Sensory Diet

I talked about Georgia's sensory diet in a previous post. Today we've had a REALLY great sensory diet day! We actually got all of her skin brushing, joint compressions, and listening therapy completed! WOOHOO! Granted, my house is a disaster, but I really don't care because she is doing so well!

I'm addicted to Pinterest and have found some of the BEST ideas on it! Every time I find something new I think, "Why didn't I think of that?!" My newest little project is toddler activity bags. {SIDE NOTE--I got the idea of making snack bags from my sister Kathy about a year ago. Instead of scrambling to make snacks for the girls before we leave the house, I take about 30 minutes once a week or so and make little snack bags that I keep in a basket in my pantry. So, now when we are headed to therapy or to the store or on a trip, I just tell the girls to "grab a snack" and they pick out their own snack...goldfish, pretzels, raisins, granola bars, animal crackers, cheerios...whatever they want. I always seem to be running late & it just saves me a step when we are headed out the door.} That being said, ...I'm in the process of making these little activity bags to grab when we are headed out. One idea includes pony beads & pipe cleaners (Georgia worked for AT LEAST 30 minutes on these today and it is a fine motor activity that is strengthening her little muscles in her hands). Other activities are small play-doh containers & a few tools, a small box of crayons & a few coloring sheets, felt pieces to make different pictures, stickers & a landscape to add them to, small books, clothes pins & color blocks to match (another hand strengthening activity)...and I'm sure I'll think of more! I'm always grabbing a few toys and throwing them in my bag but now I'll save even more time when we are heading out the door by grabbing a few activity bags! Yay for organization! I might actually be ON TIME or (gasp) early?!?!?!

Here's that precious little girl working her hardest at putting the little pony beads on her sparkly silver pipe cleaner!

SUCH concentration! She sat in her little chair and put beads on the pipe cleaner until it was FULL! She was so proud of herself! "I did it!" she exclaimed when she finished!
Ivy Jane enjoyed dumping the beads out of the bag and putting them back in the bag...
I think I said, "Don't eat the beads!" about a million times, but we had fun! They are small and bright...I'm sure if I was 17 months old I would try to eat them too!
And later, on to the next activity. This proved to be a little harder for GC. Opening a clothes pin is HARD WORK, people! I just took a piece of scrap cardboard and divided it into 8 sections. I cut out 8 different colors of construction paper and glued each of them to a square. Then I glued a little rectangle of the same 8 colors onto 8 clothes pins. Her job was to open the clothes pins and match the colors. She did GREAT with the matching, but opening the clothes pins was a difficult task. She loved it, though! YAY! First two activity bags are a hit!

We headed outside when it got a little warmer (and the first of I think 3 wardrobe changes for the day). Georgia loves the tire swing. She's doing her listening therapy...LOVES HER "MOOSIC"!

Climbing up the rock wall with just a little help!
"I DID IT!"
What?! My "moosic is OVER?!
All in all, a GREAT day in our little world today!