Mess-less Fingerpainting

Am I the only one who hates cleaning up fingerpainting messes???  Even setting up the event is a process.  The table needs to be covered with plastic, the floor needs a drop cloth, the child needs a smock...nevermind cleanup!

Which is why mess-less fingerpainting is such a breeze!  No mess, no handwashing, no clothes stains...but cute paintings, and a great sensory experience!

Process:

1) Take a gallon ziplock bag.  Place an 8x11 sheet of paper inside the bag, and put generous blobs of paint scattered on top of the paper (inside the bag). 

2) Zip the bag, taking care to push out most of the air, without smearing any of the paint.

3) Let your child go to town, spreading the paint through the plastic all over the paper. 

4) When he/she is finished, carefully pull the plastic bag away from the paper and pull the paper out to dry.

In addition to creating a cool art project, this is a great sensory experience.  Feeling the "squish" of paint underneath the plastic is a unique texture to explore.  The activity also lends itself to finger-isolation practice, as the pointer finger can be used in isolation to spread the paint.

And once again, it's messless!  A fun sensory activity, with zero clean-up!

Indoor Snow Day

I'm sure I'm not the only mom to confess that I really dislike getting my children dressed to play in the snow.  Without exaggeration, it takes a good 15 minutes to pull the snowpants on my squirming child, chase him down the hallway to squeeze the boots on his feet, put on the jacket, pull the hat over his ears (once, twice, three times, as he keeps pulling it off), and then tackle the mitten situation...whoever thought putting thumb holes on toddler mittens was a good idea, clearly never had a child of their own.

So with this experience in my background, I have pretty much tried to limit snow adventures to special occasions in the winter!  Ty loves the snow though - loves looking at it, loves playing in it.  So this winter, I decided to bring the snow inside to Ty.  This ended up being a 45 minute activity that he absolutely loved.  In fact, he cried when the snow melted and he realized that snow time was over. 

The method is simple - take a large bowl.  Go outside, fill it with lots of snow (fluffy, yet sticky snow is fantastic!).  Get out smaller bowls, spoons, ladles, forks, and let your child go to town.  If you really want to get creative, you can teach your child the art of snowball and snowman-making. 

The best part of this activity?  Snow leaves behind no debris...the only clean up is cold water from the melted snow.  The snow can get flung, dropped, smeared...and the only result will be cold water.  And hey, I'm sure any floor in the house of a toddler can use a little extra water for cleaning! 

Indoor snow days are a blast!  Have fun!

Climbing Mountain

Climbing is a challenging milestone to reach.  Strength, coordination, balance, endurance, and motivation are all intricate components of learning to 4-point crawl, which is why learning this skill often takes longer for children with Down Syndrome to achieve.

For Ty, 4-point crawling took a very, very long time.  While he could army-crawl with the best of them, pushing up onto all fours, and propelling himself forward involved so many skills that took a while for him to achieve.  When he could finally push up onto all fours, motivation to move forward in that position was key for him.  Since army-crawling had been his preferred method of transportation for 6 months, he was quick and skilled in that position.  I had to be very creative to stay one step ahead of him, to develop activities that would make him want to 4-point crawl.

I tried every trick under the sun.  While climbing stairs was a huge motivator to use this position effectively, moving on all-fours on flat surfaces was more of a challenge.  This is where the "Climbing Mountain" came in. 

The "Climbing Mountain" is probably one of the simplest gross-motor activites to create.  All you need are large pillows or cushions, and a large blanket.  Randomly toss the pillows or cushions on the floor, making sure to leave spaces in between them.  Lay a large blanket over the pillows and cushions, so the area takes on peaks and valleys.  On top of the "peaks" place motivating toys - for Ty, these were cars, books, and music-related items - whatever gets your child excited!  Finally, let him/her loose!

The idea behind the "Climbing Mountain" is simple.  Since the blanket is not secured along the edges, if a child tries to army-crawl, the blanket will bunch up and pull, making it very difficult to move.  The elevated areas with high-interest toys encourage climbing and upward movement, that can only be achieved in the hands and knees position.

 

 

As simple as this activity is, it transformed Ty from a stubborn army-crawler, to a proficient 4-point crawler in a matter of a week.  He hasn't looked back since!

Gingerbread Houses

Food in general is questionable territory for Ty.  It takes repeated exposure, a bit of creativity, and a lot of enthusiasm to encourage him to even interact with a food, nevermind eat it.  Needless to say, food play is a large part of our daily eating routine.  Actually, we spend more time playing and interacting with food than we do eating it. 

So when Christmas rolled around, making gingerbread houses was a natural activity to incorporate to our daily food play routine.  Best of all, it involved his all-time favorite food:  graham crackers! 

I love this activity for a few reasons.  First of all, it's a traditional seasonal activity that naturally accompanies all the lights, candy canes, and red and green decor.  But it is also such a great non-threatening way to interact with new and familiar foods.  There is no pressure to eat any of them, so as a result, the foods leave a positive impression on the mind of the snobby eater!

These gingerbread houses are actually made from graham crackers - a simple food that is more likely to be laying around the kitchen than a slab of gingerbread!

Ingredients/Tools for One Small House:
- graham crackers
- frosting
- assorted candies, small foods, sprinkles, etc (anything that might be fun to play with!)

How to Build a House:
1) Be creative!  Use the graham cracker squares to form some type of house.  (I promise, style does not matter - your child will be incredibly impressed with any house you build!)
2) Put the frosting inside of a plastic sandwich baggie, and cut off a small corner of the baggie to allow a small opening where you can squeeze the frosting through. 
3) Squeeze the frosting onto the edges of your house where walls will meet to assemble.  I recommend building this on a paper plate for easy transfer! Be careful - it will be loose for a while!
4) When your masterpiece is complete, let it sit for several hours so the frosting can harden and set.  For the impatient parents like myself, the freezer is an effective option as well!
5) Once the house is secure, go crazy!  Show your child how to use frosting as "glue" and how to stick candy pieces and sprinkles on the frosting to decorate the house.  This is the fun part!

For Ty, it took two rounds of gingerbread house decorating to warm up to the foods and presentation of the crackers.  By the time we finished decorating the second house though, he cried because he didn't want to stop! 

Happy house decorating!