Pre-writing is FUN! Week #2

Hi Everyone, and welcome back to week #2 of Pre-writing is FUN!
Unfortunately, we had to postpone this week in my son's classroom due to Henry being sick. However, I will share some fun, indoor activities that you can do this weekend.

The first is a baking activity. As I have mentioned in previous posts, baking is a great way to incorporate the kids in a life-skill activity, teach them about numbers, measuring, sequencing, following directions and enhance fine motor skills all while targeting the tactile system. This morning we made one of our favorite muffins - GF Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from one of my favorite recipe websites. After you make these muffins this weekend, I encourage you to look around Tapp's website. She has amazing information about nutrition, health, gluten, and not to mention, fabulous healthy recipes! The kids had fun stirring and getting messy, and once they were bored with our planned recipe, they decided to set-up their own baking game raiding my spice drawer. It came with a mess, which I have to admit I need to be ready for, and this morning I was okay with the disaster! Lukey even got his computer out to "look up" a special recipe of his own! A quick side note - I don't think that everyone needs to be gluten free. I am because it helps keep my Lymes Disease under better control and Henry has a significant sensitivity to wheat (increased behaviors, emotional dysregulation and bedwetting - non of which he exhibits when I am very strict with his diet). However, even without these challenges, I limit the amount of gluten (and dairy) that Lukey and Livvy eat as well. There really is no need to load kids up on wheat and gluten and even dairy the moment they start eating. Read an article here, written by our families ND about how to give your kids a nutrition rich diet. Have fun with the kids stirring, mixing and kneading! After you have your hands warmed up, work on some coloring, drawing (Mat Man™) and name writing practice!

The next activity that we are going to do at home this morning is make a calming Chamomile Play Dough. Kneading, rolling, pinching and squeezing dough works as a self-regulating activity, especially with the aromatherapy of chamomile. It also increases fine motor strength and coordination. Improve pretend play skills making fun designs out of the dough. Also tie in some pre-academics by building letters or numbers out of the dough. Kids under 5 are not always developmentally ready for pencil and paper, so using dough as a sensory motor way to teach letter formation is great! Next week, I will get into more specifics about sensory motor letter building when I am back in The Apple Room at The Little School. I also encourage you to take a look around The Imagination Tree's website when you look up the Play Dough recipe and subscribe to her mailing list for wonderful, playful ideas!

Have fun, stay warm and enjoy!! Looking forward to week 2 in the Apple Room next Friday!