In this series, Suzanne Gladstone, MS OTR/L, provides a more helpful ways to get out of your chair! In the first video she explains how to make a homemade card using simple abstract art with markers, crayons and paper.
The second video goes over how skills presented in the previous series will be incorporated into this fun art activity.
by Megan Guthrie
Don’t throw out the trash just yet. You can use common household items to create fun and engaging activities for your kids. Plenty of us have stocked up on common household items such as toilet paper, and paper towels. You might even have sponges, Q-tips, dish soap, eggs, milk, oatmeal, rice, sponges, napkins, Popsicle sticks, shoe boxes, cotton balls, tape, markers, pasta, cornstarch, and food dye. What if I told you that if you had all of these items, even some of these items that you could create some pretty awesome home activities for you and your preschooler to engage in together. See the list below:
Pour some milk on a plate, use 1-2 drops of food coloring, dip the Q-tip in the dish soap and then in the milk, watch what happens! You will need:
-Milk
-Food coloring
-Q-tip
-Dish soap
Mix together 2tbs. of corn starch and 1.5 tbs of dish soap, stir for 10 seconds. You will need:
-dish soap
-corn starch
-Create hopscotch
-Create a racetrack on the floor
-Create a sensory path
Have your preschooler draw a picture on one side of the napkin, then fold it over so that you cover the picture. Place in water and watch the drawing appear.
Place some rice on a place, then have your preschooler practice drawing shapes, letter, and numbers in the rice.
Cut small slits in the top of the shoe box, enough to place a Popsicle stick through. Under each slit write letters/ numbers/ shapes/ colors. On the Popsicle stick write letters/numbers/colors. Have your child match.
Cut your sponge into different shapes and use it as a tool to paint. Paint too messy? Don’t worry, you can have your child dip their sponge in some water and “paint” making shapes with their sponge outside on the sidewalk or driveway.
Work on counting with 1:1 correspondence, have your child place one cotton ball in each egg place and count as they go.
Set up empty milk cartons (at least 3) in a triangle formation, then get a ball or something round. Roll the ball towards the milk cartons and try to knock them down. Have fun bowling!
-Tape the empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls to a wall to create a large funnel. Have your child place cotton balls in the tube at the top and watch the cotton ball trickle through them, all the way to the ground.
-Make binoculars by taping two together and play I Spy around the house of outside.
-Cover and tape one side of the empty paper towel or toilet paper roll closed with paper or another material, fill the roll half way with rice, then cover and tape the other side of the roll with paper. Now shake. You have a maraca, make some music!
Get out your strainer. Get out your uncooked spaghetti or angel hair pasta. Have your child use their fine motor skills to place the pasta through the holes in the strainer. (You can also do this with pipe cleaners)
-Take the top off and use the container as an easy put in activity.
-Keep the top on and cut a slit in the top, practice fine motor skills with coins by placing the coins through the slit in the top.
by Sandy Masayko
READ with your child!
The most important thing is to have fun.
Here’s a great website for guidance on reading with a young child:
https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/304-how-to-introduce-toddlers-and-babies-to-books
SING with your child!
Your voice is the most beautiful voice in the world to your child. You don’t need be Beyoncé to sing with your child.
And, do you know that singing rhyming songs helps to get your child ready to read?
Here are some more ideas:
http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Fun-Activities/How-to-Sing-with-Babies-The-Hanen-Way.aspx
COOK with your child!
Cooking can be play—show your child how you make foods. This will take some planning for safety, and you don’t want to be in a rush.
Here is a website with more ideas:
Have fun and let us know about your favorite activities. We will be waiting to hear from you!
by Suzanne Gladstone, Occupational Therapist
Last week, I worked with Occupational Therapy student Bree Lipowski to create a list of at home activities. There are lots of good ideas for sensory play, fine motor activities, chores around the house to do with kids and quiet time suggestions. Be healthy, be safe and take time some time to smile with loved ones:).
by Megan Guthrie
Here are a few simple ways to promote language during play with playdough:
Easterseals of Southeastern Pennsylvania 