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Laura Epstein

Parenting During the Covid- 19 Pandemic

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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Thank you for supporting my blog.

Stay Calm, Or At Least Fake It

As this pandemic was getting worse I was talking to an aquantance who grew up in the UK. She said that she never knew that the IRA was constantly a threat. While I think that our children should absolutely know what is going on, we should hide our fear from them. This doesn’t mean lie but do not let them see your panic when the grocery store is out of frozen food. They see it too already and are worried and will look for you to comfort them.

I know my children can sense when I am upset or dysregulated. They then proceed to get dysregulated too. I do not want to be stuck in my house with a bunch of hyper, worried kids. I am going to do my best to reassure them despite my own fears.

Accept That This Kind Of Sucks, But Is Absolutely Neccesary

School is out in many places. While I will try to provide educational activities. It is not the same. My son who has special needs has an IEP and extra supports that I cannot fulfill or provide him. I have also had to suspend my children’s occupational and speech therapy. Even though we will work on things at home I worry that the progress they have made will go away. Our vacation is cancelled, Passover dinner may just be us, and my kids will slowly drive me insane BUT this is important. We need to stop the spread of Covid- 19 even if our lives are inconvenienced. But, it’s also okay to say that it sucks. Tell your spouse, your BFF, probably not your kids, but maybe your mom too.

Stock Up

We have a months worth of food just in case, we have a lot of toilet paper (but we always did because we buy it when it’s on sale at Costco), and we have some basic medicine. But while my husband was stocking up on milk I was finding ideas and activities for the kids. I went to the dollar store and got whatever crafts they had, bubbles and glow sticks (if I give these to my kids they disapear into the basement for hours)

My oldest son is seven and his school is doing e-learning but that is probably not enough and he needs more educational activities. I ordered him an extra Minecraft workbooks (we already had a few) and will be encouraging him to use our Osmo more. I have also set the computer up with all his school websites to use and also Khan kids. If you have not seen this website/ app it is a great source of free educational activities

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The Best Basement Toys for Your Preschooler

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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  I hope you find some great new basement toys and thank you for supporting my blog.

Why have great basement toys?

A great indoor gross motor play area (in your basement or elsewhere) will help your kids grow their  motor skills, increase balance and sports skills, help with sensory regulation, and allow you a bit of sanity.  Below is a list of some of our favorite toys we keep in our basement.  A lot of these toys were originally purchased for my oldest son who has Autism.  They helped with his motor delays and sensory integration struggles but they have been equally successful and fun with his  little brothers who are more neurotypical.  One of the twins has hypotonia and a few of these toys were very helpful in him making progress on increasing his muscle tone.

The Basement Toys

Mini trampoline

Kids need to bounce.  The motion and input are regulating to many  kids and it will burn a lot of energy on rainy days.  We love this 36 inch folding trampoline.  I did not want a trampoline with a bar (I didn’t want to worry about one kid pushing another into it) but having seen my twins jump super high on this little tikes trampoline at their occupational therapist’s clinic there is definitely a lot to be said for having a removable bar. That’s a personal preference so I’ll leave both options here.

Ball Pits

I love our ball pits.  We started with what my husband calls our “sensibly sized” pop-up ball pit.  We had this ball pit tent at our smaller town home.  We kept it folded in the closet with the balls in a garbage bag and popped it up with my son needed to swim in the balls.  Even if you don’t have a dedicated open space for your equipment lots of these toys can be stored in a closet and pulled out when you want them.  Despite having a larger ball pit now we still pop this one out of the closet and use it all the time.

When we moved to the ‘burbs one of the upgrades was in ball pit size.  We got the Fun and Function Air Lite Ball Pit.  It was an expensive purchase but was absolutely worth it.  This ball pit has been used countless hours for the last two years and has no no wear and tear on it.  It has been used at a ball pit, a tent, a cave, a bounce house and more!  I will warn you at one point or a few all the balls will end up out of the pit.  Speaking of balls I have tested a few types and these packs of 200 are the best we’ve had.

air lite ball pit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crash Mat

If you aren’t familiar with crash mats they are basically giant pillows to crash into.  You can jump on it, climb over it and wrestle on it.  Climbing on and out from under our crash mat has greatly improved my twins’ muscle tone and balance and crashing into this mat is highly regulating for all my boys.

crash mat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giant ball

A giant ball has been a lot of fun.  I originally meant to put it outside but it was given to us for the holidays so it went in the basement and hasn’t come out.  The kids jump on it, roll on it and throw it at each other.

