Believe it or not, a weekend camping in the mountains has so much to do with occupational therapy skills. Especially when we bring the age old favorite dessert: S’mores! A camping adventure for your kids can provide many opportunities for executive functioning, fine motor, and sensory experiences. Grab your tent, summertime s’mores supplies, sleeping bags, and sunscreen to prepare for an awesome learning opportunity in the woods!

How can all of these skills be incorporated into such a simple activity?

Your therapists at MOSAIC are here to share all the secrets! You’ve survived the dreaded packing sequence, loading the kids up, and the drive to your favorite camp spot. As you pull up, you hear one of the kids shout, “MOM/DAD LET’S MAKE S’MORES.”

Bingo, the perfect opportunity to introduce some activities for therapeutic skills.

Your kids have gathered firewood, they’ve reached into the food box to gather the supplies, and now just need the fire started. In a few simple steps of gathering supplies, the kids have unknowingly used their automatic executive functioning skills! A big word simply meaning that your kids were able to think of the supplies they needed independently and initiate the steps to create their favorite summertime s’mores snack. Without skipping a beat, they knew to unwrap the graham cracker first, place the chocolate on the cracker, and then roast the marshmallow. This is a multiple step sequence of skills completed independently by your child. While things may have been messy at times, and your child may have dropped their chocolate in the dirt, they had the cognitive flexibility to fix the problem and keep the assembly of their chocolate treat moving!

So where does fine motor fall into summertime s’mores making?

The kids have reluctantly sat down at the fire and are ready to make a s’more! They’ve collected the bag with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. To open the bags, your kids must have the finger coordination and finger strength to rip down the side without spilling all of the pieces on to the ground. Then the assembly! Your child may unknowingly use a variety of grasps to manipulate the graham cracker and chocolate. An OT often calls these a lateral pinch, a three jaw chuck, or a pincer. Your child will also have to pull the marshmallow off the s’more stick without crushing the perfectly golden (or burnt!) marshmallow. This is called grading pressure. Your child’s brain was able to tell their fingers not to pinch too hard.

Okay, reality hits, and your child has struggled to get the whole marshmallow off of the roasting stick. It’s now flat and oozing, and the sticky marshmallow is all over their hands. They abandon the task at hand and immediately seek out a washcloth to clean their hands. We have now collided with sensory processing! Your child was able to sense the uncomfortable feeling on their hands but struggles to tolerate the sticky marshmallow. While most people don’t enjoy sticky marshmallows on their hands, the ability to recognize the uncomfortable feeling and problem-solve how to clean it, is a great example of your child’s regulation skills!

Your occupational therapist at MOSAIC can help break down nearly every skill. This can help you understand why your child may be having difficulties with simple, everyday tasks such as making a s’more.

Even if you aren’t camping, you can make “summertime quarantine s’mores” at home. Additionally, for more fun summer activities, check out our Summer Activities to Fend off Boredom.

With summer’s arrival comes advertisements for all the latest fun water and outdoor toys. Many of them are great options to promote development of language, fine and gross motor skills, as well as social interactions and independence. As much fun as it for children to pick the most eye-catching item in the store aisle, making thoughtful purchases of new toys and activities at the beginning of summer means you’re more likely to get longevity and repeat play opportunities for months to come. There’s nothing worse than buying a new set of toys only for them to be “old news” in a week or two.

Additionally, many toy options are great across a variety of ages – meaning less purchases for you and more simplicity across siblings. So, here are some easy to find, simple items to get you started on creative summer fun:

Water Table

• Offers sensory exploration and imaginative play opportunities
• Simple vocabulary opportunities such as: up, down, splash, on, off, cold, hot, my turn. Throw in some water beads for added fun!

