This week is Kyle's school vacation. Monday, we took a trip to the Montshire Museum, one of the kids' favorite places to go. Kyle's therapist was going to meet us a little after we got there. I wanted the kids to partake in the sound activity at 11:00, which was starting just after our arrival, so we went in and went upstairs to the activity. I managed to dodge the meltdowns about who got to check us in and who got to pass out the admission stickers by planning a little ahead. Usually, I let one child show the membership card, one child show my license and the third child pass out the stickers. Passing out the stickers usually ends up in a fight about people wanting to take their own, or it wasn't put in the 'right' place, et cetera. I preemtped this whole situation because we didn't have a lot of time and told them that I was going to check us in and hand out the stickers and if that didn't work we weren't going to go. Things went smooth. You may wonder why I just don't do that every time. That would be the easiest thing for me anyway. I let them get involved and take on different tasks so that way they can learn to take turns and learn the process of what to do when you get there. I take the 'hard' route in many situations like this. How do I expect the kids to learn if they are not involved??
So, the activity was about sound. The kids learned about sound and how you hear. Then they had the chance to make noise makers out of straws. It basically looks like a long oboe reed when you are done. This activity involved straws and scissors. Lucky for me the straws had different color stripes on and the scissors varied in color as well. Caitlin was handed a green straw and Kyle was handed a red straw. Christopher was fine with his yellow straw, but I had to convince Kyle and Caitlin that it was okay that they had green and red straws and stop them from asking for a different color. Same thing with the scissors. Apparently they don't have the 'correct' color scissors either. Oh my goodness. If you think I may have lost it by this point, it gets even better. We were instructed to flatten one end of the straw and cut the corners off. I tried explaining to Caitlin what we had to do and I also showed her that we did the same to her brother's straw. I cut the straw for her and she had a fit! "Mommy!! (big mean frown) It's all your fault!" She carried on and on about how she didn't want her straw cut (the straw she didn't want anyway because it was the wrong color)...I tried to show her how it worked by blowing into it and she just didn't care.
This whole thing lasted only about fifteen minutes. Out the window I saw Kyle's therapist show up and told the kids we needed to go downstairs to meet her. They complied, but I had to listen to Caitlin the whole way about the color of her straw and how it was my fault. She even stormed off to the coat room and protested, thinking that she would end up with the 'right' straw. She didn't. And...we did end up having rather a fun day even with a few scenarios like the one I talked about.
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