This October we’ll be exploring – and hopefully helping you experience –  the benefits of group social support.

All of our events will be offered as experiential exercises in reciprocal group support!   We’ll be featuring our most popular AP Month events so check out the menu to the left for all the details and we especially hope you’ll get involved helping us build our online auction inventory again this year! Each year our online auction provides an exciting way for us to offer great products and services while we raise important funds to help API continue supporting families – and you!

We’re crowd sourcing and asking everyone to chip in a few minutes to inquire about, collect and donate great items that can be offered for bid in our online auction that will run October 18 – 31.  Proceeds go directly to family support programming.

When bidding opens in October, shop the auction and round up friends to shop with you!

A few minutes of your time in these ways helps us build an exciting catalog of items for bidding, provides you a jump-start on great deals and gifts before the holiday crush and it gives thousands of families like yours the gift of continued parent support.  Give a little, get a lot in return.

Our other popular not-to-miss AP Month activities includes the  Blog Event - which is accepting submissions now – and our photo event.  We’ll announce more great activities as they become available, including local API support group events and activities.

If you’re not already an API member, join – it’s free! – and don’t miss another bit of support or information.   If you’re a Facebook fanatic, be sure to “friend” API and keep up with us there.

If you’re at the end of your rope, find a parent support group  - and go! ( hang on!)

API is a non-profit organization funded primarily by individual donors like you.  If you’re unable to participate in the online auction, please consider a cash donation that fits your budget to ensure that API can continue to offer parent support freely.  It’s our shared mission that every parent have access to the information and support we provide, but we can only do this with your help.

Stay tuned for more exciting information on our AP Month theme!

What’s a better to say farewell to AP Month featuring Families at Play than a little parade ?!

Click here to kick off the parade!

Thanks to Brio Birth for passing along this great video!

We’re thrilled to share a final fun idea with you and a few goodies as well!

Today, create a list of interesting things to seek and find (bats? a spider?  a black cat?  a yellow submarine???!) and set out on a walk around the neighborhood, park, zoo or other fun place to see how many items you can check off your list!  Bring a camera & a bag, collect some things and take pictures of others.  Younger kids can hunt for colors and shapes while older kids might enjoy making and switching around their own lists with each other.

And as a parting gift of thanks for participating in AP Month’s Daily Calendar, today we’re hosting our popular AP Month scavenger hunt complete with hidden treasures!   Here’s how to play:

1) Scroll back through the last 15 days of our calendar posts

2) Locate 5 newly marked “Giveaway Days”

3) Follow the instructions to claim the giveaways!

On your marks, get set, GO! and never, ever stop playing!

Thank you to our AP Month partner Pure Play Kids who enthusiastically shares our encouragement to never stop playing!

While most of us are used to thinking about vision and hearing as the main senses involved in learning, they are actually small in quantity compared to large pervasive inputs like the sense of balance and weight (vestibular system) and the sense of touch from the skin, which covers the whole body (tactile system). Other large sources of sensory data are the tendons, muscles and joints, known as the proprioceptors (proprioceptive system). These big sensory systems provide the essential unifying foundation for the organizing of vision, hearing, taste and smell.”

The Children’s Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies

Play is nature’s way of helping children develop, organize and integrate sensory experiences for optimal functioning. It’s also not hard to see how rough and tumble play fits in as it clearly meets so many of these needs in just one single playdate/mate!

Rough and tumble play is an exciting and fun way for most children to play and engage with parents and with all there is to be gained, see if you can find the “yes!” and go for it more times than not!

Many children love to be tossed, swung, twirled, flipped around, chased, faux tackled/captured and tussled and if not, attempts to engage in this type of play can provide rich learning experiences about your child’s particular needs and preferences.  A conversation begins that can strengthen your relationship and help you engage with your child in ways that are not only fun for them, but respectful OF them.

Rough and tumble play also leads to a greater variety of learning that spans social and emotional development as well as the senses.  Of course, as parents, we too learn in new ways to listen to needs, attune to body language and facial expression, talk about feelings and motivations, ask questions and model restraint, compassion and “good sportsmanship.”

So find the yes when they’re on the prowl to ruffemup and if you need a little boost, put a bid on an autographed copy of Larry Cohen’s new book “The Art of Roughhousing” available in the API online auction.

Proprioception relates to deep pressure to the muscle and joints. Gravity, heavy work and compression of the joints activate the proprioceptors. Proprioception is a building block for organizing sensory information.
Proprioception usually has a calming and organizing effect. Heavy work activities – any activity that uses the big muscles and compresses the joints.

Vestibular input is related to the balance system and the middle ear. The vestibular system is activated through movement activities. Vestibular: movement activities that stimulate the middle ear. Can organize or bring to heightened alertness.

Tactile: Activities that involve touch or oral choices. Light touch is usually not organizing. Tactile exploration can be beneficially coupled with deep pressure activities.

Luckily, play is also an important feature of the human lifespan and a key feature of children of every age!

Today play some games of touch – remember London Bridge?  Circle songs that include holding hands like Ring Around the Rosies and clapping games like Miss Mary Mack are contact games.

Don’t forget about the rough-and-tumble play!  Many kids really enjoy and benefit from physical contact so break new ground today and give it a try!  Chase and capture games are great and can be played at any age in ways that are non-threatening.  Tumbling and acrobatics can be fun to try too.  Ever attempted a family pyramid?!  Remember Sumo wrestling from earlier this month?  Keep at it and you’ll get better and have more fun and you might be surprised to find your earlier tensions have melted a bit!

Bid today on an Infant Massage kit on the API online auction!

Thank you to our AP Month partner Infant Massage USA!

Nature can be one of the best playgrounds and the vastness of the possibilities is simply ageless, but many professionals today worry that our kids just don’t get enough time in the great outdoors.  How can we change that?  What are the benefits anyway?

Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder” says, kids who spend time in nature also tend to play more creatively and handle stress more effectively. No one is absolutely sure why, says Kuo, director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois and a mom, but it appears that nature “fosters a kind of gentle absorption — almost a meditative quality — that seems to be deeply rejuvenating.”

Do you hear the birds calling you to play?

Bid today on a one-of-a-kind package from everyone’s favorite earth mother Peggy O’Mara,editor of Mothering.com .

Thank you to our AP Month partner Mothering.com!

Today is a Giveaway Day!  Type “tag!” in the comments to enter for today’s giveaway drawing of a LEAN Online Parent Course!

Today is a Giveaway Day!  Type “tag!” in the comments to enter for today’s giveaway drawing!

Other ideas for playing hide and seek with younger children include hiding objects like an Easter egg hunt and of course, helping your child into a safe hiding place then pretending not to find them!  Many younger children love to “hide” in the same place over and over and enjoy “tricking” their parents!

Listen in tonight to our playful teleseminar with Lu Hanessian!  Register now!  Playing with the kids tonight?  Register now and listen to the MP3 anytime!