My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

A fun, structured, systematic way to work on your child's strengths and weaknesses at home!

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My Obstacle Course Kit Item #9: Clothesline and Clothespins

Kit Item #9: Clothesline and Clothespins

This is one of my favorite tools and the fact that I can use it to build multiple skills and concepts by combining an academic or concept driven skill with the fine motor skills and planning involved with using clothespins just makes it even more awesome! It adapts beautifully to whatever I need Andrew to be working on, which helps to keep it interesting. This is huge in keeping him engaged and motivated and I love the smirk on his face when he sees it and wonders what he’s going to be doing. 🙂

The clothesline and clothespins are easily contained in a plastic bag and the cards or cutouts can also be kept in a separate baggie which makes this tool perfect for a kit. Check out my  original post on Clothesline Clipping to get more details although it really could not be more simple – clothesline, clothespins, something to attach the clothesline to (doorknobs and chairs work well), and concepts on cards to clip together.

Sample Activities:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Clip the words that rhyme together.
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Clip the opposite words together.
Opposite words to choose from lay waiting on the seat of the chair.
Matching words with word clues taken from Gingerbread themed Enchanted Learning activity. The clues are glued onto gingerbread shaped cutouts and the words are glued onto halved index cards.
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Clip the numbers in order from 10-20. I just wrote numbers 10-20 on large snowflake shaped cutouts to go with the winter theme we were doing.
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Clip the numbers to the bag that has the same number of candy hearts. (One to one correspondence)

While there are different kinds of clothespins out there, I prefer to use the wooden clothespins with the spring. I’ve tried some of the newer plastic clips (the white ones in the pictures) and they are really challenging to open. My advice is to try the clothespins or clips to see how hard it is to open before having a child use it who already has some fine motor weaknesses.

Click here for the search results for clothesline from my website.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Clothesline Clipping- Ornaments

As a child I always loved playing with a little clothesline that I would tie between trees while hanging my little doll clothes on it.  When I taught kindergarten, I used a clothesline as a station center but instead of hanging clothes on it, the children used it to work on building fine motor skills of pinching open clothespins, placing pieces to be clipped in the right place and making patterns or matching items together.  They loved it and would have the cutest, serious expressions on their faces while they were working and concentrating so hard on completing this task.

Clothesline Clipping Not Always As Easy As It Looks

I decided to use it in My Obstacle Course with Andrew and got to see firsthand how challenging this is for little fingers and all that goes into taking an item and clipping it onto the line.  Adults make it look so easy!  So many things have to be done at the same time, in the right place so that the item actually stays where it belongs.  For someone with motor planning and fine motor issues, this was going to be a perfect opportunity to practice.

Make Your Own Clothesline Clipping Station:

  • clothesline (we got ours at Lowe’s)- you can cut it down to the length you have room for in your space or do what I do which is to just tie one end to the chair and then clip the other end like it is tied, allowing the remainder of the clothesline to sit on seat of the chair.
  • clothespins that you need to pinch
  • two chairs to attach each end of the clothesline to

My Obstacle Course station idea:  Clothesline Clipping Patterns

I had been wanting to work on patterns with my son and found a package with large ornament pieces, with 6 of a kind (you could also make your own with construction paper or wrapping paper, they would just be a little more flimsy).  These could be used on the floor to make patterns but they were also sturdy enough to be used in the same way but on the clothesline.  Combining two skills, one that he struggled with (fine motor planning) and one that he enjoyed doing (patterns) has been key in getting his to work on more challenging things.

Note:  Keep this in mind when you are trying to build skills your child is struggling with.  Is there a way to mix it in with something they do enjoy?

My Obstacle Course station idea: Clothesline Clipping Ornament patterns

It doesn’t take much to make an activity that your child may remember into their adult years like I did.  Once you have the materials, it takes about 2 minutes to set up – piece of cake!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!!

Preparing For An October/Halloween My Obstacle Course

Today I am sharing an example of what it looked like when I was preparing for an October/Halloween themed My Obstacle Course done with Andrew.

Prepping for an October/Halloween Themed My Obstacle Course

Below is a photograph of my desk while I got organized. This is how I play!! While it may seem to be just a mish-mash of things, they all went together beautifully to create a fun learning experience.

Prepping by gathering materials to see what I have.

I gathered cutouts, stickers, thematic materials and other tools that I had which would help me build skills. I’ll do my best to go from left to right describing the item and how I used it. (I will be posting the ones I haven’t published yet in the next two weeks.)

  • Yellow Geoboard with rubber bands to build fine motor skills while creating a spider.
  • Colored cups (leftover from Easter egg dying) with Halloween rings used for sorting and counting.
  • Alphabet stamps and stamp pad to build fine motor skills while spelling words to go with our theme.
  • Write on – wipe off alphabet writing book with dry-erase markers to help with letter formation.
  • Leaf cutouts to make opposite matching game.
  • Halloween stickers for patterning activity, “What Comes Next?”
  • Autumn themed number cards to play, “Make This Number.”
  • Some counting activities from www.EnchantedLearning.com (the white papers with black background).
  • Farm themed memory match game.
Note: These nine activities actually got broken up into about 13 stations since I consider things like sorting and then counting to be separate stations and I also usually separate patterning into two stations using different stickers or different patterns. I’ve had people say that they could never set up that many stations but once you look at it like this, it is not that difficult.

