by jphilo | May 23, 2014 | Out and About
Camp Dorothy went on the road Tuesday with a rockin’ and rollin’ multi-destination trip. The camp’s namesake was packed and waiting at the door when the activity director arrived. Moments later, Iowa’s Thelma and Louise were on their way to the first destination:
The doctor’s office.
Six month check up time for Dorothy, and she passed the doctor’s examination with flying colors. The only thing that flustered her was the fasting blood draw. She came out of there saying, “They took a lot of blood. They nearly sucked me dry. I need coffee.”
She also needed breakfast.
So our second stop was Perkin’s, where Dorothy had her favorite of all time meal: pancakes. With coffee to wash it down. So much coffee that she agreed a bathroom break was in order before we hit the road again. Even though the bathroom was a far piece from the booth where we were sitting. A few minutes later, we were out the door and on the interstate, headed non-stop for Albert Lea, Minnesota.
Or so we thought.
Just south of Story City, Mom requested a bathroom break. The activity director snagged the handicapped parking spot outside the McDonald’s, and the camp’s namesake trooped off to the bathroom. A few minutes later she emerged feeling, as she put it “pounds lighter.” The activity director knew better than to inquire further, as the answer would include details she didn’t want to know.
A TMI situation to be avoided at all cost.
The remainder of the trip was a race. We were supposed to meet the son-in-law of the camp’s namesake’s at 1:30 in Albert Lea. Due to the unexpected potty break, we were running late. Even so, we arrived before he did, so Dorothy ordered lunch…just before she realized another potty break was in order.
Guess where the bathroom was?
Clear on the other side of the building…beyond the McDonalds, Cold Stone Creamery, Pizza Hut, Verizon kiosk, clothing display, snack food, aisles, and the coffee bar. The Camp Dorothy version of a cross-country hike designed to work up a camper’s appetite. By the time she got to the bathroom, our camp namesake was pooped.
No pun intended.
The return trip nearly did her in, but Dorothy rallied enough to eat her sandwich (though not the fries, which the ravenous camp director consumed), greet her son-in-law, and decide she needed ice cream for dessert. Which she instructed the activity director (who’s allergic to ice cream) to order for her.
Cruel, cruel request.
The ice cream finished, the fickle camp’s namesake ditched one activity director for another and headed north with her son-in-law. As the jilted activity director drove home, she thought about Dorothy’s response to the doctor’s question about her memory. Based on observations over the previous six months, the activity director prompted her. “Do you think maybe you’re having a harder time with your short term memory?” To which the camp’s namesake gave the director a blank look and replied, “Who are you?”
Gotta love her!
by jphilo | Nov 13, 2013 | Different Dream, School/Education, Special Needs Parenting
Fitness and Exercise in Kids with Special Needs
Today’s guest blogger is Seth McNew, a fitness and exercise coach. He’s here to offer ideas about how parents can encourage children to become more active and stay fit.
Childhood obesity rates are growing at a dangerous rate, with one out of every three kids in America considered overweight. This is not just in the United States, this epidemic is in Canada, Australia, the U.K., and many other countries around the world.
Fitness and Exercise for Kids with Special Needs
Now apply this to the community of kids with special needs. With little research and nutrition data available specific to special needs exercise, and it being much harder for to participate in organized sports and group physical activities for many reasons, it’s no wonder that the rate of obesity is even higher among this population than in the general public.
However, through targeted exercise and play ideas, as well as healthy habit creation, we can change stereotypes and statistics and get our kids fit, healthy, and happy. This is not about special diets or one-stop cure-all exercises. This is about finding fun and motivating ways to exercise, with activities for special needs children.
Fitness and Exercise Sample Activity
Here is one example of a simple and fun exercise to do at home:
The Bear Crawl: Animal moves are a favorite for all kids and easy to learn. Start by bending forward and lowering the hands to the ground. Then, try to keep the legs straight as he or she shuffles back and forth across the room. Make it fun by growling like a bear! The more fun the activity, the more reinforced the movements will be. See similar activities for special needs children in this post.
Other Fitness and Exercise Activities and Resources
Do you and your child have favorite activities to encourage fitness and exercise? Do you know of other good resources on this topic? Please share them in the comment box!
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Top Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net
I’m Seth McNew. I’m fortunate that I get the amazing opportunity to work with this incredible population and help our community to reach better fitness goals, encouraging lifelong health in kids with special needs. As a long-time youth sports coach, as well as a certified personal trainer, I have been working in athletics and fitness all of my life. During my early days of fitness instruction, I was asked to help with a local elementary school’s special needs class to facilitate an exercise program. I saw a need and a possibility and have been running the Play Through Autism program since then. Check out this video to learn more. I hope that you will be able to use this resource to acquire some fitness techniques and ideas that will help you and your child to exercise.
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by jphilo | Jan 17, 2012 | Reflections on the Past
In the mid-1960s, my mom enlisted Debbie Drake, the female counterpart to Jack Lalanne, to make me fit and trim. I was on the chubby side back then, sedentary and clumsy. More inclined to grab a glass of milk and a handful of cookies before curling up with a Little House book than going for a bike ride in the fresh air.
