Homemade Game of "Odd One Out"

How to Play It
- Explain to the child that in the group of 4 photos, there is one which doesn't belong; one which is different from the rest. The child is supposed to place a piece with an "X" printed on it (not shown in photo) on the photo that doesnt belong/the odd one out.

- If the child has not played this game before, start with a very simple set before progressing to harder ones. E.g. the set on the left in the photo above is quite simple. The grouping is "animal". An even simpler set to start off with would be, for e.g. the set on the right in the photo above. The grouping is "fish". Start simple so as to set the child up for success, not failure. Once he feels he can do it, it'll be a great motivator to move on to harder sets.

- Give the child a chance to think & come up with the answer on her own. If it's right, great! But ask why she decided so, to check that it wasn't a fluke. It doesnt matter if it is wrong initially. Explain to her the right answer. Bear in mind also that the child may see things differently from you, so her answer may be right too, based on her logic (that is, if her logic is right).

How to Make It

- I used powerpoint as it's easy to draw shapes for the outline, customise the colour, size, inserting the photo & resizing/cropping it.

- Photos are obtainable from various websites. I tend to use http://www.corbis.com/, http://www.fotosearch.com/.

- Print, cut & paste onto cardboard/artcard. Laminate for durability if you wish.

- Do make sure you vary the location of the photo that doesn't belong (the answer). You wouldnt want the child to think the answer is always for e.g. the top right photo.

Themes

- There's an infinite number of themes to use. The only limit is your creativity. The photos below are some of the sets I've made.

The set on the left is on animals that fly. The set on the right is on insects.

The set on the left is on objects that fly. The set on the right is on ocean animals.

The set on the left is on pets. The set on the right is on farm animals.

Benefits

- early maths skill

- reinforces themes introduced

- fine motor (placing the card with the "X"). If the child is not able to place the card, you can of course vary it by having the child point or name the answer or use the child's alternative communication methods.

- cognitive skill

Want a softcopy to save time?
I'm happy to share my files if it's for personal homeuse. Just email me. My email is in my profile.

Homemade Game of Dominoes

How to Make It

- Using powerpoint is the easiest as it has the funtions I need to draw shapes, customise the colours, insert photos.

- Photos can be obtained from professional photography catalogue websites like http://www.corbis.com/, http://www.fotosearch.com/. I specifically choose photos with a white background, where possible, as it looks "clean" and more professional. He seems to be more interested when I use such photos.

- For my son who's still young, I just used 4 different pictures. Ensure that you have 2 sets of all the combinations from that 4 pictures as it'll make it much easier to play with a young child.

- Print, cut and paste unto cardboard/art card. You can instead use plastic/paper corrugated material for a chunkier feel for very young kids or kids whose fine motor skills are more challenged.

Variations for Playing It

- For younger kids, you may neeed to customise the rules of the game. Instead of turning over a domino piece and then finding that there isnt a matching picture (which may greatly discourage him), you can deliberately choose a domino piece that has one matching picture & have the child match & place it side by side.

- Themes that can be used: colours, numbers, alphabets, ocean animals, farm animals etc. There really is no end to the possible variations. Start with a theme that interests the child e.g. the theme vehicles could have cards with the pictures of a digger, dump truck, bus and train. When he gets the idea of the game, introduce other sets which have themes you target.

- For encouraging speech/as part of speech therapy activity, what I did was to ask him which side he'd like the next piece to join up to. Then have him verbally request for a piece that has that photo. E.g. "Mama, I want a card with a photo of the man kicking". Since we're currently practising the "c/k" sound & it's still hard for him to say such a long sentence, I just have him say "kicking" or "walking" or "cooking" etc.

Benefits of the Dominoes Game

- reinforce vocabulary of new themes introduced in other activities

- turn taking

- visual discrimination

- reinforce concepts introduced in other activities e.g. counting (counting the dots) or numbers (matching roman numerals) or colours

- fine motor

- hand eye coordination

- as a speech therapy game

Why I Made It
- Last year, I came across a version of printable dominoes for young kids on one of the toddler activities websites. It had the traditional dots on the face of it except that it's much larger and colour coded. We played it to reinforce counting & colour recognition.

- This time round, I made it as part of speech therapy homework to encourage practising the middle "k" sound (see earlier post: http://humbledmum-myjourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/speech-therapy-homework.html)

Want a copy?

I'll gladly share the set photographed above with those who want it (saves you time) - just drop me an email. (My email is in my profile)

Homemade Game of Snap

In the next few posts I'll write about the homemade games/activities I've recently made.


The one I'll write about in this post (the snap game) was easy. It's also timely as Hari Raya is just a few days away! Just download from this website, print, cut and paste on cardboard.
http://www.disneychannel-asia.com/DisneyChannel/playhouse/grownups/media/celebrationcenter/pdfs/hariraya/HARI_RAYA_ACT_RAYA_SNAP.pdf

There are other activities & crafts from Playhouse Disney - just get to their main website, then click on the "celebration centre" icon and choose the festival you want e.g. christmas, hari raya.

This game helps in:

- fine motor (picking up one card at a time from a pile of cards; putting it on the central pile)

- turn taking (waiting for his turn to flip a card over)

- memory (he has to remember what was the immediate past card)

- concentration (depending on age, he may lose concentration quite fast, so keep the game short)

- reflexes (has to be fast to shout 'snap')



Variations of the game can be made yourself at home:

- use the game to reinforce concepts that you're teaching e.g. shapes, colours, alphabets, numbers, sight words

- use the game to reinforce themes or subjects that you introduced e.g. a set for ocean animals contains 2 octopuses, 2 starfishes etc; a set for farm animals

- use the cards for a classic memory game by placing them face down in a row & having him turn two cards at a time to find matching pairs.

I find that powerpoint is very useful. Photos can be obtained from various professional online photo catalogues like http://www.fotosearch.com/ and http://www.corbis.com/ and http://www.gettyimages.com/
For some of them you may have to register before being able to download. You dont have to pay for the photos unless you want them without the company's watermark. For home use (& not commercial use), my son didnt mind having the watermark.

Little bits of progress

This is a round up of the little bits of progress that I've noted in my son over the past 2 weeks or so.

1. Cranial Sacral Therapy

His CST therapist was away for the month of August. He resumed his therapy last week, on Wed & Thurs. On Wednesday he noted that his left leg was a bit tight so she did myofascia release on him. She noted it was better on Thurs.

