Keira – Page 14 – Search For Seven

Paper plate lion

September 3, 2020September 4, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

My daughter has really been struggling with scissor skills. It fits right in with all the fine motor stuff she’s been working on in OT. The fact is that if given the choice between big movements and small, this girly will choose big. And it goes further than movements. I’ve got an active, grand-movement-only type child. Nothing should be small in her mind. So slowing down and working on stuff she has to concentrate on is a major task for her. That’s why I looked up a list of scissor skills and made up scissor-cutting worksheets, and I’m working on a series of activities to use them.

From my fairly thorough internet research, scissor skills development includes:

snipping at the paper (cutting off small chunks)
cutting fringe (think the bottom of take a number papers. Or this activity)
cutting straight lines all the way through a paper
cutting zigzag lines all the way through a paper
cutting out shapes and objects
cutting out wavy lines

Please don’t count me an expert. An internet search doesn’t equal an OT degree. But I at least know we can work on those skills! So, I got to work creating the pages, and then we worked on making crafts with them. Today’s craft, as seen above, is a lion face. I made one with my daughter (you can see the difference in the skill level… at least I hope, haha), gave here a Styrofoam plate and a dry erase marker (I am sure it works just as well – if not better with a paper plate and washable markers, but we went with what we had) and showed her my example and she drew her own lion face. As mentioned above, she’s not big on small movements, so coloring is not her favorite thing. I think coloring on a different object than paper, and with a different medium, made it entertaining enough, but there is definitely a strong scribble game going on. And then, on to the part she wanted to do: Cutting the fringe mane.

After I cut the strips and she cut the fringe, I showed her how to curl the fringe. She had no patience for it, so we kinda did a few and then left it. Then, on to gluing. I found it easiest to glue the strips myself with liquid glue so that they got a little soggy and pliable before I handed them to her and had her put them around the plate. you need to curve/fold/bend them. obviously, because you’re working with a square paper and wrapping it around a round plate. Praise getting it on the plate because it’s harder than it sounds for preschoolers. Honestly, it was a challenge for me as an adult, so of course it’d be hard for preschoolers.

As far as skills, I’m pretty impressed. I mean I know it’s not “hey look at my super talented kid and what she can do.” but it was fun. And real. And she did pretty well for her relatively first craft. And I’m gonna do other similar projects because we need more scissor practice.

Tent play

September 3, 2020September 4, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

The nice thing about toddlers is that when they’re little, everything is an adventure. Including busting out a camping tool! we bought this little tent when my preschooler was little so we could go camping without worrying that our adventurous girl would wander off while we were all sleeping. It also came in handy on trips. And now, it makes a great play tent for a couple of adventurous little toddlers! As long as it stays fun, it’s useful, eh? Just don’t make it feel like they’re stuck there, because that totally changes the mood. It’s not fun if they feel like it’s not their choice. Grown ups are the same way.

Actually I was digging through the camping stuff when I found it and decided it would be fun. And the truth is, the preschooler still enjoys playing in it too, so it couldn’t have been that bad of a purchase.

If you want to check it out, you can still find it on amazon here. I am not an affiliate, so clicking on any links will give me a whole lotta nada. But that shouldn’t change your opinion. Do your own digging. And if you don’t wanna buy anything but still want to play with your toddler, it absolutely would work to just throw blankets onto a chair or something. Especially if you crawl under and play, which is kinda the point. Read a book, throw a few toys in, let toddlers learn through play – and you can’t go wrong.

If you want to involve yourself more you can and it will probably make the time last longer too, but it is your choice.

Kids Need Play

Freebie! Stick Figure Models

September 1, 2020August 31, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

I don’t know how it’s been for you lately, but my preschooler has been on one! She has been nagging nonstop and even yelled at her occupational therapist (we’re working on her pincer grasp. She struggles with fine motor skills. In my personal opinion, that is because everything she does is at 100 mph and she has no time to slow down and focus long enough to master said fine motor skills. This girl was born with a fire underneath her). I wanted to make an activity we could do together to hopefully reset the ‘tude she’s been dishing lately, so I made an activity that would hopefully let her slow down long enough and enjoy some time with me. I’m sharing it free with you (you’ll still need to grab a few supplies) in hopes that your kids will enjoy it, too. Scroll down to grab the freebie.

