Hi Folks,
You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged for a while. Instead, I started a Facebook page and send out tibits of good info every so often. Right now it’s fitting my lifestyle so if you are still interested in hearing from a mom who has 2 children with special needs ‘Like’ my page on Facebook. It’s called Candogoods. See you there!
Allison
Here’s a new app I’ve discovered that is going to make your life a whole lot more documented. It’s called Weiwatch: log your times to refine your routines by Gan Jian Wei for $0.99. A simple, yet powerful concept of keeping track of how much time certain things take. Want to keep track of how long it takes your kid to eat, do his homework, do a chore? This is your answer. You can time anything like your commute to work, your workout times, your devotion times, all at the same time. Yup, you can have several timers going in the background at the same time. Best of all, it graphs the recorded times for you for any single activity so you have a visual of how much time that activity is taking.
Here is a list of how it can be used for any child including those with special needs:
1) For children with behavioral issues it can be used to keep track of the length of time certain behaviors happen to see if a particular way of dealing with the behavior is working. It might help the child to know that they are being timed. It may give them incentive to beat their times.
2) For a child with whom you do certain therapies at home like physical activities; rolling, peg boards or oral therapies like eating and speech you can keep track of how long it takes. For instance, I am starting to time how long it takes for Boo to do 25 rolls. By logging the times and looking at the built in graphs I can see if his times are improving. He must be very mathematically inclined like me because he loves when I tell him I am timing him.
3) If your child is ill or is having seizures you can time them and keep a log so you can report back to the doc.
How would you use this app? If I find your suggestion particularly unique I will gift it to you! Good luck!
Since my first winner never responded I am trying to give away the $30 Apple iTunes card again. The person listed below has 24 hours to respond to confirm that they want the card. And the winner is:
Fostermom05@yahoo.com
Tags: itunes gift card
If you ever came to my home you would see the stash of toys that I have for Boo and be in awe. Really, no lie! I love finding stuff for him to manipulate and learn from and enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I really should open up a school one day. I’d be all prepared.
But why this post? Because I know many of you parents out there do not have the time to be trolling the Internet looking for the right toy for your child. Consider me your personal shopper.
The focus of this post is to narrow down the myriad of manipulative toys available and to help you find appropriate ones. Many of us find that our children are difficult to buy for because they do not have the same super powers as typical kids. They are unable to manipulate the same Fisher Price toys that every kid gets for Christmas. Not to worry. If your child can touch things these toys are for him.
Ok let’s get started. The toy above is by Haba. It is made in Germany with non toxic paints. Not all my toys are certified non toxic. Toys that come from China should be most scrutinized because it is known that their paints can contain lead. That said, this toy teaches various things. It has little knobs that encourage pinching. It has various shades of three colors to teach gradients of color and all the shapes are the same size and round. This is important because after your child learns to take them out you are going to want them to learn to put them back and the circle shape is the easiest. No matter how they position the shape it will fit into any hole.
Now Boo did not start out with a toy like this. We worked up to it after a few other manipulatives. If you know what you are doing you can advance the difficulty of each toy by requiring a different task or by finding a similar toy that is smaller or bigger. Enter the peg board world.
There are about 50 different pegboards that I have seen on the Internet and this sampling represents only a few I have. Boo’s first one I made from a laminated shelf, a drill and a cardboard backing. For pegs I used dowels from the hardware store that I cut to the size I wanted. It cost about $10 to make. More recently I have chosen to buy them because I like the quality, the convenience and the colors. These featured toys range from $13 to $50.
The above boards are similar in that they are all round pegs but differ in size and difficulty. The one on the right is one we started out with. The pegs are thin enough and long enough to get out easily. Note that the tallest pegs are all red whereas all the red pegs in the left pegboard differ in size. These differences can be used to teach different concepts.
The pegboard on the left has pegs that are 1.5″ in diameter and a lot shorter making it more difficult for Boo since opening his hand wider is a challenge. But within a few days he was able to get them out, all of them. If your child needs more assistance a rubber band can be placed at the top of each rowel for gripping.
The pegboard in the middle is the smallest and most challenging. This is because picking out the small pegs requires your thumb and your pointer and this can be very difficult for the child with CP. We cycle through these pegboards and I time Boo to see if he can set a new personal best!
The last toy I want to show you, for now, are these rings. They are from a hopscotch game I got at Target for $15. One of the best toys I have found for him, these rings have a 10″ opening and fit quite easily around Boo’s neck. We put them around his neck while he is sitting and tell him he has to get them off. At first I thought this would be too difficult but he can do up to about 5-6 of them now. This is a great movement to teach because it can help with removing clothing for more independence.
What kinds of toys does your child use? What kinds of toys are you interested in hearing more about?