During the evening walks on Wed & Thurs, I noted that he spoke quite audibly (in terms of volume & clarity). I've noted this happening before where sometimes in the same evening after his CST, he either has better standing posture (straigther back) or clearer speech.

I also noted that he sat more often in a cross legged manner rather than his usual 'W' sitting over this past weekend - it's an improvement.

She said that although the stability of his hips have improved (compared to a year ago) it still needs to be more stable in order for his jaw to correspondingly be more stable, to see further improvements in his speech.

2. Reading

He surprised me by being able to 'read' these words that I showed him in a book of his: bed, hat, can. He didnt need me to say out the phonic sounds of each letter. He too didnt need to say out the phonic sound of each letter. He merely said the name of the letters, then said out the word.

3. Speech

He continues to speak in short phrases, occasionally a long phrase/sentence comes out. He still babbles which I imagine it to be him practising his speech muscles. I'm trying to remember to model sentences for him to repeat. I do it as and when the situation arises (as opposed to creating new activities for him) so, I do tend to forget sometimes.

He's had a few meltdowns with me because I absolutely could not figure out what he was saying. Not many, just perhaps one a day, for 3 days in the last week or so. Happens when he's hungry & tired. I imagine it'll be difficult when he goes to kindergarten where teachers & friends minght not understand most of his speech. Perhaps having me as his shadow aide is therefore required due to his speech impairment & not just motor impairment.

I've been "singing" the short vowel sounds partly for him to be familiar with them & for me to learn how to say them accurately. His speech therapist says that short vowel / long vowel sounds are difficult for us Malaysians cos we speak English differently from the Westerners. So I've to learn it before I can teach him properly. After 2 days of making it into a catchy jingle, he can say the short vowel 'a' sound more accurately (but not perfectly). Previously he says the sound of 'a' with Malay pronounciation (e.g. 'a' as in the word 'baca').

4. Fine motor

He is able to turn the small lock on the door knob, from a vertical position to horizontal, and twist the knob & pull to open the door of our bedroom. A few months ago, he was already able to do so with the toilet doorknob which is not as tight as the bedroom's.

He still struggles to peel off most types of stickers but noticed that there have been some occasions he did manage to peel off on his own. I'm showing him a new way to peel which will require lots of practice on his part. I've lots of sticker books so that'll keep the interest up.

He is able to stick stickers but not totally within the designated circle, as parts of the sticker would be out of the area. Also, he tends to stick it tilted, not straight/vertical. I'm not sure if these are part of normal development or if it indicates a problem with his vision.

Last week during a CST session, he surprised me by being able to place a finger puppet on his finger, all by himself. It indicates better control of his fingers & co-ordination of both hands.

He also surprised me by placing his toy car's tyres on a finger of both hands. I did not see how he did it - whether he used one hand to insert the tyre onto a finger (in which case, I'm impressed cos his left hand is much weaker than his right), or whether he poked his finger into the tyre, then raised the finger up so the tyre slides down, which might be more likely (which is good too cos fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination are needed).

Montessori Pink Series - Middle vowel

Homemade Middle Vowel Phonic Activity Sheet

As part of the Montessori reading pink series, my son ought to be able to identify the middle vowel of decodeable words. Pink series decodeable words are either vowel-consonant types (e.g on, in) or consonant-vowel-consonant types (like in the photo above).

I made the sheet for the middle vowel activity in the same manner as that for the ending consonant activity I wrote about in my last post. I merely changed the words.

I decided to start off by choosing words with the same beginning & ending consonant, like in the photo, & the only variant is the vowel. This would help emphasise the middle vowel sound. I got that idea from a VCD he likes watching - The Word Machine. In it they had a very catchy jingle about a big bog bug in a bag.

Having played the middle vowel game with my son, I realised that it's harder than the ending consonant activity, so I help him out by emphasising the middle vowel repeatedly. That's ok because it was stated as such in the montessori literary file I borrowed from my friend. The reason it's harder is that the vowel tends not to be emphasised in normal speech. That friend is also a kindergarten principal and she did agree that it's hard for the kids to identify it.

From my observation, the difficulty is the similarity in the sounds of the short vowel e & short vowel a. For e.g. b-a-g and b-e-g sounds the same. She wondered if my son had difficulty differentiating between the vowel i & e. Having thought about it, I think he's able to differentiate i & e.

I've made a few more pages of words with the middle vowel missing in the same manner (e.g. tap, top; cap, cop, cup) & will slowly introduce them over the next few weeks.

By the way, this activity also requires him to use his fine motor in picking up the correct letters from the box & laying them on the blanks (hand eye); reinforces alphabet recognition; visual discrimination etc.

His Drawings

He has a variety of drawing instruments: short pencils, long pencils, chunky pencil, colour pencils, chunky colour pencils, crayons, chunky crayons, Crayola's Ta-Doodles, chunky marker pens, paint brushes, glitter glue pens, chalk, normal pens, chunky pens & whiteboard markers.




He also has a variety of drawing surfaces: small whiteboard, large whiteboard, small chalkboard, paper of different sizes, Aqua Doodle & Aqua Draw. Some of them are mountable on a stand at an angle. Some are just laid on the floor or table. I sometimes stick large pieces of paper on the door.



Apart from finger painting, I also let him draw with his fingers in a salt tray. I prefer using salt instead of sand cos I dont know how to sterilise sand!



I give him this much variety for him to practice using various muscles & of course to keep up the interest.



In an earlier post (3 Aug 09) I had mentioned 2 of his drawings but didn't get round to upload them. So, here they are. This is one on a chalkboard & the other below is on a whiteboard.


He says this is a forest of "botak trees". If translated directly, it means a forest of bald trees.


That's his depiction of the sun. Prior to this, he never drew the sun. He never added lines to a circle. Most of the time it'd be scribbles or 2 eyes & a mouth.


He drew this on chalkboard on 30 Aug 09. I was seated with him when he drew the outline of the face. Started off looking something like a heart shape. I then suggested he draw some eyes, to make it a 'smiley heart'. Then I went out of the room to attend to something. When I returned, this was what I saw. Whoa! Looks like a panda's face to me. I certainly didnt expect to see that.

When he draws eyes, it's usually just dots. When he draws a nose, it's usually just a dot too (see photo below of his drawing of faces. It was taken in March 09).

Pre-writing skills - 27 Aug 09

Over the past few weeks, I've taken photos of some of his work from his pre-writing (fine motor) skills activities.



