The Year of No Glitter

So this summer we went to the pool a whopping four times. You might be saying, Nicole that's pretty good! Well, it would be great if we didn't pay for the all summer pass and lessons. Ugh! Most of this summer it was cool, or rainy, or it randomly got warm enough to swim at my child's bedtime or we had a cold. It was kind of a bummer.

I had to compensate with a lot of play dough, paint and baking projects. That's fine, but I think I've hit a wall and it isn't even Fall yet. I have an entire Midwest winter filled with kinetic sand and glue sticks to get through. So before the first day of September even passes, I am banning glitter. I'm done with it, it's evil. It can't be contained in a baking pan or a plastic box or the bathtub, so I am saying no thanks.

I've decided we will still do art projects and have messy time, but I'm allowed to ban glitter and anything that involves bathing or vacuuming after five minutes of play. So I wanted to share some of my latest cleaner alternatives for passing the time and engaging in creative play.


1. A Mother Goose Time monthly box.
This box comes with 20 + days of activities, music, art projects, manipulatives, books, puzzles and more. I have used this box for it's intended purpose as a homeschool curriculum, but I have also taken it apart as well. I have 2-3 of the art projects sitting ready to go in an old plastic container in my kitchen. If we need an activity while I am making dinner, I pull out one of the activities and within a few minutes my son is set creating, doing puzzles, following patterns and more. While I work, we talk about what he is doing and I ask him the questions provided by Mother Goose Time that correspond to that lesson or project. Some projects do include some messy play and even the occasional speck of glitter, but here is a secret....I don't use it. That's what so great about this box, you can follow a lesson plan to the letter or use the items in the way that best fits your educational or recreational style.

2.  Inexpensive items from the Dollar section at Target
A place mat with all the continents and animals from those areas is a conversation piece that cost me $1. I won't cry if it gets ruined. Gel clings that occupy my son and do not require a magic eraser; worth a dollar if you ask me. Oh, and even better are plastic containers from snack packs of cookies. I have a bag full of them. Fill them with paint for a Mother Goose Time project and then toss them when you are done.

3. Color Wonder Mess Free Markers
Markers and paper that cost more than normal markers and paper but are awesome. Especially if you keep them in a closet and make it a special item.


4. Kwik Stix Paint Markers
When I can't even bring myself to squeeze paint from the bottle or break out the water colors, I use these. They are amazing. They give you the coverage of acrylic paint without any liquid mess. We used them to make a Mother Goose Time project and they worked perfectly on my son's paper bag animal puppet.

5.  Wikki Stix
We received these in our complimentary August Mother Goose Time box and I am sold. Little wax sticks that can be shaped into almost anything. My son wanted to use them to spell out his name. Yes please. I am so excited to bring these to restaurants and overnights at grandparents.

I hope these tips have been helpful in finding some creative, stress-free tools for the cooler months ahead. I'd love to hear your tips for projects that don't involve crying during cleanup!
        

Walk Around the Block Challenge

I spend a lot of time as a parent and educator trying to plan the next entertaining activity for my preschooler. We've been to water parks, botanic gardens, beaches, play places, classes and more. I'm glad that I've done this and don't regret it but sometimes I wonder if do to my own anxiety and those pesky social media posts infiltrating my coffee-fueled brain at 1 am, if I could take it down a notch. My son seeks out a lot of movement and activity to stay regulated, but does that mean daily organized entertainment is a requirement? I don't know. Recently I thought, maybe this Wednesday I won't put on my top hat and sparkly leotard for the motherhood song and dance, and we will just walk around the block.

So starting last week, we decided that every Wednesday we would walk or take a tricycle ride around the block after lunch. We would take our time. I wouldn't roll my eyes if my son HAD to stop to collect three perfect pine cones or see how close he could get to a squirrel before it ran up a tree. These are real important elements to a walk, by the way.

