Sensory Friendly Fun: Pit Balls and Bubbles

This post is a throwback to sensory activity ideas I saved because our EI therapists were geniuses but I was so busy being a mommy to small sensory seeking autistic humans that posting them at the time wasn't something I could prioritize.

 The concept is pretty self explanatory...

• Wading pool
• All the balls
• Seriously. So many balls.
• You'll be picking up balls forever.
• Bubbles
• Small human

We also added one of those little plastic slides because it was there on account of garage sales are great. I can officially report it's toddler approved fun!

My son's DT loved that we had the ball pit set up for indoor winter sensory input, and decided to incorporate it into his session. He loves it so much it was a great reward to motivate him through the session, and her addition of bubbles made him explode with joy.

He asked us to do bubble balls endlessly for a while. Totally worth it.

More Pit Ball Activity Ideas

This activity is an extension of one I posted a while back when my older son was still small. If you're looking to make one yourself you can read about the wading pool ball pit situation here.

And this one's an extension of my little guy just plain loved to be buried in balls and I was looking for ways to make that more engaging and maybe even a little educational - color matching pit balls with game spinners.

Socials

I pinned this post to the Sensory Diet Activities section of my blog board.
I shared it from my ShesAlwaysWrite Facebook page.

Kid Friendly Upcycled Paper Bag Easter Basket Craft

When the stores fill with plastic eggs, chocolate bunnies and overpriced baskets emblazoned with the latest Disney characters, I cringe and imagine what a pastel nightmare next month's landfill layer is going to look like. I just can't bring myself to buy single use items like that.

I'm always looking for hands-on crafty stuff to do with the kids, and I compulsively hoard sturdy paper shopping bags with handles. It occurred to me therein lies the two birds / one stone solution to the Easter basket problem. I'm sharing it with y'all, because I can't be the only one who would happily slip a forgotten Easter basket into the recycling bin after hiding in the garage to eat the last of the Jelly Bellies.

Kid Friendly Upcycled Paper Bag Easter Basket Craft

1) Rummage around in the back of your pantry for some paper bags. Hopefully ones that don't smell like old Chinese takeout.

2) Prep the kids to paint. Take autism break to allow plenty of time for crucial paint bottle arranging.

3) Have the kids cut top of the bags off at the crease. Save upper sections for the handle step.

4) Nope, still not quite right...

5) Distract boychild from lack of access to paint with a cookie while explaining that his brother is autistic just like he is, and we will wait for little brother to arrange the paint bottles because it makes him happy, just like we wait for big brother arrange the kitchen stools because it makes him happy.

6) Finally start painting... *sigh* That's ok little Dude, the Easter Bunny doesn't really care if your basket is painted. You do you.

7) Try not to cry as you think about how far your sweet little guy has come and how much hard work and occupational therapy and social coaching it took for him to get to a point where he spontaneously painted a picture of his family next to a house.

8) Let the painted bags dry, preferable overnight. Try not to forget that you sat them on top of the fridge and drop another pile of stuff you needed out of the way on the wet paint.

9) Cut the handle sections so the width is just slightly smaller than the interior width of the painted bag.

10) Cut the height of the handle section so it's just shorter than the depth of the painted bag.

11) Glue time! AKA stealth squeezy sensory break time!

12) Glue the crap out of 'em so they'll hopefully hold the weight of the Easter stuff. I set the glue covered pieces in place for the kids because I'd rather not be scraping dried glue off my counter through Memorial Day. Then I have them press it all over to get good contact. I recommend letting it dry on its side overnight so they don't slide around.

13) Voila! Adorable, guilt free, customized Easter baskets! If you're feeling ambitious and looking for another sensory activity, instead of buying Easter grass you can have the kids make their own.  I always have scraps of construction paper in the craft bin and the little one loves to play with scissors. (Fine motor skills!)  You could also have them crumple or tear up tissue paper.

Any Size
The great thing is that this craft can be done with any size paper bag that suits your family's Easter traditions. A standard brown paper lunch bag is the perfect size for a reasonable amount of candy. For bags without built in handles, simply hole punch and use ribbon or yarn to create the handle. They'll still achieve a basket look, though probably won't be sturdy enough to carry it once filled.

