Sunday Snippets

Or put out some play dough, slime, and let your kiddos learn with sensory play!

I’m loving this beautiful feed and this activity

If you are looking for a fun lesson plan with an amazing book, STEM project and more… check this out!

Bubble bath dough looks incredibly fun! We spend lots of time doing shaving cream baths but now I’m ready for this!

Try making these crayons with your broken crayon pieces, a silicon muffin tin, and place in a low heat oven (about 200 degrees for 10 minutes!)

A simple activity to do outside or in!

April is almost here and this activity is one of my favorites!

This playdough activity is the most simple way to invite your children to create and play peacefully

I can’t get enough of these free charts to help as you teach your kiddos at home!

Try a “ninja course” at home- it is so fun for motor planning and body awareness! Or try making the family picture hanging above my kids’ beds- people cut-outs, some fabric scraps, and write the names of the family members below!

I’m offering online OT Telehealth sessions- does your child need some OT, a home program, do you need some consultation on writing, sensory processing, copying letters? Send me an email!

Have a great week- you can do hard things! Take time to reflect on what you are grateful for, acknowledge what is hard, take time to breathe, and focus on being present with your family members.

Sunday Snippets

How are you holding up? Between worry about how long this will go on and what this means for the global economy and our future, I also find myself loving the slower pace. No expectations to be somewhere, intentional time at home spent playing games, building forts, and walking outside. But the new routine and pace is also overwhelming at times. I feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of lesson plans and managing keeping a 4 year old busy while tacking online learning at home with a first grader. What helps me is realizing that we can only continue to show up, be present for our kids, smile with them and reassure them of our love during these uncertain times.

So here are a few of my favorite things around the web and simple activities to do at home with your kiddos…

Pre-cut tape and place it on a block for easy tearing and a fun invitation-to-create for your kiddos of all ages!

Fun printables to keep your kids busy for awhile…

Typing programs for kids! This is a favorite and I’m looking forward to trying this one.…

Need a simple sensory bin? This one is an easy clean up and you might be accruing a lot of corks these days

Send some artist trading cards to a friend to start a fun collection!

My kids are having a blast with these around the house and outside!

Obuby Walkie Talkies for Kids, 22 Channels 2 Way Radio Kid Toy Gift 3 KMs Long Range with Backlit LCD Flashlight Best Gifts Toys for Boys and Girls to Outside Adventure (Blue & Green)

Play dough, scissors, and some letter beads are the perfect activity to build hand strength, scissor skills, tactile processing, and spell your name or sight words!

I am comforted by the way people are coming together, Zoom play dates are happening, I’m connecting with more people than I ever had in a week!

We got this!

After School Grumps

Here we are, in February, and you may be thinking, “why is my child so crabby after school?” I’m hoping to shed some light on this for you and give you some ideas to help those after school, evening hours.

Your child has been “on” all day at school. They must follow the group plan, exhibit immense self regulation, navigate social situations, follow multi-step instructions requiring intense executive functioning, and possibly even cope with feelings that creep into their heads that they are not good at something, someone does not like them, friends leaving them out… there is a whole host of events that happen in their school day that they must deal with. It is really no wonder that at the end of the day your child may take it all out on you. Finally, someone they love and feel safe with and they can unload that weight they carried through the day.

There are days when we, as adults, come home and just want to sit on the couch or read a magazine, have a snack and have everyone leave us alone. *Usually* adults are able to express this in a pleasant way, but children need to develop that skill and depending on their age or how their day went, they may not have the language to express this without being just plain, old grumpy. What we can do as adults, is give them the strategies to do so as well as help them check in with themselves to advocate for what they need.

From an occupational therapist lens, this means helping them (and us) recognize the sensations in our body. Are they hungry? Sometimes, your child may not even be able to tell you they are hungry because they are so beyond the point of tired, drained, mentally fatigued, AND hungry so having a snack ready for them is key. Be sure you have a variety of food groups covered as well as textures that way you are filling their sensory needs as well- crunchy/ chewy/ maybe cold or hot too. Smoothies are a great way to get some quality nutrients as well as some deep proprioceptive input as they suck it through a straw.

Think of crunchy snacks like carrot sticks, veggie straws, popcorn, apple slices with various dipping options. Chewy snacks like turkey or beef jerky, salami, mini bagels with cream cheese and fruit leather also provide a lot of sensory feedback!

Aside from snacks providing sensory input, if your child loves to dig consider sitting outside with them and their snack and bringing out a sand bucket and shovel. Provide a sensory bin that they can scoop and pour. Sometimes, just sitting with them in silence while they find the FLOW of the activity allows them to decompress and the words to tell you about their day may also begin to flow out.

Depending on your tolerance for sensory bins here are some of my favorites! Remember, there are great non-edible options like corks or shredded paper, ice, or cracked corn and bird seed that can then be repurposed as bird feeders!