After this, I gather up the larger items like tunnels, carpet runner, balls, clothesline and clothespins. It only takes a little while to set up because I use the same station locations each time so I just have to scatter the activities so I have a good mix of skills and also plan to put preferred activities after activities that are more challenging. This helps to motivate him to finish so he can move on.

With some really simple materials, you can create an engaging experience with your child that will provide you with so much information about how they learn and what they know and can do while your child gets to build the skills that they are ready for at the level they need.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Back To School Tip #7

Decoding the Teacher’s Weekly Letter

I’m sure that most of you get a letter at the beginning of the week from your child’s teacher explaining the themes, concepts and skills they are working on in class. This is an important way for them to communicate with you what they are teaching your child in school. This letter is also a great way for you to get ideas for how to reinforce what they are doing in school at home. How can you do this? Through simple station activities as part of My Obstacle Course!

My mission is to help parents “engage, encourage and empower” their children and what better way to do that than by reinforcing what they are working on in school in a fun way in order to strengthen the connections and knowledge. When I began doing this with Andrew, he would always look at me with one eyebrow up, like “How do you know about this stuff?” It helped me to see firsthand what vocabulary he understood, gave me specific examples of how he applied his knowledge and understanding and also gave him some extra time to build skills in a safe, loving environment – our home!

Here are some sample letters I have saved from Andrew’s classes over the years and some ways I would use them:

Sample 1
Sample 1, other side of paper

Sample 1 is clearly an “Ocean” themed week, so I would treasure hunt for ocean related items to include. I would look for books, bath toys, kitchen items that could be used to encourage water play. I would also try to find pictures to go with the vocabulary words they were working on to help reinforce the word and the meaning.

Sample 2

For Sample 2, I would include alphabet related activities to reinforce “Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom.” We have the book so I would use that as part of a read aloud or fluency station. For math, I would work do a matching station with a certain number of letters (to reinforce literacy) matched up with that number for one-one correspondence. I’d also play a game where we try to see how many different ways we can make a certain number (ex. for the number 10 – 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 2×5 (two groups of five – never too early to begin working on multiplication 🙂 ), 11-1, etc.).

Sample 3

Sample 3 is obviously working on building literacy skills so I would be utilizing word cards and letters to build these words (see ideas below). A chalkboard, white board or MagnaDoodle would be great for a station where they are writing their spelling words.

Sample 4

Sample 4 screams out “Crawl and Match” for me. I would either write the compound word parts on separate cards or print them out a little larger and then cut them apart. I would place the beginning part of the word on one end of the carpet runner and the other half of the word on the other end of the runner so he could get the word part, crawl down and match it with the correct ending. I would not do all of these as one activity – way too many, but may do two separate stations – the “Crawl and Match” and then maybe “Clothesline Clipping” the word parts together.

General Activity Suggestions:

Letter Recognition

  • Matching
  • Sorting
  • Clothesline clipping uppercase and lowercase letters together
  • Sensory bin with letters (scrabble, magnet, tiles, beads)

Building Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary

  • www.EnchantedLearning.com is a great resource for thematic vocabulary with pictures to go with the words
  • Matching words and pictures
  • Sorting pictures by category

Spelling or Word Study Words

  • Using Scrabble or Bananagram letters to create the words
  • Word matching game (like memory match but with the same word written on two separate cards to match together)
  • Word sorting according to patterns (pairs well with “Crawl and Sort” to encourage physical movement while building literacy skills)
  • Putting words in ABC order (starting with a few if this is a new concept while also providing the written alphabet for reference)

Read Aloud Station

  • Read by you to build listening stamina and skills like sitting in one place, staying quiet, listening for information, retelling, etc.
  • Easily combined with comprehension questions – who? what? when? where? why? how? – which can be written on a beach ball to pass back and forth or written on cards for the child to flip. Either way helps to build question and answer skills.
  • The public library is a great resource for themed books. Call and ask the librarians to pull books based on a certain theme for a certain reading level. I would give them a few days to pull them and if you don’t want to make lots of trips, I’d ask your child’s teacher what the themes/concepts will be for the next few weeks to save you time.

