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Laura Epstein

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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How To Survive The Holidays With Your Special Needs Child

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The holidays can be a stressful time for anyone. Those stresses can be even worse for children with special needs. Here are my tips on how to not just survive, but enjoy the holiday season.

Over Prepare

This is the time or the year for social stories and visual schedules.  My son Ross can become extremely anxious at new or unfamiliar places so we use these and other similar tools.  We also look at pictures of friends and relatives so he remembers they are not new and we look at pictures of holiday locations if they are available. Anything we can do to make events and places seem less unfamiliar we attempt to do.

Bring Everything, Or Close To It

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15 Great Gifts 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.

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15 Great Gifts for Fine Motor Skill Development

Beyond Climate Change: Why Greta Thunberg Matters For My Son

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Greta Thunberg is an amazing advocate for climate change. She is well spoken, passionate, knowledgeable, and will hopefully help to lead a worldwide movement to change our laws and policies and curb climate change. But that is not why she is important to my son. My son has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. His diagnostic report reads “he has what used to be called aspergers”. Like my son, Greta Thunberg also has aspergers.

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Why and How To Teach Your Child With Autism To Swim

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The Why

Swimming is a life skill. In our family learning to swim is not optional. My kids go to school, religious/Hebrew school, and swim lessons. Pretty much any activity other than those is optional. At some point a child will be around water and it is important for them to be safe. I breathed a sigh of relief when my oldest son could successfully fall in the water, roll to his back and float.

My oldest son has autism and for him swimming has been an especially useful activity. He had low core strength and swimming has helped to improve that. Ross learning to swim has also greatly increased his self confidence. He now has his sport. Swimming is the activity that he takes pride in and overall enjoys.

Find The Right Program and Instructor for YOUR Child

Now, getting to the point where Ross enjoyed swimming was a process. We tried swim lessons at three different places over the course of about two and a half years. Eventually we moved and decided to try our local JCC’s All in Swim program because that was where Ross was going to go to summer camp a few weeks later. It is a program that specializes in providing children with autism swimming lessons.

why and how to teach your child with autism to swim

When we started Ross was scared to go into the pool area. It was loud and smelled funny plus it had a swimming pool! The program uses social stories but mostly a lot of patience to get him in the pool area and eventually in the pool. Having a program and instructors that understood Ross’ unique challenges was so important to getting Ross comfortable in the water.

We have also switched instructors several times. We switched because of scheduling and teachers moving on to other jobs but each time it turned out to be a good thing. Having a new instructor seemed to refocus Ross. Having a new teacher with new expectations was good for him.

After Ross’ second teacher we also realized that he did better with a male teacher. A great swim program director can find a great teacher for your specific child so be sure to change instructors as neccesary and give any feedback (like needing a male instructor) to the director so your child can have the best instructor.

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