Tonight we had three kids out. One arrived a little bit late and one had to leave a half an hour early. Otherwise, it was a perfectly calm, relaxed normal session. Oh, did I forget to mention the rain? The fact is that it was a perfectly relaxed, normal session. We made some adjustments because of circumstances and what occurred is that the group decided, and, in fact, it was one of the group members who suggested it, that we postpone the raffle by one meeting so that those kids who were out sick wouldn’t feel as though they were missing out. Kids who said that they could handle that level of disappointment earned a Hero ticket. Kids who weren’t paying attention or didn’t respond when asked about it did not earn a Hero ticket.
The group played the Wii tonight more than they ever had and I debated whether to allow it to occur, but if you watch the video that I was shooting during that time, I think you’ll see why I permitted it. There was interaction and they were cheering one another when somebody else made a shot (I believe they were playing golf). They were watching and some of the kids were reinforced with tickets for watching and paying attention to what the rest of the group was doing, even they weren’t actively playing (this was as opposed to the individual members having their faces buried in magazines, which they will often do if given the chance in the waiting room).
Because the rain was intermittent, but strong enough that we did not want to venture out to a restaurant, the group ordered food from Gelson’s and I took one of the group members with me to go purchase it. What wound up occurring was that they sat in the group room, enjoying food, and seated themselves across from one another, having conversations and eating their piece of corn dog (and other less healthy than we normally like to get them food), due to the rain.
Finally, it was one of the group member’s birthdays tonight. The rule in group is that if a group member’s birthday falls on group night, they get a cake with candles, “Happy Birthday,” and the whole thing. That’s exactly what occurred, although interestingly, that group member when asked about an important event in his life talked about some other things other than the fact that it was his birthday today. One of the things that we try to work on in group is to have the group member’s prioritize and talk about what’s most relevant first. One of the other group members had noted that this had occurred and prompted the child who forgot to mention his birthday that this was probably the most important thing to say and then we practiced that a little bit more. The group sang “Happy Birthday,” candles were blown out, and all of the kids had a good time, except for one child who is allergic to dairy products. I had purposefully purchased a non-dairy dessert for that child, however upon inspecting the ingredients further, I saw that the second cake in fact contained non-fat milk. This child was able to handle that disappointment extraordinarily well, earning himself a Hero ticket and also earned a Pez, which of course doubled as a non-dairy dessert.
In all, it was a good night. It was a less structured group session than we normally have, but one that had a high degree of social interaction. See you all in January. Have a wonderful holiday!
