School Time 9/3 - Creative Story

I asked Becca if she wanted to do a new activity today, she said yes very quickly. So we moved over to her feeding chair at the table. I tried to get her close enough to the table to where her arms could be comfortable resting on the table, and where she could see the table clearly. She did have some coughing fits, there was ambient noise from her siblings, and her little brother kept coming over to reach out and touch her or whatever she was doing.

I asked if she wanted to draw a picture and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw an inside picture or an outside picture (no visual cues today, just yes/no for multiple options). She wouldn't pick, so I listed the choices for her again and then asked. She didn't want to draw an inside picture, and she did want to draw an outside picture. I asked if she wanted to draw a picture of our house, of the park, or of the pool. She didn't pick, so I listed the choices for her again and then asked them one by one. She wanted to draw a picture of our house.

I put a marker in her hand and helped her draw a picture of our house from the front. I asked if she wanted to draw the ground or the sky next (I remembered this time to list both choices first, then ask which she wanted). She didn't want to draw the ground or the sky. I asked if something was wrong with the picture and she said yes. I asked if the house was too big (I realized it filled up almost the whole page) and she said yes. So we drew it smaller.

Then I asked her again if she wanted to draw the ground or the sky first. She did want to draw the ground. I asked her if she wanted the grass we drew to be purple or green. She picked green, so we drew some grass together. Then I asked if she wanted to draw some flower and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw yellow or red flowers and she picked yellow. I mentioned that yellow is her favorite color, then I asked her if yellow was still her favorite color and she said no. I asked it again after the drew some flowers together because I was so surprised and she said no again. I asked if blue was her favorite color now and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to draw some blue flowers and she said no.

At this point she stopped responding well. She had some coughs and kept looking away from me to the side. I said, maybe this is boring and too easy. Should we turn your drawing into a story? She said yes.

I asked if she wanted her story to be about a person or an animal. She wouldn't pick for a little while, and then she finally picked animal. I asked her if she wanted her story to be about a dog, a cat, a mouse, a horse -- she reacted to horse. I asked her if she wanted to have a brown horse or a purple horse. She picked brown, and we drew Harold together. I asked if we should name the horse "Sam" and she said no. Then I asked if we should name the horse "Harold" and she said yes. I asked her what Harold the horse should do in our story. Should he go for a walk -- she said yes.

I asked Becca if we should do another page for the story. She was coughing a bunch and was getting less engaged so I wanted to let her stop there if she wanted. I probably asked too many times, honestly, but I tried to give her a little time to get comfortable again, holding her hands down to help her calm down, and then she said she would do another page of the story with me.

I asked Becca what Harold should see on his walk. Should he see a river, a garden, an alien, a bunch of baby frogs, a giant bowl of spaghetti, a castle -- she responded to castle. I asked her what color the castle should be, black or blue, and she picked black. We drew the castle and I put some banners on the castle. I asked if we should color the banners blue or yellow, and she picked blue. I mentioned that that was her new favorite color. She was having a hard time with coughing again. I said we should probably draw the ground around the castle, and we could do it happy and pretty like a nice garden, or maybe sad with a dead tree because nobody lived there. She picked to make the grounds sad, so we drew some dirt and a dead tree. I said we should write something for that page too. I asked her if we should say the castle was lonely, or that it was happy. She might have picked lonely, but I wasn't sure so I asked again and she wouldn't pick. Paula suggested it should be "sad" instead of "lonely" and Becca said that was ok. 

Then I asked her why the castle was sad. Was it because nobody lived there anymore, or because it needed a princess, or because there was a monster or a dragon there. Becca didn't want to pick. We talked about how it's hard to make a story and keep coming up with ideas, especially since she can only pick ideas we give her right now, and it might not be the ones she wants. We tried the same ideas again and this time Becca said she wanted there to be a dragon in the castle. We wrote that down and called that good for the day.

Then we read a couple story books with Becca and her siblings. I held up three choices to let Becca decide, and she kept looking back and forth between all of them. It was hard to tell if she was picking one, but I thought maybe Silverlicious was her choice, so we read that one first. Then it was a choice between two books. Becca's sister really wanted to read Diary of a Worm but Becca chose My Name is Bob (I suspect she does that on purpose sometimes). Since Becca's sister was a good sport we read Diary of a Worm as well.