In Toy Story 5, there’s a part where Jessie says, “That’s not playing, that’s just a game!”, referring to a game that she was greatly enjoying involving jumping around and stomping her feet on buttons as they lit up. When this is met with confusion by another toy, she demonstrates: what she means by “playing” … Read more
Pretty much the entire public school system in Western society (which is the only school system I have personal experience with, hence my qualifier) is rooted in: Adults decide when kids need to know stuff. Adults tell the kids the stuff. Adults test to see if the kids retained the stuff. Adults try to enforce/motivate … 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 discuss: Kelsie’s Training and Approach: Rythea and Cara delve into Kelsie’s background as an occupational therapist, exploring what this means and how it shapes her approach to working with children. The Child-Centered Approach: Kelsie discusses her approach to working with kids, emphasizing child-led methods and its alignment with her non-authoritarian parenting style. She contrasts … Read more
This was from a session in which a child and I were pretending that he was exploring space. We built a space pod out of tents and filled it with cardboard box “panels” on which I drew various buttons. I made sure to make some of the buttons interesting and write various labels on them, … Read more
Most of us who are trying to work in a way that is aligned with our values have so many moments of doubt. Are we actually doing a “skilled intervention” we are billing for? Is the work we are doing truly making an impact on the child’s life? Are we inadvertently causing harm? Is … Read more
There was once an occupational therapist working at a school. The occupational therapist had a young teenage boy on their caseload. They were supposed to see the teenage boy to work on handwriting goals. The therapist could work with him for thirty minutes every week. The therapist spent a lot of time thinking of creative … 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
The child saw a giant cardboard box and suggested it was a pirate ship. Even if pirate fiction wasn’t one of my own special interests, I would have been on board immediately (ha ha, pun intended), but since it *is*, I was all over that idea. I didn’t know where the game would take us, … Read more