The photo's a bit small & I dont have PhotoShop to make it easy to indicate what I want to highlight. On the left of the mat, there's an outline of his left hand. It was taken on 12 Aug 09. That was the second time he could trace the outline of his hand by himself. The 1st time was a few days prior to this, on the whiteboard. I was so happy! It's progress for him cos in the past I had to hold his right to show him how to trace the outline of the left hand.


I think the inventor of this Aqua Doodle is simply great! It's a fabric mat & comes with a marker child-sized pen. The pen doesnt contain ink. Instead, you uncap it & fill up with plain tap water. When the water from the pen touches the mat, the mat gets wet & that becomes your markings. The blue colour of the markings on the mat comes from the backing sheet of the mat which is blue. The white top sheet absorbs the water temporarily & when it dries off, the markings disappear. You can't erase it yourself. You just let the water dry.



You can leave him to scribble away without worrying about him getting ink on the floor, on the walls etc. It's just plain water, not ink. You can see why I think it's great! It's also a fun & pleasant change to paper & pen for writing skills practice. It has the alphabets on the border of the mat, which allows kids to learn to write by tracing over. I've seen it at Carefour & Jusco for just under RM50 (cheaper during sales at Jusco).



This photo was taken on 16 Aug 09. He was seated on the floor & I was holding the book. But when I took the photo, the book was on his lap. I didnt help him adjust his tripod grip/mature pencil grip lower towards the nib.

'Wipe clean' books are fun too. This version has thick chunky pages which will withstand a toddler's rough handling. It doesn't contain the typical pages of alphabet writing for practice. Instead, it's has pictures, supposedly for kids to learn to draw. Uhm, I'm not sure if that's a good way to teach kids drawing (especially after what I learnt at SEGi Appreciation Day workshops). When I bought the book, my purpose was for him to practice his pre writing skills in a fun way (ie. in a way that he doesnt even realise it's for writing practice).

From my recent weeks of "Project Clear Out", I realise I've collected various bits & bops of 'trash'. Amongst the things I rediscovered were old milk tin/tin container covers of different sizes & colours & material (plastic & metal). It's fun & cheap & it's "green" (reuse part of the reuse/reduce/recycle).

Since I recently read up about the use of insets in the Montessori syllabus, I showed him how to 'play' with the covers. Basically it's helping him trace the outline of the tin/plastic covers. It's similar in concept to tracing the outline of his left hand. To make this fun, I arranged the covers to resemble Mickey Mouse/the Playhouse Disney Channel logo. I then asked him to fill in with eyes, nose & mouth. At the end, to get in practice in writing letters, I had him trace over the word "MICKEY" at the bottom right of the page. Photo was taken on 22 Aug 09.

Notice how the outline in purple can be easily seen. That's cos I was helping him trace & I applied pressure on the colour pencil. When he drew the eyes, nose, mouth & traced over the name, it's barely visible. That's cos he has difficulty in controlling the amount of pressure he puts on the pencil. If he were to use a marker pen, it would be very easily seen, as illustrated below. It's a result of his CP.

A few months ago introduced letter writing sheets for practice. It was in preparation for school (nursery). I don't force him. I stopped doing it with him a while back, for reasons that I forgot (perhaps when he was sick). I brought out this sheet about 3-4 days ago. He wasnt interested in filling it up. So just left it lying around on his table. Today, (27 Aug 09) he willingly did it by himself under the supervision of my helper to make sure he got his strokes right. When he completed it (using a marker pen), he happily ran & showed me.



He needs to work on capital 'M' but I suspect the paper might have been too far away from him as this might explain the untidy writing on the first 2 rows & the decent looking M at the last row. I was very surprised with the neatness of his lower case 'm'. I think I was happier than he was!





This was taken on 25 Aug 09. It not only requires him to trace over the outline, but to follow the sequence of the alphabets. It's a variation of the common 'join the dots' using numbers. He gets to practice several skills at one go (hand eye co-ordination, tripod grip, visual, reinforce his alphabets).



These worksheets are available for free at http://www.learningpage.com/. Very useful site containing creatively designed sheets & ideas for activities with kids from preschool upwards. Each page states the skill set targetted (e.g. shape recognition, recognising numbers 1-5), level targetted (e.g. preschool, K1). It's also presented by themes (e.g. there are 50 odd pages for Preschool kids under the ocean kingdom theme).

Botak Tree

He wore his NeuroSuit today as he's getting recovering well. But since he is still not fully well yet, we didnt want to him to exert himself. So we didnt focus on endurance. Instead, we got him to do stairs walking and simple movements (gross motor) just to ease him into suit therapy again. This is also the first time he's doing fine motor while in the suit.

Brought the mega bloks downstairs. He had difficulty unzipping the bag - will need more practice while in the suit. (fine motor)

He picked a piece and promptly threw it on the floor (kinda nice sound when it hits the ground)...and repeated it until all 80 pieces were strewn around. Yes, it was messy. But in the process, he had to bend to reach into the bag; he used his left hand when I prompted him; and bend at various inclines as he went lower & lower to get the remaining pieces. (gross motor, fine motor, hand eye co-ordination)

Once he got that "throwing" out of his system, it was time I directed the play, but with limited freedom still accorded to him. Asked him what he wanted to build. No answer. Floated some ideas...bus, car, train, house, tree.

"Tree" he liked that idea."Green and red...green and red tree" he laughed! Is it my imagination or is his volume a bit louder when he was in his suit today?

Here's where I sneaked in the stairs activity. Pieces were at the bottom of the stairs. We were going to build on the staircase landing, which is about 5 steps up. Each time we needed more pieces, he'd have to go down for more. I think its better start by going up & down just a few steps, but many times, rather than the entire flight & be so tired.

To challenge him more, I varied it by sometimes getting him to walk up without holding on to the banister, by placing a piece of blok in each hand. Of course, I had to help him a little by supporting his back. I was pleasantly surprised that he didnt put much of his body weight onto me, unlike when he's not in his suit & walking up.

Initially I let him walk up '2 feet on one step'. Later, I helped moved his legs to '1 foot on one step'. Then he was trying it himself. I'm happy cos it's so much harder when in the suit due to the resistance from the bungee cords.

He is more confident going down the stairs when he's in the suit - he walked faster.

When we were building together, I got him to place the pieces by himself & push down. He still doesnt really push it down well. He still sometimes uses his pointer finger to secure the piece down, instead of using the palm for bigger pieces.

