Lake Gardens - smaller children's playground

Decided to head to Lake Gardens yesterday morning without his neurosuit cos he already had about an hour in the suit at home.

These are some of the stuff (exercises) we did apart from things like walking up and down stairs, going on see-saw and swing. I could have tried to pack in more activities while we were there but I didnt have the energy this morning.

The helicopter equipment:

- the steering wheel is just the right size for him & is good for stretching shoulder & arm muscles to the top/bottom and to the side, crossing the midline

- he's getting a bit better at climbing up to the seat himself though he's very slow at doing so & still needed my help at the very last stage (motor planning).

- good for vestibular too if I shake the structure hard enough (it's mounted on springs)

- it's mounted at the perfect location for him cos he can see cars coming & going out of the car park. So with the good location, he spends the most time on this equipment. At this vantage point, we had in the past counted cars (maths); identified colours of cars (colours); talked about road safety; introduced maths vocabulary of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc

Ladders:

- this park has more shorter ladders (just a few rungs). The larger children's park at the other side of Lake Garden's tend to have taller ladders (more rungs) which is for the moment, too risky for him, if I'm without my helper.

- it's good for the shoulder and trunk muscles, leg muscles
- good as it involves cross pattern movement, motor planning, balance
- It's extremely difficult for him to climb up the ladder if he's in the Neurosuit
- He was able to climb up this 3 rung ladder all by himself (no suit) but slowly. The gaps between the rungs are a bit high for him but he just about managed.
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Bridge of up and down steps:

- this is the first time he could get across all by himself, while holding on to the sidebars.
- steps are always good for gross motor but this is different from the stairs at home cos this gives a pattern of up, down, up, down, up, down repeatedly
Pushing objects through small holes:
- he has a habit of discarding fallen leaves or twigs whether it's on steps or in my driveway at home
- Here he's pushing the small leaves through holes on the platform of a play equipment
- it's good for his hand eye co-ordination, fine motor

I took advantage of his habit of discarding leaves by getting him to throw them over that blue wall partition instead of just throwing it off to the side which has no walls. To get him to do more, I picked up more dried leaves and placed them on the platform for him to pick up & throw over. It requires him to bend down, stretch upwards repeatedly. I also got him to use his left hand alone (non dominant hand), and also to use both hands together to throw. It's hard for him to throw using both hands - he didnt like it.

I think my son is a lot fitter than I am!