This Christmas season is a great time to be thinking about your own family, and how you can incorporate RDI into your own holiday traditions. Each week this month we are going to introduce a new family activity that can create wonderful RDI moments around your house and community. With each RDI family working towards their own RDI goals, remember that there are a TON of different ways to do each activity that can specifically help you work towards your own goal for your child. Please let us know if you have any questions of how to adapt any of these activities to fit your own child!
our favorite holiday activities - week 1
SETTING UP THE CHRISTMAS TREE
There are so many different ways that you can make this into a family RDI activity by working together.. How are you going to do it this year? Here are a few of our ideas:
- If you enjoy a "real" Christmas tree, have your child help you pick out which tree you are going to buy. This can be a great way to model/teach problem solving to your child. Verbally walk your child through your thoughts as you are looking at the different trees. "This tree looks a little too tall for our family room." "Oh, I love how full this tree looks with all of the branches. I wonder if it would fit in the corner next to our couch?"
- When your tree is all set up, bring your child over to help you string the lights. If you have a tall tree, it might be helpful for you to have the top of the tree already strung as a model for your child to see. This may require a lot of time and patience, but what a great way for both you and your child to work together doing a hard task. Before you string the lights, make sure to plug the strand in to make sure they work. It can be a fun experience to string the lights on together and then share the moment of joy that comes when you plug the lights in afterward and are able to see the entire tree lit up!
- After the tree is all set up with the lights on, bring your child over to help you place the decorations on the tree. Depending on the abilities of your child, you could hand each ornament to your child and let them place them on the tree, assign your child a specific type of ornament to do as their "job" while you do another type, or assign each child a specific area of the tree to decorate. During this activity it is very important to remember that it isn't about making your Christmas tree look "perfect," it is about spending time together as a family and helping your child feel valued. If you fix or redo the ornaments that your child places on the tree, you are taking away their ability to make decisions.
Please remember that each of the three different activity ideas cater to different children with varying RDI needs. Choose which activity fits your child and your family situation, and then adapt the activity specifically for your own child. We would love to hear how the activity went for your family!
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