My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

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

Fine Motor

No “Ick” Finger Painting

Finger Painting! A wonderful, soothing activity to express creativity with cold, wet paint on a blank canvas of white paper – for some that is. For others, it is definitely a non-preferred, “avoid if possible” activity. Why is this? Some people, especially those with sensory sensitivities, do not like getting things on their skin. There is something about the feeling of something that doesn’t belong there that they cannot stand. When I imagine a child like that finger painting, I see them literally paying no to attention to what they are doing and spending the entire time trying to find a way to keep from touching the paint and if they do, how to get it off of their fingers and hands. How can I imagine this? Because Andrew is one of those children. He does not like having things on his skin and if something gets on it, he needs to have it wiped off right away. If he had to do an activity like this, he would be done in 2 seconds after making a few swipes with his fingers and then yelling about needing help getting the paint off.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: No “Ick” Finger Painting

I was cleaning out my art supply box one day and found some containers of finger paint. Poor finger paint, never getting a chance to be used! I almost threw them out and then I thought about what it was that made it so unappealing to him. What would happen if I took away the “ick” factor? Would that encourage him to experiment with it? Since I am always trying new things to see if they work for him, I have found that it never hurts to try! So, I did a little experiment of my own and squeezed some finger paint into a sealable plastic bag. I closed it tight and began playing around. Turns out that it works great! Plus there is no mess to clean up or worries about getting it onto one’s skin.

I tried it as a My Obstacle Course station activity and he loved it! He got to experience something other children do in a way that made it not only tolerable but also enjoyable for him. It also gave us another fun, easy way to practice his fine motor skills.

Finger Painted Square

It is great because once he is done with one shape, letter or whatever he draws, he can “erase” it by smoothing the paint to create something else.

Finger Painted Letter A

It also lasts for a long time when left sealed.

Finger Paint Writing

Now, I do realize that he will need to build up a bit of a tolerance for things getting onto his skin but if the purpose of playing with finger paint is to have another way to practice drawing or writing skills than this works great. Plus, this is still a sensory activity for him because he gets to feel the squishiness of the paint (which feels “gel”-like) without the anxiety of it getting on him.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Lite Brite Heart

We have a lot of toys that Andrew does not play with (click here for a previous post about new toys) and so I began including these toys as station activities in My Obstacle Course. I do this so I can teach him how to play with them (in case that is why he doesn’t play with them) in small steps, with a good deal of structure and guidance.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Make A Heart On A Lite Brite

Lite Brite Heart

I think that a lot of times it is intimidating for children with planning issues or delays in pretend or imaginative play to sit down with a blank canvas, like a Lite Brite screen or a toy that comes as a bunch of small pieces needing to be put together to make something, like Legos or Lincoln Logs. Instead of considering those toys to be too difficult or too advanced for him, I removed the “I don’t even know where to start!” factor. I decided to see if starting things out for him would help. It was near Valentine’s day and he had received a new Lite Brite toy for Christmas that hadn’t been played with yet, so I started a heart so that we could build on from there together.

Heart shape started

This was so much less intimidating for him because he knew we were making a heart, he could see the general outline, and he could help me fill in the lines.

Pegs added to fill in heart outline

He didn’t have to worry about coming up with the idea or plan and making sure it would be right. I was helping him see that in order to play with this toy, all he had to do was put the little pegs go into the holes to make a picture, shape or just something random.

All of the pegs in to make a completed heart shape!

When we finished the heart, he pushed the button, saw all of the colors light up and had the greatest smile on his face!

Something so basic as introducing a toy (or reintroducing if they had no interest the first time) by removing steps that could be too frustrating is a great way to encourage your child to play. After doing this activity (we did this last year), I “caught” him playing with his Lite Brite many times, using the pegs (or markers as he calls them) to make patterns and also placing them randomly. It doesn’t matter to me if he makes random things, shapes or pictures. What matters is that he learned the basics and realized that he could do it!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Candy Heart Math

Candy hearts are another way to sneak in some math while using something that is really easy to find this time of year.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Match Up Numbers With The Same Number Of Items (Clothesline Clipping An Optional Add-On)

Candy Heart Number Match-Up

This activity helps to build one to one correspondence, which involves being able to match an object or group of objects with the number that represents it.

Setting Up This Station:

  1. I placed a certain number of candy hearts inside of a small plastic bag. (In this case, I used #1-5, but you could do whatever numbers your child is ready for, and they don’t have to be in order especially if you are working on larger numbers.) You could also place them in containers, muffin papers/tins or paper/plastic cups.
  2. I printed the numbers that went with the bags on a calendar cutout.
  3. I attached the bags to my clothesline (to sneak in some fine motor skill building 🙂 ) and set out the numbers.

How To Play:

  1. Choose a number.
  2. Find the bag that has the same number of candy hearts inside.
  3. Clip the number with the bag.