He didnt want leaves on the tree. He explained "burned" (fire burnt the tree, so it explains why there are no leaves).

"But if the tree was burnt, it'd be black, not green & red" I was testing him.

He paused a second. "botak...botak tree" he reasoned. 'Botak tree' to him means a tree without leaves, referring to the tree we saw at the park which was tall & thin without a single leave. Hey, he's using his brain! Ahh, that made my day!

Playdough

Having spent the entire morning at the hospital today, there wasn't that much time left for other activities after his lunch, nap, snack time, toilet training etc.


Brought out the playdough as we havent played with that for a while & I needed to work towards improving his pre-writing skills. In the past, he would not play with playdough. Based on recipes from internet, I made some in the past but he didnt like them. Too sticky or too oily. He hated the bits that stuck to his hands. He couldn't manipulate it like his peers. Showed him what he could do & make with it, but that would have only caught his attention for a very short while.

Earlier this year, bought some commercially sold ones at Jusco (half price). Smells yummy & came with a few moulds. Doesn't stick to the hands. Not too oily. Thankfully, he begun to take an interest to it. Slowly. Later, bought other colours from Tesco which are cheaper. I got some different coloured Play-Doh brand ones which were offer. All of them state "non-toxic" but who knows.


Started off by asking him what object he'd want made. To gain his interest, I suggested police car, ambulance, fire engine...not that I know how to make them! He wanted helicopter. And he wanted it "flat like a pancake" (as opposed to 3 dimensional) - it's one of his current favourite sayings!


I let him choose the colour. Restricted the choice to just 2 colours otherwise based on past experience, he'll merely want to remove the wrapper from all the coloured playdoughs. This time, he wanted both pink & orange. So much for "or".


He's not at the stage to be able to create his own models. He's not even at the stage of being able to roll it into a sausage shape or ball. So, I place my hands over his & show him how. At least he now allows me to do that. In the past, he'd pull his hands away & I'd show him how using my own hands.

Fine Motor

This activity is good for developing his fine motor. It works those hand muscles. Important for a lot of daily life skills like writing. So we rolled it into a ball, flattened it (body of helicopter). Rolled into a sausage & curled it (tail of helicopter). Pinched it, rolled it into smaller cylinderical shapes for the rotor blades.


He's still not good at pinching larger pieces. He pinches tiny pieces smaller than the size of his little fingernail. When flattening it, instead of using the palm, he still uses the fingers part of the hand. Slowly. Just need more practice.

Drawing/poking

I wanted to take this activity further by getting him to "draw" the pilot using a toothpick. He decided to poke his finger into it. I had in the past showed him how to poke. But instead of using the finger pad part of his finger, he uses his fingernail to dig into it. That's just like the way he controls the cursor on the touchpad of my laptop (it's like scratching). Will need to work on that (I think it impacts the way he holds the pen).


Photo shows what it looks like with the digging marks & that's him starting to poke with the toothpick.

I took the activity further by flipping the piece over for a smooth surface & showed him I could write the alphabets using the toothpick. He was not keen to try it. I wasn't going to force him if he's not ready. So I let him take the lead. Worked the dough into a smooth surface again & let him play.

Inscribing a face

He "drew" a smiley face. The eyes aren't aligned horizontally & nose wrong positioning cos he still has a problem controlling his hand muscles. He tends to jab at it from a distance rather than slowly approach it to ensure correct placement. Same technique when using marker pen on whiteboard.

The 2 eyes & nose are those 3 dots placed close together in the middle of the dough. The 2 lines at the top are the eyebrows. The ears are those lines on the left (horizontal line) & right (not so clear in the photo). The 2 dots nearer his toothpick - one's the chin, the other I dont know cos I didnt understand what he was trying to say.

Oral Motor (Blowing candles)

Decided to take it further again. This time, as an oral motor activity. Got this idea from speech therapy, but modified, and from a manual on oral motor exercises. He wasn't keen on blowing the paper butterflies on a stand, so had to think of new activity to achieve the same objective.

Started off with just one candle on a "birthday cake". Lighted it & sang a bit of "happy birthday" song. My objective is for him to blow. I remembered that he couldnt blow the candles of papa's birthday cake in June. Therefore, I was surprised that he blew it off in just a single blow!

Challenged him more. Got another candle. Lighted both. He blew the 1st easily. Couldn't blow off the 2nd. He was repeatedly taking shallow breaths, so it wasn't strong enough to put it out. Had to tell him to stop giving small blows & take deep breath & blow hard. He succeed. Yeay!

Repeated it by upping the challenge to 3 candles. Same problem with shallow breaths after the 1st. But succeeded easily after reminding him to take a big breath in. I'm happy enough. Next time, will challenge him by increasing the distance between him & candles. I can also increase the number of lit candles & see how many he can put out in a single breath.

Matching object to word; pouring; tongs

Activities on 14 Aug 2009

Montessori Pink Series - matching object to word

Noticing that he wasn't so interested in matching picture to word card the last round, I decided to change the activity to match object to word instead. These words are used more frequently (compared to say cab, jab, lab) and the objects are familiar to him. Also, its good to vary the type of activity to keep lessons interesting & seem less like learning & more like fun games.

For this first set of words, he seemed confident. He looked at the words. He took the objects. But his co-ordination was a bit off. E.g. he saw "cup" then took the cup, but when his gaze returned back to the paper, he was looking at the word "bun" and for a moment was about to place the cup at the "bun" word but he eventually sorted himself out and placed the cup in the right place, without me intervening.

Point to note is that he did not need me to prompt him to say out the alphabets, then say out the phonic sound & then blend it. He did went through that process silently in his head (or at least I like to think so). This is the 2nd time I brought out this set of words, so either he has a fantastic memory (of where to place what), or he really is beginning to get the hang of early reading.

Being a new skill that he's still learning, he did place the bun & bib in the wrong place (the object bib, was placed on the word "bun" & vice versa). I merely said out loud the phonic sounds for the word bun while pointing to the printed words (which I normally do anyway as reinforcement at the end of an activity). I didnt drop hints (body language) that it was wrong. I chose to start with "bun" as opposed to "bib" as "bun" is the first item on the page (top left on page). He realised it was wrong & scanned the page & swapped the bib with the bun. So I hope you dont think I'm boasting about my son being so smart.

