Some children seem to be born ready to play from the moment they learn to crawl. But what if you have a child that doesn’t seem to know how? What if they ask you to play too? What if you feel like your child needs a bit of a push towards play time? Here’s my guide to how, and why, you can create more play in your home.
Dear 2019 Me. I want to tell you about the changes to homeschooling that have happened in just a few years! In a few short years, homeschooling has grown by leaps and bounds! Thousands if not millions more children are being homeschooled here in 2021!
Are you doing a year-end review this year? Or just burning your planner in a bonfire? It was a hard year for so many of us for so many reasons. But I am going to choose to look for the successes. Because even in a hard year, some things went right.
About 10 years ago, I was working part-time and we had a sitter who came to the house to keep my kids while I worked. One December day she decided to warn my son, who was 3, that he “Better be good or Santa will bring you coal for Christmas.” My son didn’t respond the way the sitter expected.
One of the challenges of staying home with your kids every single day, is that you have to keep feeding them. I love food, but even I get burned out on cooking every meal every day. And while I have no problem with throwing a good PB&J at them, I don’t want a sandwich every day.
Is your child asking to play an RPG (role playing game)? Do you like the idea but aren’t a dungeon master? Trust me, I understand. Role Playing Games can be great to explore story development, character building, and problem solving. But they can can be intimidating to learn. So what games can you play instead?
Do you know a child who was obsessed with letters as a toddler and learned to read well before age 5? That child that makes everyone else wonder why their 3 year old can’t read, too? While the assumption might be that the child is just gifted, there is another word for early reading, hyperlexia.
Toys are great. Toys can give your child a chance to develop mentally, physically, and emotionally. But sometimes you want to actually DO something instead of pretend to do something. That’s where kid-sized tools come in.
Have you ever heard about being a sneaky chef and hiding nutrition in your child’s food? The idea is to sneak some vegetables into what you are cooking where your family won’t see it, smell it, or taste it. I’m going to share the sneaky additions that I liked so well, I am still doing them for my family.
As both an OT and a parent, I am a fan of puzzles. Every time you work on a puzzle you are using logic, reasoning, and visual perceptual skills while also using some fine motor skills to put the pieces into place. Here is the progression of puzzle working and how to choose the right one for your child.
