A team of their own!

A few of our younger children have significant special needs and haven't had the opportunity to join any sports teams or clubs until recently.  Our local Special Olympics recently started a program for 2-11 year olds (Active Start and Fundementals) and 6 of our kids in this age bracket have had the ability to join.  The first practice was on Monday and the kids were extremely excited.  Special Olympics set up the group with a "sports team" feel and all the kids received team shirts to wear for each practice.

They now have their own sports team! I was really hoping that there would be many other kids for them to meet and interact with while learning new activities and maybe in the future there will be but unfortunately there is only one other child so far.  One of our teens came to watch her sibling and thought it looked like so much fun she signed up to be a volunteer.  I am always impressed by the support the children show for one another and their various interests whether it's volunteering at their activities or being the best cheerleader imaginable.

At their "team practice" they do a warm up, then play games building different skills which nicely align with the goals their physical therapist has for them, have a healthy snack and then a bit of free play.  Yesterday they did circuits with various jumping skills, practiced throwing, catching and kicking balls, and played games with simple rules like duck, duck, goose, what time is it Mr Wolf and a variation of tag.

I am so impressed with Special Olympics we have adult children that have been participating for the last 2 years and now the younger children have a group for them.  The skill and dedication of the volunteers amazes me and I am truly thankful that these people include my children.

I can't believe my child did ......

Listening to the radio this morning the conversations was "I turned my back for a moment and can't believe my child did___.  Many people called in sharing stories of things that their children have done.  The stories ranged from putting things up their nose, including a child that put magnets up their nose and needed removal with a super magnet, to sliding down the stairs and getting stuck in the drywall, to painting a sibling.  A lot of the stories were quite funny but relatively common and I was left thinking that some of my children make these children seem like amateurs.

It got me thinking about the differences between raising typical children and children with various special needs.  Over the years we have experienced many things when we have turned our back for a moment and as some of the children have aged the creativity has increased however the maturity hasn't necessarily kept pace. This becomes a problem when the children/teens are older but still need the supervision of an infant/toddler.  The supervision needs to be kept up like when they were infants/toddlers or even more so.  I know for us when we had infants/toddlers we could put them in a crib and expect them to stay there, also they required more sleep so naps also gave us a break.  With our teens needing this sort of supervision they no longer nap and we no longer have the ability to place them in a crib for their safety.  When the "overgrown toddler" is out in public people have certain expectations based on their size/age but frequently the child isn't able to meet these expectations.  As a parent you are often viewed as over protective especially if the child has an invisible disability.  A lot of supervision and advocating is necessary when you are raising children/teens with special needs and guaranteed you will have stories to tell when asked to complete the statement "I turned my back for a moment and I can't believe my child did____?