I use fairly big bags because our Easter bunny doesn't bring much candy. He doesn't need to - we've still got at least a bag or two still left over from Halloween. What he does bring is a moderate size toy, maybe a DVD, with some token "bunny beans" (adorably dubbed so by Dude last Easter, and not an error we're keen to correct) and a Reese's egg (because I'm only human).

The things is, spring is when work starts going nuts for me after the typically quiet winter. So I go from a near total focus on the kids to spending tons of time in the office. Easter has become an opportunity to assuage some of the Working Mommy Guilt associated with my seasonal disappearance, so until I'm able to level up in my career I'll probably continue using the big bags.

I wasn't kidding about the Working Mommy guilt. Wonderful Husband has requested that I ask the Easter Bunny to take his enthusiasm down a notch next year...

***

2015 Paper Bag Easter Baskets

We really enjoy this project, and made them again!

 

***

2016 Paper Bag Easter Baskets

And again!  This year was extra fun, Dude really got into it. He had a whole story about how the Easter eggs he painted were secretly bombs. 

I also enjoyed seeing the evolution of Bear's bunny. It's great to compare things like this year to year when your kids are developmentally delayed, it helps me visualize the progress all the hard work and therapy has helped them make.

Socials
This paper bag Easter Basket craft is pinned to my crafting board.

The Great Apple Butter Sensory Experiment

Apple Butter Hand Pies

If you're curious how I came by the need to use up epic quantities of apple butter by fabricating hand pies, you can catch up with parts 1 and 2 of The Great Apple Butter Experiment.

If you just happen to have apple butter on hand and want to do something besides enjoying it on toast/pancakes/waffles/ham/pork chops/in pumpkin bread/with a spoon, read on...

Did somebody say sensory diet?

I stumbled across this application when searching for ideas on how to use up a few, um, dozen jars.  Preferably, I was looking for a kid friendly idea I could get Bear involved in.  I wasn't sure about this at first, but I figured if it's good enough for Martha, it's good enough for me. 

Recipe Sources
Though I openly worship at the shrine of Martha, I did not use her recipe on this particular project.  I already had the apple butter and I already had a preferred pie crust recipe.

Pie Crust versus Hand Pie Crust
When I decided to make apple butter hand pies I had recently fabricated nearly 200 mini pasties for a Halloween party (pumpkin pie, apple and a traditional vegetable beef. Yes, it was totally worth it.).

Tasty, tasty heavy work.

Thing is, I made them with a finicky delicate pain in the ass standard pie crust recipe, blissfully ignorant of what should have been this blindingly obvious fact: hand pies typically call for a sturdier, kneaded crust.

If you're confident working with typical pie crust then by all means, go for it.  I can personally attest that the tender, flaky results are worth the effort.

But if you are not either A) experienced with pie crust, or B) a certifiable foodie, then Imma recommend you check out Alton Brown's hand pie crust recipe. 


Step 1: Crust

Make a bunch of pie crust.  Hand pies are labor intensive, so I won't do less than a quadruple batch. I want plenty to freeze for later so I can experience the pleasure of eating one without hours of work.

I'm a big fan of the food processor for blitzing up pie crust.  My processor easily holds a double recipe, so I can have 4 to 6 crusts worth of dough (depending on how motivated I'm feeling that day) thrown together in under 15 minutes.

I recommend prepping all the dough rounds before you start filling.  I do this in batches, stacking the rounds between wax paper in the fridge.

Never again

The size of your round depends on how big you want your hand pies.  For mini (two or three bite) pies, you can use a big cookie cutter.  I was going for the "suck it, Hostess" size and found the lid to my smallest sauce pan worked perfectly.





Step 2: Filling and Shaping

Mixing egg wash for fine motor practice

Just follow the basic rules of filling hand pies and you'll be fine:

- use less filling than you think you need
- leave the edges clean so the pie will seal
- a little egg wash for glue
- gently press the air out as you fold over
- cut a steam hole

Why yes, this IS too much filling

I received these nifty hand pie presses as a gift, but they only work for one size.  It happens to be the perfect portion for an apple butter hand pie and it's easy for kids to use, so I went with it.

If you don't have one just do what I do the other 90% of the time I'm making variously sized hand pies - fold over and gently crimp with a fork.

Bake or freeze? Eat or save?

