Our family loves going to the beach. The kids love running into the water and being able to jump around in the shallow end and swim in the deeper end. But the most fun is playing with the wet sand. They build everything from mud pies to big castles with water bridges. Molding and building with wet sand is an incredibly awesome tactile experience. The tactile system is one of our sensory systems. It covers all of the sensory receptors in your skin all over your body. Your tactile system tells your brain if the sand is warm or cold, wet or dry, rough or smooth, heavy or light, soft or hard, etc. Some kids (like mine) like to cover their hands and feet in wet sand. This gives a lot of deep pressure to their sensory receptors because it becomes heavy. It becomes calming for them just to play in it. They love it. By the end of the day at the beach, I even found myself playing in the wet sand too.

We now include a blessing before we eat dinner every night. Everyone sits at the table and hold hands to form a circle and we say our blessing. I wanted the children to be thankful for the important things in our lives. The first being our family being together. It’s a simple prayer that goes like this, Thank you God for bringing us together. We are a strong family filled with love, joy, and respect for each other. Amen. First, I wrote it on a piece of paper for the children to read. After a few weeks of rehearsing, they were able to recite the blessing without looking. Last night, Destiny spontaneously held everyone’s hand and led us into prayer, she knew every word. She always finds new ways to let us know that she loves our family.