A Little Hair Gel and Stickers

This morning I was reading an educational/child development blog and laughed out loud.  The blog was about ideas to do/make with your child.  While the intent was fine,  I kept thinking,  good grief, that's a lot of stuff to gather, not to mention time and cost!!!  Maybe if I had had a nanny I would have tried it.  Probably not.  I was always a low maintenance kind of mom...minimal effort, minimal requirements, minimal money.

All day I have been thinking parents need ideas that are easy to do and use things they already have or could get relatively cheap.  My friend Staci then just happened to post a few pictures of a couple of activities she did today with her son.  Staci is a stay at home mom, but before you think, oh well of course she has time, let me explain.  Staci has one son who has autism.  While I love reading her posts about life with autism and think they are hysterical, she has her hands full.   Then to add to an already stressful life,  her youngest son was recently diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder.  I share this with you only for you to have a context - if Staci can think of this, you can too.

Try a little "letter learning" with "sensory tactile stimulation." Jonah enjoyed closing his eyes to dig through the rice to find a magnetic letter. He then matched his letter to the letter written in sharpie on the baking pan.   Matching the letter to an outline lays the foundation for learning the shape or configuration of words. Who doesn't have magnetic letters, rice and a baking sheet?

Here's the other idea Staci tried.   With a sharpie draw 'boxes' for sorting on the outside of a zip lock bag. Put hair gel in the bag.  Add some stickers and then seal it.  Let your child sort the stickers into the appropriate boxes.   Think of all they ways you can vary this simple activity.

Have fun!