerf pistol, and we spent this morning playing with those!
Little things we could not take for granted... are coming true... one by one!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Frisbee
Arjun has been volunteering with us for about a year now. One of the gifts he gave Aditya recently was inviting him to play outside, and then inviting him to play Frisbee!
These days, when he is free, Aditya is found practicing his Frisbee skills in the backyard. In the last post we described how we played the mini-Olympics. If you recall that post, Aditya won the Frisbee contest beating Shreya and Baba!
On the weekend, he did something even more amazing. He said he wanted to go to the neighbors' house, to see if his lost Frisbee was in their backyard. He did all of that plus entered their backdoor and retrieved his lost Frisbee with our neighbors' help, and found even Shreya's pink Frisbee right there:)
And then he did that again when he mistakenly threw his Frisbee in their backyard... again!
The first time he went to the neighbors', Baba was there to back him up.
The second time around, Baba "thought" he was there to back him up. He didn't have to. Aditya said fluently, "I am sorry but my Frisbee is in your backyard again."
Their son who had opened the door the first time too, got exactly what Aditya was looking for, and asked, "You know how to go into the backyward right?"
Both his dad and Aditya's dad were all smiles, as Aditya swiftly found and picked up his blue Frisbee from their backyard.
Way to go, Aditya!
Congratulations Arjun and everyone else on the team.
Inviting your friend to do something new (without "needing" it ) is the most precious gift you can give your friend!
These days, when he is free, Aditya is found practicing his Frisbee skills in the backyard. In the last post we described how we played the mini-Olympics. If you recall that post, Aditya won the Frisbee contest beating Shreya and Baba!
On the weekend, he did something even more amazing. He said he wanted to go to the neighbors' house, to see if his lost Frisbee was in their backyard. He did all of that plus entered their backdoor and retrieved his lost Frisbee with our neighbors' help, and found even Shreya's pink Frisbee right there:)
And then he did that again when he mistakenly threw his Frisbee in their backyard... again!
The first time he went to the neighbors', Baba was there to back him up.
The second time around, Baba "thought" he was there to back him up. He didn't have to. Aditya said fluently, "I am sorry but my Frisbee is in your backyard again."
Their son who had opened the door the first time too, got exactly what Aditya was looking for, and asked, "You know how to go into the backyward right?"
Both his dad and Aditya's dad were all smiles, as Aditya swiftly found and picked up his blue Frisbee from their backyard.
Way to go, Aditya!
Congratulations Arjun and everyone else on the team.
Inviting your friend to do something new (without "needing" it ) is the most precious gift you can give your friend!
Monday, June 3, 2013
Wall Ball, Four Square, and mini-Olympics!
From playing wall-ball we have already moved on to playing Four Square.
2 volunteers + Baba + Aditya
1 volunteer + Aditya + Shreya + Baba
Aai + Baba+ Aditya+ Shreya
So many fun teams to play with! We play this now as part of almost every play room session! When there is no 3rd and the 4th player available, Aditya plays 2-square with his volunteer!
Yesterday, we tried something new!
Totally inspired after watching their first Hindi movie "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar", the kids agreed to play a "mini-Olympics".
Aditya, Shreya, Baba all participated in the following 7 games:
1. Running race from one end of the backyard to the other and back. Shreya gold, Aditya silver, Baba who walked instead of ran, got the bronze.
2. Throwing a Frisbee (Oh... by the way... a new post on this topic coming up soon!) Aditya gold, Baba silver, Shreya bronze.
3. Taking aim with a tennis ball to knock out cricket stumps. Baba gold, Shreya silver, Aditya bronze.
4. Soccer style free kicks. Baba gold, Shreya silver, Aditya bronze.
5. Hockey style free kicks with a cricket bat. Shreya and Baba shared the gold. Aditya got the Silver.
6. Hula Hooping. Baba participated and got a bronze medal:) Aditya did 7 seconds for his Silver medal. Shreya had to be stopped at 140 seconds.
7. Gymnastics. Baba opted out. (No medal.) Shreya got the gold with her amazing hand stands and flips. Aditya was cute in trying to imitate her and got the silver!
We had lots of fun, and finished with fresh home-made strawberry banana ice cream!
2 volunteers + Baba + Aditya
1 volunteer + Aditya + Shreya + Baba
Aai + Baba+ Aditya+ Shreya
So many fun teams to play with! We play this now as part of almost every play room session! When there is no 3rd and the 4th player available, Aditya plays 2-square with his volunteer!
Yesterday, we tried something new!
Totally inspired after watching their first Hindi movie "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar", the kids agreed to play a "mini-Olympics".
Aditya, Shreya, Baba all participated in the following 7 games:
1. Running race from one end of the backyard to the other and back. Shreya gold, Aditya silver, Baba who walked instead of ran, got the bronze.
2. Throwing a Frisbee (Oh... by the way... a new post on this topic coming up soon!) Aditya gold, Baba silver, Shreya bronze.
3. Taking aim with a tennis ball to knock out cricket stumps. Baba gold, Shreya silver, Aditya bronze.
4. Soccer style free kicks. Baba gold, Shreya silver, Aditya bronze.
5. Hockey style free kicks with a cricket bat. Shreya and Baba shared the gold. Aditya got the Silver.
6. Hula Hooping. Baba participated and got a bronze medal:) Aditya did 7 seconds for his Silver medal. Shreya had to be stopped at 140 seconds.
7. Gymnastics. Baba opted out. (No medal.) Shreya got the gold with her amazing hand stands and flips. Aditya was cute in trying to imitate her and got the silver!
We had lots of fun, and finished with fresh home-made strawberry banana ice cream!
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