Candy Hearts To Practice Math Facts –

Click here for a previous post on using math organizers and dice to practice math facts. The materials shown went with a December theme but can be switched out for candy hearts to go with a February theme. See how easy it is to use basic materials to build math skills while keeping it fun and thematic!!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity:  Making Equal Groups

This is an activity inspired by my years teaching 3rd grade. When working on multiplication concepts with my students, it was really important to make sure that they understood that multiplication actually stands for “equal groups of.” Example: 4×3 actually means 4 groups of 3. This also works for division – starting with this number, when divided into groups of ___, we have ___ sets.  Example: If we started with 12 hearts and divided them into groups of 3, we would have 4 equal groups so 12 / 3=4.

For this activity, I chose a certain number of candy hearts and used a cute ice-cube tray as a counting tray.

Candy hearts and ice cube tray

Once at the station, we would first count and see how many hearts we had. Next, we would see if we could make equal groups of 2.

24 hearts divided into equal groups of 2

If so, we knew it was an even number and if not it was odd. If it was even, than we counted how many equal groups we had in order to make our equation: ___ groups of 2= ___. Depending on the number of hearts I had provided, we would usually go up to about 5 so we could count by fives.

Equal groups of 3 (8x3=24)
Equal groups of 4 works as well!
24 does not divide equally into groups of 5 - there are 4 equal groups with 4 left over (remainder)

Building math concepts and skills can be fun and doesn’t always have to involve paper/pencil activities or flash cards. If your child struggles with numbers or math facts, I encourage you to look no further than your pantry to find “manipulatives” (candy, Cheerios, goldfish crackers, dried beans, etc.). It is so important for them to get a good understanding of what the numbers and symbols represent and what they are really doing before being expected to do it all in their head or on paper.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Building Pouring Skills

Most young children spend a great deal of time in the bathtub playing and while they are playing, they are building skills that will help them later on. Andrew enjoyed hanging out in the tub, but he kind of did just that – he hung out in the tub, floating around, holding his breath under water but he did not “play” in the tub the way I remember playing. For me this involved measuring cups, filling and pouring, transferring soapy water from one container to another.

One day, he was wanting to pour his red V8 Fusion juice into a cup and I reached for it to do it for him while he held the cup. Why did I do this? Because I’m a bad, controlling mom? I don’t believe so. I did it because he’d never poured juice at home, I wasn’t sure he could do it and I really didn’t want red juice all over the floor. I got to thinking about this, felt kind of bad that I didn’t let him try but decided that I would give him more opportunities to build his pouring skills without involving my nervousness.

Providing Opportunities To Build Pouring Skills

I gathered up some old cups, little watering cans, and Tupperware containers for the bathtub and showed him how he could fill and pour using those tools. Sometimes I need reminders that just because he wasn’t ready for a certain play skill earlier, doesn’t mean he won’t be ready for them later.  He wanted to pour and was using his “kid power” to meet his own wants. (“Kid power” (as described by Occupational Therapist Julie Kraska, who we saw for an evaluation years ago) is when a child wants to exert his/her independence and has the “I can do this by myself” attitude. Andrew was always very cautious and needed me nearby (probably because I could understand him when no one else could) so we hadn’t really seen his “kid power” attitude emerge until this past year.)

I was excited about this and decided to add it as a My Obstacle Course station so he could practice it in a more real life situation. He wasn’t expecting this at all, tilted his head a bit and gave a huge smile. He LOVED it!!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity:  Pouring Water Into Muffin Tin

My Obstacle Course station activity: Pouring water into the muffin tin.

This station activity took about 2 minutes to gather materials and set up – I love activities like this! It was February so I used a heart-shaped silicone muffin tray that I found in the dollar section of Target.  I used my rimmed cookie sheet to catch any stray water and also set out a towel in case his hands got wet. (It always interests me that he can spend hours in the shower, tub or pool but dislikes having water on his skin other times.)

We used a liquid measuring cup and filled it with water.  First we added red food coloring to make red water and when that was empty, we got some more water and added blue food coloring to make blue water. (You could leave out the food coloring if you want but I like how it provides a visual contrast between the muffin tin and the water.)  I set out a spoon and a measuring spoon for him to experiment with those as well.

Andrew transferring water with his measuring spoon.
Water transferred. Look at his intense focus!

He had so much fun, beginning very cautiously, not wanting to let any spill to feeling confident enough to pour right from the measuring cup into the hearts.

A little smirk at the water is overflowing.

After that, we worked on how to tilt the cup back when the liquid got near the top so it wouldn’t spill over but it wasn’t a big deal because of the cookie tray underneath.

So Basic Yet So Fun!

It was really fun to be able to work on this skill with him in a playful, stress free way. This was an activity designed for him to be able to just experiment and enjoy building his pouring skills. It was a great play station because we did not need to have an exact amount of liquid poured into something like you do when cooking or baking.  He had an absolute blast and we’ve done this many more times with different kinds of muffin and bread tins. I’ve seen a huge improvement in not only his ability to pour but his confidence while doing it as well.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Things That Go Together

One concept that comes up in evaluations and therapies is being able to determine what things go together (like hammer and nail, bowl and spoon, etc.). This usually involves the child looking at a picture of something and having to choose from another set of pictures what goes with it.  Being able to match things up like this requires the child to access prior knowledge and if there is no past personal experience than use reasoning skills and logic to determine what makes the most sense. The concept of matching objects with their functions or knowing what objects go together is part of a child’s cognitive development.

