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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Apple Themed Puff Blowing

In keeping with the apple theme, here is a station activity which uses red cotton puff balls as “apples” to blow to build oral motor skills. Here is a previous post, Puff Blowing, I did which details why I began using this activity with Andrew.

Puff Blowing Kit

I like to keep Andrew on his toes when working with him so I placed the cotton puffs and some cut up straw pieces into an eyeglass container so when he got to the station, he’d have to open the container (fine motor skills) in order to see what he was going to be doing. You would be surprised at how well the simplest ways of disguising activities works to keep children interested! Here is a link to a post I did a while ago on incorporating mystery and intrigue into My Obstacle Course stations.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Blow the apples across the counter/into the bushel/off of the table.

This activity is really as basic as it seems but because it is part of My Obstacle Course, it became much more purposeful than if I had just randomly said to Andrew, “Blow these puffs off of the counter while Mommy folds the laundry.” Wouldn’t have happened because I tried that. Making it into a station activity, he was willing to blow the puffs which helped build his oral motor skills.

My Obstacle Course station idea: Puff Blowing (he had to blow the various sized puffs to the window)

Modifications

  • Utilizing different size puffs can help build expressive and receptive language by asking the child which size they’d like to start with or asking them to blow a specific sized puff and seeing if they choose the one you described.
  • The same activity could be done with the addition of yellow and green puffs to represent different apple colors (like golden delicious and granny smith).
  • Different lengths of straws and different sized puffs could also be used, requiring different breath power.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

My Obstacle Course Kit Item #3: Colored Puffs

Kit Item #3: Colored Puffs

Two sets of colored puff balls - regular and holiday

This is one of my most favorite My Obstacle Course purchases and I actually bought this package of multi-sized, multi-colored cotton puff balls at Michael’s for my first Obstacle Course with Andrew. They were great then and I am still finding ways to use them! I’d say I’m getting an excellent return on this investment :).

Using something like this requires a little bit of thought (I mean teeny, tiny because I’m giving you some suggestions) but almost no time spent putting a fun station together other than picking out the colors/sizes you want to use. I love things like this which make it super simple!!

When using them in a station activity, I first decide what skill I want to work on with him and then choose the puffs from there. I also think about the theme we are doing so, for example, around Valentine’s Day, I would pick out the red ones and do an activity with just those. I store them in a plastic bag the closes so I don’t have puffs all over the place.

Uses:

  • sorting by color
  • sorting by size
  • patterning
  • sequencing from smallest to largest (and vice versa)
  • counting (use them as counters or manipulatives)
  • one to one correspondence
  • paired with a straw to build oral motor skills
  • paired with tongs, kid chop sticks or tweezers to build fine motor skills
  • paired with a frisbee for motor planning to make one go around the edge and visual tracking when watching it as it goes around the edge (I’d pick a colored puff that really stands out from the frisbee color.)

Click here for a link to a “puff” search on past posts.

Sample Activity:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Puff Blowing

For this station activity, Andrew was working on oral motor skills, specifically getting his lips to create an “o” to blow air out of. We began this station with a straw to blow through and that helped so much. It gave his mouth something to form around. We gradually progressed to doing it without the straw. He was getting so much better at this (he used to blow air out of his nose thinking that he was doing it if it was making the same sound 🙂 ) so I thought I would throw in some larger puffs that would require more power from his breath. I also used a timer to see if he could blow all of the puffs to the window within a certain amount of time. A little motivational challenge for him!

Green and red puffs for puff blowing station during winter themed My Obstacle Course
Andrew blowing the puffs across the bench towards the window.

The puff blowing helps build oral motor skills but also provides a way to sneak in some other skills, like building receptive and expressive language. I would do this by asking him which puff he wanted to blow (ex. large or small, green or red) or tell him which one to blow and see if he understood which puff that was. This gave me a lot of great information about where he was with this stuff and he has a blast blowing them into containers, off of the counter or like above, blowing them towards the window before the timer runs out.

