Therapist Thursday: Back to School already??

Today’s Therapist Thursday comes from our friends at The Inspired Treehouse and is full of great ideas to prepare your children for school during the last few weeks of Summer!

Every year in our school based therapy practice, we create and send home summer programs for our students because we believe that practice makes perfect!   Let’s be frank, no one wants to think about school over the summer.  And when children have long breaks where they don’t have regular opportunities to practice the skills they need in school every day, they often need extra time to get back into the swing of things when they return to school in the fall.  It may take weeks to get a child back to where they left off!  Here at The Inspired Treehouse, we want kids to have what they need to start the school year confident and ready to learn. Here are 10 functional skills used every day in the school environment with some playful summer activities  that will give the opportunity for practice and development of these skills.  These summer activities for kids are so much fun, we promise your little ones won’t even realize that they’re actually doing homework! 🙂

1. STAIR CLIMBING:  Most children have many opportunities to navigate steps in their school environment on a daily basis: to get to art or music, to play on playground equipment, and even to get on the bus.  This may sound simple enough, they practice stairs everyday at home, right?  BUT, have you ever thought that, at school, there may be 20 other kiddos trying to navigate those stairs at the SAME time??  This challenges balance, motor planning, strength, and body control.  To make sure your child stays confident and comfortable on the stairs, work on stair climbing as often as possible and in as many ways as possible.
Try these activities to help develop your child’s confidence and ability on the stairs:

Child Development Quick Tip: Stair Climbing

Simple Activities for Kids Using Stairs

2. HANDWRITING AND COLORING: These skills are challenged every single day in the classroom. The expectations for handwriting grow more challenging as our children progress and as they transition to a new grade level.  Learning to write requires continual development of fine motor and visual motor/perceptual skills. Our children need to be able to grasp a pencil or crayon efficiently, sustain pressure while writing/coloring, demonstrate enough strength to hold their writing utensil for a length of time, and motor plan to create writing and drawings.  On top of that,  they need to be able to visually attend to their paper!

Try these activities to practice handwriting and coloring skills:

Ant Farm

Child Development Quick Tip: Visual Motor Skills

Super Fingers

3. TRANSITIONS IN HALLWAYS: Children need to be able to line up, walk forward in a line, maintain body awareness throughout crowded hallways and rooms, and get to and from spaces calmly and independently. This challenges motor planning, body awareness, and sensory processing skills.

Try these fun activities to practice these skills:

Rabbit Hole

Wacky Relay

Partner Obstacle Course  

4. MAINTAIN UPRIGHT POSTURE IN A CHAIR:  How many times have you been in a classroom, or in your kitchen at homework time, and noticed a child slouching in a chair with his bottom sliding toward the edge.  Or maybe he’s completely bent over with his head resting in one hand or, better yet, his head down on the table.  Is he tired?  Maybe!  But, it’s possible that this child just doesn’t have the core strength or postural stability to maintain an upright sitting position in a chair for periods of time.  Or maybe he needs more propriceptive input to tell him what exactly his body is doing.

Help your child develop stability for good posture and give him proprioceptive input for better body awareness with activities like these:

Core Strengthening Exercises for Kids

Make Me Strong Partner Yoga for Kids

5 Olympic-Inspired Strengthening Activities for Kids

5. PARTICIPATION IN GYM:  Did you know that in the U.S., kids are observed and measured against all of the other kids in the nation in gym class?  Are they performing gross motor skills to the level of their peers?  Are they confident enough in their gross motor abilities to perform them in a group setting?  Can they control their bodies to complete requested skills in their own space within a gym full of other children?  Mastery of gross motor skills is dependent on age, but there are lots of fun activities that can help to develop some common developmental motor skills.

Try some of these activities to work on skills that might be required in physical education classes in the elementary years:

Child Development Quick Tip: Jumping Jacks

How Far to the Barn?

Tire Run

THERE’S MORE… For five more tips from The Inspired Treehouse, please visit the original post HERE!

10 Things Teachers Want Parents to Know

By: Lisa Capretto

The relationship between teachers and parents is an extremely powerful component in student success. Yet so many parents go through the school year without communicating with the teacher or understanding what to do (or avoid) to make the most of the year.

So we went straight to the source and spoke with a teacher willing to reveal it all. Third-grade teacher Stacey Nelson is a devoted and successful educator in Tennessee, and on behalf of teachers across the country, she shared several things teachers wish parents knew before sending their children to school.

It boils down to three general guidelines: respect the teacher, be involved and be organized.

Respect the Teacher

• Remember that the teacher is on your side. Teachers truly care about your children and want them to be successful. “The child’s success is our success,” explains Nelson. If your child’s teacher contacts you about a problem or something that happened at school, understand that the teacher is trying to work with you to resolve any conflicts that may be getting in the way of your child’s success. You’re all on the same team.

