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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A Tribute To “Welcome To Holland”

This morning I woke, checked my email and went on to Facebook. I do this every morning as part of my routine but this morning someone in the Apraxia-Kids group referenced a poem called “Welcome To Holland.” How have I never heard or seen this beautifully stated poem before? I love this – thank you Emily Perl Kingsley for putting into words what I feel.

You may have already seen this but I figured it was worth it to share on the off-chance that you hadn’t seen it either. If you have, read it again and give yourself some props for all of the awesome things that you do for your child. If you are a caregiver, teacher, therapist, know that this is what we are feeling and going through and that you help to make a huge difference for us and our children. We know they are not always easy (who is 24/7?) but they are our babies (no matter what age they are) and we love them more than anything.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.

I love this!! There are times when I read about all of the things that typically developing children in Italy are doing and sometimes I feel a twinge of “Oh, I wonder what that’s like?” but then I remember that everyone’s normal is different and while things may appear perfect on the surface, everyone has their own struggles.

My life with an autistic child and anxious, toothless dog pretty much means lots of deep breaths, soothing music and laughing at the ridiculous-ness of what goes on in my Holland sometimes (My dear sister frequently tells me that she thinks I am being “punked” because of the things that crop up- kind of like a never ending game of “Whack-A-Mole”- can you relate? 🙂 ). My life is full of twists and turns that help to keep me growing and also makes things quite interesting. My Holland is never boring and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else! It is from the most challenging experiences and times that I have learned the most about who I am and who I was meant to be in this world. 

Andrew took this of me hanging with Harvey, the anxious, toothless dog. I'm sure if I lived in Italy, the bed would be made! 🙂

I am grateful because I see and appreciate the pure, innocent joy in my 8-year old son’s face when he sees a really awesome ceiling fan or the smirk of his smile when he finally “gets” something like the tooth fairy and know that he is the child I was always meant to have. He is the most fabulous Andrew that I know and I love him more than anything.  

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Different Shades of Blue

In keeping with the summer, beach themed My Obstacle Courses, I’m including a station to use the primary colors to make different shades of blue, like water. This is something that only takes a few minutes to set up but is so fun for children to get to play around with. An activity like this also goes along nicely with building some pretend skills, like pretending to be a scientist experimenting or a magician who is making “magic potions.”

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Different Shades of Blue

I usually set up a station activity like this near a sink to make it easier to access water for set up and clean up. A rimmed cookie sheet is a perfect “tray” to place below the tools to help catch any stray water or color. I’m all about ease and containing messes :).  I used some clear plastic cups in this particular station but have used ceramic ramekins in past stations and find that those are really helpful if you have children who tend to knock things over, not because they want to, but because they don’t have the hand control. The ramekins are low and heavier than plastic so they don’t tip as easily). I am also using a white ice-cube tray to help the colors stand out even more.

Rimmed cookie sheet, clear plastic cups with water and an ice cube tray.
Additional tools of food coloring (red, yellow and blue - the primary colors) and droppers.

I love including droppers with something like this because it also helps to build fine motor skills! (Click here for a past post on droppers.)

Each cup has a different color and it's own dropper.

This is where you get to benefit from my experience. I began thinking that I would simply have him use the droppers to fill each section (like shown in the picture below where I had started in the far left corner of the tray) but when I tried it (which I always do before I pass them on to you or try them with him!) it was taking a really long time. I shifted my plan and decided to fill a cup with blue water (also shown below) and fill half of the ice-cube tray with the blue water.

Change in plans!

Ahhhhh….much better! Now, I add the colored water to each blue section to make different shades of blue.

Adding red...
...makes purple-ish water.
Adding yellow...
...makes greenish water.
My different shades of blue!
The colored water in the droppers to show the difference.

This was fun for me and is always a huge hit with Andrew! Have fun!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Easy Object Graphing

As I reviewed Andrew’s end of year progress report, I noticed that he still needed some reinforcement with graphing. I looked through my stuff to see what I could have him graph. There were all sorts of things – stickers, buttons, a variety of Goldfish crackers, fruity Cheerios, pattern cards, etc. (Here is a past post I did on graphing using a small bag of M&M’s.) I decided to choose these colorful foam pieces that I found in the dollar section of Target. They came in cylinders, cubes and triangular prisms.

Funny Story – I was teaching a parent session a few months after I had picked these up. I pulled them out of my basket of stuff and one of the moms yelled out, “I have those! I knew you would get them and show us some ways to put them to use so I got them as well.” Ah, I’m beginning to rub off on people and I love it!!

Cylinder foam pieces
Foam cubes
Triangular prism foam pieces

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Easy Graph

While I usually use a sheet of white printer paper to make graphs with him, this time I decided to use my Melissa and Doug pattern piece background and a pipe cleaner bent around the sides as my border.

I am demonstrating here two different graphs using these foam pieces. One is graphing cylinders by color and the other is sorting by shape.

I also like to include question cards to help build math vocabulary while analyzing the data. You could also begin this activity with making a prediction or hypothesis about which color or shape your child thinks will have the greatest/least/same amounts. Anytime I can sneak in vocabulary in the context of play I do! Click here for a great resource listing math vocabulary in alphabetical order with illustrations to help build understanding – A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2011.

Some question cards to go along with the graph.

Graphing by color station all set up and ready to go!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Basic Object Sorting
In the process of making the graph.
Graph completed. Now for some question cards!

Graphing by shape station set up and ready to go!

