Stage 3 activities -- games

Not EVERY activity we did in Stage 3 was about doing chores. We also played games and did fun stuff too. (Not that we didn't manage to have fun doing chores too, but like Dr. Gutstein always says, it's not about having fun, it's about competency!) So here's some things we did that incorporated our Stage 3 goals with our playtime:

We were fortunate to be in this stage during the summer and early autumn months, so a lot of our Stage 3 activities took place on the playground. We would go to playgrounds with side-by-side slides and the goal would be to slide down at the same time (obviously this photo taken from early in stage 3! By the time Jacob had mastered this stage, he was really quite good at coordinating his actions). I would scaffold this by making sure he was seated and then I did a 1-2-3 or ready-set-go count, and I would modify my actions to make sure we were coordinated so that I could spotlight that coordination (see the bottom of this post for spotlighting phrases that I used). We also would walk up stairs/ramps together, coordinating ourselves to arrive at the top at the same time. We'd walk across balance beams, stepping stones, etc the same way. He really enjoyed this activity, and by the time he mastered Stage 3 he and Zoo Boy were using coordinated games on the playgrounds and at home on their own.

We used the game "red light, green light" by having The Map Man or Zoo Boy do the calling while Jacob and I snuck up together, the goal to arrive there at the same time. When he got good at that, we alternated the roles around so that he was coordinating with the other family members too.

We were still doing a bunch of scrapbooking (still sending photos into school), so I'd prepare the photos and we'd each stick them on the page at the same time.

We'd set up parallel train tracks (using some good referencing and master-apprentice skills!), then push our trains on them, the goal being to get our trains to the end at the same time. Or we'd set up one long track and run our trains towards each other, the goal to meet in the middle.

We'd take stuffed animals, pretend they were mountain climbers, the goal to reach the top of the mountain (couch) at the same time.

We'd each take a ball, or a car, or anything that would roll, sit across from each other, and push them towards each other, trying to make them crash in the middle. Or we'd just push them back and forth to each other, especially on a day where regulation seemed to be an issue.

We did LOTS of actions set to music -- dancing, movement, whatever we could think of. The music was great scaffolding -- the beat kept us coordinated -- and it made whatever we were doing fun.

We played the card game "war" -- both players turn their cards over together.

We did TONS of crafts. I had to scaffold these pretty heavily, but the general theme was that it involved sticking something I'd prepared onto something else (buttons on a gingerbread man, eyes on a doll, wings on a bat, letters on a board, etc). We made decorative signs, we made fridge magnets, we made birthday cards, we made wreaths. We'd either work in a simultaneous parallel fashion (each with our own project in front of us, coordinating where and when we stuck stuff), or in a complimentary sequential fashion (I'd hand Jacob an item, he'd stick it in place). I made sure the projects were short and interesting, and then we'd find just the right place to display the end product (to generate talking about it throughout the day and with anyone that came to visit), or just the right person to give it to as a gift (then we'd wrap it, and present it, giving more opportunities to discuss just how we did it together).

We did projects in the yard. Digging a hole, we'd take turns, I'd take a shovel full, he'd take a shovel full. Or The Map Man would scoop out a deep shovelfull and put it on the edge of the hole, then Jacob would take it from there and move it to a pile. We gardened -- I'd hoe a roe, he'd plant a seed. I'd dig a hole, he'd place in a bulb. Or I'd put in the bulb and he'd cover it up. Or we'd have two holes and work on putting our bulbs in together. Then we'd each take a watering can and water our new garden together.

Throughout the Stage, I did a lot of spotlighting with phrases such as "We did it together!" "We're a great team!" "We work great together!" "Yeah team!" "Hooray, we did it!" "Wow, what a team!" "It's always more fun when we do things together." And I meant it!