Thursday, June 24, 2010

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.

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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.

14 comments:

Neena said...

I am on my way over to the craft bucket to whip out the popcycle sticks. This is a fabulous idea! Is it fair to write "clean your room" and "clean the playroom" on some of them?

Unknown said...

This is a great idea! I'm constantly struggling with my daughter to stay off the couch...while her dog sits on the back porch and looks at her mournfully through the window...constant struggle...I wonder if that would work on 8 year olds too?! I'll let you know!

R Montalban said...

Love it, love it, love it - you are a genius, but of course we knew that with having such an excellent blog!

R Montalban said...

Love it, love it, love it - you are a genius, but of course we knew that with having such an excellent blog!

Unknown said...

Love this idea. Going to have to try it out too. Thanks so much

Caroline said...

Best idea EVER! I love it. And I also love the fact that you saw something that needed to be changed, took charge and headed in another direction. That is awesome!

MommyLovesStilettos said...

I love this idea and I might have to do this at home!

Katherine said...

I love this! My husband, who is staying home with my boys, is desperate for new ideas to entertain the kids. We will have to use this one.

Sarah RDH said...

Great idea! I'm totally stealing it!

Babes Mami said...

This is a great idea Leigh! I will store it away in my memory for when Babe is older.

Karen Mortensen said...

This is so cool. I think I am going to borrow this idea for my classroom. Thanks.

Vanessa said...

You are a GENIUS! I'm going to take this idea for my girls!! And with two girls, they can each pick one and that's an HOUR of activity per day! :-)

Susan Anderson said...

What a creative mom! Hats off to you!!

(I will be sharing this one with my DIL..)

=)

Tracie said...

This is a fantastic idea! So many times they feel like there isn't anything to do because they forget or we all get stuck in a rut. Great way to mix it up.