I thought I'd try another sheet with him, since he finished the 1st sheet faster than I expected & to see if it was a case of blind memorising. So, was it blind memorising? I dont think so. But as with any new skill, he still needs lots of practice....slowly. I'm not a kiasu mum. I also dont want to push and risk him rejecting learning to read & write. Learning should be fun at his age. It just means I've to be a lot more patient & creative.

Photo above shows the 2nd set. Those words are not used as frequently on a day to day basis, as the 1st set. Noticed that he was losing his enthusiasm with this set. Perhaps I should only do one set at a time. With this, it was difficult to draw his attention to the words. So, I let him play with what he wished for a few minutes & then drew his attention back. I helped him along by saying aloud the phonic sound of the alphabets & let him blend them together & place the objects.


Pouring

I picked up a tiny coffee stirrer stick from Subway, where I had my dinner the night before this activity. It's that thin white stick placed across the yellow container in the photo below.

I wanted to see how he'd do with this new challenge, in terms of using it to scoop & pour. He could get a few pieces (just 1-2, but then again, spoon is real tiny) of the tiny pink sago beads onto the spoon but couldn't adjust his arm/wrist to keep the spoon horizontal. So after a few tries on his own, I modelled it for him by placing my hand over his & scooping.

After a just a few tries of that, he flicked the spoon out of the container which sent the beads flying everywhere! I expected a mess based on past experience, so I had placed only a thin layer of beads into a shallow container. For him it was just too fun to resist doing the flicking again! Ended up with loads everywhere. Ah well, I turned it around into getting him to help in cleaning up (he used his pincer grip); practice for using a brush & dustpan (can't do it yet); and to learn that there are consequences to his action.

Tongs

Took out the "cotton ball & tongs" activity from the same "pouring activity" box while I proceeded to nicely pack away the containers used. He's supposed to use the tongs to pick up cotton balls from that rectangular container & place them in the smaller circular container. It helps develop the muscles in his hand. It's an important fine motor skill to learn now, in the build up to learning to use a pair of scissors. When I turned around, he was placing the last ball with his tongs, into the circular container! He did it all by himself! Hooray!

In future, I can vary this activity by placing the cotton balls into a narrower container, or a deeper container (to get his wrist going), or use a tighter pair of tongs, or tweezers, or a pair of trainer chopsticks, or slightly heavier objects....

All done mama!

Pouring Activity

I have accumulated various items to build up his box of pouring activities. To some people, it's like I'm collecting "trash"!

Containers of different sizes:

- small Yakult bottles, Vitagen bottles are good to start off with as it's about the right size for his palm to comfortably grip it and has wide openings for pouring out of & pouring into.

- Sunkist/FruitTree juice bottles are the next size up. It's also contoured like Yakult & allows for easier gripping. Also wide openings are good for placing a homemade funnel into it.

- 100Plus bottle was sawn in half to use as a homemade funnel. The neck of the commercially avaiable ones were too narrow to allow for beans & sago seeds to pass through. Commercial ones are good for liquids.

- paper cups (e.g. soya bean drink from pasar malam) can be a bit soft depending on quality, so I used 2 of the same stacked together.

- plastic cups (e.g. McDonald's milkshake container) with a cover and a hole for the straw are used for pushing fusilli pasta/golf pegs through the hole.

Variety of items to be picked up/ poured, available cheaply from supermarkets/ hypermarkets:

- coloured cotton balls: roll up your own, dip in food colouring & leave to dry completely. Easiest to pick up cos you can make it very large. Colours add visual interest. Easy to clean up when there's a spill or he throws it out (compared to beans & sago which you'll spend a long time cleaning up)

- fusilli pasta/ penne pasta/ macaroni: when pincer grip not yet developed, he used his palm to pick these up. They provide tacticle input too. Fusilli pasta is sold in colours (mixed tricolour) so may be of more visual interest to the child.

- Kidney beans: in terms of beans, it's good to start off when practising his pincer grip cos they're one of the larger types

- Black beans: next size smaller for pincer grip practice

- Black eyed beans: next size smaller than black beans

- Soya beans: not recommended cos the skin comes off too easily

- Green beans: tiny. Used for pouring it out of the container & practise scooping with a spoon

- Sago: super tiny. Also for pouring out of container & spoon scooping. Sold in colours of pink & green which gives visual interest. Gets sticky when accidentally touches water on the floor & his drool drips on it.

I have a variety of instruments to scoop with:

- spoons of different handle length

- spoons of different depth R.g. old baby's 1st spoon would be quite flat & therefore more challenging. At the opposite end of the spectrum are milk powder spoons which are very deep. He still has difficulty adjusting his wrist to keep the spoon horizontal to avoid spilling the beans, but is getting better at it. In between these 2 ends of the spectrum, you have spoons from mamak shops when you buy a take away, spoons from chicken rice seller, spoons from ice-cream stalls in shopping centres when you buy the ice-cream in a cup rather than in a cone etc...

I also have mini brush & dust pan (sold with the spray bottle from Carrefour) which I keep together with in his pouring activity box. Useful for accidents & intentional spills! Good to teach him the consequences of his action i.e. that he has to help clean up esp. when he intentionally spills, and for muscle co-ordination, hand eye etc.

Today, he used a spoon (from mamak) to scoop black beans from a very wide opening container into the Sunkist juice bottle, through a funnel. He was mostly picking up just 1-4 beans at a time due to the way he was using (or not using) his wrist. Showed him how to dig in to get more beans & how to keep the spoon horizontal while moving to another container. After a while, he lost interest, so I got out a paper cup (to keep up the interest) and he continued practising.

Evening Exercise in Neurosuit-7 Aug 09

I was quite tired cos he woke up several times last night & I had an early start & errands to run today. But, after several days of bad haze, it finally cleared this evening with an added bonus of a cool breeze. So I didnt want to give up this opportunity to get him to the nieghbourhood park, but I brought my helper along (for back-up support cos by late afternoon, I had a bad headache, body ache, felt very heaty).

We were there for about 30mins. He did quite a variety of gross motor exercises, but in short bursts.

What did he do?
At the steep hill, he walked up (very challenging in his suit); walked backwards down (just 5 steps, then he turned around & said "too steep"; walked forwards down

At the hilly terrain, he walked & ran around

On the pavement, he walked/ran (alternating) all the way down past the houses. On his way back up past the houses, he walked backwards (we name it moonwalking), sideways, slowly, quickly etc.

I introduced him to counting by twos. Odd numbered houses were on one side of the road, so it's easy to introduce this concept. For e.g. starting at house # 5, I'd say... hey look at the number at this house. Let's add 2 to that number...and walk to the next house to get the answer . He wasnt interested beyond doing 3 houses. That's ok cos this is the 1st time I'm introducing it.