You’re gonna want to grab a few coffee stirrers (we call them hot chocolate stirrers) and save a milk lid for this activity, so plan ahead. But once you’ve gotten what you need, all you have left to do is to print out the page, cut the little figures apart (pretty important if your kiddo is easily distracted like mine. Not so important if that kiddo is older or less distracted), and sit down and build. I am pretty confident that an older preschooler would be able to enjoy themselves with little assistance, but younger kids definitely need some help figuring out how to move the pieces just right. It requires a bit of hand-eye-coordination and spacial relation. Bonus! This activity also works with the pincer grasp (we are becoming very familiar with those types of activities)!

Anyway, download the page and let me know how it goes!

Click here to download

Kids Need Play

Toddlers like fetch, go figure

September 1, 2020August 31, 2020 Keira

Dear reader,

Today I tried to teach my newly-minted-toddlers to roll the ball back and forth. I tried to roll the ball and they just kept handing the ball back instead of rolling it, and they seemed to have more fun bringing it back than anything else, so I improvised. Come to find out, toddlers really like playing fetch! I’m sure rolling it back will come later, but for now, … Well, we will class it up a bit and call it roll and go, haha!

One of the girls was a bit more keen on going and getting it, while the other was happier if I rolled it directly to her and let her bring it back to me, but that definitely comes down to personality; and let me say, it definitely fits with other aspects of their personalities. For instance, the one that loved going to get the ball is also the one that has been walking for a month and the one that would rather me roll it right to her is the one more quiet and interested in one-on-one interactions. That’s one of my favorite things about having twins: seeing how differently the same task can be done by a different personality. I look forward to more opportunities to observe that difference in the future.

for our youngest kids
the point is to teach and play together
just grab a ball and play!
this game is for little toddlers. Don’t expect much as far as attention

Kids Need Play

Canning Rings Sensory Play

August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

As I said in my earlier post, we are canning raspberries around here. So naturally, today’s toddler activity, fittingly, is playing with canning rings! they make a big clanking sound that my toddlers love, and it’s keeping them distracted while I’m helping my preschooler (aka my preschooler is helping me) turn raspberries into puree. They also make good bracelets and are easy for toddlers to hold. That’s totally educational, right?

I know there’s more than canning rings in my ring box, but they’re “hand-me-downs” from my grandmother, and that means that although they’re not as useful, I just can’t get rid of them! I’ll use them for something crafty eventually.

Honestly, the toddlers enjoyed it. And although they could damage them, I don’t think they’ll do any harm. And *bonus* it doesn’t take much mom involvement while they play!

A Day in the Life, Canning/Harvest, Kids Need Play

What We did with Our Berries

August 26, 2020June 24, 2022 Keira

Dear Reader,

I’ve had a longstanding date with my friend’s raspberry patch set for about once a year. She only calls me when it gets desperate in her patch and she’s struggling to catch up; her main goal is to fulfill all the demand that others have for berries from her patch and I usually take about half of the berries I pick. This year has been a great year for raspberries and she said she had more than she could handle, so I bought extra from her. That meant I’ve been busy working raspberries for the past few days. Since my preschooler helped me pick the berries, I figured she would also be interested in helping me process them, as well.

Obviously, this activity would have to be tweaked if you don’t have a food strainer, but you could easily mash berries with a potato masher! It just doesn’t involve a cool crank, too. My food strainer is called a Victorio, but based on the internet search dive I just took, they must have changed their name? either way, it looks like this. My preschooler could both turn the crank handle and mash the berries, and it was kinda fun watching her get so excited at something that is really technically a chore. She loved making “squished berry juice” and I loved both the help and the time with her. All in all, she lasted quite a while! Equal to about 4 quarts of raspberry juice/pulp. We added a little sugar and canned it that way.

