Playdoh, do you love or hate it?

It was a problematic substance in our household until the children reached 3-5years old. Kira wanted to eat it, and the other two struggled greatly with the feel of the texture. Sophia thought it made her dirty and had to wash her hands between every touch. 

Through patience and gentle exposure they all have embraced the activity, they're not a fan of the accompanying machinery options however. These are absolutely awesome for encouraging hand strengthening, however they failed to capture the imagination of my three. They like to be free to create individually.

Naturally they've all been through the stage of mixing all the colours and making 'poo'.

As a general rule the children choose a food based theme to their imaginative playdoh sessions. They run a cafe or restaurant and make dishes to order.

Xander decided to make wriggly worms the other day and was chasing the squealing girls through the house.  

This past year they have also loved using it for making dinosaur foot imprints from toys, and imprinting shells to imitate fossils, for their dinosaur project. 

What creations do your children come up with?

What tools do they gravitate towards? 

Do they like the themed sets?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading with ADHD

Image
Experience through me, a typical reading session with a toddler with adhd and hyperlexia.  Give yourself forty-five minutes for the session.  Wait for ten minutes for her to stop performing flips and tricks, bearing in mind she will have asked for this activity. Another five minutes for her to get snuggly in your lap, and have a giggle because she is purposely holding the book upside down. She will then flawlessly read a page of a Peter and Jane book.  Then point out that the next page is pretty much the same as the one before so why does she have to read it?  You refocus her.  She reads the next page flawlessly.  'Oh look I have a bellybutton', poking at it and giggling.  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  'Mummy, I'm Kira Morris, what's your name?' (saying her name frequently is part of her torrettes).  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  A screaming fit, 'Sophia's looking at me!' then launching straight into another fla...
Read more

Lockdown space

Image
  "We haven't got the time. We haven't got the space" Let's look at the space situation, shall we? Enjoy the following story. It was during the time of the first lockdown. We lived in a tiny terraced house....with three toddlers.  Our living room, besides hosting the traditional furniture for this room, housed the toy chests, a huge wardrobe, and two fridge freezers (the kitchen was tiny). Alexander was working hard on his physiotherapy in the hope he would one day be able to sit, stand, and walk unaided. Thus, our remaining standing room housed his specialised seating and walking equipment, which we tripped over on a reular basis. There was no official table due to lack of space. The children had a toddler picnic table with attached benches for their learning space, that stood upright against the wall when not in use. We moved the furniture round, depending on what was being used. We had no storage space for their work, so it adorned the walls and the fridge free...
Read more

Building engagement

Image
How do you get someone's attention when  they're just three years old? How do you reach them when they're autistic and living in their own little world? How do you excite a love of reading when they're so young?  You observe.  Kira has hyperlexia. She could read any word without being taught and knew what many of them meant. She did not like to snuggle down and listen to traditional stories. She did not tune into life unless her sister was nearby, until she was introduced to educational YouTube channels. She became alive, spun around and rocked her toddler days away singing educational content. She learnt a song and the meaning of the contents within a few times of hearing it and could talk to you about it. So back to reading. She could perform the technical skill to an incredible degree, reading level of a seven year old months after starting to read. She was not emotionally connecting with content however, no matter which story books I was presenting to her.  I bro...
Read more