If your child has homework, a great way to get them ready for sitting down yet again is to give them an opportunity to move around or build with Legos and infuse that into the homework with breaks. I also love using play dough for the younger school-age child (even up to 3rd grade) for math and cursive because not only is it fun to write in play dough, but the tactile and kinesthetic feedback will help the brain remember the math fact/ spelling word/ or motion of cursive! Give it a try! Use manipulatives in the dough for math skills!

hand2mind Plastic Tangrams, Manipulative Set for Math Puzzles (Pack of 32)

Alytimes Counting Stick Calculation Math Educational Toy, Wooden Number Cards and Counting Rods Box

Some of our other favorite after-school activities aside from just open-ended play time at home, is watercolor painting, having this Buddha Board out for some calming water painting, placing a bucket of water and some brushes outside to paint the walls with water, swinging, and playing on the wobbel board!

The Original BUDDHA BOARD:Relaxing Water Painting with Bamboo Brush & Stand, Mindfulness & Meditation Practice, Environmentally Friendly.Zen Concept Live in The Moment. Master The Art of letting go.

little dove Wood Balance Board Wobbel Balance Board Kid Yoga Board Curvy Board - Wooden Rocker Board Kid Size Wood

So tell me, what do you do to help your child after school? What do YOU as an adult like to do to decompress at the end of the day? It is so individualized and recognizing that in our child while we help them understand what their body needs will pay dividends as they grow!

Winter Snowy Day Activities

Whether you live in a snowy climate in the winter or you have some rainy days that pass through, you need some indoor activities for your kiddos. A few years back I did a Winter Challenge and posted winter-themed activities for each week throughout the months of January and February. I have had so much fun pulling out some of those same recipes and activities on rainy days, while I’m cooking dinner, or as an invitation to create and explore when my kids come home from school.

Here are some of my favorite winter-themed activities all in one place for you to try at home!

Baking soda is a key ingredient to make snow. There are so many recipes out there for fake snow and baking soda really does pack into snow balls. You can just add some water and extend play with vinegar ( I love using a spray bottle or pipettes to watch it fizz up!). Try mixing baking soda and hair conditioner until you get a consistency that packs together. I have also tried baking soda and lotion. You can experiment with the combinations and see which your child prefers.

My all-time favorite snow though, is that fake snow that grows with water and is like the inside of diapers that absorbs the water… it’s just so fun for us Californians far from snow!

Be Amazing! Toys Amazing Grow Snow Jar, Makes 2 gallon

Cloud dough is also a fun sensory experience! Take a 5 lb bag of white flour and some baby oil and mix together until the 2 clump together to make snowballs. Or for a smaller batch, 2 cups of flour with 1/4 c. of baby oil. This is very fun with winter figurines!

Wild Republic Polar Nature Tube, Arctic Animals, Kids Gifts, Educational Toys, Party Favors, 13-Piece

600 Pieces Set Includes 60 Mini Black Top Hats, Plastic Magician Hats, 360 Tiny Black Buttons, 60 Carrot Noses Buttons and 120 Snowman Hands for Christmas Crafting and Sewing, Party Supplies

For a fun activity to develop the muscles in our fingers for a mature grasp takes just a few items- q-tips, white paint, and blue paper! Using a small item to paint with, like a q-tip helps kiddos use what’s called a tripod grasp rather than all of their fingers.

Snow paint is another favorite activity! It is incredibly fun to paint with AND it dries fluffy! It leaves a 3D effect to your kiddo’s snowy art! I don’t measure this, just squirt a mound of shaving cream and add in some white school glue! An added fun flair is some glitter… if that’s your jam! Use a paint brush, a men’s shaving brush, popsicle stick, spoon, a variety of painting tools helps kids to develop their motor skills and proprioception as they feel the different weights of materials in their muscles and joints!

Shaving cream can be your best friend for winter activities! Drive trucks through it, play with snowmen and arctic figurines, drop food coloring and swirl it, place paper over the swirls for marbled paper, and our personal favorite… bring it into the bathtub!

A non-mess sensory bin that is tons of fun and a great opportunity to work on fine motor skills is a cotton ball sensory bin! Add in some scoops, tongs, and bowls and you are set!

A big hit in all of my groups and with my own kids- even my 6.5 year old, is freezing figures in water and melting the frozen ice with salt and warm water. Scoop, squeeze pipettes or a turkey baster, pound with a mallet or kids hammer… I like to have white play dough ready for the freed animals to play in! One of my clients loves his legos so we built some lego men and froze them! The options are endless of what you can freeze and free!

You can also freeze items from nature- pine sprigs, berries, leaves- really anything! If you live where it gets below freezing at night, simply leave it out overnight and it is an excellent invitation to get outside the next day to check on your frozen items! A pro tip is to freeze a piece of twine in the water and you can hang it up and watch the sunlight stream through!

