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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Dinosaur/Dragon Type Water Squirters

I found these dinosaur/dragon type water squirters at Walgreens in the “seasonal” aisle. They are basically water guns without the pointy gun aspect, which I really like!

Dinosaur/dragon type water squirters.

I picked them up because they are great for water fun on hot days but also help build hand strength through squeezing to squirt the water out. If you look closely, you can see that the part they will squeeze to squirt the water is quite long, requiring all of the fingers to squeeze down, which builds hand muscles.

As a My Obstacle Course station activity, I would fill up the squirter with water…

Filling it up with water.

and provide a purpose either by squirting water into a sand bin or filling a cup or container to a certain point. I recommend first showing them the hole where the water will come out so they are not surprised and can practice aiming. This will also be helpful to not get water squirted around your house!

Squeezing!
Squirting the water into a sand pail.

If you have a child who is already familiar with water guns for squirting other people, you may wish to keep this as an outdoor activity, perhaps incorporating it into an outdoor My Obstacle Course.

I have to admit that I am one of those moms who is not crazy about children playing with toy guns so this toy will allow him to play and build his hand muscles in the same way!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Sensory Sand Bin

I’ve done previous posts on using sensory bins with dried beans and fake snow and think that a perfect summer sensory bin is a sand bin. This is something that I would do in a low, wide plastic bin with a lid, so it can be stored away while not in use. I would also place it on a beach towel to contain the sand.

This may be something that your child already does all of the time but in the past it is not something that has been a preferred activity for Andrew. There are so many motor skills to work on, such as scooping, pouring, raking and sifting.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sensory Sand Bin

Hide some sand safe objects in the sand and the child uses their hands, fingers or tools to dig and find the objects. You can include a sheet of paper with a list of the hidden objects to help give purpose while also building literacy/vocabulary skills. Other objects that could be hidden are letters, numbers, blocks, cars, little toy animals or items that could be sorted by color or shape.

Sand Bin
Wooden letters spelling out his name
Digging in the sand to find letters.
Using the sand sifter and finding the letter "n"!

This type of activity is another example of the importance of reintroducing something that a child may not have been into before. I have done sand bins with Andrew before and as I said above, he was not into it. Knowing how this goes but also wanting to give him another shot at experiencing this, I make sure that the station activities are easy to set up and keep my expectations in check, not planning on him spending hours playing in the sand as I did as a child.

Fingers and hands in the sand!
Look at that! One hand in the sand, the other one grasping the shovel.
Hooray! An "M" was found!!

I included the sand bin in our last My Obstacle Course and he was totally into it! I hid some letters that spelled out the word “summer” and he worked with his hands and with some tools that I provided to dig out the letters. He was so excited as he found each letter. I even found him smoothing the sand with his hands and squeezing his sand filled hand, allowing the sand to sift through his fingers. His hand muscles are clearly getting stronger, as I noticed him able to grasp and actually dig down into the sand. This is huge for us!!

I look forward to providing more of these opportunities for him while also making sure to give it a purpose (spelling words, finding hidden objects, etc.) until he decides he is ready to just “play in the sand” (if and when this will happen).

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

 

Summer Themed Memory Match

If you’ve been following my posts, you know by now that Andrew is crazy about memory match games. Using colored index cards and stickers makes it so easy to create new, thematic memory match games that go with whatever we are doing. (Here is the link for the original Thematic Memory Match post with step by step instructions.) Since it is summer and we are still in our “beach” theme, I made a game with lots of different colored fish.

Through this basic game, we work on social skills and game playing rules by taking turns (which isn’t always easy when one of us knows where the matcher is! 🙂 ). It also allows me to work on visual discrimination skills and descriptive vocabulary while noticing out loud how each pair is unique.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Summer Themed Memory Match

Colored and unruled index cards + thematic stickers = Fun and easy memory match game!
Stickers on in the middle of the card.
Matching pairs ready to mix and play.
Memory match game set up.
Matching pair of fish found!

This activity can be modified to incorporate some movement by creating a “Crawl and Match” or “Run and Match” station where the child picks up a card and has to go down and match it with its partner.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Party Tray Sorting: Buttons and Coins

I shared a few weeks ago about these fun, colorful plastic party trays that I found that can be also used for sorting items. (Here is the link to Party Tray Sorters.) Here are two more ways to use them with things that you probably have lying around the house. Using a party tray like this makes it super simple to set up, easy to have the items contained while also providing a good space to sort into.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting Buttons By Color

I have a huge bag of buttons that I have accumulated over the years but also found these great little containers of different colored buttons at Michael’s. (Here is a previous post on Button Sorting using a winter theme.)