At the children's playground, he climbed the 2 rung ladder (with help), walked up the 3 step stairs holding onto both sides for support (but at least he could lift up his feet by himself, which is difficult in the suit), went down the twin slide with me, used his finger to "write" / follow the etched numbers (0-9).

I've just started to teach him to walk further forward at the top of the slide, before he sits down. He usually sits too far back at the top & needs to shuffle his bum a lot further forward before he can slide down. I believe it's because he's afraid of falling head first, down the slide. But now that I know he's better at balance & better at controlling his muscles, it's time to correct that. But i wont pressure him - only when he feels comfortable enough.

Speech
- apart from his usual speech he finally started to use the word "missing". Previously just says "oh-oh" to indicate something's missing/something's wrong. Each time, he uses "oh oh" for something that's missing, I'd say "missing" out loud & try to get him to say it instead of "oh oh". Being crazy over cars, today he said "missing...Toyota Unser" (he remembers there's usually a Unser & Kancil parked at the top of the road).

- when I climbed up the slide the wrong way (ie. as though I was climbing a hill), to get him to do the same, he said very loudly & clearly "COME DOWN!". I was very happy.

- on 2 separate occassions, he was trying to warn other kids on the opposite side of the road to look out for cars cos they were walking on the road instead of on the pavement. He said "be careful...got car". He wasnt loud enough or clear enough. He said it too fast, missing out some phonemes. I think he was excited. But, eventually I know he will be able to say it loud enough & clear enough. For now, I'm happy that he wants to & tried to communicate with others & that he knows it's dangerous to walk on the road!

To the beach!

Packed everyone into the car & went off to Kelanang beach today! This would be our 3rd or 4th visit this year. Traffic was good, weather was good - no haze, clear blue skies!

*will upload photos from hubby's handphone when time permits.

Benefits:

(1) Walking on sand gives him good tactile input & requires good balance.

(2) Walking in water gives resistance & challenges his balance even more (he'll happily splash around in ankle deep water, but if it's almost to his knees, he'll want to hold our hand)

(3) Talk about/show him the surroundings e.g. how the mangrove trees were different in terms of their roots, compared to normal trees. Showed him what animals live in a mangrove habitat e.g. crabs, mudskippers, fishes (cognitive, biology lesson)

(5) Catching crabs requires fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination, faster reflexes. He caught a lot of crabs with his bare hands (with his fingers actually) during the previous visit. This time round, there were much fewer crabs & he wasnt interested. Instead, he was stomping on the crabs! Not to worry, he didnt kill them. They are much faster in burrowing themselves than he was in stomping them. Stomping with one foot requires good balance.

(6) Picking sea shells requires fine motor, hand eye, squat to stand, bending down. Later at home, you can use the shells in various ways: counting, visual discrimination, biology lesson, decoration during sandplay.

(7) Receptive language (speech input) - you can expand his vocabulary e.g. waves, tide coming in, estuary, hermit crab

(8) Expressive language (speech output) - he has the chance to use what he's learnt e.g. he surprised me by describing the clouds as "fluffy clouds", a term that I used only once, several months ago during a trip to the neighbourhood park.

(9) Bringing back sand for sandplay at home! There are areas on that beach where the sand is very fine & white.

(10) Sandplay at the beach itself of course! E.g. build sand castles, scoop & pour activities etc.

(11) Catching fish using a net requires very fast reflexes, balance, gross motor. We forgot to bring a net, so it was papa who caught fish using his bare hands. Papa the hero caught 3! We tried to help but fish escaped instead! : )

(12) Flying a kite requires gross motor skills, balance, visual tracking. We didnt bring the kite cos we knew we wouldn't have time to fly it cos we left much later than normal.

(13) Drawing/writing in the sand - doesnt require a mature tripod grip, so it's good to do this to let his creativity flow, without being hindered by his disability. Also good as a fun alternative to writing with the usual pen, pencil, colour pencil, marker, crayon, chalk etc on paper, whiteboard, blackboard. Fine motor skill still needed.

(14) A lesson in caring for the environment. Unfortunately, there was trash washed up on certain parts of the estuary (apart from the usual plastic, I came across a bottle, hard hat & tyre!). Use this opportunity to teach him that things should be disposed in their proper place or else it gets washed up on the beach etc & dirties the homes of the crabs, fish etc.

Note:
(1) We have to check to make sure the moon cycle isn't at the full moon stage cos the waves comes right up & there's no beach left. He's fearful if the waves are close to him.
(2) Bring insect repellant or at least wear long pants that can be rolled up. I was badly bitten.
(3) There's decent hawker fare at the purpose built "food court" but lots of flies
(4) There's a children's play area with the usual slides, climbing equipment etc.
(5) There's proper toilet but its yucky (very wet, smelly, no soap, sandy/muddy floor - some mums were rinsing their kids in the toilet). Bring your own hand sanitiser & toilet paper.

Foam alphabet puzzle mat

Cheaply & easily available at hypermarkets & supermarkets. I bought the EVA brand at about RM23 for a set of 26 alphabets & 10 numbers pieces. I've so much use out of them that I bought a 2nd set.

How did I used it?
(1) When young & yet to crawl, it was laid out in one layer & he lay on it. The tiled floor is a bit too cold for a young baby.

(2) When he was learning to crawl:
- it softened his falls
- it provided a bit of texture (grip) to help him move forward cos tiled floor was rather smooth.
- gave some visual stimulation as it is very colourful

(3) When he could walk, I lay it to form a "track" for him to follow around the dining table, to the lounge etc. Sometimes it's simply him walking on it (or almost) & sometimes, it's for his push-along toy bug to "walk" on it. These help with body co-ordination & hand eye co-ordination

(4) It was one of the many "toys" to teach him his numbers & alphabets.

(5) Fine motor: he loves to remove (by using his pointer finger to "dig out") the numbers/alphabets from the "frame". I get him to help replace them, which also involves fine motor & hand eye co-ordination

(6) As a subsitute for "step-up" boxes (gross motor, step up/step down):

As he gained confidence in walking, I moved on to teach him to walk up steps. But he's a very cautious boy & for a long time wouldn't want to try walking up the stairs by himself. So I piled some pieces on top of each other to create a wide enough small step & placed it around, like an obstacle course, together with other challenges. I had to hold the pieces together with rubber band so it wouldn't move or else he's slip & hurt himself. After many many times of trying with me holding his hand, he'd eventually try it himself. Gradually, I increased the height by piling more pieces on top.