Tags: cerebral palsy, eye hand coordination, manipulative toys, special needs, what to buy for kids with special needs, wooden toys
And the winner of the $30 Apple ITunes gift card is…
randmellijay@yahoo.com
Please confirm that you want this card in the next 24 hours or it will be given to someone else.Thanks to everyone who signed on for this!
Are there any topics you would like to see me cover? I am getting geared up to do a review of some PECS type labels for toy boxes and a review of some manipulative toys. If you sell a product and want me to review it you must send me a free sample of it. I may use it as a free giveaway or find a worthy home that will advertise your profuct better than a giveaway.
Tags: cerebral palsy, Cool apps, Giveaway, Itunes, Product review, special needs
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,200 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 36 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 29 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 10mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was December 2nd with 105 views. The most popular post that day was The iPhone Changed My Life!.
The top referring sites in 2010 were mail.yahoo.com, instructables.com, facebook.com, mail.live.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for www.candogoods.wordpress.com, candogoods.wordpress.com, organizing bags, hand over hand techniques for special needs child, and ear.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
The iPhone Changed My Life! November 2010
3 comments
Where I’m coming from February 2010
4 comments
Potty Training Your Child with Special Needs: It can be done! July 2010
2 comments
Organizing with Custom Vinyl Bags and First Giveaway! March 2010
5 comments
All Aboard the Apple Train: Apps to Use November 2010
2 comments
With all the demands our children make of us, especially if they have special needs, it’s hard to find time to remember the good times, to say ‘Awww’ to those cute pictures and have grand dreams of actually scrapbooking all of them.
Well, first things first. Put them into some semblance of order. Are your pics scattered around the house in the packages they came in hoping to be rescued from picture limbo?
Step 1: Put them all in a basket or bag. Have family members help find them. If you get that step done give yourself a pat on the back. And if that’s all you do, don’t worry. There’s always next year. It took me 10 years to get to the pic above so be patient with yourself.
Step 2: While I haven’t done this for every pic, I wish I had. Write on the back with a pigment marker the approximate date and place and any other notes you want to remember. Don’t use an ink pen because it will leave indentations on the print. Don’t use a Sharpie because I don’t know if that is acid free. (Can you tell I used to scrapbook a lonnnnng time ago?) If you have negatives write the number of the negative on the print. Chances are you will never need this but doesn’t it just make your organizational soul feel better?
This might take you another year.
Step 3: Get yourself a box. Mine is a Rubbermaid Keepsake Photo and Media Box which is at least 7 years old so I don’t if it is still made but I am sure you can find something similar. Buying the stuff is the fun part so this should take you no time at all. If not, use a shoe box. Line it with acid free cardstock.
Step 4: Find a spot you can work and maybe leave everything out. If not, get a cardboard box big enough to hold everything so you can easily throw everything in the box when you get tired of sorting. My sorting took 3 days so far and I am still not done. I have about 1000 photos.
Step 5: Before you start sorting you need to think about a few things. Do you want to sort in pure chronological order (Christmas 2009, Easter 2010, etc.) or by relationships (Mom with kids, kids solo, friends) or a mix of both? You don’t have to have it set in stone but you should have an idea. Your thoughts may change once you start looking at your photos.
Step 6: Make some dividers out of cardstock. Acid free, now. Maybe your box came with some. If not, measure the width and height of your box and cut some out. They can be simple rectangles or if you want to be fancy cut the top so the middle part sticks out to form a tab. Write on your tabs some of your titles. I ended up with 34 divisions.
If it helps here are some of my divisions.
Hubby and Me – this is how the whole thing started, eh?
Mom Solo- take more pics of yourself for your kids’ sake
Daddy Solo
Whole Family- make a point of asking strangers to take a photo of your clan. You’ll be happy you did.
Mom & Kids- Since I am the photographer I don’t have too many in this category.
Daddy & Kids
Kids- any combo of them
Boo Solo
Boo & Daddy
Boo at VBS
Boo’s Parties
Boo at Horseback Riding
Child#2 Solo to Keep
Child#2 For her to have
Christmas
Disney
July 4
Mom’s Family
Grandma and Grandpa
Friends – I particularly like taking photos of people who have befriended Boo in one way or another, even kind strangers. These people mean a lot to me.
Great Grandpa’s Funeral
Old house – particularly of DH’s garden. He’s into seeing his produce.
Mom’s Photos- I like to take pics of historical events like how the country responded to 9/11.
Quilts-I like to take pics of quilts I have made and given away.
Equipment- I had a dream once that I would take a pic of all Boo’s equipment and make a visual book of them so I could plan his day around the stuff. Maybe this year.
Step 7: If you get through Step 6 you get to write the next post. I still am trying to figure out how I want to display/scrap the photos.
As you look at your pics I hope you will thank God for the many blessings you have been given over the years! Leave a comment. I would love to hear where you are in your picture journey. Or are you so into the digital thing you don’t know what a negative is?
Tags: organizing photos, remembering, thanking God
