- Backyard Sports Player Profile 6 of 30: Kenny Kawaguchi Every day in August, r/BackyardBaseball will be providing in-depth player profiles for the 30 original backyard kids. We will be highlighting each player’s strengths, weaknesses, and equivalent pros for baseball, football, and basketball, according to Backyard Baseball 2001/2003.
- Dec 30, 2019 This museum at the Ferdows Garden features exhibits on Iranian cinema in a 19th-century building and located on one of the most famous streets of Tehran (Valiasr Street).
Whether we are children or just grown-up kids at heart, everyone loves to have fun! Of course, exactly the same mentality applies to disabled children, find out this wheelchair activities for kids.
In-Series Nickname: 'Acer.' Air Guitar: Plays air (baseball bat) guitar for his up-to-bat ritual in the first two Baseball games, and plays it during the intro of Baseball 2007 onward., Boisterous Bruiser, Dreadful Musician: Is depicted as such in the earlier games., Headphones Equal Isolation.
With summer hot on our heels and well and truly on its way, here are five of our favourite and most fabulous activity ideas that you could do with your disabled child. There are indoor and outdoor options in this guide, meaning that a change in weather is no excuse not to have a good time, and no wheelchair users are at risk of getting stuck in the mud, either!
The changing seasons that we are so fortunate to experience in Europe bring about a whole palette of different wheelchair activities for kids: Spring allows for gardening and playing outside. Summer gives you beach activities and fun in the sun. Fall is enjoyable for everyone with baking or playing in leaves. Winter keeps us inside with board games and crafts, with the occasional snow adventure.
For more information on our suggested activities, please read on!
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1. Make some homemade play dough
Create your own art attack, at home! And don’t be afraid to get messy! Many recipes for homemade play dough can be found online. Most are plain, but they can be changed through the addition of food colouring (and marbled or tie-dye play dough looks particularly cool, and can be of great interest to many children, disabled or not!). You can think of ways to put a seasonal twist on this activity by using colours or mix-ins that coordinate with your holiday activities: why not try pumpkin orange dough for Halloween, for example? Here is a good recipe that is easy to adapt. After you are done playing with the dough, you can turn it into Oobleck by adding water. Kids love the way this feels, but it does make a bit of a mess! You know the gunge and gunk you see on kid’s television programmes? Yep, you may well have that in your living room if you take this step!
2. Create some art with natural seasonal materials
Stuck inside on a wet day? Art is always a great activity that provides plenty of fun with some valuable education thrown in. When the weather is nice, though, it might be worth taking an accessible walk and looking for natural resources that you can use to help you prepare of your next creative rainy day. Spring and summer are the perfect seasons to look for flowers you can press or dry to use in projects such as this bookmark craft for kids. You could also try collecting sand at the beach to use for sand art (and collecting different sand from different holiday destinations is a great way to create some art that holds some special memories, too). In Autumn, you can collect leaves to make crafts and have fun teaching your child about crunchy and crispy textures. Leaves are very versatile and can be used in many different ways. Here’s an article on 15 different crafts you can make with leaves.
3. Play some adapted sport
Disability does not mean not interested in sport and games! If it’s a nice day, think about how you could adapt an active game for your disabled child. Get a group of parents and children together in your local yard or park, and organise an accessible game of rounders, for example. Maybe your wheelchair using child bats the ball and has a ‘runner’ to run around the posts for them, or perhaps they are amazing at catching or throwing, so can bowl the ball or be stationed at a post ready to catch a batter out on the opposing team. Playing adapted versions of well-loved games with your child from a young age might also really encourage them to play games such as wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis or even wheelchair rugby when they are a little older.
4. Go on an excursion
What exciting destinations are near enough for you to travel to? Choose your destination according to the weather. When temperatures are nice, take a day trip to an outdoor historical site, or a local farm. Some farms may offer special dairy and sheep tours. Outdoor theater shows are another enjoyable activity when the weather is right. Colder months may be better for visiting indoor sites, such as museums, science centres, or local businesses and factories that allow for tours. Always call ahead to find out how accessible the sites will be, and if your wheelchair user will be able to see most of the attractions. If you require a travel wheelchair for going on excursions, that can fold up into a car boot for ease of getting around, have a look at this post for inspiration.
5. Make an outside fort that has a secret path.
Children love to make secret hideouts and secret paths. Find an accessible area of your yard or nearby park or terrace, and provide whatever materials your child might need for constructing a play area. Cardboard, branches, chairs, and blankets can all be used. If it’s winter, you could build up a wall of snow and dig out a secret path. Depending on your child’s mobility, you may have to help them set up the fort and then allow them to play inside it. If it’s fall, and you have to rake your backyard leaves anyway, you can use them to make a maze (a wheelchair accessible one, of course!) that is as simple or tricky as you want. The only consideration would be how difficult it is to maneuver over your ground. Not only is it fun to build an outside fort, but it’s also a good exercise for both the body and the mind, and it’s something that you can accomplish together, as a team. Don’t forget to take photos of your fun, adventurous day, for you and your child to look back on with warmth and smiles in years to come.
Besides these unique activities, there are many common wheelchair activities for kids that you can adapt for the season. Any seated art project can be changed to use seasonal colors or materials. Simple board games, such as checkers, can have the pieces replaced by acorns and corn kernels, sea glass or seashells. Cooking activities can have a theme by using recipes that include seasonal produce or are specific to holidays, and there’s always plenty of leaves, flowers and wildlife to get acquainted with in a park near you – there might even be accessible exploration trails you could embark on together!