Party tray + buttons = Easy sorting station
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the buttons by color
Sorting buttons by color.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting Coins

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Coin Sorting
Coins sorted.
Andrew sorting coins.

We did this particular station activity during our last My Obstacle Course. It was great to see him able to identify the coins but also learn the difference between nickels and quarters by placing close attention to the details on the coin. I got to point out the different presidents and also remind him that Monticello is on the nickel and is a place that he has visited when we lived in Virginia.

He sorted them systematically, sifting through them to find the specific coin he was working on. He was also talking to himself, reading the words on the coins as he was sorting, saying things like, “Liberty” and “In God We Trust.” It was very sweet to listen to! 🙂

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Pipe Cleaner Twisting

This is an activity that I came up with to work on hand coordination with Andrew. He is not yet tying his shoes (I am thankful for velcro and Crocs!) but I wanted to work with him on using his hands together while doing different things with each hand. (Turned out that his Occupational Therapist wanted to work on that with him as well! Bonus!!)

I like to use pipe cleaners when starting to build a skill like this because they are sturdy and are less frustrating than wiggly laces or string (there is time for that – remember we are just beginning this skill!).

Colorful Pipe Cleaners

I twisted the end of two different colored pipe cleaners together…

Ends twisted.

and then found a door with a lock so I could loop the pipe cleaner around it.

 

I looped it around a door lock that would be a good height for him.
Crossing the pipe cleaner to make an "x" before twisting it under.
Twisting the green pipe cleaner under the blue one and switching hands.
Continue this process until they reach the end.

This could also be done around their foot :), which may work even better to prepare him for shoe tying! Will have to try that since I just thought of it as I am writing this. The object of this is to take a pipe cleaner in each of his hands and twist it around, switching pipe cleaners and hands after each twist. They will continue this, creating a candy cane like effect by twisting them together.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pipe Cleaner Twisting

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pipe Cleaner Twisting
Finishing up the twisting.

Observation note:

After doing stuff like this with your child you will begin to see patterns that show up in multiple different areas. An example of this for us is that Andrew’s right arms and hands seem to dominate much more than his left. When I would watch him run, his left arm would move a little but not nearly as much as his right arm. When he swims, he tends to run into the side of the pool on his right because his left arm doesn’t reach out and push through the water like his right arm. We have worked on this and as he has developed and gotten older, it has improved a good deal. With this particular activity, I noticed that he would use his right hand to twist the pipe cleaner around the one in this left hand, which was basically just there holding the other pipe cleaner. It is always interesting for me to notice things like this so I can provide him with more activities to work on this and also take note to mention it to his therapists. I look forward to sharing whatever activities I come up with or find to help build this skill.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Summer Themed Obstacle Course

Through my posts, I try to provide a lot of different station activity ideas, varying the developmental and academic skills so that you can see easy ways to work with your child at home while also having fun. Since the activity ideas are presented individually, I thought I would share some photos from a recent My Obstacle Course that I did with Andrew to show how I incorporated the activities into My Obstacle Course stations.

(Please disregard the winter pants and too small shirt he is wearing. He picked it out! It was over 100 degrees but he insisted on wearing pajamas. In fact, one of the beach ball “why” questions I got to ask was, “Why do you like wearing pajamas?” He answered, “Because they are soft and I like them.” I cannot argue with that!)

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Beach Ball Questions
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pipe Cleaner Twisting
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sand Bin Dig and Find with Letters Spelling "Summer"
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Squeeze Toy FishÂ
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Find It! Toy
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sorting Coins Using Party Tray

Please do not be misled by the photos of him and assume that he is always into doing things and working with me. That is not the case at all, which is why doing My Obstacle Courses with him makes such a difference. This structure allows me to engage with him, encourage him by meeting him at his level with things he is ready for and empowers him by giving him an opportunity to practice and build skills in a safe, loving environment.

It works for us because:

  • There is purpose and clear expectations with what we are doing. I can always tell if I have been too vague with a station activity because those are the times when he checks out! By putting in a little time thinking about the skills and concepts he needs, I can be clear with the activity and with him about what he is supposed to do.
  • There is a logical sequence of activity combined with movement. I use wooden pieces with numbers on them so he knows where to go next. He knows he is not going to be stuck sitting at the counter for an hour.
  • The stations are set up to focus on specific skills but do not take more than 5 minutes. This is why I emphasize doing things that are easy to set up or create, are already thematic (like calendar numbers or cutouts) or utilize things that people usually have already in their homes.

Here are the links to the station activities I have already posted on:

Posts on the activities shown above that you haven’t seen yet are coming soon!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!