Fluency Practice

  • Fluency is building reading skills through short passages so that it comes out smooth, clear, with expression and taking note of punctuation. If you start with material that is too difficult, it will be choppy as they work to decode the words. Start with passages that they can read easily, even if it is the ABC’s, so that they build their confidence.
  • This is fun with a toy microphone (I’m thinking of the plastic ones that echo and are sold at the Dollar Store.), paper towel tube as microphone (I’ve even seen people put tin foil over the top to mimic a real one.), or even recording them so they can listen to themselves

Math Fact Practice

  • Dice
  • Playing cards
  • Dominos (adding or subtracting the two sides together)
  • Combining flash cards with manipulatives to make sure they are getting a good understanding of the concept

Unit Studies in SS or Science

  • Treasure hunt at home to see if there is anything you can find to help reinforce this (books, toys, pretend play items, etc.)
These suggestions are based on general skills or concepts that tend to be sent home for practice. There are obviously many more, and if you have some that you’d like me to post on ways to make it more fun and engaging, let me know! I love this stuff!! obstaclecoursemom@yahoo.com

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Sports Themed My Obstacle Course Idea #1

While sports are not a big thing with Andrew, I know that for a lot of children if they could play sports all day they would. For those of you with children like this, it may seem like more of a challenge to find ways to motivate them to build academic skills however there are many ways to incorporate sports and this week I will focus on some station activities that I would use for a sports themed My Obstacle Course.

Sports Themed Pattern Cards

Soccer Balls

The different colored soccer ball pattern cards that came in the package.

Pattern cards such as these can be used for (but are certainly not limited to):

  • patterning
  • sequencing
  • color identification
  • how many of specific colors and how many in all (ex. placing out a certain number of balls, asking questions like, “How many red soccer balls?” “How many green soccer balls?” “How many soccer balls in all?”
  • can be combined with a clothesline and clothespins to build fine motor skills
  • can be combined with a crawl and sort type activity requiring the child to crawl down to put the cards into a pattern or place the card that comes next.

“What Comes Next?” is a station activity to work on patterning skills. This can be as basic or complex as your child is ready for.

Soccer cards for What Comes Next? ABAB pattern.
ABAB pattern finished.
What Comes Next? with AABB pattern.
AABB pattern finished.

“Make the Same” is a station activity that I use to build sequencing/ordering skills and language such as first, second, third, last.

Make the Same using the soccer ball pattern cards.
Make the Same activity completed.

Variety Sports Pack (football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and tennis)

What Comes Next? where the child has to choose the correct card to complete the pattern.
What Comes Next? activity completed - the basketball does not fit the pattern.
What Comes Next? AAB pattern
What Comes Next? AAB pattern completed.

These are just some examples of how easy it can be to incorporate something that may be more visually appealing to a sports loving child while also building math skills.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

 

Sample My Obstacle Course Using Kit Items

I hope you have found these past posts on what I would include in a basic My Obstacle Course kit helpful. These are just some of my favorites and are examples of items that could easily be assembled to provide activities to help build your child’s skills. I encourage you to go on a little treasure hunt through your own house and see if there’s anything else you can find. (Click here for a past post on Treasure Hunting At Home.)

Academic and Developmental Skill Areas

Just like when I set up My Obstacle Courses for Andrew, I include things to build a variety of academic and developmental skills. The areas I focus on are:

  • Literacy
  • Math
  • Fine Motor
  • Gross Motor
  • Oral Motor
  • Sensory
  • Problem Solving
  • Social Skills

Sample My Obstacle Course

With the kit items I have given you, below is a sample My Obstacle Course. Please remember that the MOST important thing to remember is to provide activities that YOUR child is ready for at the level they are ready for, regardless of their age. These activities can be modified up or down in difficulty so keep that in mind.
  1. Pass the question beach ball back and forth 5 times, asking and answering questions based on the question word in front of you when caught. (Social Skills and Gross Motor)
  2. Crawl through the fabric tunnel. (Gross Motor and Sensory)
  3. Unscramble the scrabble letters to make words that go along with clues. (Literacy and Problem Solving)
  4. Write the words you’ve made with the scrabble letters on the lined write on/wipe off board. (Literacy and Fine Motor)
  5. Crawl through the collapsible tunnel or under three chairs lined up (3 is just an example number!). (Gross Motor)
  6. Roll one die and use the tweezers to move that many puffs. Repeat with the other die and then count how many puffs in all. (Click here for a post on Easy Math Organizers with a description of this activity minus the tweezers and click here for a post on Tweezers with puffs.) (Math and Fine Motor)
  7. See how many different shades of blue you can make using the droppers and colored water. (Different Shades of Blue) (Fine Motor and Problem Solving)
  8. Clothesline clipping- matching up addition equations with their sums. Look at the equation clipped on the clothesline and find the sum. Clip them together and move onto the next equation. (This could be done easily using equations and sums written on index cards or pre-made flash cards with sums written on cards.) (Math and Fine Motor)
  9. Puff Blowing- Blowing puffs (with mouth or straw) off of a counter into a cup or bowl. (Puff Blowing) (Oral Motor)
This is just an example to show how easy it is to set up a basic My Obstacle Course using these kit items.
My next post will be on my favorite go-to station activities that are easy to make and adapt to different skills and levels.
Engage, Encourage and Empower!