Graphing shapes.
Shapes graph finished.

I encourage you to get creative by looking around in toy bins and pantry cupboards to see what easy items you have to help your child build graphing skills. These are just examples of basic graphs that can be easily put together as a station activity.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Patriotic Pails and Word Sorting

If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you know that I love finding things to go with the theme we are doing. These little July themed pails were in the dollar section of our Target and I know that they are the perfect addition to a July themed My Obstacle Course sorting station. It really is easy to blend a sorting activity, which provides a quick opportunity to build or reinforce an academic skill like spelling patterns, with these thematic pails to create a fun and appealing My Obstacle Course station.

Patriotic pails!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort By Vowel Pattern

At this particular station, we are working on sorting by vowel pattern, specifically /i/ words, but please realize that this activity can be modified to build the literacy skills that your child is ready for (Ex. Sorting by beginning sound with pictures.). (Click here for an index of vowel patterns.)

I used some small red index cards and wrote the sorting labels (short i words, words with “igh”, words that follow the i_e (“i consonant e”) pattern, and words that have long /i/ sound made with “y”.). For the sorting activity, I wrote three words that fit each pattern on cards, mixed them up and placed them in a pile.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort by vowel pattern
The word "kite" to be sorted into the pail with "i consonant e".
Placing the word into the correct pail.
Short i word.
"Big" placed in the short i pail.
Words sorted into the pails are easy to check when the child is finished.

This is something that can be done throughout the year with spelling words but can still look fun by using different colored cards and different sorting containers. The word cards and labels can also be stored and used for future word sorts, review stations or a game like “Guess the Sort”.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Fourth of July Hat “Search and Find”

Fourth of July hat “Search and Find” is a modification of the “St. Patrick’s Hat Search and Find” I posted on in March. This version uses a July themed hat (think Uncle Sam and parades!) along with some different textured items. I liked this hat because it was deep enough to put items in so the child cannot see what is in there. They have to use their sense of touch and also think about what the items feel like, connecting the feelings with words.

This was something I did with Andrew early on to see if he understood words that described the feeling or texture of something. If he did not, this was a perfect opportunity to teach the word since he could make the direct connection between what he was feeling and the word I was using to describe it.

Fourth of July themed hat.

As I will often do for station activities, I went on a little treasure hunt around my house to see what sorts of things I could find that had unique or different textures. A good place to look is a scrap bin or catch-all box if you do arts and crafts or the crafting aisles at Michael’s. Pictured below are some of the items that I gathered up for our My Obstacle Course.

Some different textured items for this activity.

I typed up and printed out some basic instructions each beginning with “Find something” to help build literacy skills. These could be printed out on pieces of paper or index cards but I like how quick it is to just print and cut them into strips. Do whatever is easiest for you!

Clues!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Uncle Sam Hat “Search and Find”

Station all set up and ready to go!

I like to turn the strips of paper over to make it more of a game and allow him to choose.

First thing to find is something round.
Reaching into the hat, but no peeking!!

Keep in mind that if your child needs to look to find it, that is okay! This is a fabulous opportunity to help them build their knowledge of specific, descriptive vocabulary right along with something real that they can touch.

A colored puff is round (when I'm not squishing it 🙂 )!
Something shiny - a ribbon bow for a gift.
Items matched with descriptions for one "Search and Find" station.
Items matched with descriptions for another "Search and Find" station

We began basic with very different kinds of textures and progressed to being even more specific in choosing the best item to fit a description. This basic activity can be adapted in so many different ways – I love things like this!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Make The Same- Sight Word Building

Have I ever mentioned that I love using things I already have around my home to help Andrew build developmental and academic skills? Perhaps only a hundred times but it is so true! I also like to pass on ideas to you that are simple to put together and also easy to adapt to various skill levels.

Most everyone has Scrabble or Bananagram letters in their house and they are so great to help build literacy skills. In this My Obstacle Course Station Activity, I have combined some basic cards with sight words written on them with these letters to create a different version of my “Make the Same” game. (Click here for a list of Dolch Sight Words.)

Sight word cards on a ring.
Bananagram letters

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Make the Same – Sight Word Building

I had picked up this colorful pack of round cards that are perfect for creating flash cards (You could also use index cards or any note paper that you have at home, I would just recommend that it is thick enough so you are not be able to see the word from the other side.). This particular set comes with one of those binder rings to keep them organized and make it easy to flip through them.

For this activity though, I went through and chose some words to build and took them out of the pack. I flipped them over to make it more of a game, giving him the choice of which card to flip over first and set out the letters he would need to make the words. The set up for this only took a few minutes and could be done with basic word families (click here for a list of common word families on EnchantedLearning.com), spelling or Word Study words, thematic or unit study vocabulary words or words that go with a speech sound your child is working on.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Make the Same

This is such a simple game but gets the child actively involved in putting the letters together to form the word. This can help children who are having difficulties with sight words and utilizes all modalities of learning – visual (seeing the word), auditory (hearing the word said out loud) and kinesthetic (putting the letters together to form the word).

Flip the card and spell the word.
Spelling the word "they".
Spelling the word "this".

The fact that this is turned into a game and that they have the choice of which card to flip helps to reduce the struggle and frustration that can occur when practicing or building skills that may be more challenging.

If your child is ready for more of a challenge, have them choose the card, read the word to them without letting them see it and see if they can put it together. If they get stuck, the card is there to help them correct any errors.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!