(7) Writing: I currently also use it as an alternative to sandpaper alphabets. It similarly provides tactile input when learning the strokes in writing the alphabet. It is not as rough, but is more colourful. As with sandpaper letters, you do need to be with him to show him the strokes, at least until you know that he's learnt them.

Farm Animals & Barn

Farm Animals & Barn

How?

-Download images of farm animals & a barn. (I think I got the photos from a toddler activities website & modified the activity to suit my son)

-Cut & paste on cardboard/old cereal box.

-Find old tissue box.

-Use blu-tack to stick barn to box, with the barn door over the opening of the box & place on a raised surface (e.g. table/desk/counter top).

-Use blu-tack to stick animals in another part of the house, on a door/back of chair/fridge door

-Stick them at a height that requires him to really stretch up, but is still within his reach.

-Between the place you stuck the animals & barn, create an obstacle course, for e.g. step-up

boxes, balance beam, crash mattress.

-He'll have to go through the course to obtain the animals & "help" them return to the barn for the night. One animal per trip.

-Observe the child for signs of tiredness and interest. Modify as you go along, for e.g. if there are still half of the animals left & he's already tired/lost interest, then get him to carry back 2 or more animals per trip.

-Vary the obstacle course after a few times of playing this game to maintain interest.

Why?

-Gross motor: stretching up several times to obtain animals & place in box; obstacle course (balance & co-ordination)

-Fine motor: removing animals stuck on door (some versions of blu-tac are a lot more adhesive than others). In setting up the game, I also get him to help pull apart the blu-tac & place it on the back of the animals (it works the hand muscles)

-Hand eye co-ordination: when placing animals in box

-Matching: make 2 or more copies of the same animal & have him match them by saying for e.g. "it's the turn of the black horses. Can you gather all the black horses together & help them return to the barn?"

-Maths: subtraction - count the animals at start of game, then removing one by one (or two by two, at a later stage). Addition - count the animals being put into the barn.

-Cognitive: teach him the names of the animals; talk a bit about the animals (e.g. what they like to eat; sounds they make)

Variation?

-I use pictures of cute/funny dogs & drew my own kennel

- I also have pictures of birds & a birdhouse (obtained from a kids activities website)

- combine animals from the different sets & ask him to select animals that belong, for e.g. in a

kennel

- Use plastic toy animals instead of the cut out ones

Is it Christmas again?

Hand-me-down toys
Got hold of some old toys from my childhood days & received toys that his cousin has outgrown. Great! It'll be like Christmas again for him! These are some of the stuff I took back for him:

Boggle

Will use it as part of reading activities. Reading requires a lot of practice so I'll need different activities to stimulate him & keep up the interest. This one requires fine motor skills. I suspect to start off with, he'll want to scatter the cubes rather than patiently find the letters he wants. Well, I'll have to be creative & go with the flow. (reading, fine motor)

Spill & spell

Similar concept to Boggle, except, you shake it out of a tube onto an open floor. The cubes are smaller than Boggle, so I'm not expecting much from it until he's older. (reading, fine motor)

Pop up mini Tent

Useful for our day trips to the beach. In the past we made do with just black plastic bin bags to sit on!

Beach toys

Medium sized beach ball (gross motor) and a set of various tools for building sand castles, scoop & pour, etc (fine motor, wrist movement)

McDonald's Happy Meal toys

Lots of these. Vehicles. I think I'll use them to teach him concepts of first, second, third in a pretend race to the finish line. He knows his numbers (1,2,3) but not in terms of 1st, 2nd, 3rd. (maths)

Books

Variety ranging from those for a 7 year old to pre-teens. Nursery rhyme types to Enid Blyton. Will be some years yet before it'll be utilised!

Skittles & ball

Plastic bowling set. A friend lent a set to him last year, but he preferred to use his hands to knock the skittles down! Will try it this year, perhaps he'll play with it the way it was meant. Good for gross motor, hand eye co-ordination.

Sunday, 19 July 09

Morning exercise at neighbourhood park

Gross motor
15 mins only this morning at the neighbourhood park. Parked at bottom of row of houses which are on a slope - we walked up & back down. That housing area was designed differently - the inclination of the slope alternates...it is a bit of a short steep walk up a slope up then flatten out at the next 2 houses, then the slope again etc. So he gets the "steep bit" to stretch his achilles, gastroc muscles etc.

Speech
He'd name all the brands of cars parked outside the houses e.g. Honda, Alfa Romeo, Toyota, Ford, BMW. Noted his pronounciation of "B" is better (when he says "BMW"). It used to sound like "bern". Now its "bee". Hooray! I use whatever interests him as opportunities for therapy activities, so he's been naming cars for a long time now.

Maths
In future, I can introduce him to counting 2 by 2. Since the houses on one side are even numbered & the other odd, I'll use this opportunity to further his maths (addition).

Garden
- He picked up dried leaves from the grass (bend down, squat, fine motor, hand eye)
- He also plucked all the tiny red flowers from one of the plants (fine motor, hand eye, both hands)
- He ran along the drain cover (visual) which he likes cos it makes a loud sound

Oral Motor
He can now suck up his Yakult using a normal sized bendy straw which has been cut in half, with the straw maintaining it's shape. Straw was placed past his teeth but he didnt bite down on it hard. Only faint teeth mark was visible on the straw. Hooray! We see progress resulting from activities using the various sized & shaped straws!

Kitten
He did quite a bit of squatting & "squat to stand" at the restaurant tonight because he was playing with a kitten.

Ball play
Why?
I wanted him to stretch up high.

How?
- Balls & a basketball hoop. The hoop was given 2nd hand from a friend (easily found in hypermarkets, Jusco). Very useful as it's adjustable as he grows taller - it has suction caps. Actually, it was more like he dropped them through the hoop rather than throw, but it's ok cos he did stretch. But he did only a few balls, so did a variation....

We went upstairs & he dropped the balls over the banister (banister high enough to still require stretching). He wised up after just a few throws & rolled them down instead. So changed the game again...

Helper & I held up an old towel & got him to throw over. Perhaps this was something new so he did quite a few throws. Actual throwing, good strong throws (not dropping), which is good.

NeuroSuit

Last week, the deposit for the NeuroSuit was paid. The American therapist/owner is coming end of the month & I'm looking forward to starting the suit therapy.


