This particular camp* invitation was whole-cloth taken from Denita over at Listen to the Children. She’s been collecting clips, towel clips, and clothespins for a toy zipline for years and I only had about a month, but I managed to find a few that worked like I hoped they would! I should clarify here that … Read more
I hoped for a warm day to do an ice-themed camp invitation*, but in England all we had were moderate days and chilly days. The kids seemed completely unfazed by this fact and the ice probably lasted longer! I had soooooo many kinds of ice. I basically just did everything I could remember Busy Toddler … Read more
I plan to write some posts for the next week about what might be called “ADLs” in occupational therapist jargon. Activities of daily living. Think about the things you generally have to do everyday to survive (or maybe every couple of days). For me, this week, I plan to write about eating, sleeping, cooking, showering/bathing/hygiene. … Read more
[Image description: There is a title at the top of the meme that reads “Verbal Referencing: Say What You See”. Three images of toddlers are shown, with captions beneath them. The first child is smiling with an open-mouthed smile. The caption says, “I see your big smile! I think you LIKE that.” The second child … Read more
[Image description: A dark blue square field with white text on it that reads, “I’m Bored! Could actually mean… My anxiety is high and I need something to block it out. I’m too overwhelmed to focus on a task. I’m in need of some sensory input in order to function. I’m too low on energy/dopamine … Read more
This camp invitation* was so simple and so engaging — all I did was collect a bunch of things that weren’t paintbrushes and set them out with a big piece of paper and some paint! The possibilities are, of course, endless, and any replication of this activity would end with a zillion zillion different permutations … Read more
I set up an invitation at camp* to make “nature soup”. If we had had the access, I would’ve loved for the kids to be able to pick whatever flowers and leaves and weeds and pinecones were interesting to them and were in the vicinity. However, for our specific purposes, all we had was a … Read more
I had the chance to speak with Heather, the host of That Early Childhood Nerd, about the consequences post that I wrote which became somewhat infamous on Facebook very quickly. You can listen to the interview on her website, That Early Childhood Nerd, here. It’s also available on iTunes here, and on Spotify here. If … Read more
This post is a transcript of the podcast/video, which can be found here. Narrator 0:01 Grab your highlighters! Can’t find them? They’re probably right there in your pocket protector. It’s time for That Early Childhood Nerd Podcast! Let’s get nerdy. Hey, there’s Heather! Heather 0:25 Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of That Early Childhood … Read more
I knew that among the play invitations that I had available at camp*, that I would want to have one more structured, writing-based invitation every day. I wanted this for a variety of reasons: there were several older kids who were going to be coming to camp; writing and literacy is an avenue to so … Read more