Surviving Isolation - Activit(ies) of the week #3 - Seven sensory sensations

The post below comes to us by guest blogger, Becca. Follow her daughter's story here: http://woodra01.wordpress.com/

Thank you so much, Becca, for sharing your ideas today!

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My little one, Charlie, was born the day she reached twenty six weeks gestation and weighed 790 grams. She is almost two years old now but continues to struggle with motor delays and sensory issues.

These are a few of her favorite home activities I use to help her with the delays:

1) Pillow Obstacle Course: When Charlie was a creeper and/or crawler, I used couch cushions, decorative cushions, and bed pillows to create an obstacle course for her to crawl over. Now that she is starting to walk, I stack the pillows a little higher (make sure they are steady), create a three pillow tunnel, or have her walk over a pillow (remain close by to catch any tumbles).

2) Rice or Bean Hunt: I use a plastic storage container, but a shoebox or a big pot will work just as well. I fill it with rice, beans, quinoa, millet, or anything that I have on hand. Then, I bury small toys in the container and leave a few visibly sticking out. After a prompt such as “Where’s the duck? I’m going to get it!” Charlie loves to dig through the container to find her toys.

Image courtesy of
http://woodra01.wordpress.com/

3) Textured Fabric Exploration: I gather different types of fabric items such as fleece, knit sweaters, towels, flannel, nylon, etc and place the fabrics in a clothes basket. Charlie and I explore the fabrics. I ask questions like “Is it scratchy? Is this one soft?” We also use the fabrics to play games such as peek a boo or to hide toys.

4) Pasta Sorting: Charlie and I make a game of putting the long pieces of uncooked spaghetti in to empty water bottles or soda bottles. Containers with wider mouths like a the cardboard center of paper towel roll or a jar can work for kids that need it.

5) Homemade Instruments: I make this one up each time we do it. Sometimes, I fill a container with a lid (tape it closed) with beans, rice, or anything that will make a rattle noise. For a quick option, I grab a pot or pan and a wooden spoon to make an instant percussion instrument. Charlie plays the instrument along with her favorite musical video.

6) Window Markers: Charlie likes to use washable markers, white board markers, or markers made specifically for windows on our sliding glass door. Sometimes, I draw and encourage her to imitate my drawing motion.

7) Stuffed Animal Safari: Charlie has a large number of stuffed animals. I place them in different locations around the house. Together we go on a safari! I say something like, “Let’s go find the bear! What does the bear say?” and we look around to find the selected animal. In the process, she climbs up stairs, practices her walking, and we work on her speech. After she finds the chosen animal, we place it in a collective area. When we finish, we recap the animals she has found and go over sounds.

Surviving Isolation - Activity of the Week #2 - Sensory Kitchen

Image from freedigitalphotos.net, Serge Bertasius Photography

Today is one of those days that doesn't feel like an isolation day. Actually, that's been this whole week.  In addition to early intervention, occupational therapy and physical therapy (JAM's normal weekly appointments) we've also gotten to see his ophthalmologist, pulmonologist, and had an MRI done (not a big deal, but a time-consuming one).

So we haven't really been isolated. We've been busier than I was when I had an infant and a toddler and was a stay-at-home mom who could actually attend story time and go to the grocery store.

Thus, I pass off my weekly prompt to a micro-preemie mom in arms, another mother who delivered a baby in July instead of November the year Jonathan was born.

The title of her post is "Making Blueberry Sour Cream Bread in Jax's Sensory Kitchen"

Her recipe looks delicious, her plan flawless -- so head over to her blog and learn how to make the most in a sensory way of these cold and grueling days.

Here's what I like about her post:
1. It smells good
2. Your kid can play with the ingredients -- either in a plastic bag or out (depending on if you want to use the ingredients for anything)
3. For potentially oral-adverse kids and kids with processing disorders, playing with textures and smelling the results seems IDEAL.

By the way, so -- you may not have all the ingredients in your house (particularly true if some of your family is vegan, like mine) -- but even so, LOOK, you can do this with ANY recipe. (Let's be honest, though, I really really want to make THIS recipe after reading her description.)

Thanks, mom of Jax (see, even a similar name! I love this blogger!) for your great ideas. Stay warm.

Surviving Isolation - Activity of the Week #1

We are in our second year of isolation.  For us that means JAM doesn't go to public places (with doctor/therapy appointments and a twice a week in-home daycare being our necessary exceptions) and we limit the amount of people that come in to our home.

Last year things were even tighter. We had a nanny to watch him while I worked half-time, and he qualified to have a visiting nurse administer shots. It was only about once a week that we brought him out of the house -- usually for specialist appointments. Our girls did and do scrub in when they come home from school, and last year we instituted a "jammies on, school clothes off" rule as soon as they walked in the door.  It helped. No RSV.

(In case you think I'm insane for all these rules, read more about RSV and micro-preemies here. When I was pregnant I was sure I wouldn't be even bothering to dust off pacifiers before sticking them in my third child's mouth. That's before I had a medically fragile micro-preemie.)

