My Obstacle Course: Engage, Encourage and Empower

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

My Obstacle Course Station Ideas

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!

How Many Words Can We Make?

Scrabble or Bananagram letters are great for playing word games, the most obvious being a Scrabble type game where words are built off of other words. Another fun way to use them is to play, “How Many Words Can We Make?” This presents itself as a purely a game but is also helpful for building spelling pattern awareness and how changing one or a couple of letters can make so many different words.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: How Many Words Can We Make?

I randomly choose a certain number of letters (15 seems to work well) and then look and see how many different words we can make using those letters.

Here are just some of the words we came up with using the 15 letters above:

"Bat"
"Bat" becomes "hat."
"Hat" becomes "fat."
Switch out some letters to make "dark."
"Dark" becomes "shark."
Switch out some more letters to make "short."

Such a simple, yet fun way to build word building skills requiring no set up other than to choose some letters from a common game of Scrabble (or Bananagram). This is something that is easily portable so it can be taken along and used as a beach house/lake house/grandma’s house activity.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Packing Bubble Popping

Did you know that packing bubble sheets are great for building fine motor skills? I grabbed a bunch out of a package we received a few months ago and stashed it away, knowing that I would be able to use it for something (I’m kind of like a squirrel this way, seeing things and storing them knowing I’ll put them to good use someday. 🙂 ). Well, as I was cleaning up a closet, there it was and I began playing around. I noticed that pinching and popping the bubbles required the same muscles I was working on with Andrew for building handwriting skills. Try it using your thumb on the top (or bottom) and your first two fingers (pointer and middle) on the opposite side as your thumb and pinch (like you are pinching tweezers together). Something so basic to work on such an important skill!

Packing bubble sheet

This is a My Obstacle Course station activity to build those finger and hand muscles that was made even better by my assistant Katie who suggested using the dot stickers (garage sale kind I’ve used for patterning and “Make the Same” stations) to show the child specific bubbles to pop. While not necessary, the stickers help to provide focus as well as give a purpose.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles with red dots

Colored dots to pop.

An extension of this is to put numbers on the dots in order to help with number recognition.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles in order from 1-5

Colored dots with numbers on them

Write the numbers or letters on the sticker dots and then place them randomly on un-popped bubbles. Have the child use their pincer grip fingers to pop the bubbles in the correct order.

Popping the bubbles requires same pinching as pincer grasp so it helps build those muscles.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Pop the bubbles in order from 1-5.

or

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Listen to the number I say and pop the bubble with that number.

Numbers 1-5 scattered for number recognition and number order.
Popping the #1 bubble!

This could also be done to work on:

  • letter recognition
  • letter sequencing
  • letters of the child’s name
  • letters of words
  • odd and even numbers

Engage, Encourage and Empower!