Got a Minute? TIME FOR SOCCER

The mornings that Jack gets picked up by the carpool are generally awesome. The mornings when I drive…not so awesome. Scrambling out of the house with everyone (especially myself) packed and ready is not my favorite.

We can do some great things while waiting for the carpool to come. I love getting Jack outside early so we can get some movement in before school. Some things we like to do are bubbles, biking, or jumping and swinging in my arms. The other day I had an idea to work on his soccer skills.

Jack’s occupational therapist has played soccer with him several times. He intended to have Jack dribble through a cone obstacle course. But
Jack’s only motivation to kick hard was to knock down the cones. So eventually it turned into letting Jack set up the cones and then essentially bowl soccer-style. The beauty of this set-up is that he has to kick it hard and it gives him a target for aiming. The added complexity comes with trying to get him to back up to kick it harder or “dribble” it to the cones. And the arm flapping that inevitably comes with knocking them all down? It means he loves it!

>> My ‘Got a Minute?’ segments are to show a quick snippet of something that probably only lasted a few minutes, but was a good little use of time. “Little” is about Jack’s attention span right now. It doesn’t take perfect conditions, lots of time, or huge effort to do something to engage him in an activity. <<