 

 

Scooters

Do you remember scooter races in elementary school gym class?  This is the type of scooters I’m talking about.  The boys love scooting all over the place on these and they are great for their core strength and coordination.

scooter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopper Balls

Hopper Balls (Hippity Hop was the popular brand in the 80s) are another classic from my childhood that my kids are now starting to like as well.  I particularly like the ones we got from Fun and Function and they have held up well.

 

hopper balls

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ogo Sport

The Ogo Sport is a fun toy that goes both inside and outside at our house depending on the weather.  It is essentially two paddles (I like the ones with handles) and a squishy ball with a tail on it.  It sounds a little weird but it’s a great toy for practicing eye hand coordination without smashing up your house too much.

 

Step 2 Train

I was actually not originally sold on this toy (it was a gift).  Not because the step 2 train didn’t look fun but it really only does one thing: the train goes down the track.  That said, I was wrong.  The train does definitely only go down the track but the kids practice taking turns, ride on it together and it has helped my twin who has hypotonia’s muscle tone.  When we got the train he was absolutely opposed to going down it.  His core was not strong enough to make it comfortable to go down.  We slowly worked on it and he gained the confidence to try it with support and now knows how to go down it.

 

Mini Slide

We also have a mini slide in our basement.  It was originally outside because our bigger play set was too big for one of the twins to comfortably used but I decided to test it out in our basement and it has been a success.  If and how big a slide you want in your basement is a personal choice but having a small one allows the kids a chance to climb without a huge safety risk.

Mats

Buying floor mats was another large purchase but well worth it.  We have this type from Amazon on a couple of the walls so the train can run into them and also on the floors.  These have the right amount of firmness and squish to both be useful when the kids fall on them but also when my husband drops weights on the floor.

 

I hope this helps you decide on some great toys for your basement or other play area!  Check out my article on great fine motor skill toys for more ideas to help your child develop great motor skills and let me know in the comments what your favorite basement toys are!

The Laura Chronicles

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the best basement toys

How to Trick You Child into Great Fine Motor Skills (or 15 Great Toys for Fine Motor Skill Development)

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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Thank you for supporting my blog.

Fine motor skills are important to develop.  From cutting with scissors, using utensils or learning to write these skills take time and patience to develop but they can also be fun.  I have three children.  I have a six year old with autism and twin neurotypical three year olds.  These are some of their favorite toys that are also secretly helping with fine Motor skills.

Pop Beads

Pop beads are a fun way to build hand strength and coordination.  These colorful beads were hard for my little ones at first but they quickly got the hang of them and started making necklaces, snakes, dragons and other monsters.

Discovery Putty

Discovery Putty  is a type of therapy putty with objects hidden inside.  There are lots of different types with different objects hidden: animals, dinosaurs, trains, etc. so there is something for every kids interest.  In addition to being a great way to grow grip strength and dexterity this type of activity can also be very regulating.

Scissor Skills

My kids love this scissor skills workbook (yes, they actually love what is really a workbook).  It is full of fun pictures to cut.  Because I have three kids I also got a fun set of extra scissors which led to lots more great scissor skills practice.

Tape Activity Book

The Tape Activity  book was a huge hit with my six year old starting when he was about four.  He loved it so much we had to buy more wiki tape for it (an easy buy from Michaels or sometimes the dollar store).  It is pretty simple in design.  It has various pictures and youR child tapes over them.  When Ross started using the book he still needed my assistance to help rip the tape but by the second roll he had figured it out.

Play-Doh

This classic toy has lots of fine motor benefits.  It builds hand strength and dexterity plus you can add in scissors and other tools to practice with those as well.  My twins currently love to play pretend kitchen with their playdough.

Play Foam

Playfoam is a fun alternative to play dough (with the advantage that it doesn’t dry out).  You can often find single color packages, perfect for small gifts, at the dollar store or bullseye section of Target.  My kids also love the number and letter sets (picture/link below).

Fine Motor Tool Set

The Learning Resources Fine Motor Tool Set includes four tools; a tweezers, a baller, a scooper and a syring (those definitely aren’t their titles, just ours).  We use this set with kinetic sand, play foam, water, and water beads.


