As soon as I had a spare moment at my new work (and some spare mats), I made a keyboard mat again like the one I had in England. 😁 I just love so very much all the possibilities it has. Human bodies learn from big, to small. When children are first learning to form … Read more
We have been using the park after school as a good strategy for getting/staying regulated. Just going and camping out with a meal for a few hours, til it’s close to bedtime. But on this particular day, everybody was too dysregulated for that to even work, or be safe. We came home instead. The kids played … Read more
When I wrote about my “biggest marker in the world” (aka a Sharpie Magnum), someone in the comments suggested that we could like, tape a marker to a big stick or a big cardboard tube and actually make the biggest marker in the world. So, we taped a marker to a 3 foot cardboard tube … Read more
Intellectually, I am aware that “science” does not mean “mixing a bunch of bubbling purple liquids together”. But like, doesn’t it feel like sometimes it SHOULD? We did “science” today in my OT room. (I accidentally referred to us as wizards and our work as potions a couple of times and was promptly corrected.) I … Read more
We sort of organically invented a game outside that I thought was pretty great for kids who are what’s sometimes called “destructive”, or who are wanting to take things apart, knock towers over, break things, etc. The game basically consisted of my daughter (4) and me writing and drawing with chalk on the house, the … Read more
(descriptions of the images throughout this post are all contained at the end so that they tell one coherent narrative :)) It might, or it might not, surprise you to learn that I am very rarely a “set up play activities for my kid” type of parent. I like to set out a new, novel … Read more
A delightful little example of risky play in action. There are a few different opportunities for kids to play with height in my rooms. This was a really fun, creative one that also worked on hand strengthening, visual tracking, and lots of other great things that children need foundationally before they can hand write well. … Read more
I mentioned this idea almost offhandedly in a training recently and it was profoundly exciting to the people in the training— so I’m making it into its own post! Here’s the idea in brief: ask kids to plan ahead, and write their idea down. And then reference your written note about it at a later … Read more
I love it when kids merge the toys I have at different areas of my room. He merged the car table and my wooden “tools” and began pretending to use a screwdriver and a hammer on the cars. “The cars are broken,” he said. “Fix, fix.” I sat down beside him and handed him another … Read more