A Great Find To Build Knowledge Of Things That Go Together

This was a concept I wasn’t sure if Andrew was grasping when we first began doing My Obstacle Courses with him.  I knew this would fit in perfectly as a station activity and had lots of ideas for how to do so.  While I try to use real objects when I can to help reinforce and build concepts and skills with Andrew, there are some times when it’s not practical or possible and when that happens I love using things that are easy to set up and are also fun and kid-friendly.  I found some Winnie the Pooh Go Together cards at Walgreens (this was years ago and I’m not sure if they still sell them at Walgreens so I’ve attached an Amazon link: for Pooh’s Go Together Game click here ).

Winnie the Pooh Go Together Game Cards

I bought them because while they were appealing and inexpensive,

Some of the cards that "go together."

they were helping to build vocabulary as well as making connections between objects

Matching pair.

and were self-checking.

Matching pair flipped over to make picture. If the picture doesn't work the cards are not a match.

When a game or activity is self-checking, it usually means that when the cards or cutouts are flipped over, they will either make a picture or give some indication through symbols (letters, numbers, shapes, or colors) that the choice was correct or incorrect.

Self-checking pictures made when things that "go together" are matched up.

I like this because it takes the parent aspect out of the picture a bit – it’s not me determining that it’s right or wrong. If the picture doesn’t match, it is not the correct choice. With this particular game, when the correct match is made and the cards flipped over, they make a picture of Winnie the Pooh characters in a scene using the objects that “go together.”  This is great because we can find the objects in the picture and talk about how they are being used together to help out the characters.

Here is how we have used these cards as My Obstacle Course stations in our house:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity:  Match up the pictures that go together

My Obstacle Course station activity: Match up the pictures that go together.
Flip the top card in the pile. Â It is a hat. Which of those pictures above goes with a hat?
A hat and a coat go together. Flip them over to see if it's correct!
It's a match! Christopher Robin is wearing a hat and a coat. I think it must be about to rain because he also has rain boots on!

My Obstacle Course Station Activity:  Clothesline Clipping Things That Go Together

This station activity allows you to combine the concept of things going together with the fine motor skills and motor planning that are necessary when using clothespins to clip two cards onto the clothesline.  (Click here to see a previous post on using clothes lines.)

My Obstacle Course station activity: Clothesline Clipping Things That Go Together
Andrew matching up a bar of soap with a bathtub.
Things that go together matched and clipped onto the clothesline.

This is such an easy station activity to set up and can give a lot of information about a child’s ability to determine which objects go together. These cards allowed me to learn about Andrew’s knowledge of things and what experiences we needed to introduce him to. We could talk about how the things were being used with some favorite characters and most importantly, we were having fun together as we flipped the cards over to make pictures. I have to say my $2.00 Walgreens purchase proved to be a wonderful investment!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Droppers

Unexpected Find = Fun, Engaging Activity

I was wandering through the aisles of my teacher supply store and saw a package of these droppers in the science section.

Dropper found in the Science section of my teacher supply store.

I thought that they would be great to introduce a little bit of experimentation while also building his grasping skills.

Using same fingers as tweezers...
to build fine motor, squeezing skills.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Experimenting with Color

When teaching kindergarten I always loved teaching about the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and how to use them to make the secondary colors (orange, green and purple).  The children were always so excited and amazed as though I were a magician magically creating different colors right before their eyes!

I decided that I would set up a My Obstacle Course station that would combine the droppers with making colors. This station activity was not only easy to set up and take down, it was also a huge hit!  Andrew’s exact words were, “This is fun. It is just like Easter!”

My Obstacle Course Station Set Up:

  • droppers
  • food coloring
  • 3 small bowls, cups or ramekins with some water
  • 3 small bowls, cups or ramekins that are empty
  • rimmed cookie sheet to catch spills
  • paper towel or old towel to wipe spills and hands

I used one of my rimmed cookie trays (I have to use them for something since I don’t bake!!), some ramekins (If you worry about breaking the ramekins, you could also use small Dixie or plastic cups or bowls.) and added a few drops of red, yellow and blue food coloring in: red, yellow and blue food coloring. I did this part with Andrew so he could also work on stirring but you could do this for them or ahead of time.  It is kind of cool for them to see the water take on the color of the food coloring drops.

We talked about the colors we were seeing as we added and stirred the food coloring. I told him he was going to use the dropper to get some colored water from one bowl, squeeze it into an empty bowl and repeat with a different color.

These are some questions I asked him as we were doing this:

  • What do you think is going to happen?
  • What color is going to be in the new bowl?
  • Which colors combine to make new colors?
  • What happens when you add more of one color?
Dropper in and squeeze! Look at his focus!!
Checking out the blue liquid in the dropper.
Checking out and commenting on the color he had made.

He used the droppers to combine red and yellow to make orange, yellow and blue to make green, and red and blue to make purple. He had a ball experimenting with these colors and had no idea that he was building skills like motor planning, fine motor grasping skills as well as going through the scientific method by questioning, predicting, experimenting and making conclusions based on his personal experience with the materials. All of that AND he was totally engaged and having fun with me.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!