Indoor ice skating is great fun on a rainy or snowy day! All you need is paper plates, maybe some mittens to practice with self-dressing skills, and a balloon to add in some visual motor skill building!

Vacation is over, school is back in session....

Our winter break was lovely and full of lazy days at home and movie watching. Now we are ready for some structure and embracing a routine. One of the ways I like to create some structure is to have an activity for the morning before school for my 4 year old or after school for my 6 year old. This seems to help ease the transition back home. I put some music on, we may or may not chat, a snack is served and the kids can go at an activity that is set out for them. Sensory activities can be a great way to help kids decompress, they may invite some more chatter because kids become engrossed in the feeling and relax, or they may just focus on the sensations and find their zen. So if you are looking for a little activity that can also be a nice transition to bath time afterwards, this one is for you….

I have for you Snow Paint! It feels marvelous and is an open-ended way to explore writing, drawing shapes, or add in some figurines who are “playing in the snow” and you have some imaginative play. Have a towel ready for hand washing or transition straight to the bath afterwards. Heck, you could even do this in the bathtub if your drain can handle washing down the snow…

Snow Paint Recipe

1 cup white flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Mix everything together and place on a tray!

I love these trays:

PRO ART 13-Inch by 17-Inch Butcher Tray (6959-05)

Avant 15" x 10" Plastic Serving Tray | set of 3 White

Encourage using their pointer finger to trace letters or shapes, talk to them about the feel of the snow paint, add in some sparkly glitter for a snowy effect and some figurines for some open-ended play! Join in the fun and watch what happens as you spend this time transitioning home from school. Maybe just sit together without asking any questions. My hope is that it is relaxing for both of you!

Hemway Ultra FINE Premium Multi Purpose Glitter 1/128" .008" 0.2mm 200 microns Dust/Powder 100g / 3.5oz for Crafts Cosmetic Wine Glass Face Art Nail Skin Beards Festival (Mother of Pearl)

Wild Republic Polar Nature Tube, Arctic Animals, Kids Gifts, Educational Toys, Party Favors, 13-Piece

Lemax Village Collection Winter Fun Set of 5 Skiing #92357

• Please note these are affiliate links. The small percentage of income I receive from affiliate links allows me to explore new products! Thank you for your support!

Class Christmas Party- with an OT Flair!

Tis the season for school holiday parties! As a room mom this year, I have had so much fun coming up with the activities for the class party! I always put an OT spin on it out of habit. For Halloween we had a sensory slimy spaghetti noodle feel and find with blindfolds! The kids LOVED it! The other parents cringed so naturally, I was manning that station! This month, for our class Christmas party we have come up with some more fun activities! Here is what we will be doing…

We will have a station of Minute-to-Win-It games!

This activity is fantastic for visual tracking!

Stacking marshmallows with tongs! Of course there is fine motor involved!

Pin the Nose on Rudolph- I love giving kids the opportunity to spin and get some vestibular input- it’s one sensation that kids do not get enough of now that most schools do not have swings! It can be arousing so monitor how the kids spin and spin in both directions! This will be one to follow with Bingo for some calming input.

We will have a station for the kids to make their own ornaments- for our class, we will do the angel ornaments to tie into the local Christmas parade the class was in, dressed as angels!

I love the twig ornaments for fine motor tying practice and using natural elements!

Reindeer food trail mix for a little snack break during the class party!

It surely will be loads of fun and a great way to celebrate the season! Are you participating in any kids holiday parties? What fun activities do you do?!

Holiday Snow Globes!

This week in my MakerSpace class, we made mason jar snow globes! The kids were SO excited to make them and they turned out so so cute! Here is an easy tutorial on how you can make these at home. They would be so fun for a class party activity, a sweet gift to make for loved ones, or a festive rainy day activity.

Here are the materials you need….

Gorilla Original Gorilla Glue, Waterproof Polyurethane Glue, 8 ounce Bottle, Brown

Christmas Theme Resin Miniature Fairy Garden Dollhouse Decoration Ornaments DIY Kit, Set of 30 Pieces

Pacon Spectra Glitter Sparkling Crystals, Clear, 4-Ounce Jar (91830)

Hexagon Jars Gold Lid (15pcs, 6.0 oz) Hexagon Glass Jars with Gold Plastisol Lined Lids for Jam Honey Jelly Wedding Favors Baby Shower Favors Baby Food DIY Magnetic Spice Jars Crafts Canning Jars

Now Solutions, Vegetable Glycerin, 100% Pure, Versatile Skin Care, Softening and Moisturizing, 16-Ounce

I love when an activity has just a few materials that are needed and a few easy steps. The hardest part is waiting for the figurines to set- the kids wanted to see their snow globe ASAP… but learning patience is all part of it, huh?

