Toddler Tuesday: Frogs!

Hello and Welcome! I'm sorry for the delay.This week we are working with Frogs,  Panda has some new therapists and they've given me a lot of ideas for working with Panda on his sensory issues. Today's sensory bin has sticky-gooey cooked oatmeal, fleece lily pads, chives, and frogs. For exploring I've added a spatula and a spoon.

I made homemade edible playdoh for Panda to squish his frogs into. As an afterthought I added some protein powder just in case he decided to take a nibble and low and behold he played with this activity for a little over an hour and ate every last bite of playdoh! 

Directions:

1 tablespoon powdered milk (I used powdered goats milk)

1 Tablespoon protein powder ( I used vegan, you could also skip this and just use 2 table spoons of powdered milk)

2 Teaspoons honey (or maple syrup)

2 Tablespoon peanut butter (sun butter,almond butter...)

Mix until it forms a playdoh consistency. Too sticky? Add more powder. To dry? Add more honey or peanut butter. Enjoy!

Panda's new therapists suggested that I work on oral stimulation to help with his eating, mouthing, and speaking issues. So I made this fun frog crown for his dress up bin and bought a bag of party noisemakers to pretended they were frog tongues. Panda LOVED this. He's even tried a few times to work it himself, but so far it's a little to hard. But Hey! He's at least trying and that's a start in my book. 

For an active impact type of sensory input I took two pillowcases outside today. I tried to get Panda to hop around in them like a potato sack, but he was having an off day. This is a great way to burn off energy.  Maybe tomorrow. He usually loves to hop.  Everything was just a little off today.

This was another suggestion from his therapists. It's a body sock. Basically he crawls inside and gets sensory input on all sides. His therapists tried to get him to use one yesterday but he wouldn't go inside. I made this one up and he still wouldn't go in. Their sock is a tube of fabric  made out of a sweatpants type material. It was about two feet wide and five feel long. My fabric is the same approximate measurements. The inside is cool and feels a bit like satin and the outside is a bit like velvet with a textured pattern. Mine unfortunately does not stretch because I was wrong about what type of fabric I had on hand... Ooopss. The idea was to throw toys inside and get Panda to try to put them in, take them out, or retrieve them. So far what he enjoys doing is laying down on it and rubbing it's softness, or just dragging it around like an overly large blanket. We also hid noisemakers toys inside that he could hit and make a noise from the outside. I'm sure we will come up with several more ways to use this sock. Don't you just love open ended toys?

Ok.. I just had to throw this picture in.. Sorry. I have one handsome little man : )

This is actually a representation of Panda's bath. I couldn't get a good picture of them in the bathtub. We've been plopping these frogs into his bath since Sunday and he's been loving them. The lily pads are cut from foam from the dollar store and float nicely.
That's it for this week. Thanks for checking back in. I told you there were going to be some good ideas. These ladies are amazing. I'm so happy Panda was able to get into their program. I know he will flourish in the next few months. What is going on around your home this week?
Shine on!