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

Beach Towel Reading Station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Summer Reading

A fun way to make a reading station more inviting – set out a beach towel! So easy and basic but provides a specific location for the reading to take place, makes it a bit more fun and adds an element of pretend as you pretend to be lying on a beach somewhere, soaking in the sun and reading.

Beach Towel

I incorporate summer themed books, either fiction or non-fiction depending on what Andrew is into.

A perfect reading station!

Since this is a station activity, I would recommend choosing a short book or just reading a portion of a book.

I also suggest looking through the book and making an earlier station activity one that includes some words they may across. This could be through a word memory match or matching up a word with a clue about its meaning.

Ex. We read the Frog and Toad story “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. I had Andrew use letter beads to string together the word “cookie” as well as used the pictures from the story to make a sequencing station to help with comprehension (this could be done as a pre-reading activity to give context or afterwards as an activity to see if he understood what happened in the story.).

Picture sequencing
Choosing a word or theme from the story to string with letter beads.

These are just two basic ways to incorporate literacy skills into other station activities in addition to a reading or listening station.

Building Reading/Listening Stamina

Reading or listening stamina needs to be built just like other skills (speaking from experience here!). I have spent a good deal of time reading out loud while Andrew runs around the room. We started with small “plug-ins” where he would have to come over and point at something in the picture while I read aloud. Once I knew he could read something, we would take turns reading pages (slowly extending his time) and now he is able to read a few pages in picture books before he needs to get up and move.

While building reading and listening skills, don’t be afraid to take turns or bookmark the page and end the reading/listening station on a positive note. Doing this as a My Obstacle Course station is perfect because they know it will be quick and there are other stations waiting for them when they’ve completed this one.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Water Wheel Pouring Station

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring Station

Here is a great toy to help work on pouring skills. Andrew is still very tentative about pouring and hasn’t quite gotten the slowing down when the cup is almost full concept yet. Because of this, I tend to be very involved when he is pouring things like juice but I want him to get more opportunities to practice this skill without me being so nervous about spills. I am going to use this toy because it is super motivating for him since the wheels spin as the water goes through. I am also going to work on helping him notice how fast the wheels are spinning.

Let’s make the wheels spin fast! (Pouring quickly)

Let’s slow the wheels down! (Pouring slowly, almost dribbling it in)

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Water Wheel Pouring Station
Water Wheel

I would strongly recommend doing this station right at a sink, pulling a chair or stool up so the child can reach. This will help with filling the cup as well as working on pouring into the funnel without worrying about getting water all over the place.

Cup filled and ready.
Pouring water into the funnel.

While Andrew loves to be wet in the swimming pool, bath or shower, he does not like to be wet when wearing regular clothes. This being the case, I would provide him with towels to dry off right away or have an extra shirt on hand for him to change into right away. (I have to say that I personally don’t enjoy having wet shirt sleeves either so I totally get it.)

Water alternative: Pouring dry sand (or salt) would work as well when used in a sand bin or on a rimmed cookie sheet to catch it. I would also suggest placing a towel underneath (perhaps a beach towel to go with the theme) to help contain it to the station area.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Find It! Toy

I was doing a “treasure hunt” around my house to see what we have to include in a summer themed My Obstacle Course. I went into Andrew’s closet to look for some summer books and my eyes fell upon the shelf where this “Find It” toy he had received from his grandma was sitting. This is a great item for car trips or lazy summer afternoons but it also makes a great, super easy (no set up required at all!) station activity.

“Find It” is a cylinder filled with colored rice sized beads that hide thematic items (kind of like a sensory bin without being able to touch). There are several different varieties that I have seen for sale in toy stores (Brilliant Sky is one I know for sure that carries them).

toy

Twist and turn the toy to expose different items, trying to find items that are listed at the top.

Item list

I really like this toy because it includes items that are quite common as well as some items that are not as familiar, giving us an opportunity to build vocabulary.

Sand dollar up close.

We don’t have a lot of “sand dollars” where we live so when he comes across it and wonders what it is, I can help give it a name while pointing out some unique characteristics.

I like that the items are not too simple. I always say that intelligibility and intelligence are not the same thing and it is nice to have something for him to play with that doesn’t insult his intelligence.

Close up of some items

When using this as a station in My Obstacle Course, I will have him either find 10 items or have him choose from the list which 10 items he will be hunting for. From there, I may have him practice writing a few of those words (maybe 3 or 4) at the next station to work on his handwriting skills. This could be done with Magnadoodle, Aquadoodle, pencil/marker/crayon and paper, dry erase markers and white board, or chalk on a chalkboard.

Note: While I haven’t done this myself, I am going to try to make my own using a tennis ball container (label removed), dried rice and some small items from Michael’s. I tried this around Christmas time with fake snow and it didn’t work very well so I’m thinking that rice or something like it might move better. I would love to know if anyone has done this already! Definitely thinking some duct tape around the cover once it’s been completed so little hands don’t open it up all over the living room! 🙂

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Calendar Number Sequencing

I love to use calendar numbers in My Obstacle Course stations. They add instant theme and require no preparation to make (although you could make your own if you are so inclined :).). I just like to get things that I can put into a My Obstacle Course kit (see below) so I can set it up quickly while still having it be fun, child-friendly and building skills he is ready for.

