Preparing for the First Day of School

by Jayda

The first day of school preparations are in full swing. My oldest son, JWS, will start half-day senior kindergarten in September. Here, in Ontario there are two grades of kindergarten: junior kindergarten (JK) and senior kindergarten (SK). Junior kindergarten begins at age 4 and senior kindergarten at age 5. Since we did not live in Canada last year, this will be the first year JWS has attended school.

We are all having mixed emotions about this milestone.

Anxiety.

We are anxious about the unknown. For JWS this is the unknown of what to expect. He has never met his teacher, seen his classroom, or taken a school bus. He doesn't know any of the other children in his class.

For me,  it is the unknown of how will he 'do'. Will he like it? Will his teacher and peers talk to him and treat him in a loving, kind way? Will he be bored, discouraged, or will he be stimulated and eager?

What will the days look like, for LLS and I at home? Will LLS be lost without his big brother or will he embrace the time to himself/with me ?

Excitement.

JWS is excited to go to school to learn some 'stuff'. He has been counting down the days.

I am excited for JWS to experience school. I am excited for him to make new friends, learn new skills and have experiences independent from home.

Pride.

I am certain he will do very well at school. He is a confident child. He easily makes new friends at the playground. I am proud of him and the wonderful, kind, loving, inquisitive 5-year-old he is today. I am proud of us (his parents) for our parenting philosophies that I believe have shaped him and fostered his confidence.

Here are some of the things we did to prepare for the first day of school:

1. We made a routine folder. I took photos of JWS doing all the things he will need to do (eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, play, eat lunch, put on shoes/coat) in order to get ready for school. Luckily, this year, we have all morning, since he is going to afternoon, half-day kindergarten. I will let him choose the order that he wants to do them in. This will be a nice visual reminder of what he has done and what needs to be done. He is a visual learner.

2. We attended our school district school bus safety course for first time riders. JWS is still undecided if he want to take the bus to school or not. I wanted him to be prepared, whatever his decision. He was very excited about the bus. This course alone relieved a lot of his anxiety.

3. We went school shopping (supplies and indoor shoes), just the two of us. To my surprise he is very possessive over his supplies and very happy to use it everyday. He likes to practice writing the letters, something he learned on his own.

4. And finally, we drove the bus route to his school and played on the playground and spied in the classroom windows.

Are your memories of school influencing how you portray school to your children or how you prepare them for school? Sometimes I catch myself projecting my emotions on JWS. This is how I felt therefore he must feel this way to. I have to stop myself and allow him to have his own feelings, positive or negative.

What did you do to prepare for the first day of school?

Jayda Siggers is a Mom of 2 ( JWS, 6 and LLS, 4), a nutritionist, a coach at Clean Plate Cleanse, a master mediator living under a co-dictatorship, whole food advocate, trying to live a little greener everyday.

Top 5 Baby Items to bring when Travelling

by Amanda Over the past two years we have travelled with at least one child (and now have 2!) under the age of 2 to Florida, Toronto and Montreal (frequently!), cottages, Eastern Townships and a few other places in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.  With trips being for the day up to 10 days we are learning how to pack more efficiently and only bring what we truly need.  Here are my top 5 baby items that we don’t leave home without!

1. Baby Carriers- we don’t leave home without a soft structured carrier like our Ergo  or Onya  baby soft structured carriers and a woven wrap.  This way we always have a way to carry both children at the same time! Our woven wrap can also double as a blanket, something to sit on or a way to shade the sun.

2. Bumbo Chair - once baby is able to support their own neck and head this chair comes on all travels with us. It allows baby a place to sit when we are eating so they feel part of the conversation.  Note: DO NOT LEAVE baby unattended on any surface at any time! We use ours when sitting on the deck and put baby under the umbrella, at restaurants, to sit in the bathroom when we need a shower and many other times! We’ve also been known to leave it on top of our car when travelling and drive away leaving it behind in places like Hudson, Quebec ;)

3. Aden & Anais blankets - these light blankets are very big which allows a place for baby to lay down and play or can cover up our toddler and make the perfect sun shade when the kids are in a baby carrier and it’s a hot sunny day.  Also? These blankets are big enough to snuggle up your toddler!