Remember, this is just one example activity that uses these colorful puff balls. Check out past puff posts link above to get more ideas!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

 

February Puff Sorting

Puff Sorting

This is a basic activity to work on visual discrimination of color and size using colored puffs. I purchased a large bag of colored puffs, in different sizes, from Michael’s a few years ago and am still finding ways to use them in My Obstacle Courses to build different skills. Since it is February (almost Valentine’s Day!), I chose the white and red ones to use in these station activities to go with our theme.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting By Color

I placed a handful of puffs, between 10-15, in a container to keep them organized (they could also be placed in a zippered bag to work on opening and removing items while holding the bag – for some children that is a challenge). I used heart-shaped calendar cutouts labeled according to how the puffs were to be sorted – in this particular activity they are labeled “white” and “red.” I also provided a place for him to put the puffs (see below for more on thematic sorting containers). It’s all set and ready for sorting!

My Obstacle Course station activity: Sort puffs by color

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting By Size

I strategically picked puffs in each size and placed them into the container. I labeled the mailbox sorters so he would know which size puffs to place inside. You could also provide a sample puff for each size so that your child can compare and check their choice. It’s all set and ready for sorting!

My Obstacle Course station activity: Sort the puffs by size
Valentine Mailboxes with red puffs sorted by sizeÂ

Helping to build basic skills like this does not have to be complicated! Activities like this are quick and easy to set up but allow you to see firsthand how your child does with these concepts. Too easy? Now you know they can do it and the next time you can use an activity that will challenge them. Too hard? Scale it back and include more activities like it to build their skills.

I have attached a developmental skills timeline/survey I received a few years ago (it is also on my website). I really like this timeline and use it to determine what we need to work on with Andrew and what we need to do next once he has mastered a skill. This timeline is unique because it lists out skills in order according to developmental areas, and does not list them by what a child “should” be able to do according to chronological age.

Thematic Sorting Containers

I’m always on the lookout for fun, thematic items to include in My Obstacle Courses and found these cute red and white mailboxes at Target last year. The dollar section in the front of the store usually has fun containers or buckets that go with the season we are in or about to be in. I get them to use for thematic looking sorting stations. This year I went and while my particular store did not have the mailboxes, they did have boxes that resembled Chinese food take out boxes. You could make your own “mailboxes” from shoe boxes or use plastic containers. In working with Andrew, I find that it helps to have a specific place to put things that we are sorting.

If you’d like ideas specific to what your child needs to work on, please email me at obstaclecoursemom@yahoo.com or leave me a post on My Obstacle Course’s Facebook page. I love hearing from you!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Puff Blowing

I’m sure that I am different from many people in that I have spent a good deal of time thinking about a skill that children usually pick up early on – being able to blow air out of their mouth.  This skill usually comes naturally as parents model and teach their children to blow on their food when it is too hot.  Well, this was a skill that was very difficult for Andrew and no matter how much it was modeled and practiced he couldn’t get it.  I’m sure those of you out there with children who also have apraxia of speech can relate to this!  I could tell that he was trying to figure out how to get his mouth to do it but the air always came out of his nose.  He would cheer because he figured if he was making the same noise that we did when we were blowing, he was doing it.

His speech therapists worked on building this skill and since I was always on the lookout for ways to reinforce what they were doing, they told me to have him blow tissues or cotton balls across a table.  Great idea but it was too random.  Once I began doing My Obstacle Courses with him, I incorporated this activity in almost all of them and it became one of his favorites – something about the puffs falling over the counter’s edge cracked him up!

My Obstacle Course station idea: Puff Blowing (he had to blow the various sized puffs to the window)

A Tool To Help

Since it was difficult for him to get his mouth in the correct “o-shaped” position, we began with a straw.  This gave him a structure to put his lips around and the air he did blow through was aimed directly at what he was trying to move.  This is the same concept as using a pencil grip to help position the fingers where they need to be until the muscle memory is there.  I am all for tools like this!  We used a straw to blow out birthday candles and it gave him such confidence knowing that he could do it on his own.

This Is Just One Of My Favorite Things (I Can Hear Julie Andrews Singing!)

On my first shopping trip to find things to use in My Obstacle Courses, I found a package of multi-colored puff balls.  Now, most people would walk on by but not me!  They were and still are some of my favorite things to use because they were inexpensive but oh so durable and versatile.  I will do more posts on them because they can be used for many different activities.  Since they come in a variety of colors and shapes,  I knew I could incorporate lots of language and vocabulary building with questions like, “What color is that puff?  What color do you want to blow next?  What size is the easiest?  Which size is more difficult?  How many red puffs?  How many in all?”