Kinetic Sand

My kids love kinetic sand!  It is a very regulating activity to most children as well as being a great way to build hand strength and coordination.  We pour the kinetic sand into plastic boxes and use it in conjunction with the fine motor set.  They also make portable boxes of kinetic sand and colored sand as well.

Water Beads

Water beads are another great toy to use with the fine motor tools.  They are little beads that get bigger and squishy when the are placed in water.  My three year old twins love to place them in water, monitor them growing and then play with them!

Wiki-Stix

Wiki-Stix are fun, flexible sticks of wax.  They are great stocking stuffers or small hanukkah gifts (I’ve actually used them in goodie bags too).  They build dexterity and also hand strength and endurance.

Magnatabs

We were handed down the A to Z Magnatab and it has been a huge hit.  It is a portable board with a magnetic pen.  Users trace the letters and the pen brings up the magnetic balls.  It’s great for in the car or quite solo play.

Magna Tiles

Magna Tiles are semi-transparent, colorful magnetic blocks.  They require fine motor skills and control to properly put them together and they are so much fun to build towers, castles and more!

Wacky Links

We were given a small tube of Wacky Links as a gift and they have been a hit with all three boys.  They are flexible sticks that connect to fun shaped connectors.  My kids build crowns, jewelry and of course, swords (because I have all boys and everything is a sword).


Plus Plus Blocks

My oldest is obsessed with LEGOS but I’ve tried to find him a few other alternative blocks.  Plus Plus blocks have been a fun alternative for creative block play (while working on motor skills).  They come in two sizes.  The basic size is great for my six year old and the larger size (“duplo” size) is suitable for my twins.

Those are my 15 favorite toys for fine motor skill development.  What toys do you love?  What did I miss?   Tell me in the comments.  Please contact me if you have any questions and I would love to have you on my newsletter.  I also have a list of great basement toys and sensory tools you might be interested in and tips for surviving the holidays with your special needs child.

The Laura Chronicles

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How To Trick Your Child Into Great Fine Motor Skills

5 Great Books for Parents of Kids with Autism

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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Thank you for supporting my blog.

My spunky, fun and incredibly intelligent almost 6 year old also has Autism Spectrum Disorder.  I’ve read a fair number of books about autism and related symptoms a these are the five I found the most helpful in learning about the disorder as it pertains to our family.

Autism Spectrum Disorder by Chantal Sicile-Kira

Autism Spectrum Disorder is very much a handbook on autism.  It is a great starting place if you or a love one is newly diagnosed because it defines the main terms, treatments and interventions that are commonly associated with autism.

The Out of Sync Child by Carol Stock

The title of The Out of Sync Child says it is for coping with sensory processing disorder but lots of children and adults on the autism spectrum also have sensory processing issues  This book gives a great explanation of sensory processing and where it can go wrong  It also gives advice on treating sensory problems as well as coping with problems at home and in school.
Books about autism

Bonus Book: The Out of Sync Child Has Fun

The Out of Sync Child Has Fun is an amazing resource for activities that engage and regulate the senses.  It is organized by sense (vestibular, auditory, etc.) and then by sensory-related skills (oral-motor, motor planning, etc.) for easy reference if you are looking to work on a particular skill with your child.  I have used activities from this book regularly with all three kids so it is definitely a resource for parents of neurotypical children as well.
Books about autism

The Explosive Child by Ross Greene

The Explosive Child was a game changer in how I looked at the behaviors of all three of my children.  I started thinking of what i’d previously thought of as behavioral problems as what Greene called, “logging skilss and unsolved problems”.  Starting there I could work on these lagging skills and unsolved problems and solve the behavior.  This is a must read for any parent of a child, autistic or not, that have meltdowns, get frustrated or otherwise “misbehave”….so, pretty much all kids at some point or another.

Books about autism

The Sensory Child Gets Organized

In full disclosure, I’m not very organized and I didn’t really prioritize being organized.  The Sensory Child Get Organized helped me develop realize I needed to prioritize developing organizational system for my son with Autism and gave me practical ideas in how to do it.  This book literally goes room by room and tells you how to create spaces that are ideal for kids with sensory kids.
Books about autism

Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin

Thinking in Pictures is an amazing book by an absolutely an amazing woman.  The combination of her scientific knowledge and first person knowledge on autism leads to a fascinating book.  If you read just one first person narrative by someone with autism this should be it.  It really helped me understand what it felt like to be on the autism spectrum.