So here is what you will do…

1. We did use mason jars- which works but I’ve linked some better jars that I came across. I also don’t love the quilted jelly jars I ended up with… If you use a mason jar that you have at home- be sure to seal the lid shut first (the round top to the metal ring of the mason jar lid) and let dry.

2. Using a drop of the waterproof glue, glue your figurines to the lid. Let them dry completely.

3. Fill your jar with water, leaving about a 1/2” of space.

4. Add a few drops of glycerin. This helps slow the settling of the “snow.”

5. Sprinkle in your glitter snow.

6. Once the figurines are dry, place some waterproof glue on the rim of the jar and seal it shut!

   Voila! You have a snow globe! It is such a fun activity to do with your children and see the delight in their eyes with the decoration they made!!!

Learn how I decided to start Messy Tot Group!

I am excited to share a feature of Messy Tot Group over at The Artful Parent, a blog and business that I admire and inspires me weekly! Be sure to check it out…

I wrote down some of my responses to their questions when I saw their inquiry about sharing how I got started with OT OuTside and Messy Tot Group. I’m so excited to share this feature with some other amazing women who have started their own businesses creating art with children…

Be sure to check out all that The Artful Parent has to offer too… SO many great tips, projects, and ways to connect with your kiddos!

Favorite Halloween Activities

I love fall! The way the light filters through the color-changing leaves, the chill in the air, the smell of warm spices, fires in the fireplace, and the festivities that begin and roll right into the holidays! Fall also gives me lots of ideas for activities with my own children and clients!

Here are a few to get you inspired this month…

What better activity then using what nature gives us: pumpkins! This is a go-to activity because it does so much for the child- builds proprioceptive awareness, grip strength, motor planning, using two hands together, and visual tracking! Plus, they get SO excited to use a hammer and bang a golf tee into the pumpkin!

I love a good slime recipe and October is the perfect time to make same ooey gooey slime. Try adding in some fake eyeballs, snakes, and spiders!

Here is what you need:

3-4 heaping cups of shaving cream

1/2 cup school glue

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tablespoon contact solution

food coloring

The baking soda and contact solution are what give it the slime texture so allow these two ingredients to interact by adding one then the other and mix together! Drop in your food coloring and stir! You will have some wonderful fluffy slime! It really doesn’t make a mess but be sure to play with it away from carpet. Store in an airtight container!

Pumpkin ring toss is so easy to set up and great for building hand-eye coordination! You just need a pumpkin or two with a stem and some glow-in-the-dark rings! Such a fun way to incorporate math too- you can have the kids tally their score!

If you want to try out a sensory bin, black beans and orange lentils are the perfect material! You could even follow it up with a meal using either black beans or lentils and involve your child in the cooking process! For the sensory bin, I love adding spider rings and vampire fangs to use as tongs all while strengthening the hands! You can add in mini cauldrons for scooping and pouring, witches fingers, eyeballs, and Halloween erasers! The kids can sort, count, compare, add and take away… it is a great activity to use with math in mind! It also helps build language and even pretend play.

My favorite fall play dough uses pumpkin pie spice for a beautiful warm scent! Play dough is a great way to build hand strength. I encourage kids to cut play dough, roll shapes and letters, write in play dough for increased kinesthetic feedback, push and squeeze play dough for a calming sensory experience.
To make the play dough:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups of water

a few drops of food coloring (I add into the water first)

essential oil if you’d like!

Mix in a pot over medium heat until it comes together in a ball.

Transfer to a cutting board and knead. Play!

I love this idea from The Nurture Store website out of the UK. You can use a permanent marker and write on it as an interactive game. Sit in a circle and roll the pumpkin to another person and they can write a math fact, sight word, use it as a way to practice social skills about what to do when you go Trick-or-Treating. So many ways that you can make this activity work for you and make learning fun!

We also love Halloween books to go with these activities! Here are a few we are currently loving:

The Widow's Broom (25th Anniversary Edition)

By Chris Van Allsburg

Room on the Broom

By Julia Donaldson

Georgie

By Robert Bright

Pumpkin Light

By David Ray

AlphaOops: H Is for Halloween: Midi Edition

By Alethea Kontis

Even with the fun of Halloween, it can be a hard day or even month for many children. The decorations can be scary, the costumes are very disconcerting when you cannot recognize someone’s face, and let’s not forget the sugar highs and lows… Helping your child process the holiday can be challenging. Here is a great website for social stories that can help children with anxiety or autism as they get through the month. Social stories are simple books that can help children prepare for an unknown or unexpected event. I use them in practice and even with my own children to help them process different situations. The Berenstain Bears books are great ways to help children with upcoming events as well!

As with any book, be sure to preview it before reading it to your child, especially if they are experiencing very high anxiety or fear.

The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat (First Time Books)

By Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain

So tell me, what are your favorite Halloween activities and books?!