On our first trek around the block, we saw a police car. My son remembered how we talked about police officers and their role as peacemakers in our community. This month, we have been discussing super heroes, their powers and the real heroes in society with our Mother Goose Time curriculum box. My son waved "Hi" and we peddled along to a tree that had been cut into pieces on the side of the street. He stopped, got off of the tricycle and examined the rings and took note that one piece looked like a boot print. He asked what these trees would be used for and if they would be recycled or made into paper. Another school topic from Mother Goose Time.

At this point, I'm pretty sure the Michigan-based company has a GPS on me and knows what topics and craft projects to send based on what questions my child is going to ask....

We then stopped to look at some beautiful flowers that are planted every year by a lovely women in down the block. We see orange, yellow and pink. Two of the flowers have different types of beetles on them. So we take pictures of the beetles to look up later, obviously. We stop to talk to a neighbor pushing her napping son in a stroller and show off our R2D2 helmet, which for some reason reminds both of us that we need to go back 20 feet and find three perfect pine cones.

When we get home, I happened to have a peace symbol project set up. Of course my son needs to replicate the colors of the flowers he saw on the walk to make the Mother Goose Time project perfect. I'm so glad we received the box this month in exchange for sharing our experience.

I challenge you, now that school schedules are getting started, activities are underway and that eclipse is over, to walk or ride around your block with your preschooler. I was pleasantly surprised by the observations we made and the questions it prompted. 

Finding Oral Sensory Balance in the Early Years

At my son's one year checkup, we ticked off the list of milestones without much hesitation. My son was growing, moving and happy to interact with family and friends. I decided to mention something that I had noticed since first introducing him to more textured solid foods, a few months prior. I told our pediatrician that our son would close his lips and turn his head away when offered baby food that had mixed textures. He also gagged when he would try a bite. I found this somewhat perplexing since he shoved any rock, pine cone or stick he could find in his mouth, and consumed banana teething biscuits like they were going out of style. By the way, the foliage eating was not encouraged, and erroneous items were quickly removed. Also, we do live inside. The pediatrician felt that this behavior could be the result of discomfort do to earlier acid reflux, or something more, but we needed to wait and see.

Fast forward eight months and we were in feeding therapy that was lead by an occupational therapist trained to work with kids that have oral motor issues. Over the course of a year, we determined that our son had some low muscle tone throughout his body and in his mouth. We also learned that he was both a sensory seeker and a sensory avoider. While my son craved proprioceptive input from his beloved cheddar bunnies, he also couldn't handle pasta with sauce on it. After months of practice at home and in therapy, my son had become more of a picky eater and less of a problem eater. We also were met with a struggle when giving up the bottle and drinking from a cup. We continue to work on strengthening his muscles and exposing him to new textures almost two years later.

Toward the middle of our time in therapy, we were introduced to the ARK Z-Vibe. It has become one of the most used sensory regulation tools in our home. If you have a "seeker" I highly recommend a giant foam-filled bean bag chair and a Z-Vibe. ARK Therapeutic has been kind enough to send over some products for my son to experiment with and we are loving the experience.

In the beginning, we used this vibrating, oral-motor tool to essentially wake up my son's mouth muscles a bit before trying new foods. Overtime, this tool has become an amazing regulating device. My son asks for his "buzzy," when he feels that he needs it and we give it to him before and after activities that demand a lot of consideration or sensory input. The Z-Vibe and some headphones were a big part of our recent successful trip to see Madagascar the Musical.

ARK even provides a book filed with information and techniques to work with the tool in the child's mouth and on lips. Having this guide is so great, because I have at times felt that we as parents need the full picture of how to carry out protocol and activities in the home. Seeing a therapist once a week can only do so much.

Our go-to ARK tool is the Z-Vibe with the yellow, bumpy tip. We have several tips that work with the Z-Vibe, including ones that look like animals. I am also a fan of their chewy jewelry and simple chewies that act as pen toppers, which might be useful as my son gets older. The company has a variety of products that help with drinking, fine motor needs and eating. I've found everything to be very durable and easy to clean.

