Written by Alysia Butler. Originally published on SPD Blogger Network. Reprinted with permission from SPD Blogger Network.
While the song says “Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel…I made it out of clay”, we’ll actually use Model Magic to make our homemade dreidels and menorahs. I first discovered Model Magic last year at my son’s preschool. They used it instead of play dough because a child in his class had a wheat allergy. Model Magic is fantastic. It’s easier to use than actual clay and is great to work with. My son gets great deep pressure input from rolling out the Model Magic and the kids have fun mashing up thedifferent colors. It will dry as hard as clay in 24 hours and cleans up much better than play dough. The decorations they create will last us through the rest of the holiday and into the next year.
Night 5 ~ Vestibular The dreidel game is a great game to play during the Hanukkah week. My grandmother sends the kids their own dreidels every year filled with chocolate gelt (coins). A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides, each side displaying a different Hebrew letter. In the dreidel game, the chocolate gelt is put into a pile in the middle of all the players. Each player takes a turn spinning the top. The amount of chocolate gelt that the player gets depends on which letter is showing when the dreidel stops spinning.
My son loves the sensation of being dizzy, so he spends a lot of time twirling in circles in our house or on the swings. Since the vestibular sense is all about balance and spatial sense, this year I’ve made up the “be the dreidel” game. Instead of using an actual dreidel, I’ll have the boys take turns being a dreidel themselves. I’ve made large signs of each of the four Hebrew letters to spread out on the floor. Whichever one they touch (or stumble to) after I say “stop!” will be the letter they land on as the “dreidel”. I can only imagine how much amusement this will bring while providing my son the vestibular input he needs.
Night 6 ~ Hearing One of my most favorite memories of my childhood Hanukkah celebrations is singing the prayers and songs as we light the candles. However, this is one of the reasons we can’t go to an organized Hanukkah celebration. Our last trip to temple was when my son was two and he stood on a chair and yelled at the Rabbi to “stop singing!!!” While the Rabbi wasn’t fazed, I was mortified and never returned. Not wanting to lose this tradition, we keep our singing at home now. This way we can sing “Hanukkah O Hanukkah” and “I Have A Little Dreidel” as loudly or as quietly as we want, or not at all. It helps keep the tradition alive in our family while being respectful of my son’s sensory sensitivities.
Night 7: ~ Sight flickering flames just calms him. So we’ll spend quite a lot of time just staring at the candles in the middle of the table. It’s one of the few times during the holiday week that my son is relaxed enough to sit for an extended period of time. We’ll use this time to reflect on how the week has been going so far, or read more of the story of Hanukkah, or just sit quietly as a family.
Night 8 ~ Introception According to SPD Life, interoception is “the sense responsible for detecting internal regulation response.” It’s how our bodies tell us if we’re hungry, thirsty, or if we need to go to the bathroom. It works in conjunction with the proprioceptive and vestibular senses to help us regulate our bodies internally. For our last night of Hanukkah, we can look at introception in a literal and figurative way. In the literal sense, on the eighth night, our bodies are full. We’ve enjoyed some great food and drink and had lots of activities to fill up all our senses. My son does his best job regulating his bodily functions when his sensory diet is varied and full. We’ve done that by focusing on different activities each night for each sense.
In the figurative sense, we are full of Hanukkah by this last night. All of our presents are opened, every spot in the menorah is filled with candles, and we’re ready to bring ourselves out of celebration mode and move into wintertime. It’s time to get ourselves back into our regular daily routine.
Just in time for Christmas vacation.
Written by Alysia Butler. Originally published on SPD Blogger Network. Reprinted with permission from SPD Blogger Network.