When Penguin was younger, we sometimes visited a place that had a ‘Sensory Room’, also known as ‘Snoezelen’. In hindsight, we could have got so much more out of those visits if we’d been guided by an occupational therapist on how to make the most of it all, but at the time I didn’t know … More On nature as ”Sensory Room”
Yesterday, we made these Queen of Hearts tarts, based on a recipe from the BBC children’s tv show ‘Big Cook, Little Cook’. These are easy to make, quite plain, and filled with whichever red jam you like best. As you might know from our recent post about making Merengue Snowmen, ‘Big Cook, Little Cook’ is … More Baking Queen of Hearts tarts, like on ‘Big Cook, Little Cook’
As today is National Handwriting Day, I thought it might be suitable to share a couple of the ways that we’re working on handwriting skills. Handwriting is not something that’s been easy for Penguin, and it still isn’t. He’s had to work quite hard on developing his fine motor skills, and there was also a … More Motivating handwriting exercises
Over the last couple of days we’ve been making pom-poms, and added Shaun the Sheep-style faces to them. Pretty cute, don’t you think? Making the pom-poms were a joint effort, while the black felt faces were cut out and fastened (with thread) by me. Penguin then made the eyes, and stuck them on using glue. The … More Shaun the Sheep style Pom-Poms!
As you might already know if you follow this blog, Penguin is pretty much non-verbal, or minimally verbal, or pre-verbal, depending on which term you prefer to use. He’s also got a very strong visual sense, which he relies on heavily, for learning, communication, and more. To play an activity of guessing smells, I couldn’t … More ‘Guess that smell’: Matching activity with visual supports
Penguin’s been enjoying the playdough mats I made for him recently (here), so the other day I decided it was time to make another one. I’d also been thinking of making some kind of simple phenology wheel, so I made this mat showing a tree, as a base for exploring the four seasons. Penguin generally … More The 4 seasons playdough mats – with free printables!
For the 24th and final day in our Advent Calendar of Christmassy Activities I made a Gingerbread Man felt set for Penguin to play with. Or rather, for us both, to be honest! I cut the shape of a gingerbread man out of brown felt, placed him on a green piece of felt as base/background, … More DIY Gingerbread Man Felt Play
These little cards/gift tags which we’ve been making today were really more about the process than the final result. Making confetti, potato printing, painting, cutting, glueing, and finally sticking a star at the top if each tree! Still, I think they’ll look great under the tree, especially if used for a gift wrapped in a … More Christmas gift tags/mini cards
We’re now over half-way through our Advent Calendar of Christmas Activities! Today’s activity was another christmassy craft: a paper heart garland. As I’ve said before, I try to make sure that the craft projects we do are pretty simple, in order to maximize our chances of a good result, and minimize frustration along the way. This … More Making a paper heart garland
Sometimes, the things I expect to be difficult are no problem, while other turn out to be much harder than anticipated. Like today, when we cut these paper snowflakes: Penguin cut out the circular shapes all by himself, which was brilliant! It takes a level of coordination which just hasn’t been there until now. Lovely … More Paper Snowflakes – “different, not less”
Sensational Learning with Penguin 