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Are your kids texture sensitive?
We live in the North so we often crave something warm.
My kiddos love:
–breakfast tacos
–smoothies
–oatmeal/overnight oats
–Toast with just about anything (jam, pb, beans, etc…)
–muffins or croissants (moreso a weekend treat)
–sausages or mock sausageThey do not like egg bake or anything with mushrooms. Sometimes we take leftover roasted veggies from sheet pan dinner and throw a fried egg on top. One of them refuses to eat yolk, but it is still extra veggies and protein. Top this with soy/sriracha/condiment of choice and it’s a win!
What about muffins? Easy to eat with their hands and yummy. You can bake the night before and heat up in the morning. In our house we love homemade blueberry and banana+walnut muffins. Sometimes we add sprinkles to the batter and then look for what colors we find inside. If you’re doing muffins from scratch, you can sub oatmeal flour (I just grind oats in the processor until fine like flour) and reduce sugar/add more fruit to make them healthier.
i have a 3yo and 2yo and these are our classics!
– peanut butter toast with sliced banana and honey
– yogurt and apple sauce
– a bowl of cut up fruit
– chia seed pudding — chia seeds (1/4c) soaked overnight in almond milk (1c), yogurt (1c) and honey to sweetenThis sounds exactly like my 3yo, who is also possibly autistic (still waiting for assessment). Thanks for the book recommendation! I found How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen and the original How To Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk books extremely helpful in getting his attention and helping with transitions.
My son is 2. Acknowledging his wants and feelings go along way – “I hear you. You want to go outside. Mommy will take you outside after we finish __. We will do outside! We will finish __, then put on your shoes, and then go outside!” Also, if he is throwing a tantrum over wanting something we don’t have (or something that I don’t want him to have at the time), I will offer choices between two things we do have – “I see you are upset because you want yogurt, but we don’t have yogurt. We have peaches or pears! Oh wow – these look yummy! Which one would you like – peaches or pears? You pick!” Sometimes he is still stuck on the thing he wanted to begin with, but most of the time he will make a choice when I am really upbeat and positive about his two choices. Songs also really help to distract and shift the mood. :)
This is common in our house! Sometimes it’s the book, and sometimes it’s just the mood. My kids, 3 and 5, can get restless. My 3-year-old especially has a hard time sitting still. So we don’t sit still! I have us act out the book while we read it. If the page tells about someone who climbed a mountain, then we climb the “mountains” in our house, like the stairs, their beds, etc. To keep the story moving, I’ll direct them to sit down so we can read the next page and see what we get to do next.
My kids are also vivid storytellers, so sometimes I’ll have them look at the picture and tell ME what’s happening.
Another help for me is choosing storybooks in poetry rather than prose. When there’s a rhythm, I’ll tap their bellies to keep a beat. We get giggly after a while, but we can usually get through a short story or two. Being interested in the rhythm makes them less likely to derail the story.
My last technique, which may not be wholly applicable, is to continue reading aloud when they’ve lost interest and allow them to quietly explore the room while I read. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t. Their attention span has improved over time, and this has been a way to continue literature exposure without forcing it.
I have tried encouraging them to settle and asking them to be patient for the whole story. This only ended in frustration for all of us, and the last thing I want is to turn them off of reading altogether.
I hope you find what works for your family!I tell my daughter to hold her words until I’m done reading the page, then we talk about the picture, what just happened in our story and any other story-related things she wants to discuss. If the interjections aren’t about the story, I redirect and tell her we can talk about that after our book. Another great idea is to let your child “read” the book to you first… meaning let them flip through the pages and tell you what’s happening on each page. This is where you can let them get creative! When they’ve had their turn, tell them its your turn.
I kind of let my daughter do her own thing while I read, but I’ll highlight exciting moments with a gasp, or something like that, that gets her attention. Every character gets their own particular voice, so the novelty of the sound keeps her attention. I’ll also ask her some engaging questions, like, “How many flowers do you see in this picture?” or “Why do you think the frog did that?” These are things that get her attention because then she becomes involved in the story. we also have a set reading time: We read before she goes down for her nap, and before she goes down for bed. she has begun to bring books to me throughout the day apart from those times to ask me to read them to her. this is a lot of information, but it is stuff that I have noticed helps her stay engaged with the story while we are reading. I hope some of this is helpful!
I personally don’t really allow interruptions, unless they are toilet emergencies or related to understanding the story. It sounds like your little one is very creative. Could you get her to wait to the end to tell her version of the story? I try to redirect and say – let’s talk about that afterwards.
Mum of 4 here so I have been there.
On another note, we repurposed an indoor croquet game and used the “wickets” to blow our foil balls through! You could easily make them with shaped foil and tape the sides down on the floor :) we didn’t do it as a race bc my 3 year old was getting upset, so made it more like a maze :)
My child started running as soon as he could around 18 months when we were in public- parks, grocery stores, any store, pickup from daycare, etc. I tried ALL the things to get him to stop but none worked. When he was 3 I saw someone post in a local moms group a similar post to yours asking for advice from parents of “Reformed runners”. 8 replies and every single one said the same thing- its due to sensory processing and is flight response and to have child evaluated for Occupational therapy and it helps immensely. Light bulb went off in my head! I had my son evaluated at 3 for OT services- he qualified and has been in OT for 9 months and it has been a godsend! He rarely runs from me in public. We have learned tools for how he can calm himself down and types of sensory inputs he needs. Good luck! It will get better!