4. Goodbyn Lunch containers - These containers have compartments that allow us to pack a variety of food for the whole family on a road trip.  We have adult size and kid size ones! Packed with raisins, goldfish, sandwiches, cheese and crackers the long drive is made a little easier so we don’t have to stop too often.

5. Planet Wise wet bags - Not only are these wonderful for cloth diapering families we use our waterproof bags for when we spend days at the beach and splash pads so we can throw our wet stuff in it. These bags are also wonderful for dirty laundry.

What are your most have items when travelling with a baby? What kind of adventurous family trips have you taken with baby?

Amanda is a mom to a 2 year old boy and 4 month old baby girl.  When she is not out having fun with the kids you can find her getting her yoga on at www.littlelotusyoga.ca

The beauty of a visual schedule

by Karen This is a post in an ongoing series I'm doing for Kids in the Capital to talk about our experience in going through the assessment process for our son, Brandon. My hope is to give ideas and insight to families of special needs children, as well as some creative ideas for families who want to incorporate different ideas, all while raising awareness and telling our story.

*****

A couple of months ago, we took Brandon to a speech pathologist for a series of assessments on his speech/language skills. It was an interesting process. I got to see a very concentrated view of his transitioning abilities, which is an area we've had challenges with for a long time.

And let's face it: Change is hard!

The speech pathologist gave us two really good tactics (and even made some of the tools for us to start with)!

First Then

"First then" is a shortened visual schedule method. We've used it to emphasize pieces of the overall daily schedule at times. Other times we use it to make it clear to Brandon that before he can do what he wants, there's something he needs to do.

Having a visual reference gives a more concrete understanding of what's going on, particularly for children who comprehend visual information more readily than verbal, as is the case with Brandon (based on my personal observations).

Visual Schedule

A visual schedule is portable, flexible and gives an overview of the entire day or a block of time that has a series of transitions. When we use it (and admittedly, we don't always think about it), transitions go more smoothly. We discuss the schedule as we're laying it out and Brandon gets to provide input.

(It cracks me up when he removes bedtime from the schedule, though I'm always super serious and never let him know it's funny. Yeah, right. ;))

Our visual schedule consists of an odd mish mash of items, but as we get deeper into using this as a tool, I am thinking of lots more to add to it.

Getting Brandon involved gives him a sense of control about his activities. This is important for him. He needs to feel safe and secure in knowing what's coming next. We don't like to plan our weekends and often regret not having a plan because we haven't equipped ourselves to adequately prepare Brandon to move from one activity to the next. (We're a work in progress!)

The visual schedule and first then tools would be useful for any child, though some clearly benefit more than others. If you're interested in putting one together, here are a couple resources to help you get started (Google can tell you loads more!):

Factsheet for autism therapy: visual schedules, by Healing Threshold

How-to Templates: Visual Schedules (PDF), by HANDS in Autism

Because we're a tech geek family, I was keen to find out what was available for our iDevices. Turns out there's quite a bit! GadgetsDNA.com did a review of "10 Revolutionary iPad Apps to Help Autistic Children" and I think there's one I'm going to check for a free trial version with the intent to buy if it's good. They range from free to nearly $200 for more sophisticated functionality. (Depending on a child's needs, that $200 may be a cheap expense. iPods/iPads - we've found - are fantastic for helping Brandon explore and learn.)

These tools were my first glimpse of how the pros would end up helping us learn to cope differently. There is a heightened level of attention to detail required of us to accommodate Brandon's needs, but he's worth it. Besides, the right kind of attention mixed with the right frequency has never been known to hurt a child.

*****

Karen Wilson is a wife to Matt and mom to Brandon (4), who blogs about her life at Karen’s Chronicles. She can be found at Wellman Wilson, helping businesses use social media more effectively. Karen is also committed to doing her part to keep the coffee industry alive, because who needs sleep?