I’m adding the activity scales here even though it’s not the end of the post because if you’re only reading for the activity, the rest of this is a little dry, but since this blog is also a chronicle of my gardening/canning adventures, I need to include the following information (mostly for me…)

All in all we had 6 gallons of berries (6 large clam shells) and it made:

2 batches of jam with lemon peel pectin (aka 8 cups of berries, 6 cups of sugar, an entire bag of my homemade lemon pectin – about 10 tablespoon cubes but they were old and nearly impossible to separate from the bag, hence the large batch, and 4 T lemon juice (it just needed the lemon). It set pretty well, but I understand why they tell you to do it in small batches. Some of the jars are extra firm gel and some are barely set).
2 gallon ziplocks of whole frozen berries (filled 2 xl cookie sheets and 3 regular sized (they’re Pampered Chef large size)
3 1/2 quarts of raspberry juice (it required a whole cup of sugar to make it not so tart) and then I went to the store and bought a regular sized clamshell of strawberries, a large clamshell of blueberries, a whole bag of grapes, and a small clamshell of blackberries and that plus the remaining raspberry juice (and half a cup of sugar) made another 2 1/2 quarts so I processed it all together – 5 quarts, 2 pints – and although the canning guides said 1/4″ headspace, I think I really needed a whole inch of headspace because they bubbled out everywhere and 3 didn’t seal (2 ended up in my fridge but I didn’t notice the 3rd until I didn’t wanna trust it),
pulp for fruit leather (filled a quart bag but its currently still in my fridge. I’ll update when it’s leather). I used the strainer and only ran it through once, so it’s really just pulp and seeds without any liquid. The liquid was bottled in the quarts above).

Kids Need Play

Painter’s Tape Spiderweb

August 24, 2020August 26, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader

I confess, I totally stole this idea from Pinterest; and I confess, that as most things stolen from Pinterest, it didn’t go as planned. I saw the idea for sticking toys to painter’s tape and making a toy web and I thought, “oh! this should be fun.” What I didn’t account for is that I should have done it during naptime, because I barely got it set up before the toddlers had to get involved. I think I will do this activity again but I will take my own advice and set it up during naptime. If I do it again, I’ll update!

I had my preschooler fetch toys to stick to the web (she loved that!). Finding just the right toys is harder than you’d think. Painter’s tape isn’t really all that strong, so it doesn’t hold a lot of weight. And I didn’t want anything furry/fabricky because I was worried about how well they’d stick (although as I think about it after the fact, they’d probably have been fine). Fisher Price Little People are a great option, if you have any. They’re hollow and small, easy to grab with little fingers, and stick well to the painter’s tape. The preschooler actually grabbed an eclectic variety, but what did I care?

the “game” lasted all of 5 minutes in reality, but had I had time to set it up better (aka, not been bombarded with toddlers), I think it would definitely last longer. And they did come back over and over, to get more tape off of more toys. One toddler enjoyed crawling under the tape (ironically, she’s the one eager to walk more, and almost runs), and the other enjoyed freeing the toys and would sit and pull the tape off each one.

It was pretty fun, even though it was quick. And watching them try to get the tape off was pretty entertaining. And now I have a whole roll of painter’s tape (I know we have some somewhere, but I couldn’t find it when I went looking, and it cost me all of a dollar ninety-eight to go buy a roll) to do it again. But this time I’m setting it up during naptime!

A Day in the Life, Kids Need Play

Field Trip! We went berry picking

August 24, 2020March 10, 2022 Keira

Dear Reader,

When we decided to come up with one purposeful activity per day with our preschoolers, it caused me to look at daily tasks in a whole new light. Suddenly, berry picking isn’t just a task to be done, it’s a chance to teach my preschooler a new skill; and instead of approaching it as a chore, it’s a time to spend in the wonder that is the preschooler mind.

When my friend invited me to come pick berries with her, I used that new paradigm and got excited about the chance to take my preschooler. Not only is it outside (her favorite place in the whole world), and involving food (she actually did pretty well at not eating all of the berries she picked. But toward the end, she did eat quite a bit and shared the wealth with her little sisters), but its also a chance to step out of our normal routine. And, as I said before, it’s a chance to teach a life skill to a preschooler. She caught on pretty quickly as to which berries to pick, reaching for less and less unripe berries as we went.