Line your pies up on a sheet pan.  Make a couple of steam holes either with a knife or scissors. Place pan in the freezer until the pies are rock hard.  I put them in a plastic food storage container, but a freezer bag will work as long as you don't bang it around too much (the edges will crack off).

Until you've had a lot of practice, you'll probably find the assembled pies start to get overly squishy waiting for the pan to fill.  When this happens I stash the pan in the freezer and simply move the newly assembled pies to it as I complete each one. And it probably goes without saying that I only bring a couple of dough rounds out of the fridge at a time.

Because the apple butter doesn't offer resistance like other fillings, it can be a pain to cut the steam holes without squishing the pie.  I like to let them firm up in the freezer just a bit before cutting the holes.  The trick, of course, is not forgetting to cut the steam holes before they freeze solid.

Step 3: Baking

So excited to eat it we forgot to take a picture first

Bake them off in a 400 degree oven. Times will depend on size and if you started from room temp, fridge temp or frozen.  Start checking on them around 20 minutes; if starting frozen will generally take around 30.  In this case the filling is already cooked, so it's all about browning the pastry.

I like to bake off about a half dozen and freeze the rest.  That way we don't eat ourselves silly and have hand pies at the drop of a hat for weeks.

I love to pop one on my small stoneware pan and stick it in the toaster oven.  Paired with some warm cider or hot chocolate, you have the perfect snack for kids getting off the bus on a cold day.  Or bake off several in the oven for the whole family to enjoy after a Saturday afternoon of sledding. 


Regarding Yield

I can't offer a reliable count on yield because it depends on how big you make your pies. I get roughly four 6" pies from each individual pie crust batch.  I used about 16 ounces of apple butter to make about 16 pies (which makes sense now that I think about it - 2 Tbsp is a reasonable filling quantity for a 6" pie).

If you are going to have the kids help build hand pies there's one last piece of advice I have to offer: make sure you've got more jars on hand than you think you need.  I used two jars to make the pies... and Bear simultaneously ate two jars.  Because all that sensory diet stuff works up an appetite.

Sensory Activity: Pit Ball Wading Pool

This is one of Bear's absolute favorite sensory diet activities. I only get it out every couple of weeks months because, well, that's about how long it takes to find all the balls under the furniture.

I wanted to share this one for several reasons:
- it's cheap
- it's easy
- it's versatile
- it's fun

Supplies
Blow up wading pool (we got this one for $5 on clearance)
Pit balls. Lots and lots of pit balls (about $10 for bag of 100 - he got 4 bags for his birthday)
Pile of random blankets (to soften the landing zone)
Bike pump (optional, but highly recommended)

Pumping the air to blow up the pool offers great resistance, and he thinks it's fun. Plus, it seems to be organizing and I think it helps keep him from getting overstimmed in the balls.  (Note the layer of blankets lining the floor under the pool.)

 

I couldn't get a picture of the next step because my hands were full with the task - he lies down in the empty pool and I pour the entire bin of balls over him.

The next bit is self-explanatory...

 

Note: This really is 400 pit balls. They don't go nearly as far as you'd think!

Once he's gotten the first round of jumping out of his system and is heading towards overstimulation, he starts throwing balls.  We decided to channel this impulse into something constructive.  He's got some motor planning issues that are pretty noticeable in the ball throwing area, so we set up the bin for target practice.

 

Once he gets ball throwing out of his system, he likes to experiment with the bin itself. I've got video of him scooting down the hall like a turtle with it : )

 

 

After he exhausts all the play options for one session, he's calm and organized enough to sit still and smile for a photo!

 

Sensational Snowman - Part 2

This is the second half the Sensational Snowman indoor winter activity.

After the glue holding the 3 paper balls together dries, it's time to stand back and let the kids get creative.

Since I'm a craft store junkie, I've got a box full of stuff like felt scraps and puff balls and pipe cleaners.  I actually have a big bin labeled "rainy day" where I toss anything with project potential, but I know not everyone is that nuts.

If you don't happen to have a bunch of decorative items in a craft bin, let the kids design their snowman decorations on paper.  They can cut (or tear) their snowman embellishments out of construction paper, or color them on white paper before cutting them out.

The big bag of puff balls was one of the first things I got when he first started speech and OT through Early Intervention (because it was cheap and easy).