My Obstacle Course station idea: Â Blowing Colored Puffs Off of the Counter

Puff Blowing Station:

  1. I would select the number of puffs I wanted him to blow
  2. I would provide either a cup/bowl/container for him to blow them into if we were at the counter or I would create a “finish line” out of tape, string or pipe cleaner that the puffs would have to cross.
  3. He would use the straw to blow the puffs.  I would ask him to blow specific colors or sizes to see if he understood and see if he could select the right one.  He didn’t need to speak to show he understood!
My Obstacle Course station idea: Â white puffs as snowballs for puff blowing

I love hiding station materials in bags or containers to add a bit of mystery as well as to work on fine motor skills like unzipping, pulling apart or prying open.  I found an old glasses case in a drawer and thought it would be the perfect house for my Puff Blowing station.  This is what it looked like open but when closed it could hold anything!

Eyeglass container with straw and puffs

By setting it up like this within the structure of My Obstacle Course, it became a purposeful task with clear instructions (“Use the straw to blow the puffs into the cup or across the finish line.”), part of the whole and in order to move on, he had to complete that task.

Eventually he got to the point where he could blow the puffs without the straw, so that part could be removed.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

What’s Perfect About This?

Deep breath followed by this fabulous question, “What’s perfect about this?”

I asked myself this question as I woke up one morning to find red pepper flakes in the cast iron skillet and an interesting aroma coming from my son’s room. Turns out that he loves to spin and really loves to spin glass jars. He poured out the curry, coriander, cumin and thyme into containers and when I asked him why, he said, “Mommy says don’t spin spices because they could break and go all over.” This is true. This is an example of things that I encounter and when that question, “What is perfect about this?” comes in real handy!

Honestly, this really is my favorite question these days, especially when I am in the midst of a negative situation, such as…dumped spices…my child’s tantrum…hitting every red light when running late…spilled Green Goodness drink on the floor…dog having diarrhea on the closet carpet. Now I’m sure these things are completely unique to me so just try to pretend you can relate. 🙂

There are many things that happen in my life that are out of my control, ok, when one considers that we cannot “control” anyone else, very little in my life, other than my thoughts, IS within my control. HOWEVER, how I choose to experience these out of control times or experiences has completely changed over the past two years.

Two years ago, before knowing what a life coach even was, I let these “things” that happen control me and would spend hours and days swirling around in my head with thoughts of judgement and feeling quite honestly like a victim. This felt like crap and was coupled with the fact that “things” always happened no matter how much I planned, which was A LOT.

The things that happened always seemed over the top and never seemed like things that happened to anyone else. I would frequently think to myself, “Seriously? This really just happened to me?” Now I know that they didn’t happen to me, they just happened. However their happening ended up teaching me some pretty powerful lessons about myself.

As I began doing my own personal work as a result of life coaching, “things” didn’t really change but I did! I slowly began to notice how I was feeling in my body when these things came about. I then started to notice the thoughts that were coming up creating the negative feelings. Thoughts like…

  • Why do things like this always happen to me?
  • Why can’t my child be like the other kids?
  • Why must my life be so much harder than everyone else’s?

I could go on but you get the idea. I would throw a little mental pity party for myself, seclude myself because at times it was too painful and I would get annoyed at everyone around me for not just knowing how I needed them to be.

What’s perfect about this? What could this possibly be teaching you?

Throughout my life coach training, I heard several master coaches (Terry DeMeo you are standing out in my mind here!) use the phrase “And what’s perfect about that?” or “What do you suppose this situation is trying to teach you?” and I’ll admit that I thought they were big time CRAZY! Perfect? Teaching moment? Seriously, you have NO IDEA what I go through.  Just tell me that I’m right, that no other person has had to go through the wild things I go through and give me my “best martyr” prize so I can move on.

What actually happened though was fascinating! Those words began to seep into my thought pattern and I began asking myself those very questions when the wild “things” would happen. This became a serious game changer for me! What those questions did was switch my thinking from feeling like a victim of my circumstances, which I already knew felt bad, to putting my brain to work finding out what I could learn from this. The lessons were simple yet powerful.

