Activities
Color Your Car
Use ultra-washable paint (1 part washable kids’ paint, 1 part dish soap) — or, even easier, chalk — to decorate outdoor toys. A car like this one, a scooter/bike, a backyard slide…you name it, you […]
Fine Motor
At Home
The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Child-Led Learning
This post has an audio and video recorded version for those who prefer to learn by hearing rather than by reading. Scroll to the bottom for the video of me reading it. Let me tell […]
Activities
Finding Treasure
A few years ago, I was working as an occupational therapist for a group institution/foster home for older children with disabilities. I could basically come once a week and do a group activity that anyone […]
At Home
Preparing For The Fall
…I was going to put “play with scissors” and “play riskily” on here, too, but I thought that might freak people out TOO much. 😉 Seriously, though. It’s the start of summer break at the […]
At School
Declarative Connection
The kid I’m working with is a hardcore gestalt language processor*. I notice that they’re singing a song while the two of us work side by side on an art project. I can tell some […]
Activities
The Joy of Challenge
I had a student recently who I wanted to give a fidget to. He already had a fidget for his classroom, but I had recently got a big bag of fidgets and found a particular […]
At School
Prepare Them For The Future
Someone recently told me, “Ugh, I know that the 3yos in my preschool class are supposed to be wiggly and playful and loud and silly. But I know that they’ll have higher expectations in the […]
Activities
Homemade Bubble Wands
I was going to take a selfie showing off my homemade bubble wands and it turns out that I’m incapable of blowing bubbles, keeping my eyes open, AND not looking mean or worried. Pipe cleaners/chenille […]
Activities
Tracing Flight Trails
A fine motor, pre-writing activity offer in my therapy gym today: dot-to-dots to make the “flight paths” of different airplanes, rocketships, and helicopters. You can customize this whichever way matches the child’s level of drawing/tracing […]
Activities
Dino Drawings
One of my favorite tools for building a whole bunch of skills— hand strengthening, finger strengthening, hand-eye coordination, and then copying from a visual model, and occupationally meaningful writing— are these toys which I originally […]