Mom must have been really concerned about her couch potato middle child. Why else did this woman, who never bought anything without much deliberation and angst, purchase a non-necessary item at full price? Especially something as frivolous as a record album.
For those of you too young to know, record albums look like this.
And the records spun on machines like these to make the music play.
But she bought Feel Good! Look Great! Exercise Along with Debbie Drake, brought it home, and sat down to plan my daily exercise regiment. At first I was pretty gun-ho. Debbie Drake’s leotard with it’s crisp, white collar was a little dated. But it was pink. And secretly, I loved pink. And the title’s liberal use of exclamation points matched the exclamatory level of pre-teen girls everywhere!
Even though our English teachers said to use them sparingly or not at all!
Debbie Drake’s title was proof that the times, they were a-changing!
Unfortunately, the title was a lie!
The exercise routine Mom created, ala Debbie Drake, did not feel good!
Nor did it make me look great!
It just made me sore!
And the music!
Well, let’s just say the tunes Noel Regney and his sappy orchestra played to accompany the stretches and knee bends, and contortions were embarrassingly out of date!
At least for preteen girls in love with pink leotards and exclamation points!
I think I made it through all the exercises once. Then I buried the album at the bottom of a dresser drawer and forgot about Debbie Drake. Until a month or two ago when my knee started hurting and I went for physical therapy.
The therapist was named Katie, not Debbie.
She wore street clothes, not a pink leotard with a crisp, white collar.
No orchestra played sappy background music.
Exclamation points were not lurking in corners or lying on treadmills.
Still, I suspect Katie is a Debbie-Drake-and-my-mother throwback. Why? Because she planned an exercise regime to strengthen my glutes to correct my stride so my knee will feel better. But so far, all it’s done is make me ache in places I didn’t know had muscles. It has not made me feel great or look good.
So much for making me feel great Debbie, Mom, and Katie!
You should be glad I gave up on looking good ages ago!
Though if I had a pink leotard with a crisp, white collar, you could talk me into trying again!
by jphilo | Jul 18, 2011 | Different Dream, How-Tos, Special Needs Parenting
Well, summer’s in full swing, and if you’re home with the kiddos all day, perhaps the bloom is off the summer vacation rose. You’re looking for things for your kids to do, and that can be extra-challenging when some of those kids have special needs. So this week, we’ll be looking at ways to make life easier during the hot, sticky dog days of summer. Nancy Flanders describes 4 indoor toddler activites (but this will work with older kids, too) for those rainy days when you’re all trapped indoors.
4 Indoor Toddler Activities
Sitting is as deadly as smoking. At least that’s what the findings of an American College of Cardiology study recently revealed. Staying sedentary can lead to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and early death. This means that the case for keeping kids active is getting stronger by the day, especially for children who are battling chronic health conditions like my daughter does. Maggie has cystic fibrosis (CF) and for those with CF, exercise isn’t just recommended, it’s prescribed. The same way CF doctors hand out prescriptions for medications and therapy treatments that people with CF use daily, they hand out one for the amount and type of exercise the patient needs to do. But right now Maggie’s only two, and while letting her run around the yard is the perfect exercise for her, some days the rain or snow traps us indoors. So, Maggie and I find ways to get her moving right in our living room.
Dancing
Maggie loves to dance. Most toddlers do. Unfortunately, she’s inherited my lack of dance moves, but all it takes to get her going is a little music. This works best if you get into it with her. So go ahead, no one’s watching. Spend some time getting your groove on. It will do you and your toddler good.
Ball Popper Play
This ball popper game doesn’t get old and gets Maggie moving. She’s had this toy for over a year and she still loves it. It’s pretty basic. The balls pop out and she chases them around. As she catches them, she puts them back in the machine and out they pop. The music is a bit loud and a little annoying, but she loves it!
Animal Games
Maggie also loves to pretend. She hands me her “drum” – an empty plastic animal cracker tub from Costco – and I beat out a little tune while singing her instructions such as “swim like a fish” or “fly like a bird”. She runs up and down the hallway and around the room jumping like a kangaroo and meowing like a cat. And the best part is it keeps her busy for up to 10 minutes at time. And she wants to play this about 3 times a day giving her about 30 minutes of exercise. And every little bit matters.
Childhood Fun
Maggie also loves to play games like Hide ‘n Go Seek and Ring Around the Rosy. These games are perfect for inside fun. She gets a thrill out of hiding from us and she loves to spin. Both games get her moving and wear her out, which is perfect at bedtime.
In the future, I’m considering buying Maggie one of those video game systems like the Wii Fit. But for right now, following the doctor’s orders on rainy and snowy days means getting creative and finding some favorite activities to do indoors.
Time to Hear about Your Favorite Indoor Toddler Activities
Thanks, Nancy, for those wonderful indoor toddler activities. Now how about the rest of you. How do you keep the kids active on rainy summer days? Please leave a comment about what works at your house.
Nancy Flanders is a wife and mother of two girls, one with cystic fibrosis. After her daughter’s diagnosis at just 6 days old, she altered her career path to focus on writing about raising a child with a special health need. She spends any free moment she can find fundraising for a cure for her daughter and volunteering for her hospital’s cystic fibrosis advisory group. Visit Nancy at www.chronicadmissions.blogspot.com and www.parentingsquad.com.
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