I am so thankful that these fun tools are available to my child and that the people making them are smart, kind and truly want their consumers to get the most from the products. While I am not a therapist or a physician, but I am a parent who has loved their experience with this company and their willingness to share helpful information and make a product that helps regulate my child. Please feel free to share with me your journey toward better sensory regulation. I love all the tips that I can get!

Getting Twice the Use Out of Project Materials

We have had another fun week discussing super heroes, super powers and doing amazing (I mean super) projects. We talked about invisibility and made perplexing paintings and created magic message revealing wands. We practiced sounding out our CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words, and learned some new sight words with a super hero themed I Can Read early reader book.

We also used a manipulative that we received in this month's box that has been an overwhelming hit with the three year old crowd: magnetic wands! After all of these activities, I realized we not only had some left over materials, but I also had amazing items that I could re-purpose for other simple projects that I have been wanting to test out! With the Mother Goose Time curriculum box, I've learned that you can do double duty with a lot of the materials.

Materials like early readers and the fabulous magnetic wands will grow with my son. I happened to have just read a bit in an encyclopedia (I know its sounds random, but my kid likes to have the encyclopedia read to him,) about magnets. He wanted to know how strong magnets could be. He also wanted to know if a magnet could be covered in different materials to make it weaker or stronger. Specifically, if water could stop magnetic objects from attracting one another. So apparently Mother Goose Time knew this was going to happen in August and sent me these good quality magnetic wands to experiment with. Thanks for knowing!

We proceeded to fill recycled, plastic dumpling trays with metal paper clips and water. We then froze the trays and once frozen, popped them out onto a baking sheet. My son loved lifting the cubes with the magnetic wands and super hero powers. We then let the ice melt; not a long wait on a hot, summer day. We then talked about the super powers of matter, and how water is easily transformed from a solid, to liquid and then to a gas. Of course. we boiled the water and watched the evaporation in action.

We have loved receiving this curriculum this month in exchange for our thoughts and experiences. Definitely check out how you can get multiple uses out of your Mother Goose Time monthly box.

BREATHE and Meditate with your toddler

For the last few months, my son been attending a one-on-one therapeutic yoga and meditation to help him with some challenges surrounding anxiety and sensory regulation. I have seen some great progress in my his ability to self-regulate. Especially when reminded to use the techniques that he has learned from his lovely teacher.

One tool he has used in the therapy sessions is an app called Breathe, by Stop, Breathe and Think, that can be tried out for free. We hear about tons of educational apps for kids, but there isn't a lot of talk about a simple tool to help calm a child. We have been using it at home over the last two weeks.  There are two versions, Breathe and Breathe Kids. We have enjoyed both. Breathe is for all ages and walks its' users through calming, guided meditations that are tailored to your current mood. Breathe Kids also does this, but offers videos to engage children. We've actually not used the videos as of yet, since we use the app to help my son slow down, close his eyes and be still.

Being still isn't a strong point, or in my opinion a requirement for any small child, but there are benefits to learning how to be okay with laying down quietly, without any visual stimuli. This is very difficult for my son, but after two weeks of using the app once or twice daily, but son happily requests his relaxation time. He loves Bulldog, the main character of the soothing stories, who seeks to find his heartbeat, his quiet place or weather the storm.

Once a day, I encourage my son to lay down and quietly listen, while I put a mixture of lotion and essential oils on his legs and feet. While this sounds crazy luxurious for a three year old, it actually serves two purposes. It helps calm him, but it also helps him work on a sensory sensitivity of being touched by others.

I encourage any parent to incorporate mediation into their young child's day. It can take as little as three minutes and can start a good habit early on. Namaste!

$1 Summer Ice Balloon Craft

Here it is....$1 craft time! These crafts I've been posting keep getting less and less expensive. Pretty sure I won't top $1 craft. Unless you consider my son coloring on the walls a Pinterest-worthy free DIY project.

For this project, grab yourself a $1 bag of party balloons. Find some small objects i.e. coins, pom poms, mini Thomas trains. You can also use some food coloring as well. Find a helper, stretch your balloon out and fill it with the objects. You can then add about 5-10 drops of coloring, if you are using it. Then fill the balloon with water to the size of a softball and tie it off. Feel free to make one several at a time and put them in a plastic bag in your freezer.