So, whatever the weather, now you know this wheelchair activities for kids, so go out and have some family fun with your child. Being a wheelchair user is no reason for them to miss out on the traditions and activities we all love to do, no matter what time of year!
Sport Wheelchairs Used
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If you were born anywhere from 1993-1997, your first encounter with sports was through Backyard Sports video games. If they weren’t your first encounter with sports, then I feel bad for you and we probably wouldn’t get along.
*Disclaimer* This list will not include Pablo Sanchez for two reasons: 1, he was the best in all of the sports and it would be too easy to include him and 2, he was a SUPER racist portrayal of Mexicans. Super short, tubby, not a lick of english, super fast, incredibly generic latino name. Honestly, the only thing that would have made it worse would have been a little sombrero instead of a backwards hat. So no Pablo. Anyway, here we go:
7. Lisa Crocket
Starting out the list we got one of the more overlooked players in all the games, my main girl Lisa Crocket. In Backyard basketball, soccer, hockey, and football, this girl was an absolute WALL on defense. Oh, you have the ball/puck and are trying to score? Sike, thats Lisa’s ball/puck now. In Backyard baseball, girl had light-tower power and could drop bombs with the best of them. Not to mention she did this with a nonchalant attitude and often voiced how much she didn’t want to be there. Raw strength, shitty attitude. Just how I like ’em.
6. Pete Wheeler
Pete has overcome a lot in his life: he is the product on incest, obviously has a learning disability, and definitely grew up in a trailer park. But none that of that stops Pete from being an absolute rocket on the field. Wheels like the late great Al Davis dreamt about, not to mention that he swung the stick pretty well in Backyard Baseball. In all Backyard games, if you needed a simpleton speedster, Pete was #1 on your list (and #1 in all of our hearts).
5. Dmitri Petrovich
“Oh, thats your girlfriend who I have my dick inside of right now? Oops. My bad.” – Dmitri PussySlayer Petrovich. Chubby. Red headed. Russian accent. Window glasses. Fully loaded shirt pocket. On top of all that, he was a pretty productive athlete. I know, I know. Some people get all the luck. Baseball? He had some unexpected pop and some wheels. Football? Tackling machine. Basketball? Well lets just say your girl wasn’t the only thing he made soppy wet. Not to mention he easily had the best trash talk in the game. Another under appreciated Backyard Kid, and an absolute casanova.
4. Annie Frazier
I normally hate hippy tree huggers, but I gotta give respect where respect is due. Far and away the most underrated Backyard Kid, Annie was a goddamn stud. She could flat out play. She RAKED in baseball, had velvety soft hands in football, she was a brick wall in goal in soccer, and as solid as solid gets in basketball. All this plus a super friendly demeanor and probably a great presence on the bench to counteract assholes like Tony Delvecchio.
3. Ernie Steele
Just cracking the top 3, we have the second most racist portrayal of a minority in the game, Ernie Steele. Aside from the speed aspect, Ernie Steele was probably one of the better offensive players across all the games. He could absolutely mash in baseball, and in football he could go up and make every catch. His best sport was basketball (right guys? cuz racism?), where he dominated the post like a young KG. Also, I don’t know if it was just me, but I felt like I could just kick it with Ernie when I was younger, ya know? Maybe I just wanted a black friend. I don’t know. He seemed likable and was good at sports. And he was black.
2. Keisha Phillips
The original bad bitch. You did NOT mess with Keisha. Huge. Sassy. Black. Female (some questions have been raised about this). I think the creators of the games created her as a player, then became too scared that she would come out of the game and beat them up if they made her bad at any sport. So in every single game she was fast and powerful. Every. Single. Sport. I don’t think I even need to go through all of them. Just imagine every sport, then imagine what it would be like for a bad bitch with a ton of strength and speed would be like playing them. Thats Keisha Phillips.
Backyard Sports Wheelchair Kid In Chicago
1. Kenny Kawaguchi
“Wow, Rory. What a surprise. Give the nod to the handicapped kid. Standing O for Rory everyone, he cares about the disabled” – you, probably.
Backyard Sports Wheelchair Kid In Las Vegas
That is NOT why I picked him. Well, I guess it is kinda why I picked him. I picked Kenny as #1, because in all these sports, he is doing with pure upper body strength and absolutely no legs. He is wheeling around on those fields, scoring goals, making tackles, fielding grounders, and stealing balls. Was he the better than everyone he played with? No. But was he the best to ever do it from the seat of his pants? You’re goddamn right he was. You give this kid a fresh pair of legs, he is far and away the best Backyard Kid in all of the sports and its not even a question. He was middle of the road without the use of his legs. If he wasn’t bound to his chair prison, Kenny K would have dominated every single kid in the goddamn league. Lets also not overlook the amount of balls it took for a wheelchair bound kid to roll up on Keisha Phillips and the Backyard Crew and say “Whats up motherfuckers, heard y’all play sports or some shit” (100% how that went btw). Talk about breaking down barriers. I see your Jackie Robinsons and Michael Sams, and raise you Kenny MotherFucking Kawaguchi. Roll on Kenny, roll on.
There you have it. Thats the list. If you don’t agree, you’re wrong and I’d like to see you take the time out of your day to make one.