In Which Connor Has A Field Day

Our school district had their preschool Field Day today, and all of the preschool students from this year (along with some upcoming students for next year's classes) turned out for an hour of fun!  The vast majority of the kids there were typical students, but a few of Connor's classmates came too.  There was an obstacle course, a parachute, face painting, coloring, sidewalk chalk, a sensory bin, a bubble blowing area and probably a few more things I missed. 

At first Connor didn't quite know what to make of the whole thing.  I think he assumed that we were going down to the Rhododendron Botanical Species Garden for our walk, which we usually do on Wednesdays.  He was a little taken aback by seeing his teachers out of school, and also all of the surrounding noisy activity.  After a bit of pondering, he apparently decided that the biggest issue was that his teachers and I were both there, so once that was fixed things would be okay.  So he started waving "bye bye" to me!  I think he wanted me to just leave him there with his teachers and come back in a couple of hours. 

Oh well.

Since most of the students in Connor's class didn't make it, he got the undivided attention of his teacher and the three paraeducators who made it for quite a while, and I'm pretty sure that was his favorite part of the festivities! 

After he got over the whole idea that I was sticking around but that he would still get a ton of attention from his teachers, he actually ended up having quite a bit of fun!  First we tried out the bubbles, but the wind was blowing a bit hard and they got away too fast for him to really see them.  So then we did some coloring, tried out the rice table and played "man in the middle" of the parachute.  The little guy started getting a bit overwhelmed, so we took a bit of a break while we waited for Connor's turn to get his face painted. 


This was the first time Connor had ever tried face painting, because he's a kid with sensory issues and those brushes tickle.  I figured trying something small would be best, and in a color other than red so if he immediately smeared it all over his face it at least wouldn't look like he was bleeding all over the place.  It took the face painter only a couple of minutes to dash out a quick spider on his face.  Connor did a great job!  He held still pretty well, and after checking himself out in the mirror he left the spider alone until we got home, when he promptly tried to smear it all over the couch and I had to wipe it off.

The Field Day only lasted about an hour, and that was the perfect time period because by the end of it Connor was exhausted.  Here's a picture of the little guy just before we headed home (with his mostly intact spider still on his face) and you can see just how tired he is.  All the noise and hubbub really wore him out, but I think he had a great time and I'm glad we came!

~Jess