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SO -- in the interest of helping caregivers of premature babies stay sane during the winter months, Wednesday JAM sessions for the month of February will be a way to celebrate all the fun that can be had at home.  Each week we will showcase one game that a baby/toddler might like to play. Since I DON'T have the ability to go shopping (see the first paragraph), every activity will:
1. Use common household items.

And, since so many of the kids in isolation are still developing gross/fine motor skills, these games will also:
2. Be able to be performed in a high chair or bumbo seat (most likely - I'm opening this to guest bloggers, and they can do whatever they like) and
3. Be appropriate for two month to two year olds

They will all be JAM tested-and-approved (or, in cases of guest bloggers, guest-blogger-baby-tested-and-approved) and I will post my rankings and JAM's rankings at the bottom.

ENJOY! And if you try these, please comment below so we can hear how other kids responded. (Anonymous commenting is enabled, so you don't have to sign-in or anything.)
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ACTIVITY OF THE WEEK - WEEK 1
PUTTING THINGS IN THINGS.

Needed:
Shallow bowl or muffin tin
Objects that are (a) baby appropriate (b) easy to grab and manipulate for baby (not choking hazards).

Set up & "game":
Put bowl or muffin tin in front of baby.
Demonstrate dropping objects into bowl or tin.
Let baby pick objects out of bowl. Encourage (but don't expect) baby to put objects back into the bowl.

Variations:
For a challenge put a plastic lid on top of the bowl. Cut a hole in the lid that is larger than the objects given to the baby. Encourage baby to find a way to put the toy in the bowl even with the lid on.

Notes:
Baby will be able to pick objects out of a bowl long before they are able to drop objects into a bowl. Don't be surprised if after they get an object in each hand, the next several minutes are spent banging the bowl/muffin tin or (if your kid isn't oral-adverse) chewing on the toy. (I don't think I need to say it again -- but make sure the toy/object is something the child won't choke on...)

Also, we didn't do it below, but it'd be super easy to throw a dish cloth over the muffin tin or bowl and start to teach some object permanence (or "play peek-a-boo with the objects").

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JAM DEMONSTRATES
The above sounds fairly plain, obvious, and probably not very fun. But as JAM (and his sisters) demonstrate, it's actually the BEST-GAME-EVER. (Reminds me of how kids like the box a toy comes in almost as much as the toy...)

We used:

• Blue plastic wash basin inherited from JAM's NICU stay
• Plastic bottle tops also from the NICU (Our NICU provided lactating mothers with sanitized storage bottles. We didn't save the bottles, but we did save the tops, because I figured we'd be able to find something to do with them.)
• A muffin tin

 First we practiced putting bottle tops into a plastic bowl. I tried to put tinfoil on the top of the bowl and make an opening, but that does NOT work. So don't try it. The tinfoil fell apart and would have been a choking hazard. So, yes, stick to plastic tops if you're going to create your own opening.

Then we took out a muffin tin.  First we sorted, then we stacked. Then the girls joined in the game. The decided that they were making muffins, which made JAM a bit hungry (even though he's never eaten a muffin, he's often thought they sounded like a good idea).

Sorted

Stacked

Sisters stole my game, but I didn't care.

Then I started to care...

So we all played together. Mom has a LOT of bottle tops.
I thought our bottle top muffins looked VERY tasty.

Believe it or not, it took about 20 minutes before this inevitable thing happened:

I took a few videos to demonstrate how JAM felt about the activities.  YouTube is still processing the videos, but they will be available here and here.

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Overall Activity Score:

5/5 for ease & flexibility (you could probably use this to teach colors/shapes as well, and can be done with independent play or as an activity together to teach many things.)

5/5 for cost (free!!!)

4/5 for ease of cleaning. There were LOTS of bottle tops on the ground after this activity

JAM'S SCORE:

3.5/5  This toy didn't make me laugh. I like to laugh. But it DID make different cool sounds when I hit different parts of it together. And I had to concentrate really hard to do this puzzle. I worked at it for a long time before it got boring. And then my sisters played with me, so that was a bonus! For once I understood one of their games!

Mom's Score:

5/5 Easy to clean up, he can play in the kitchen, and it kept his attention for a long time. If I hadn't been holding the camera, I could have done a load of dishes while talking to him about what he was doing. LOTS of possibilities for expanding on the theme. 

(You can't tell it on the videos, but we did some talking together about what he was doing.  I just hate hearing my own voice on film, so I cut it out in the edits.)

Hope this inspires!

Please post your comments/ideas/inspirations or similar things you've done below.

I am opening up this blog theme to guest bloggers this month (I've already got one lined up! So excited!) so if you either:

(a) have a blog you'd like me to link to

-or-

(b) want to guest-blog about activities you and your child have done, please send me a note at momofa23weeker@gmail.com

Have a fantastic February!  Make the best of it.