Man-Made Super Mario Furniture – #FMSphotoaday

J is one very happy boy right now.

We were given a small set of drawers, which to be honest had seen better days but they were still very solid. So we’ve cleaned them and painted them. Then we bought some small wall stickers, added them to the drawers and created this Super Mario Set of drawers……………….

A very welcome piece of furniture in his room.

Read Full Post »

#ColourMeInRK Project

This is a post for the BritMums #ColourMeInRK competition, sponsored by Kellogg’s.

Yesterday we received a (very large) box of Colour Me In Rice Krispies and a brilliant bumper colouring pack.

  

J thought the Colouring Case as fab and couldn’t wait to colour his special box of Rice Krispies. He’s not very keen on paints etc and needs alot of encouragement to use them but he loves pencils and felt pens. He was particularly impressed with the “magic pens”, you know the ones that change colour when you use the white pen.

J had great fun decorating the characters on his Rice Krispies box. Once he’d finished decorating the box he even asked if he could have some of his “special Rice Krispies”.

  

 

The finished product…………………….

There’s lots more colouring fun to be found at Kellogg’s.

Read Full Post »

No Hosepipe But A Few Fish This Wordless Wednesday

It’s another sunny day so…………..

I set this up as an after school surprise

Read Full Post »

Silent Sunday – Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother’s Day

Read Full Post »

Creative Coffee – Silent Sunday

A Latte Macchiato I made

 

my coffee art

 

More coffee art

Yep..... more coffee!

 

Read Full Post »

I Thought Autism And Got Creative – Wordless Wednesday

Autism Aware Charm Bracelet made by me

Angel Phone Dangles made by me

Autism Aware Bookmarks made by me

 

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys

Read Full Post »

Working On Those Fine Motor Skills

Over the last few weeks we’ve been working really hard on J’s fine motor skills and his low muscle tone (in his hands). It’s an area that he struggles in, he hates writing and often says that it’s too hard and his hands hurt or they’re tired. So we’ve been trying to find different fun ways to aid his development in these areas.

using playdough

We started by using playdough using his hands to manipulate the dough into shapes to create models and then moved on to tougher things like Theraputty and clay which is much harder to manipulate. We’ve also used scissors to cut the playdough up, scissors are something J has always struggled with and still does, however he has made huge progress with these skills.

Theraputty is pretty handy stuff

The Theraputty is much tougher than playdough and so gives his muscle tone and fine motor skills a really good workout First we rolled the Theraputty into a long snake and then J used his index finger to make small indentations all the way along the snake. I then placed a box of marbles on J’s left side and asked him to place a marble into each dent that he had made but he was only allowed to use his right index finger and thumb to pick the marbles up. This not only worked on his fine motor skills but also mathematical skills (he created patterns whilst lining them up along his snake, without being asked to do so) and he had to cross his middle, which is something his OT and his teacher at the EI centre have both told us he needs to work on. Next I hid some new marbles and small balls in the Theraputty and told J if he could get them out of the Theraputty he could keep them, I’ve also hidden little toy bugs and animals (you know the one kind you buy for party bags) and done the same thing. J loves collecting little things like this so it’s something that works well Then to finish up we’ve been making handprints in the Theraputty, pushing down hard to make each print.

making patterns with pasta

We tried to get creative with our fine motor skills, working on J’s OCD “dirty” issues too. He doesn’t like to do alot of arty things involving paint, glue etc and it can take alot of bribery encouragement to convince him to take part in messy art. So we did panting with a twist I put together a couple of pots of a food colouring mixture and explained that it was the same thing that we put into his rainbow cakes. Then we got out some pasta and soaked it in the various pots. J took the pasta out of each pot using his finger and thumb (way to go for those fine motor skills!) and placed the pasta onto sheets of kitchen roll. This is where he got creative, the food colouring soaked into the kitchen roll creating patterns. We ended up with several pictures and ofcourse the coloured pasta which he also enjoyed making patterns with.

We’ve spent time writing in various things in a bid to improve his letter formation and again his fine motor skills. We’ve written in playdough with kebab skewers, we’ve written in flour (thanks Fi for this fab idea) and shaving foam and have formed letters with matchsticks (the coloured arty kind not actual matchsticks). We also been working on his pencil grip and handwriting with a little help from Mario, Smurfs and Angry Birds. J hates writing and so again by using some of his favourite things to help, it’s made it a little more fun for him. We’ve had great results so far, J is now holding a pencil further down, closer to the nib and is also now holding it with just 3 fingers instead of 4……………. Well Done Little Man, Mummy’s very proud, you’ve worked really hard

Some of J’s work……

Dad's Papa Smurf

 

Mum's a Smurfette

Angry Birds by J

 

Read Full Post »

Wordless Wednesday – “Can We Do Art?”

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Trish at My Little Drummer Boys

Read Full Post »

Mum’s A Smurf!

Today I faced one of my fears…………. please refrain from laughing…………………… I made playdough for J!

I’ve always had a fear of playdough………….. the way it feels, the way it smells……….. everything about it!

I had promised J earlier in the week that I would make him some (he loves the stuff!) and I should have known better than to think he might forget because J never forgets!

So we got all the ingredients out ready, (cream of tartar, plain flour, salt, food colourings, a dash of cooking oil) and put the kettle on for the boiling water that we needed.

We made a variety of different colours and I encouraged J to tell which colours I needed to mix together to make the other colours that he wanted, like purple, orange and green

We even mixed glitter into two batches to give J a different sensory experience

  Whilst I hate playdough J loves it and it does have its uses. J gets to exercise his fine motor skills and work on his muscle tone.

Ofcourse the downside to making your own playdough (apart from having to touch it!) is that food colouring stains…… badly!

J thinks it’s hilarious that Mummy has blue hands and has been giggling since we made the playdough, declaring “Mum’s turning into a Smurf!”

Read Full Post »

My Mini Masterchef – Silent Sunday

Read Full Post »