November 27, 2011

Three Wishes

Quinn, having rediscovered her wishing stones from the Ren fest has these 3 to offer:

  1. Wishes she could visit a princess castle
  2. Wishes she could be a nurse
  3. Wishes Adrienne was part of her family

November 15, 2011

Eating and incentives

So we've started a new incentive program this week.

Just as a refresher, Quinn is extremely particular about what she eats, and will often refuse food based on look, mood, or any other whim. So we incentivized it.

I struggled about this, and I think/hope I have a good solution. Basically bites for minutes... Here is the gist.

She loves to watch videos, and they are usually restricted to the weekend. But with the new incentive she could watch them during the week.

If she eats (swallows) a food that she has had before, she gets one minute for the whole meal.
A new grain / protein/ dairy = 1 minute per bite
A new vegetable = 2 minutes per bite
A new "mixed" food (Casseroles, sauces,etc) = 3 minutes per bite.

Then for rewards we have

1 minute = Sesame Street video from the website, (most are about a minute long)
2 minutes = Zoodle (this is a kids app that usually pulls appropriate clips from YouTube, about two minutes)
5 minutes = Sesame Street podcast.
10 minutes = Mother Goose by Jim Henson available on Netflix instant download (she loves these)
30 minutes = Sid the Science Kid, Super Why, Dora, etc
60 minutes = Sesame Street episode, BackYardigans, Thomas, etc
60 minutes with at least 12 veggies = Feature length movie (Tangled, Princess and the Frog, etc)

Our goal is not only to get her to eat, but to not complain, try new foods, and eat a well rounded meals.

Learning objectives include

  • New food can taste good
  • How long a minute is
  • Clock math (the tracking sheets are set up like a clock)
  • Delayed gratification / accumulation (saving for a better video) (although that hasn't happened yet)


Learning outcomes so far

  • Baked potato isn't good yet, even when mixed with jelly (barely even touched the tongue before it was rejected)
  • Edamame isn't good yet, even though she was really hoping it would have worked for her. (she spit it out convincing herself that she was going to throw up)
  • Corn, while vehemently opposed to it on principle, actually is okay. 9 bites == 18 minutes
  • Chicken Florentine (Chicken, Spinach, Pasta, Sauce), is okay if you scrape off the spinach pieces and stick to the chicken. 4 bites = 12 minutes
  • Accumulation hasn't happened yet. 
    • Day 1: 2 minutes = 1 x Zoodle
    • Day 2: 30 minutes = 3 x Mother Goose
Hopefully the reward isn't so great that she doesn't feel the need to save up.
But she is excited about earning minutes. This could be a good thing. 

November 12, 2011

New words

Not sure if she'll remember tomorrow but Quinn learned 2 new words today and used them several times: random and complicated. I used them once, explained them to her and she proceeded to use them in sentences of her own.

November 11, 2011

The Coasters

Amazing! On the kids mix, Yakety Yak came on, and Quinn identified it as the same artist who sang Charlie Brown. Awesome!

Ricochet Sandwich

From the song Rubber Biscuit, there is a phrase that says "A ricochet biscuit is the kind of a biscuit that's supposed to bounce back off the wall into your mouth. If it don't bounce back, (hee hee hee).... you go hungry!"

Quinn says "You don't have to go hungry... just make another sandwich" - LOVE IT!

November 06, 2011

Swimming

Btw, Quinn went swimming today! Crazy!



November 05, 2011

Accessible Movies Rock

So we went to Discovery Green tonight to watch Toy Story 3. I had very low expectations, as dinner was all about meltdowns. Anyways, the show was accessible to hearing and visually impaired,  which means that a "narrator" described everything that was going on for the visually imparied folk. PERFECT! Not a single "What's happening now", "Who is that", "Why did that happen", "What's going to happen".... it was all perfectly narrated.

I wished I had discovered this 30 years ago for my sister!

Food battles

I don't get it... I just don't. And it is frustrating as hell! Tonight's dinner fish sticks and homemade mac and cheese. Totally failed. Fish sticks are normally a very acceptable and requested food. Quinn ate every single ingredient going into the mac and cheese as we were making it, yet put it all together and it makes her throw up (actually she convinces herself that she is going to be sick if she eats it, and creates a self-fulling prophesy.

I honestly think that it is the fact that there is Halloween candy around (although thankfully not alot, thanks to the Great Pumpkin :) )... but she wants the candy for dinner, knowing that it happens after dinner, creates a power struggle that she wants to win.

Grrrr....