I think she had a pretty fun time! And I am a firm believer in the happy chemical boosts involved in working together. Not to mention the boost in Vitamin D by being outside in the sunlight.

I mean, I guess I should have been worried that my wild child would have ravaged my friend’s patch, but I decided that a little trust an expectation would go a long way. And it worked. She didn’t get bored before her sisters were just plain done. She actually worked really hard! and when she didn’t work, she thoroughly enjoyed herself talking the ears off of a new audience. And then there were butterflies, and that was fascinating. All in all, I’m soooo happy we went. If you’re ever on the fence as to whether your kid would be a benefit or a hindrance to the work that needs done, take them! Even if they’re a hindrance, they’re learning work ethic! They’re learning that the task can be fun. They’re watching you and learning life skills. And it might just go better than you fear.

Kids Need Play

Pan drumming

August 19, 2020November 17, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

I know, I know. Another classic activity. But I don’t know how you can really go wrong (in your kids’ eyes) by letting them bang on pans… I say that, but all the noise totally made one of my toddlers cry. One more reason I think the poor girl has another ear infection (she doesn’t always get fevers with them, but she does get them a lot). Eventually, she did get in on the fun, so who knows, maybe it just startled her.

As far as prep, well it’s as easy as grabbing some pans (preferably not the ones you’ll need for dinner that night, because I don’t consider toddlers all that sanitary and if you don’t need the pan for dinner it gives you the ability to wash the pan on your terms) and some kitchen spoons and showing them a time or two that it’s okay to bang on the pans. personally, I wasn’t worried about denting my pans because I don’t figure toddlers are really all that strong, and because I figured that either my pans could handle it, or they weren’t really good pans, anyway. And I have to say that even my weak pans are dent free. Not that I don’t think there’s some risk involved (please don’t blame me, do this activity at your own risk), but that I figured the activity would be fun enough without much damage.

the girls all loved it, including big sister! And she was great at showing them what to do.

I’d say the activity was a success as it kept them all entertained long enough to get dinner started (another reason to use pans you won’t need for dinner)! You’d figure the noise would be a nuisance but it didn’t actually bother me that bad. Maybe because I expected it, though. And doing the activity on carpet definitely helped. And, bonus! It cost me nothing.

Even greater, when you let imagination take charge, your older daughter will make a delicious toy soup for you! haha. Who knew you were signing up for dinner and a serenade!

toy soup, compliments of my preschooler.

We won’t mention how creepy it is to “eat soup” with a humanoid figure in it…

Anyway, I hope all is well with you and yours.

Kids Need Play

Macaroni Faces

August 19, 2020August 17, 2020 Keira

Dear Reader,

I know this activity is an oldie, and let’s be honest, all the pictures you see of it involve happy faces that are much more… shall we say, photogenic? But, my preschooler has a mind of her own. And I love that about her. She was so excited to get to use glue, though. When I set up the noodles and the plate, she was excited; we could have been doing about anything and it would have been a hit.

Naturally, knowing that I would be taking a picture, I wanted to show off some cute happy face that I can proudly instagram. But I’m not raising an instagram kid. I am raising a real kid. One who will understand that all emotions are good and serve a purpose. So when she chose a sad face, and I quote, “because she likes sad faces,” I didn’t try to change her mind. Its her plate. So, it’s not your typical, “look at what my kid did!” post. But we had fun.

She made hair, eyebrows, eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I put the glue on for her. Eventually, I’ll trust her to do it herself, but not yet. It went way faster than I expected. I asked her if she wanted to add more hair or if she wanted to make another, and my little busy girly was ready to move on, so we saved the rest of the noodles for another activity and moved on. I’m sure it’ll be a good boredom buster, but it was so fast, that I feel like it didn’t entertain her for very long. Maybe it seems to take so long because it’s usually an activity done with more than 1 kid? If we do it again, maybe I can convince her to do a happy face, eh?