• Trust in the teacher’s feedback. Just because a child doesn’t exhibit a particular behavior at home doesn’t mean he doesn’t exhibit that behavior in the classroom. So if a teacher reports a particular behavior that you haven’t seen before, don’t rush to say, “Well, I’ve never seen him do that.” The classroom and home environments are quite different, and oftentimes children behave differently when forced to follow rules and work with peers. Listen to what the teacher has to say and work with him/her to find a solution.

• Don’t show up for a meeting unannounced. It’s great if you want to meet with a teacher to discuss an issue or chat about your child, but don’t show up at school without any warning. Instead, schedule a time to meet—not only does this show that you respect the teacher’s time, but it also gives him/her time to prepare for the meeting and provide you with everything you want to know.

• Don’t go over the teacher’s head. If you’re having an issue with the teacher, your child, the subject matter or the classroom in general, talk directly with the teacher before going to the principal or other administrators. “Ninety-five percent of the time, a problem can be resolved between the teacher and parent with a simple phone call,” Nelson says.

Be Involved

• Check children’s agendas and take-home folders every night. According to the National PTA, talking with your children is one of the most critical steps of healthy parenting. “Communication is key,” Nelson agrees. Not only does this help you stay on top of updates and what’s going on in the classroom, but it also shows your child that you are checking in.

• Check on homework regularly—but don’t do it for the child! It’s important to review your child’s homework, but if she gets an answer wrong, take the time to help her understand why. “Please don’t just tell her the right answer,” Nelson says. “That defeats the purpose of homework!”

• Address behavior issues at home. “Children don’t enjoy getting in trouble,” Nelson says. “So when they come home and tell you about how mean the teacher is, keep in mind they may be telling the story in a way that they won’t get punished.” If this happens, try to get to the heart of the issue and uncover the facts so you can address it.

• Go to Open House Night. A good parent-teacher relationship leads to a good student-teacher relationship, so don’t skip the open house! “In the past, I’ve had parents that I have honestly never met in an entire school year,” Nelson says. “It’s a sad fact.” Use the open house as a time to get to know the teacher, ask questions, uncover expectations, address problems and find out what’s going on in the classroom. Education.com tip: Ask the important questions first, in case time runs out.

Be Organized

• Establish a regular routine each night. This includes having children pack their backpacks the night before, to make sure they have everything they need for school the next day. “The number one thing my students tell me is, ‘My homework is done, but I left it sitting on the table,'” Nelson says. A simple evening routine can prevent this and prevent children from feeling rushed or disorganized in the morning.

• Cut down on chaos and clutter at home. If your home life is disorganized, this can carry over into the classroom and make learning more difficult for the child. “When a child walks into my classroom, I can tell by the look on his face what kind of morning he had and what kind of day it will be,” Nelson says. Simple things like keeping a tidy home, an organized homework desk and a clean bedroom can help the child feel prepared and focused on the day ahead.

This post was originally posted on 6/23/2010 on Oprah.com.

Believe It Or Not . . . It’s Back-to-School time!

Max & Alphie know that many of our southern friends (especially those in Georgia) have headed back to school today to start a great new year! We wish you all a year of great success!

Even though many more of our friends have several weeks of summer vacation left, we know that most people’s thoughts turn to school when the calendar turns to August! One of the first skills that Kindergarten children work on when they start school is letter and number formation. Why not get a head start on these skills with Fundanoodle’s easy-to-use writing activity books.

Check out this video which provides an overview of the Fundanoodle writing workbooks! Our friends Max & Alphie help children learn to form letters and numbers with action words like Zip, Zoom and Buzz, while providing visual cues like red and green lines for fun, intuitive learning.

When does back-to-school hit your house? Tell us below to be eligible to win an “I Can Write!” prize package featuring all of Fundanoodle’s writing books. Extra entries for tagging Fundanoodle when you share this post on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest!

Here’s to Back-to-School fun!

Come Play With Max & Alphie This Summer!

We know many of you parents are busy planning your summer already and what better way to get your little monkeys back in school mode than with our FUN and interactive Handwriting Camps?! Held in early August, our camps are the perfect transition back to school while still being a fun Summertime experience your kids will love!

You can register for both camps on our website or by downloading the forms below:

Come Play the Write Way_Summer Camp2014_Flyer
I Can Write Cursive_Boot Camp2014_Flyer

For more information please fill out the form below!

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Teacher Tuesday…..Different Ways to Practice Sight Words

Finding unique ways to practice sight words can be a challenge.  It’s definitely easy to get in a rut of doing the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.  Below are just a few ideas to make sight word practice a little more fun!

1.  Bathtub-use your foam letters the kids usually throw at each other to form this week’s sight words.

2.  Magnetic Letters-while you are making dinner ask your school-aged child to join you in the kitchen and have your child put together each sight word.  Let the words stay there so you child can show off their hard work to the rest of the family when dinner is read.

