Monday, November 7, 2011

Share Some Good Stuff

Let's start the week off right - sharing some fun stuff for our kiddos.

I spent a little time this weekend on my newest online love, Pinterest.  If you haven't heard of Pinterest, you're missing out on a seriously fun, creative, inspiring, and educational waste of time.  Actually, it doesn't have to be a waste of time.  For me, it's a really relaxing way to spend a few minutes when I need an escape from it all.

Pinterest is basically a place where you can create and personalize online bulletin boards about anything of interest to you.  You can share your boards with others or keep them all to yourself.

If you're interested, you can follow me there at lanalrush.

Any-who, while scouring Pinterest, I discovered several wonderful ideas for kids with special needs.

Lily still needs a little help identifying body parts, especially her own.  She's more likely to point out someone else's nose or ears than the ones that belong to her!  So when I saw this Ziploc "My Body" Book, from I Can Teach My Child, I knew it would be perfect for the Bird.


I'll take pictures of her cute little ears, mouth, nose, toes, and the like and create a simple photo book.  Of course, Lily would totally scoff at those little baggies holding the photos.  She's way too advanced to let a little ziploc stand between her and whatever is inside.  The photos I take will be laminated for added protection.  I'm also going to create a "book" on her iPod Touch.

Lily is actively learning alphabet recognition so I really like this Letter Search game from Little Hands, Big Work.


But I am 100% certain that Lily will sample the uncooked rice.  I know it won't hurt her.  I'm just trying to decide what will end up being more fun for her - digging for the letters and putting them in the puzzle or eating the rice.  I'm leaning towards eating the rice which then begs the question, "what's the point???"

An activity that might be a little less likely to be sampled but still fun is a Sticky Table.

Pinned Image

Placing some contact paper upside down on the kitchen table and then using various things (pom poms, ribbon, foam shapes, pipe cleaners....) to stick on and pull off might be more successful.  And I could use alphabet letters for this.  I'm also going to stick on some of that bubble wrap with those really big fat bubbles for her to pop.

But the one almost guaranteed to catch her attention and hold it for a while?  A Kitchen Duty sensory bin.

While she may not care about washing the dishes, she'll play in the water and we can practice filling and pouring, sinking and floating.  Heck, we can even throw those alphabet letters in again and maybe fish them out with a slotted spoon.

So, if you're hunting up more activities than you'll ever have time to do with your kiddos, I suggest following a couple of Pinterest "pinners":

Tara Bennett (tmoney)
PediaStaff
Sensory Basic

I'm sure there are tons more pinners who share boards filled with wonderful ideas for special needs kids, so if you know of others, be sure to leave a comment and pass them along.

Also, if there's a book that has really helped you along in your special needs journey, would you leave a comment with the title?

We can learn so much from each other so don't be shy - share your ideas and resources!

8 comments:

  1. This sounds a tad like Tumblr. Is it?

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  2. Oh, how I could have used this just a year ago!! The book would've been great and I love that you will do it with Lily and have it laminated! That seems like a really fun one!

    I think I could use the fishing the letters out of rice - my little guy loves that sensation of putting his hands, feet - every part of him in beans and rice! The dishes look cute but I must admit I don't like water related things for the obvious spillage and splashing - maybe in the tub...(for him -not me!)

    I have another bloggy friend with a badge for Pinterest but I never knew what it was! Thanks Lana! I will check it out!

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  3. I have to check this place out. That sticky table looks like a blast!

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  4. Love these ideas. I know my kids would love the sticky table especially.

    OK, best autism book I've read: More Than Words by Fern Sussman. Pretty expensive, but worth every penny! Lots of stuff in there about how to play, teach communication skills, and use visuals.

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  5. Jim - I'm not totally familiar with Tumblr other than I think it's like a visual blog. Right or wrong? Tumblr sounds more "manly" than Pinterest....

    Karen - Glad to be of service! And I didn't used to be a fan of water play because it was just so much clean-up. But now I just count it as mopping the floors as well as playtime! Multi-tasking!

    Lizbeth - You will love it! :)

    Christy - Thanks for sharing the autism book. I'm not familiar with that one, which will shock my husband as he thinks I've read every special needs book known to man. I'm going to check it out and add it to my resources page.

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  6. I love Pinterest -- did you know that they have an iPad/iPhone app? It's great for those days when you're waiting in the therapy office ;-)

    You should meet one of my bloggy buddies too who also uses pinterst... http://pinterest.com/alliefields/ I'm stealing Allie's pins ALL THE TIME! Her blog is http://littlebabyfields.blogspot.com/

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  7. Yep...I'm a Pinterest addict and I brought Mom2LittleMiss to the dark side. Now we just need to get Lizbeth over there too.

    Ok...running over there now to follow you!

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  8. Karla - I'll have to check into the app. Sigh... I'll never escape now....

    Allie - We'll work on Lizbeth. WIll be looking for you there....

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