Sick day Fun!

Since Jocie was home from school again today and starting to get bored, we decided to find some fun sensory things to do! 

We made our own Moldable Sand (yep, homemade and much like the popular "moonsand")

Then we made some glittery slime/putty (similar to silly putty, or you can make it slime with a small alteration- we did both) 

When we were done playing, we put the left overs into balloons to make Jocie what she calls her "balloonie buddies" (sort of like small stress balls) 

Moldable Sand

4 cups flour

1/2 cup Baby Oil

Mix together well adding more baby oil if you would like more molding power!

Easy as that!

I actually had some Lavender scented baby oil on hand so ours smells great and may actually have some extra calming properties! 

We also added some red Kool-aid to help color it a little. I only had one package so it didn't add much color, but if you added a few more packets it would probably look great!

Here are a few more pics of Jocie's fun with the sand:

"Mountain Man": 

Oh No! This doesn't look good for "Mountain Man"

Now "flat man"

Jocie hard at work making a new sculpture.

Finished product:

Slime/Putty

1/2 cup Glue

1/2 cup Liquid starch

Mix together well adding starch or glue for the desired consistency. More starch will make it more like silly putty, more glue will make it more like slime

Warning: keep away from good fabrics and furniture - and of course carpet! This stuff can get messy and not easy to clean out of porous materials!

We also altered this a little by using colored glitter glue mixed in with the white glue. Made for some nice sparkly putty!

Balloonie Buddies

Use larger balloons, preferably thicker as well. Then you just fold them down as you stretch and fill them. Rolling dough, putty or other items into a longer thin piece helps make it easier to get them inside. Then add a little bit of air(optional and some prefer NO air at all) and tie the end as you would normally after blowing up a balloon. You can then decorate them with a permanent marker. You can also add pom-poms or other embellishments to make hair, google eyes, whatever you choose. A glue gun on Cool setting works best to stick items on

You can make these out of so many things. Just let your imagination guide you!

Here are some that things we have tried:

Playdough

Moonsand

Moondough

slime/putty

oobleck (mixture of cornstarch and water)

Dry beans

Dry rice

Dry cornstarch

T is for Tortilla

So the plan for today was to make tacos and let Jocie and Mew add whatever ingredients they wanted to them. They were not so fond of the idea, so we compromised. We still used Tortillas- but Jocie and Mew each used them in a different way.

For Jocie, we took soft shell Tortillas and lightly coated them with oil. Then, we sprinkled them with sugar and cinnamon and baked them until they were slightly browned and crispy. She was so excited to try them. As soon as hers cooled she tried a bite. she LOVED it and ended up eating the whole thing and wanted to make one for her dad as well. We later made a few with apple pie filling on top as well. She did not want to try those, but her dad and I liked them!

For Mew, we made taco meat, and put it on softened tortilla shells with cheese and cut it into smaller pieces. He wanted to eat the filling but not the tortilla parts, but when he asked for seconds, he still wanted them to be wrapped in the shell first. Silly Mew HAHA He had fun taking them apart and scraping out the meat and cheese.

Thinking of a few more T activities to try out in the next few days if we are able to.

More S fun

We decided to continue on the S activities and stick to something that we have used a few times already. Spaghetti!
After talking about and writing their S etc, they decided to use the dry spaghetti noodles as swords and chase each other around the house. They went through more 'swords' than I care to count. HAHA but they had fun while I was cooking the rest.

Once the Spaghetti noodles were cooked I put some on each of their trays. Mew jumped right in trying to make fun shapes. Jocie was not so enthusiastic. I decided to try to encourage her by making a 'Repunzel' face for her. By the time I got the hair and face outline done, she was starting to get interested. I was very surprised when she started to play with the spaghetti! This is the first time she has really touched it on her own! BREAKTHROUGH moment! Times like these make it all worth it! I tried to hide MY enthusiasm so that I did not discourage her- it was HARD to do! (She did get a lot of praise and even earned some marbles for her jar when we were done! If we do it WHILE she is playing, she will usually stop!)

I would say Jocie had a fun time with the spaghetti! Mew did as well. He made a 'jelly fish from spongebob' out of his noodles!

We also used the spaghetti to make 'spider dogs'/ I pushed dry noodles through pieces of hot dog and then put them in water to cook. This made the legs. They did not turn out how I had hoped (didnt think about the noddles sticking together) but the kiddos LOVED them and had fun making them crawl through their spaghetti piles.

Cupcakes!

We were on a roll today so we decided to make some Halloween cupcakes!

They were very serious about their frosting!

It was a little messy but so much fun!

The temptation to lick the frosting was just too much for Mew. He dove right in!

