Little Postcards from "Holland": Special Olympics

On Monday afternoon, John's school hosted an event called The Special Olympics Young Athlete Program. This was just for the kids in John's school who are in life skills and PPCD. I really didn't know what to expect because we haven't gotten much information about it. I remember signing a consent earlier in the year for him to participate, but I hadn't heard anything about it since. Apparently, they have been practicing at school for different events.

Now it's not like the Special Olympics where kids compete in particular events and then they get medals for placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I think this is just a warm up to prepare them to participate in such an event. They were allotted so much time at each station, and each child got to do that activity. It was just for fun. The parents were invited to watch and we even got to walk around from station to station with our child. It was just an exciting time for the kids to participate and have a bunch of people cheer for them. The staff at the school did an excellent job organizing this. It was a lot of fun to see the different kids get excited over an accomplishment. They even invited all of the special buddies to come and watch. Many of them made signs for the kids participating with their name on it, and it was great to watch these kids interact together.

John did 3 events. The first was tossing a ball into a basket, which actually was him rolling it off of his lap into the basket that sat at his feet. He did that so fast that I couldn't even get a video of it. Then as he sat in his chair, they gave him a large ball to roll on the floor and knock down some large, inflateable bowling pins. When all of the pins didn't fall, the teacher pushed his chair through and knocked down the rest. The last thing he did was a regular type of bowling. They had small plastic pins set up in a diamond shape and they put a ramp in front of John. They put a small ball on the ramp and he had to push the ball down the ramp and knock over the pins. I've actually seen ramps like this at bowling alleys for young children. I think I might know a new family activity we can try. I did get a video of him doing this and he knocked down all of the pins.

After all of the stations were complete, they lined up all of the kids and they each got a ribbon. And probably the best part of the whole experience was the parade they did afterward. All of the kids in the school along with teachers and staff members lined the hallways around the school. The kids that participated, along with the Special Ed staff and the special buddies, walked around the school in a parade while everyone clapped and cheered for them. It was really a special thing to watch. I was so excited to be able to watch. And my child was very wild and excited. He had worked up a sweat by the time it was over.

Here are a few pictures and videos that I took.