Obviously, we played with the bag o' puffy balls until he got it out of his system and he was ready to focus on decorating the snowman with them.

 Making a scarf for the snowman was another opportunity to practicing cutting on a line, and the felt offers extra resistance.

Making a ski cap type hat is just cutting a semi-circle, so it's a great one for a younger kiddo.  We also did a top hat, but that one required a lot more help.  (Bear was able to trace the circles but I had to cut them out.)

Gluing the goodies on is another chance for him to get squeezy input.

We also discovered it's another great chance for a tactile experience when the glue inevitably gets all over his hands.  The liquid glue didn't bother him much, but he was very curious and mildly uncomfortable with the way dried glue felt on his hands.

That's all there is to it!  I let him glue stuff to the snowman until he got bored and wandered away.

Bear loves that his snowmen are on display in the family room

Sensational Snowman - Part 1

As winter approached, I noticed the go-to plot development in children's programming became building a snowman.  Bear picked up on this from the first winter themed Caillou rerun and started demanding that we build a snowman before the first flurries stuck to the grass.

Of course we take advantage of our snowy sensory wonderland and have fun outside whenever possible, but as Patty pointed out, when you live in the Midwest it's not always in the cards.  -20 days (and my SPD kiddo who generally can't handle wind no matter the temp) means an awful lot of time stuck indoors.

Since building a snowman was what Bear wanted, one recent frigid afternoon I decided that's what we would do.  I looked for every possible way to work a little of his sensory diet into the paper snowman fun.  It was such a hit with Bear I decided to share it here.

My favorite part about this activity is that there are lots of natural breaking points, so you can choose to do it all at once or in sections, depending on your child's attention span.

Uuum, yes. I'm this nuts.

Basic Supplies
- large paper
- glue
- tape
- if no optional supplies on hand, markers or crayons to create decorative elements

Optional Supplies
- puff balls
- felt
- googly eyes

We were lucky enough to score a giant roll of paper from a friend who was discontinuing an eBay business and no longer needed it as packing material.  Easel paper is what we used to use (we get our easel paper at Ikea for about $5 a roll).  I also just learned you can ask your local newspaper office for the end rolls of newsprint - apparently they give it away for free.  

We also love the giant roll because it weighs a ton and Bear gets a little heavy work rolling it out.

Obviously you need 3 pieces of paper sized small, medium and large.

- if your child is capable, let them determine the sizes (Bear's not there yet)
- if your child needs the input, let them tear the sheets off by hand
- if your child needs the fine motor and/or grip practice (like Bear), let them cut with scissors

Bear's OT recently suggested we draw lines for him to practice cutting on, so that's how we went with it.


Next step is a classic sensory diet staple: crumpling up paper.  Let them get it out of their system, and then you'll need to help a bit.

- crumple the paper around your hand to help create a flat front (for later decorating)
- tape the crumpled back end so the whole thing stays put






Time to break out the glue.  Squeezing the glue bottle is a nice input, so I resist my urge to control the situation and simply cover the whole table with paper so he can glue to his heart's content.

The glue needs to dry, so this is an ideal breaking point.  The first time we made one we did this half before lunch, and the glue was dry enough to move on after we'd eaten.

For us, it was also important to verbally prepare him for the break (he really wanted to glue eyes on and talked about it the whole time).  I also discovered it was really dumb to let him see the craft box before we were ready for its contents, because he was so focused on the puff balls, googly eyes and pipe cleaners it was hard to keep him on task.

We learned easiest way to keep the paper balls together in snowman form while the glue dries was to tape the whole thing together.  We used a tape that removed easily since it's no longer necessary after the glue dries.

You'll have to use your judgment on the taping.  Obviously it's a nice tactile and fine motor exercise.  Bear wanted to help so badly we let him try, but for us it would have been better if we'd just let him squeeze glue and then quietly taped it after he transitioned to something else.  As it was, this was how we ended this part of the project.

Sensational Snowman - Part 2

Milking Balloons

First Birthday - he was all about the balloons

I was really bummed when the dollar store in my town stopped selling balloons - I could deal with 50 cents pop for little helium filled bubbles of childhood joy.