Summer Themed Calendar Numbers

These particular calendar numbers are summer themed and are the same numbers shown in my Story Starters post. I love when I find materials that can be used over and over again in different ways! Keeps things interesting for him and is easy on my wallet!

I was recently asked about ways to work on number sequencing and my mind immediately went to doing this using calendar numbers.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put the numbers in order from 1-5

My Obstacle Course station activity set up and ready to go.Â

When setting up this station, I put out the first and last number of the group I want him to sequence and place the numbers needed to fill in the spaces above.

Putting numbers in order.
Numbers in order!

This is a basic station activity that can be made as simple or as challenging as your child needs. While it is basic, it still shows you so much information about the child’s knowledge. (Note that they do not need to speak intelligibly in order to do this activity!)

  • Do they have number recognition?
  • Can they place the numbers in the correct sequence?
  • If they can count to five, can they match their counting with the number? I know that for a while, Andrew would count out loud but the numbers he was pointing to didn’t always match up. I would have him slow down but also ask him to point to certain numbers so I could tell if he really knew what they were.
  • If they are struggling with number identification, make sure they understand what the numbers actually represent through the use of manipulatives. Here is a picture of one way I have done this during a February themed My Obstacle Course using candy hearts but you could certainly use something like Goldfish crackers or shells to go with the summer theme:

One to one correspondence using candy hearts.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put the numbers in order from 18-28

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put the numbers in order from 18-28.
Putting the numbers in order.
Numbers in order from 18-28.

This is a skill that shows up in math curriculums and is part of recognizing patterns in math. I will do a post soon about other ways to use these numbers to work on more complicated math skills knowing that all children are different and while they may struggle in one area, another area may be a strength, needing to be challenged a bit more.

My Obstacle Course kit - I’ll be posting next week on how I put together a super easy My Obstacle Course kit in order to build developmental and academic skills.

As always, please email me at obstaclecoursemom@yahoo.com with any questions or skills that you’d like me to post on. Thank you for allowing me to share!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

 

Squeeze Toys For Building Hand Muscles

Andrew’s OT is working with him on strengthening his hand muscles, which in turn will help him with things like handwriting. She showed me where the muscles were located and what she was doing to help build these. That got me thinking about fun ways to work on this at home, so as I did my weekly shopping, I was on the lookout!

I found some squeeze toys at Walgreens and thought these would be fun additions to My Obstacle Courses (as well as bath and pool time).

Squeeze toy trucks and fish

In order to fill these toys with water, he will need to squeeze the toy (using the hand muscles we wanted to target) and slowly release pressure while holding the toy under the water. He will then also have to squeeze it again to squirt the water out! (Click here for previous post showing how using a bulb syringe builds those same muscles.)

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Squeeze and Fill

This is a great station to do at a sink. I use sand buckets or bowls that are deep enough as well as provide some sort of container to squirt the water into.

Materials at station
Sink with a bucket filled about halfway with water.
Squeezing the toy.Â

The muscles I am using to squeeze this are the same muscles necessary for handwriting – try it! Pinch your thumb and first two fingers together to feel this. It always amazes me to break something down that comes easily to people and really think about all that is involved in some of the most basic tasks. We will be doing lots of squeezing stations this summer because while Andrew’s hand muscles are getting stronger they still need “workouts” like this.

Squeeze the toy under the water, slowly releasing pressure to allow water to enter.
Squeezing the toy to spray the water out.

To give this station activity more purpose, you could draw a line or tell them that they have to fill the container to a certain point, counting along the way to see how many times it takes to fill and squeeze before they reach that point. If you think this is something that is too “baby-ish” for your child, I can think back to watching a Survivor-like show (or maybe it was The Biggest Loser), with them doing something similar. The contestants had to run, get something that would absorb but also drip water, run back and squeeze as much water as they could into a bucket, doing this until they filled their bucket to the line. You could do something like this using the squeeze toys as part of an outdoors My Obstacle Course and they’ll never know they are building these hand muscles!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Sand Pail Sorters

I love utilizing sorting stations in My Obstacle Courses. It allows children to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding without needing to have words. There are so many different sorting options depending on the things and concepts that you want to build or reinforce with your child. I have found that by changing up what the child is sorting into, it helps to keep it fun and fresh.

I found these colorful pails at Michael’s and while they are meant for playing in the water and sand, they are also perfect for a sorting station. So colorful and they stack nicely for storage purposes.

Colorful Sand Pails from Michael's

Besides an obvious sorting station of sorting by items by color, here are some other sorting ideas:

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the boys and girls (These were from Fisher Price toys in our closet.)
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort by function - Things that fly vs. Things that drive
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort the sea animals (These were pattern cards I had gotten at our teacher store. I have used these for counting, patterning, graphing and sorting.)
My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Sort by word family

I encourage you to think about what skills or concepts your child is ready to work on and make it a bit more fun by turning it into a sorting station. This is something I include in all of our own My Obstacle Courses because it really is a quick and easy way to see where your child is in the area you are working on. None of these examples took more than 10 minutes to put together, just a matter of deciding what to work on and getting a little creative by looking around at what you already have.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!