Being prepared for a visit to the CHEO ER

by Vicky

I'm writing this post praying that you never, ever have to use the Emergency Room at CHEO. But if you find yourself in a time when you do need to make a trip, as I did twice in one week recently, I hope you'll find some of these tips useful.

My 5 year old son Joel suffers from asthma, and we've made a few trips to CHEO since he was born. When the temperature spiked to 43 degrees with the humidex recently, he was struggling so much to breathe. I watched him an hour in the morning, and seeing that his breathing was not improving with his inhaler, it was off to CHEO we went.

In our situation, I had time to gather a few things to take with me, and to drop off my daughter at the sitter's. If you do have time to grab a few things, here's what I recommend you stuff your purse with as you head out the door:

- cell phone and/or ipad (and chargers!)
- bottle of water/juice box -snacks (for you and your child)
-colouring book, crayons, note paper
-small cars, teddy bear or other toy to keep them distracted
-candy or suckers if you have any
-your child's health card
-toonies and loonies if you have any

Tip #1 - Take your parking ticket with you, and put it in your wallet. If you are in the waiting room for a long time, you will be pulling things out of your bag and it could get lost in the shuffle.

Tip #2 - When you first arrive, have your health card in your hand. You will be greeted by very friendly nurses in triage who will assess your child and send you to registration. We were moved into our own room very quickly because of the severity of Joel's asthma. Every nurse and health care professional we saw were exceptionally friendly and amazing with Joel.

Tip #3 - You can order food for your child from your room. Joel was kept in observation for 6 hours while we waited for the medication to take effect. We were in our room through lunch and dinner. You can ask for a menu for your child, and they can choose anything they want from it. Joel had spaghetti and jello for lunch, and a few snacks later on in the afternoon.

Tip #4 - The main cafeteria closes at 1:00pm. There is a smaller shop that sells pizza, subs and coffee that is open later. However, if you are alone with your child, as I was, unless they feel comfortable being left alone for a few minutes while you run down the hall, then you'll be hungry. There are vending machines in the main waiting room that take only toonies and loonies.

CHEO

Tip #5 - Keep your child calm and entertained with play I cannot say enough good things about the Child Life service at CHEO. Child life specialists are professionals trained in areas of child development, play and the psychosocial needs of children and families. Aside from preparing and support children and youth during medical tests and procedures, they also have toys, activities for children to play with as well as DVDs to keep them distracted during their stay. Joel played for a long time with a 20 questions toy, stickers and some colouring books.

cheo

Tip #6 - Play is a great distraction There are lots of learning and play opportunities in an emergency room. Joel kept himself busy with post it notes, stickers, toy cars, rubber gloves, medical masks and even those little black things the doctor uses to check our ears! He pretended to be Dr. Joel giving me a check up.

After 6 hours, Joel's asthma was under control and we were on our way back home. He's doing great now!

We are so fortunate to have access to such a great facility in Ottawa. I am so thankful for CHEO and the amazing care they provided to my son. Go show your support and give them a shoutout on Twitter and follow them on Facebook!

Vicky is mom to a 5 year old named Joel and 3 year old daughter named Mieka. She is also a Play Stylist with Peekaboo Beans and an occasional teacher. To find out more visit her site at www.pbstylist.com .

Babywearing isn't just for babies

by Lara This week we went on a trip to the Granby Zoo (more on that soon) with our 5 year old and 3 year old twins.  We brought our old Pliko3 stroller and although I meant to bring it, I didn't have my Beco baby carrier with me.

I know when I first told people I planned to bring a carrier with me they were surprised - I don't have babies any more.  And this is where I say "baby carriers are AWESOME for kids up to about 45 lbs!"

Quinn didn't sleep well in the hotel the night before - he was a wreck as soon as we got to the zoo. Fortunately the friends we were with had an Onya Carrier (a fabulous Ottawa/California company that you should definitely check out :)) we were able to borrow.

As soon as he was on my back he was happy.  He was being held and not forced to sit in the horrible stroller or made to WALK.  And the weight was far easier for me to carry than if he'd been in my arms.

I love that even at 3, a carrier can save an outing just by keeping your child close!

Do you still use a carrier with your older children?