But alas, for Bear's last two birthdays my only option was the old school downtown party supply store, complete with creaky floors and crotchety octogenarian owner, ear hair and all.  Plain old latex balloons are a buck a piece, and they deflate overnight.

Bear adores balloons, and what's a kiddie birthday party without them?  So, I reluctantly shell out for 20 and vow to get my money's worth.

These are our favorite leftover party balloon ideas, most of which fit right into the average sensory diet.  Typically, our helium balloons are mostly deflated by the next morning, so we unclip and blow up again on our own. But there's no reason you couldn't do these with any old balloon.

Static 

Bear's geeky engineer Grandpa demonstrated power of static

My son really notices static shocks and asks about them on a regular basis.  Rubbing balloons is a great way for them to experiment with static in a controlled way.

- Rubbing a balloon is a tactile and auditory experience.

- Static creates a subtle tactile experience that's a fun way to introduce the scientific concept.

- Bear is very defensive about being touched on the head. Rubbing/pressing with a balloon is fun way to work on this aversion that he readily accepts.

Catch
For little guys just learning to catch (or older ones with motor control issues), a slow moving balloon is ideal for practicing the motor planning necessary to catch a ball.

Volleyball
My son's wheelchair bound Great Grandma told us about this one.  You can sit several people on either side of a table and play balloon volleyball.  They play this when the preschoolers visit Grandma's assisted living senior facility for their holiday party.  It's great for participants with limited mobility or motor planning challenges.

Trampoline Tease
We put Bear in the trampoline and...

- hold the balloon over his head, making him jump higher and higher to touch it.

- drop the balloon and let him try various ways to hit/kick/catch it.

Balloon Ball Pit
Our mini trampoline has a net and also serves as our ball pit.  When we've got leftover party balloons, we fill the trampoline let him at it.

Popping
I know it's time to let them go the day I trip over one and annoyance overtakes the fading birthday party glow.

- I hold each balloon steady for him.

- I give him a thumb tack (the kind with a plastic grip about the size of a pencil eraser - it's a reasonable fine motor task, and they're not too sharp).

- I draw it out as much as possible.  We talk about which color to do next, and I make him pick (with his processing problems, making even simple decisions can be very difficult).  We do a countdown of some kind to stretch the wait, which makes it more of an event and is practice for one of his big challenges (impulsivity).  Obviously, it also makes the fun last longer.

When we're done popping, he helps me collect all the broken balloon bits.  It's another tactile experience, and a chance to discuss why the the same material feels and looks different now (yay! science!).

He got a little balloon powered plastic race car in his stocking I'm sure I'll drag out of hiding one of these subzero days.  But first I need to put balloons on the shopping list.

Bear thinks it's hilarious to let them go out of reach up the stairwell.

Sensory Activity - Fun With Spinners

One of the perks of living in Chicagoland is stumbling across things like tent sales where educational product companies are unloading warehouse stuff at ridiculous prices.

One of the things I scored recently was a six pack of game spinners for 50 cents and a Dinosaur Bingo game (with dinosaur spinner!) for 99 cents. I didn't really know what I would do with them, but I knew they were worth picking up.

It occurred to me that the colors on one of the spinners mostly matched the colors of the giant bin o' pit balls Bear got for his 2nd birthday.  And I recalled that his OT often has the kids go up and down the hall to perform some activity at either end.

Thus was born the ball game.

1) Spin the colored spinner at one end of the room/hall
2) Run down to the bin to retrieve a matching ball
3) Run back to other end and deposit ball (another bin, box, etc)

Bear thought it was great. He also thought it was the height of comedy to bring back the wrong color on purpose (while insisting orange was blue), or to bring back two balls instead of one, so he was in a good mood and easier to direct.  He got a kick out of spinning the spinner, and when we were done his reward for following directions was to sit in the big bin while I poured balls over his head.

Next goal is to play the game with multiple kids and work on his turn taking.  And I hope to incorporate a scooter like his OT does as soon as I get around to ordering it.

I'm definitely looking for ideas for other spinner based activities.  I already realized I can use the three color one to play Red Light/Green Light (though he's not ready for it yet).  I was also happy to notice we can swap the 6 number spinner out for die in some games (he can handle things like Cooties and Candyland, but isn't really clear on counting dots yet.  Plus, he tends to throw dice around the room).

Any suggestions?