As you can see, Jocie also could not resist licking her knife!

When it was time to put the cupcakes into a pan to save for later, Mew had another idea. He decided to take a quick lick of the frosting on top of each one he put in the pan. He THOUGHT no one would notice. HAHA- We noticed! I am glad I frosted one pan for US to eat, and we were able to set theirs aside for THEM to eat! They had a blast though and THAT is what matters most!

S is for S'Mores

Still trying to keep it simple to keep Jocie interested and not overwhelm her too much. Today was a perfect day for that! She was in a great mood and more than ready to try some food fun. S'Mores were on the agenda!

We used Toasted Marshmallow Cream to give them more of a 'campfire like' taste. I let the kiddos spread their own Marshmallow onto graham crackers. This was great not only because I knew they would get a little 'messy' but also because they would have to use both hands to spread it on- one to spread the other to hold the cracker steady- something both of them really need to work on! They did great! Next, we added little squares of chocolate. I then put them in the microwave for a few seconds to soften them a little

Jocie's face said it all! She LOVED them. They were a little hard for her to eat together like a 'real' s'more, so she opened up the top and ate the bottom with all the GOOD stuff on it! She then decided it would be better to just dip chocolate into some of the marshmallow cream. She loved that part the most!

Mew was not sure about eating it sandwiched together. He opened his up after one bite and took out the chocolate (is he really my child?!?! haha) He decided it was best to just lick off all of the marshmallow, so that is what he did.

When they finished they were sticky and gooey but HAPPY!

Love the Orbeez

We went to an evening function at Jocie's school last year and they ahd these neat gooey balls they were calling 'fish eyes' (it was a water theme night). They were so much fun! Jocie was hesitant to touch them at first, but once she did, she couldn't get enough. They told us they had ordered them through a catalog but no one could remember where. Since then I have been on the hunt (shoot I like them as much as the kids do!). I did find some of these in a special needs catalog, but they only came in clear and were really more than I wanted pay so I put off ordering. Then we saw the add on TV for Orbeez- same things, more colors and AT THE STORE! No need to order online! And of course, I kept forgetting to look for them when I was at the store- until a few nights ago. I thought about it while shopping and went to look. I was in luck- only ONE package left, but that is all I NEEDED! it was OURS!

I got home and could not wait to get the info I needed on making them so that we could make them first thing in the morning. I knew that it would take time to 'grow' them and that the kiddos would be anxious to get their hands into them. What better day than today! We had a couple of appointments in the morning so we could start them before we left and they would be ready when we got back home. PERFECT!

When we got back home it was time to PLAY! We made a little of each color and I divided them up between Jocie and Mew. They were so excited! They both started out putting them into the little racks that came with the set. 

 

Mew LOVED that because it was like his favorite thing, LINING them up! I liked that part for him because it was great practice for him using those fine motor skills! He had trouble handling them at first, but got the hang of it as he went along. 

Jocie preferred to just put her hands into the containers and swirl them around. She would take small handfuls out and look at them. She would try to find the smallest ones and then the largest ones. She was loving them! They were great for her to play with and work on getting comfortable with things that are 'wet'- something she has trouble with often. 

When we were done playing we put them up on the counter with the lids on to keep the cats out of them(NOT GOOD FOR ANIMALS!!!!) and through out the day, Jocie kept going back in to touch them. Mew would soon be behind her following suit. They are already looking forward to playing with them again tomorrow. The best thing about them, they hold water for a while and if they dry out, you just add them to water and grow them again! We LOVE reusable fun!!!

Silly Fun With J and M

MASKS

Always looking for fun things to do! It was great when we found these kits at the store for making masks- included everything we needed! Jocie made a Black Cat and Mew made a Red bird. Jocie wore her mask for 3 days straight! She LOVES it. 

 

Mew took his sequins off and pretty much destroyed his within the first hour after it had dried haha So typical of my Mew haha Atleast I got some pictures of it before he tore it apart!

Cape

After Jocie went to the audiologist and we found out she did indeed have extra sensitive hearing, we wanted to make it a GOOD thing for her. So, we told her it was her super power, super hearing power and that when someone asked her why she wore headphones sometimes she could tell them she was jsut protecting her super hearing! She decided if she had a super power, she needed a super hero cape! So, I went to work on it!

PINK SUPER HERO CAPE FOR JOCIE! 

Hats and Gloves

Both of the kiddos LOVE to wear hats and gloves. Any time, any day! They just LOVE THEM. When we got new ones today it was no surprise that they wanted to wear them immediately. So, we took off the tags, and on they went! What followed was a few hours of crazy dancing, hat and glove wearing fun!