Adaptive Gymnastics and Math Morning

Well, we made it to Adaptive Gymnastics tonight and I'm really glad that we did. It started a little rocky but after that, Olivia was all smiles. It is held in the fieldhouse at the Hearnes Center and there is a pretty big group of kids and volunteers. Olivia appears to be the youngest. There is almost a volunteer for each child and because of Olivia's age, she had someone with her the whole time. When we got there, a girl came right up to us. She remembered Olivia from Therapeutic Horseback riding (she is one of the volunteers there too--what an angel!). Olivia first was very clingy and I didn't think it was going to work, but I told her that I had to sit with Josie and that I would be close and then I walked away. She followed me and I asked her if she wanted to go home and she shook her head no so I told her she needed to go over to the mat if she wanted to stay. We only had to do this routine twice and she stayed. I did my best to stay out of her sight the rest of the time so she wouldn't be distracted and it worked!

First, they did stretching and then they did different kinds of warm ups like galloping forward and sideways, big steps with jumps, etc. Olivia was smiling the whole time and the girl who ended up being her partner was AMAZING. She was very patient and just kept redirecting Olivia back to the task. Olivia let her hold hands, help her jump and really position her body in the right way (which is big progress because when she took PT a year ago, she kept trying to 'wipe off' where people touched her and she had to keep taking breaks to get away from it).

After the warm-ups, they split into smaller groups and then they got to run up to the springboard (?-no idea if this is really what it is called). They would run to the 'springboard' and then jump off and put their hands in the air like the gymnasts do. Olivia would run as fast as she could and then get really slow, stop and jump off the end. Then, while she was on the mat, she would hop up and down with the biggest grin on her face and they would prompt her to put her arms up. She would, then they would clap and she just grinned from ear to ear. After that, she got to walk on the balance beam with assistance and then they played with a big parachute. When we were done she says she didn't like it, but I don't really believe her considering all the smiles and the fact that she was upset to leave.

Here is a picture of Jocelyn with her teacher, Mrs. Williams, at the Halloween parade. I got to go to Josie's school this morning for "Math Morning". It stared 45 minutes before school, they served juice, milk, fruit, rolls & breads (carb heaven) for breakfast and then we got to play math games together. It was a good way to hang out with Jocelyn one-on-one this morning. By the way, mom, her desk is a mess too--I wonder where she got that from . . . and we've had at least 6 'overdue' library notices that she has no idea where they were (until she finds them in her desk at school). I have NO IDEA where she gets that . . .

Jocelyn went with me to take Olivia tonight and she ran around the track a couple of times (she's a pretty good little runner!). She loved the equipment and REALLY wanted some mats to practice on as well. I think we will sign her up for tumbling again if there is room. It starts next week. Well, that is our day in a nutshell. Looking forward to the weekend!