I Staged a Preschool Intervention-Part 2, How Popsicle sticks saved my son's life from falling into ruins.

When I last left you, my son was a hip hop deviant
with a nasty addiction to TV and video games.
In the midst of his angry protest to my preschool intervention,
I grabbed a handful of Popsicle sticks and a pen.

He looked up at me from the floor
where he had been rolling around and making a big stink
about his new limitations.
He looked mildly interested in what I was up to
as I started to act busy writing on the sticks.

Before long, he was wiping the snot from his chin
and sitting beside me on the couch.
I asked him to tell me fun things that he could
do during the day other than watch TV or play video games.

He actually got into it as I wrote
activities on each Popsicle stick:
Yoga
Play with Hot Wheels
Jump on the couch
Do a floor puzzle
Draw
Paint

He was on a roll as we wrote down all of his ideas.
Before we knew it, we had 30 Popsicle sticks worth of activities.
We stuffed them all into a beloved Chuck-E-Cheese token cup.



I told him that a few times a day
that he would pick an "activity stick" from the cup.
He would then do that activity for 30 minutes.
Of course, watch TV and play video games
were written in there too.

Guess what? It totally worked.
He got really into it and wanted to pick a stick right away.
He closed his eyes and pulled out the stick
that said "Dance Party"
(which is officially my favorite stick!)
I put on Bjork's album Post
and we danced together for 30 minutes
all while laughing and making up silly dances.

When the 30 minuted timer went off
he ran over and grabbed his "activity cup" with excitement.
"I wanna pick another stick!" he exclaimed.

So, the intervention seemed to have worked
and suddenly it was up to me to keep him
from slipping back into TV oblivion.
I knew that I really had to step up my game.

Thus began our "summer of Popsicle sticks".
We're surviving one dance party at a time.