Lots of hard work for sure & I've to be patient, but I these are what I hope to see in my son, with the suit therapy...

- significantly less drool
- better speech in terms of volume & clarity
- running gait a lot more normalised
- hip more stable
- arms straighter, less "bat wing" like
- able to do more gross motor skills, like stepping up higher steps unaided, pedalling, jumping, walking on balance beam unaided
- improvement in fine motor


There was an article in NST on NeuroSuit:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Features/20090602093919/Article/index_html


Briefly, this is what I understand Neurosuit is meant to/has benefits of:
- correct the posture, through giving proprioceptive input back to the brain on what the correct posture is supposed to be. Cells & muscles have memory.
- intensify the benefits of any physio or therapies that he does while in the suit & so we'll see those benefits earlier.
- Since there are bungee like cords attached, it gives resistance & so strengthens muscles too.


This is the link to NeuroSuit's website, for more info:
http://www.neurosuit.com/


This is the link to some photos of a severe CP boy I know, who is sitting up unaided. He could only sit propped up in his wheelchair/stroller before the suit therapy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101893&id=607886440&l=ed984b5633

Is it Christmas?

My brother's back for summer hols & brought back quite a few things for him. A big thank you!!!
Magnetic words

- to help in teaching him to read. Got them off ebay (UK site). Several types being sold. I chose the "Top 100 words" & "phonics" ones cos these will go a long way.
- Phonics: so that I can move to the next level to teach him "combined letters" e.g. "oo", "an".
- Words: apart from reading the words, he can use them much later on, to create sentences. He might have difficulty with handwriting, so having magnets might work around that disability (to a slight extent).

Castanet
- to get him to exercise his palm (open/close movement loosens & streghtens hand muscles)
- to learn rhythm. Having a pair allows me to show him on mine & he follows on his own castanet.

- chose ladybird design cos he finds them cute. Also from ebay uk

Animal puzzle book
- good for hand eye, fine motor
- good for cognitive: book also aims to teach the sounds they make, the food they eat, the habitat they live in
- very few words on each page, so later, I can get him to sight simple words e.g. "it","is" (reading)

V-Smile (computer console game)
- for hand eye, faster reflexes, fine motor
- from ebay. Pre-loved consoles are much cheaper compared to brand new ones sold here.

LeapFrog Leadpad
- to teach reading

Mega Bloks

- for fine motor when putting together; also requires both hands for removing pieces; creativity

Rainbow Coloured Musical Handheld Bells

- I wanted to get the ones used by his music teacher, which are 3x larger & the child is able to "ring" the bell by pushing down on it & not just in the conventional way.

- these are still definitely useful. Since it is smaller, it challenges his fine motor. Noticed it's not "tuned" properly, but I can still use it to teach him the placement of do, re, mi, fa etc & can play the Old McDonald tune which he has learnt to sing at music class.

Titiwangsa & others

Titiwangsa

Slides:
- still keen which also means he himself will want to crawl/climb whatever obstacle to get to the slide. As a result, he climbed more steps today.
- He climbed up the wrong way to get to the top of the baby slides & shorter tunnel slides, which is good for his achilles tendon, gastroc muscles etc.
- He's a bit bolder now & went down a tunnel slide with 1 1/2 twists by himself, without prompting!

Swing: been sometime since he sat on the swing. I showed him how to pump himself to get the swing moving, but he didnt try it, just observed my legs.

Long suspension bridge
- still likes it! A tiny bit better in getting up & down each level of the platform, though I still have to help him - e.g. he bends his knee more readily when coming down & when going up, his leg is placed a bit more in front of him instead of slightly to the side.
- yesterday he walked backwards on the bridge (moonwalking tribute to MJ!?)

Short suspension bridge: I increased the challenge by bouncing up & down on it to get it more shaky (cos that's how it'd be like if there were kids running past him). Good that he didnt lose his balance.

Spinning tops: He was a bit better on it today. Phew. It's also good for strecthing his legs (to help in opening up his stride).

Monkey bar slide: he didnt want to do it today

Suspended balance beam: once or twice towards the end of the beam, he managed to place his foot one in front of the other instead of squeezing them side by side. Hope he does it more cos that'll help get a more narrow based gait instead of broad based now.

Rock climbing:
- surprised he wanted to do it ! 1st time ever! And not just on 1 set, but went up 2 sets! I had never asked/prompted him to try it. Helped him with his footing, but was otherwise able to get up.

Visit to great grandma's
- Had a bit of time before lunch, so squeezed in a short visit to his great grandma's.
- realised there that he poo poo, so washed him. Poor thing, he must have been at the playground all the time with that icky feeling cos he did smell a bit when we got there but just thought he passed wind.
- he spoke a few words (e.g. thank you, purple, don't want) that were audible & intelligible enough for grandaunt to understand. Hooray!

Smell
- I taught him the 'thumbs up' sign for good last week. 2 days ago, taught him the thumbs down for bad. Today, after he passed wind (kentut), he said: kentut...smell BAD (with thumbs down sign!) So funny!

Cranial Sacral Therapy
- his therapist noted the front of his skull was slowly opening up a little. Not so sharp looking.
- he played with some toys that helps with fine motor & hand eye (click clack & chunky foam animal puzzle)
- In preparation of the NeuroSuit therapy, I learnt to massage him: up & down the sides of his spine, shoulders, shoulder blades, arms, legs & hip. He was so ticklish esp arms & shoulder blade. He complained towards the end...but he was ok lah.

Hair cut
- hair getting long, weather so hot, scrathing his head more often ... time for hair cut!
- thankfully he can still fit in his small bathtub, while I cut his hair. Gave him beakers to fill & pour. It's good for wrist movement & crossing the midline (told him that if he wants to pour the water out of the bathtub, he has to pour it in the pail I placed on his left - he's right handed)
- handsome now!

Garden hose
- I had diarohea this evening, so didnt take him for evening exercise.
- he helped with watering the plants, using the garden hose. Good for hand eye, arm movements.

Mega bloks
Didnt have time to build structures but played with it as follows:
- tried to unzip the bag, but couldnt. It's ok, it's the first time with this bag. Just needs more practice
- right hand took out individual pieces from the bag & placed it on the swing, while counting out loud & placing it in separate groups according to colour (speech, fine motor, sorting), I also got him to stretch by moving the swing a little further away each time.
- left hand put back all the pieces at the end (no counting)