3.  Writing-if your child needs extra practice with handwriting, this could be an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone.  Lay out the sight words and ask your child to copy the words onto age appropriate paper.  Remind them to take their time and carefully write the words neatly.

4.  Flashcards-instead of the traditional sight game, as your child gets the word/s correct, give them the cards they read correctly.  Have them repeat words they missed or had a hard time saying within a timely manner.

5.  Voice-if using flashcards or the words written in a list, change your voice to silly, a whisper, a yell, a monster, etc to make it more fun to read the words.

It’s Contest Time!

We asked you to post your Back to School pictures, and you did!! Now it’s time to pick the top picture!  Go to our Facebook page and click “Like” on your favorite of our top pictures!

Therapist Thursday….Sensory Smart Lunches

by: Amy Bumgarner, OTR/L

Oral motor input has an intense effect on the nervous system.  Do you ever chew gum while working on a big project or taking a test? I do, and that is because this input is very calming and organizing to the nervous system.  It allows us to concentrate and produce our best work. Just as we use this input throughout the day to organize our bodies, our kids can benefit from that too.  While they are at school you can help by providing a sensory smart lunch!

 Sucking and blowing are calming to the nervous system.  If your child is silly, distractible, and a little too active try some of these foods:

Applesauce in a pouch or through a straw

Smoothies

Use a straw for any drink

Milkshakes

Lemonade

Popsicles

Pudding with a straw

Orange or grapefruit wedges

Yogurt with a straw

Anything citrus is going to facilitate sucking

Biting and crunching are alerting to the nervous system.  These foods are good to alert a sluggish child.  These might make for a good morning snack if your child has a hard time waking up in the morning.

Raw veggies

Chips

Granola

Pickles

Pretzels

Cereal

Pita Chips

Apples

Graham crackers

Veggie Straws

 Chewing is organizing to the nervous system.  Your child may benefit from these foods if they get too worked up during recess or gym class.

Dried fruits

Fruit chews or fruit leather

Beef jerky

Raisins

Marshmallows

Licorice

Gum

Cheese cubes

 Also, be mindful of how much sugar is in the foods you are sending.  We don’t want to undo all the organizing we have done!

Muscle Mover Monday….lowercase y

Crawl like a yard ant.

Start the week with Fundanoodle’s award winning Muscle Mover cards! Teachers love these flashcards in class, moms love them in carpools, and kids love them anywhere, anytime! With a letter on one side, and an animal to “act out” on the other, each card incorporates a fun, gross motor activity and imagination to teach letter recognition. Expect lots of laughing as children put their youthful energy to good use while learning uppercase and lowercase letters.

We feature a different letter each Monday! Want more information? Click here – Uppercase Muscle Movers or Lowercase Muscle Movers

Therapist Thursday….Stop the Struggles with Homework

By: Michelle Yoder, OTR/L

In many homes across the country, homework is a daily fight.  Consider these strategies to stop the tantrums and tears and make learning more enjoyable for everyone!

Identify a work area that is well lit and comfortable, and use this same area every day.  Make sure your child’s feet rest on the floor and his hips, knees and ankles are at a 90 degree angle.  An adjustable chair may work well, or find a foot rest or even a phone book to alleviate dangling of his feet. The desk or table should be at a good height, too, just below elbow height so that the elbows are at a 90 degree angle and the arms do not abduct (or wing out to the sides) when working.

1. Create an organized workspace, free of clutter and distractions.

Utilize bins, containers and folders to organize: pens, pencils, paper, books and other supplies.  Label notebooks and folders for each subject.  Make a “To Do” and a “Completed or Ready to Turn In” folder, bin or pocket.

1. Other environmental considerations may include:
   1. The use of a timer- it may be helpful to set a time frame for completion of work or to provide work breaks.  (Remember, heavy work is a great way to get the wiggles out while doing homework!  Have your student perform 3 of Fundanoodle’s Muscle Mover cards at each break.)
   2. Music- while some children need peace and quiet to concentrate, some work better with music.
   3. The provision of gum or a chewy or crunchy snack to foster attention and concentration
   4.  Establish a homework routine from start to finish. Print out a list if necessary.  It may look like this:

a)    Get a snack or gum
b)    Sit down at desk or established work area
c)     Unpack bag
d)    Do math
e)    Do spelling/literature
f)      Read
g)    Put homework back in folder
h)    Put folders and work back in backpack

With a little bit of work up front to establish a consistent workspace and routine, you’ll find a lot more homework being done!

Teacher Tuesday….Jitter Juice

My daughter came home the first Friday of school for this year and was very excited about “jitter juice.”  She kept going on and on about how “yummy” it was.  This was pretty big for her who already the first week of first grade would just say school was fine.  She was very disappointed because the weather prevented them from going outside 3 of the 4 days of school.  After just a little searching on Pinterest, I found the “yummy jitter juice” recipe.  This is a great way to end the first week of school with a special treat for the class.