Books about autism

I hope you find some of these books interesting or helpful! What other books have you found helpful on your journey as a parent of a child with autism?  Let me know in the comments.

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The Laura Chronicles

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The Top Gear for Twin Parents

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For Your Home

Lots of Bouncers

I am not advocating putting your kids in there for long (in other words: do not start a fight with me in the comment section about container babies just because bouncers allowed me to cook dinner, sometimes). Your babies obviously should not sit in a bouncer all day and you will want to be snuggling them so you won’t want them to sit in one either BUT you only have two hands, and two babies. We lived in a townhome when my twins were little and we had a place to set them both down on each floor. In the basement we had two swings and on the second and third floors we had some adorable bouncers. You have to get dressed and make bottles and maybe breath by yourself for a minute so you will be happy to have functional and fun places to set them down.

Before you ask, we did not use the MamaRoo. I know it is super popular and parents swear by it but the price tag for a swing my children may or may not like was too big, and so was the MamaRoo. I wanted bouncers that were little enough to fit everywhere without getting in the way. I really did not need that many bells and whistles just some toys on top to look and bat at. I know people love it but it was not going to work for us.

Twin Z Pillow

The Twin Z Pillow is technically a breastfeeding pillow but that is just one of its purposes. It works for bottle feeding, tummy time or just a place for your twins to hang out and check out their world. It comes in a ton of adorable colors and fabrics (the minky is SO soft)

Feeding

The Kiinde Twist Pouch Breast Milk Feeding System

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A Mom’s Review: Kiwi Crate

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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Thank you for supporting my blog.

kiwi crate review
Checking It Out

This week we got our first Kiwi Crate! It was a holiday present to my 4.5 year old twin boys. But before we get into the details of the box let’s talk a little about Kiwi Boxes in case you are new to them. They are boxes full of fun STEAM activities! They come in different age levels (ages 0-104) that have different focuses. You can purchase a monthly subscription or just a box. We decided to go with the Kiwi Box. This is for ages 5-8. My twins are a little young for them but we got a one year subscription so they will be 5 halfway through.

What Is In the Box

Well first I was surprised by how small the box was. Once we opened it up I did realize that there was enough materials to have a lot of fun! The box included a manual for the project. We got the arcade project. All the materials to make the project. An “explore” magazing that had related projects we could also do and, because this was our first box we also received a mini poster where we could put stickers on every time we got a box!

kiwi crate review
The Contents

What We Did

kiwi crate review
Fitting The Pieces Onto the Guide

The Arcade box project was to make a claw game. This is the game you see at arcades where a claw comes down and you try to pick up a stuffed animal or other prize. We started with claw itself and spent about 30 minutes piecing it together. I was impressed by the design and even though they were young for the box they were able to help. EVERYTHING was included in the box which was nice. We didn’t need to find the right glue or any other supply.

kiwi crate review
Starting The Monsters

Next up was making the prizes. These were two little “monsters” (complete with googly eyes) that were made out of string and a pipe cleaner. It was super clever and easy for them to understand the simple instructions. At this point my twins completely took over wrapping the string around the guide. It was a great fine motor activity in itself and had an adorable finished product. Because the twins did this part of the project 100% by itself this took another half an hour bringing the project total to 60 minutes.

What My Kids Loved

The biggest thing my kids love was really being able to do it themselves. Despite being on the young end of the age range for this box they could, with me reading the directions and a bit of hands on help, do the project themselves. It also made a cool physical product.

koala kiwi crate
Playing With The Finished Claw

What I Loved

koala kiwi crate
Almost Done With The Monsters

First off, it was exciting. It related to something they see in real life (or Buffalo Wild Wings has a crane machine) so they were immediately excited to do it themselves.

I also really loved that the project had the right number of steps. It was divided into separate parts with natural breaking points (perfect for a snack or run around break) and each part only had a handful, or less, of instructions. The instructions were easy for the twins to understand so they didn’t get lost or skip ahead.

The Explore! Magazine was also great! The twins are excited to build a crate for the crane game using the instructions in the booklet and they loved the cartoon at the front. It was a fun extra and adds additional value to the crate.

kiwi crate review

Overall, I would highly recommend the Kiwi Crate to anyone looking for a great STEM activity that is hands on and fun. They are $14.95-$19.95 per month (depending on how many months you sign up for) and they are now 30% off with code SHARE30 I hope you found our Kiwi Crate review helpful! Let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out our basement toys review too!

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