Picnic at the park

For part of her ABA therapy, we decided to have Malia plan and carry out a picnic for the family and her tutor.  She made the menu, the shopping list, looked at store advertisements, shopped for the ingredients, and cooked and prepped the food.  This was a wonderful exercise for Malia and for me as her mother.  There was so many excellent opportunities for real life experiences and problem solving.

She decided on making egg salad sandwiches, fruit salad, chips and dip and juice boxes.  She had to figure out how many eggs were needed to make enough sandwiches, which ingredients we had and which we needed to buy.  She needed to compare store ads and coupons and figure out which offered the better deals for what we wanted to buy. 

While at the store, she was able to weigh fruits and calculate actual prices for items.  She ended up having to decide between buying the $3.79/lb grapes vs a cheaper fruit like $.79/lb oranges.  She even tallied up the total cost of everything by hand plus tax so that I could get a sufficient amount of cash out the ATM to cover the bill.  It was unfortunate that ATM was on the fritz and didn't give me the money, but that too was a lesson of life.

Cooking was fun too.  Anji, Malia's tutor, brought this cool egg timer that let us know when the eggs are cooked just right.  I was able to compare it with my method of hard boiling eggs and found both of them to be pretty much the same. 

Malia and her sisters helped cut up the fruit for the fruit salad.  This provided opportunities for conflict resolution and turn taking since only one person at a time could slice the strawberries with the egg slicer. 

It was a beautiful day for the picnic and it was a wonderful meal.  Everyone had fun.  I am so glad it turned out so well.  You know, you get these great ideas and often they don't turn out as expected.  I am really grateful that this one did though.  Malia is a very amazing girl and I just love to see her happy and succeeding.

The girls, Grandma and Papa Hammari and Malia's ABA tutor, Anji

Girls going around and around!