Reach for this when
you walked in from the nap or pickup and cannot tell if they need to run, pour, or stay on your hip.
What you need
- Nothing — eyes and feet only
How to route
- Plant your feet. No phone, no “what do you want to do?” — just watch for sixty seconds.
- Body: climbing furniture, running loops, or throwing things → wound-up path. Open the indoor obstacle course guide.
- Voice: whining, crying, or “up up up” while glued to you → clingy path. Open the indoor pouring station or sensory bin guide.
- Proximity: following you with a cup or crayons, asking to “help” without meltdown → with-you path. Open the process art station guide.
- Run one play from that guide tonight — do not invent a fourth activity.
If it flops
Signals mixed? Default to containment first: indoor pouring station (water slows the nervous system). Obstacle course second if they ignore it and keep crashing.
Three states, three guides
- Wound up → indoor obstacle course
- Clingy → indoor pouring station or sensory bin
- With you → process art station
More routing plays
Need one more idea tonight?
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