What was perfect was often a situation where I could practice…

Patience

(ex. I can practice patience when we are running late and my son has already taken a long time to get dressed and now has to do it again because the clothes are backwards. Deep breaths and lots of them. It really is okay AND he’ll probably get dressed faster and off to school in a much better mood than if I huff and puff at him.)

Setting boundaries, both physically and emotionally. Letting someone have their feelings without me getting tangled up in them.

(ex. I can practice setting boundaries physically when my son wants something that I’ve taken away and starts grabbing at me. We teach people how to treat us and what we will allow. During early practicing since he wasn’t quite understanding, I would lock myself in a room until he calmed his body. The physical boundaries allowed me to stay calm and also reinforced that I was not going to accept that behavior (grabbing, hitting, pushing, kicking) in my personal space.)

(ex. I can practice setting mental boundaries by realizing that someone else’s anger, sadness or frustration is their own. They are allowed to feel that and I don’t have to take it on as my own. “Your body is very wild right now. When it is calm, I will help you.” I have also used noise canceling headphones as a visual cue that I am choosing not to listen to the yelling or crying. Yes, I can still hear what is going on but it really helps me to remember to not engage. I go about my business, breathe and stay calm and I have to say that the tantrums diminish so much faster!)

Staying calm

(ex. I can practice staying calm when something spills or breaks. The item is already spilled or broken. I have found that getting upset makes it mean so much more and usually causes me to spend much more time focused on something negative.)

This shift in thinking allowed me to be more creative with a solution. I found myself looking at things from a different perspective to see if there was another way. I could practice realizing the reality of a situation without getting caught up in drama. I could practice staying focused on the present moment. I could practice making choices. I could practice saying “yes” or “no” and really own it.

So…the next time something happens and you feel your stomach tighten or your shoulders clenching or you feel the urge to scream at the top of your lungs,

STOP.

Take a deep breath.

Feel your feet on the ground,

look around with the eyes of an observer and think…

what is perfect about this? What is this allowing me to practice?

It makes a huge difference for me every day and I bet it’ll do the same for you!

If you enjoy hearing about ways to have more peace and joy in parenting, please check out my website www.margaretwebblifecoach.com or “Like” my Margaret Webb Life Coach Facebook page. I’m being completely honest when I say that I was a completely different parent two years ago (before life coaching) and now I have people come up all of the time and tell me how calm and peaceful I am with Andrew and I feel it too! If you are ready to have more peace and joy in your life, sign up here for a free 45-minute phone session to see if we are a good fit.

XOXO

Margaret

P.S. So what was perfect about the spices? Well, he had contained them instead of spilling them onto the floor which made cleanup much easier – for him! I got to practice deep breaths and patience, realizing that they were only spices. When I found him in his room, the aroma was so intense that he was sleeping with his comforter covering his face rather than his body SO I think he learned that he didn’t want to have to smell those smells again and hasn’t done it since. It was also kind of humorous to see how he took me literally and I believe that he honestly didn’t understand that what he had done was wasteful. When I brought him over to it to clean it up, he did want to pour them back into the jars. I sensed that he felt bad when I told him that since he had poured them all together that we couldn’t do that. Lots of perfection for both of us wrapped up in something that was not ideal. 🙂

Help the Baby Chicks

This station activity is perfect for a farm-themed My Obstacle Course. All you need are some colored puffs (yellow works great for baby chicks) and some tweezers or ice tongs. I had some brown shredded paper that I placed into a baking pan because I thought it would help in pretending that they were still in their nest. I also had a picture of a hen from a Mailbox Teacher Magazine but you could draw your own (you would laugh if you saw what mine would look like) or simply print one from of the internet.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Help The Baby Chicks Get Back With Their Mom

This activity is simple. Have your child use the tweezers to get the baby chicks (one at a time) back to their mom. Since I am always looking for ways to build pretend play, I suggest adding some pretend play dialogue, such as “Oh no! The chicks are still sleeping in their nest and their mom is looking for them. Can you help them get back with their mother?”

Help the Baby Chicks

Using the tweezers or tongs helps to build hand muscles necessary for handwriting and even eating with utensils. Here is a past post that I did on tweezers.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!