Twelve hours later, you will have ice balloons. have a child trim the tied off section on the balloon with scissors and peel the balloon away. Before demolition, we painted on our balloon with some water colors and old markers. Now you will need to figure out how you will get the treasures out. We used an eye dropper and a cup of warm water, a spray bottle filled with warm water, a fork, a toy screw driver and the concrete.

Part of the fun is testing and talking about how effective the methods are. We also took this opportunity to introduce a new word: friction. In this case, it was the lack of friction that caused an issue. My son had to problem solve how to stop the ice from sliding around as he worked toward the treasure retrieval

I hope you have as much fun for $1 as we did on this humid, summer afternoon.

Not one but TWO Easy Dollar Store Crafts

I interrupt my regular scheduled educational blogs to share two super simple dollar store DIY projects. You obviously need to be at the Dollar Tree this week buying back to school items so get the following: 1 box of crayons (possibly baby ones with no paper,) paper muffin cups, Rigatoni, food coloring and white vinegar.

When you get home, either recruit a sensory seeking child to peel the paper off of the crayons or grab a sharp razor/Xcato knife and get those suckers off yourself. A tip from a DIY failure: don't watch Modern Family reruns while using an Xcato knife. Ugh.

Have your child fill a paper cup lined, muffin baking sheet with broken crayons. You only need to make a single layer of crayons per cup. You can take this a step further and ask your child to sort the colors and put a piece of each color in each individual cup. Or let them make each cup be a mish-mash of whatever they chose.

Set your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and let the crayons bake/melt for 10 minutes.  I let my son watch the melting action by turning on the oven light. Take out your new trippy crayons and let them cool. Our crayons popped out of the paper easily after cooling.

For DIY number two, have your child count 5-10 pieces of pasta into plastic sandwich bags. We took this opportunity to casually introduce the concept of skip counting. We made four bags of ten pieces of pasta. My son was surprised that we could count to forty in groups of ten so quickly.

Have a small bowl of white vinegar set to go. Your child can scoop two tablespoons of vinegar into each bag. Help them squeeze five drops of your color of choice into each bag. These are more opportunities to touch on skip counting.
Close the bags up and have your child shake and spread out the vinegar and dye in the bags. Now as an adult who doesn't want to dye their family or clothing orange, I recommend placing the bags on a high counter, opened, to let the dye set. After a few hours, remove the pasta to dry completely on a paper towel overnight.

The next day, you can string your pasta beads to make an exquisite bracelet or necklace. Practice patterns or make different carbo-loaded accessories for different occasions.

Becoming a Superhero & Looking to Connect with other Super Homeschoolers!

 We are all still sick here in Chicago. Between the rain and the colds, I feel like this summer hasn't even happened and we are a week into August. We've had a new Mother Goose Time box to keep us company. The superhero theme could not come at a better time.

One thing I really like about the convenience of a box curriculum is the fact that fellow trained teachers have already done the work tying together different projects, games and books to fit a bigger picture over a week and month. Each day this week, we created a project that worked fine motor skills and creativity and in the end, we had a full superhero costume. From mask to cape, from belt to shield, my son was set to save the world. We also decided to make the projects as suggested and then because there were some extra materials, we were able to change things up and make our projects a "silly way." We painted capes with toy cars and made dot marker designs on our belts.

My son loved running around the house and yard as The Amazing Adrian. He enjoyed using the magnetic wands and game that was included for the week.














As a homeschooling parent of one preschooler, I'd love to connect with other homeschoolers. I couldn't help but think this week how great it would be to chat with another family that is creating the same crafts that we are. Maybe a Skype or FaceTime is in order. If your family is participating in Mother Goose Time or homeschooling a preschooler, I'd love to connect and maybe have a video pen pal for my son to share ideas with.

As a new school year ramps up, we can't wait to see what our fellow Mother Goose Time friends and homeschoolers have in store! This month we have received the Mother Goose Time curriculum in exchange for our written personal experience with the program.