Summer Sidewalk Chalk Activities

• Make your own sidewalk chalk with crafty kids
• Offers sensory play opportunities such as turn taking and imaginative play
• Play games with chalk, such as tic tac toe, or give each other directions to make a special creation
• Get creative with surfaces – chalk doesn’t need to stay on the sidewalk. Explore coloring your fence, on paper, on rocks, or tracing shadows

Bubbles

• Easy and inexpensive at most stores or make your own from home
• Early vocabulary opportunities: pop, mine, more, up, down, blow, big, little
• Easily provides turn taking and social routines

Hoola Hoops

• Gross motor: have a competition, jump through a row of them, use as a jump rope substitute
• Throw bean bags or colored water balloons for turn taking and game play
• Turn a hoop into a craft by adding string, lights, or treasures from around the yard. Tying and cutting are great fine motor tasks!

Summer Activities with Spray bottles

There are more activities with this simple Dollar Store item than you’d think! Spray bottles are great for grip strength, motor planning, and fine motor development.

• Knock over animals or army men.
• Have a water fight.
• Stack and crash plastic cup towers.
• Fill with colored water and spray water targets to make a picture.
• Race to clean off the chalk from the fences

Don’t limit your summer experience because of your budget, storage space, or ability to shop frequently. In addition, many of these activities can be taken from your front porch to the backyard and even to the park. We know that summer time looks a little different still, but the fun doesn’t have to stop. Consider going simple and allowing your child’s imagination to bloom! Additionally, for more summer activities, check out our Summer Scavenger Hunts.

From infancy through childhood, children learn about their world using their senses or sensory play. They do this by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, moving, and hearing. Even as adults we tend to learn best and retain information when we engage our senses. How many of us have walked into a room to be filled with memory only because of the smell? Or how a song can send a flood of memories of good times with friends. It is the sensory experience that has helped keep those memories as if they happened yesterday.

Providing sensory play activities for your children is one of the simplest, and most fun, way to explore and learn about the world! There are many different types of sensory play activities, including those that use the sense of smell, hearing, sight, and movement. The sense of touch is another way children gain information and develop an understanding of the big world that awaits! These experiences play an important role in development.

So, exactly what is, and how do you provide sensory play activities for your child? Simply put, sensory play is any type of play that activates and stimulates a child’s senses. Sensory play is tons of fun and simple to set up, but it can be difficult for parents to think of ideas to help their child engage in sensory activities. Here is some advice…keep it simple! Hopefully, the following ideas will get you, and your child, onto fun ways to explore and learn together.

Create Sensory Play Bins

It is simple for children to enjoy sensory play when you create a sensory bin for them to explore. These are easy to make by filling bins with various items. There are endless things to use. Rocks, sand, leaves, cotton balls, beans, rice, and pasta are a few that are easily found around your home. Hide small toys/objects to find or use scoops and spoons to fill containers.

Sensory Play With Food

Your first response is probably, “You are crazy!” Yes, it gets messy, but allowing your little one to play with food — squishing, smearing, and tasting as they go — gives them a sensory experience that helps them learn. It may increase your child’s interest in trying new foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Use pudding, whipping cream, or yogurt to make roads for cars or to imitate lines and circles.

Play Dough

Play dough recipes are so easy to find and can be made from items commonly found in your home. Or purchase Play-Doh on a quick trip to your local Target or Walmart! Many of the play dough recipes are edible which is a bonus when using with young children that like to put things in their mouths! Adding simple tools such as cookie cutters, rolling pins, and for preschool aged children, plastic knifes and scissors provide more learning experiences.

Sound Tubes

Start saving those paper towel and toilet paper rolls! Next collect a variety of different things to put inside, such as beads, rice, or beans. Fill the tubes and safely seal them, duct tape works great. And as easy as that you have created a sound tube for your little one that helps them connect with the auditory world around them as they enjoy the different sounds each one makes.

Swinging, Spinning, and Rolling

Swings are often a favorite activity for children. Challenge them by having the swing on their bellies to fly like “Superman”. Instead of pushing them from behind give pushes through the bottoms of the feet, or pull their feet then gently release. A totally different sensation can be given by gently twisting the swing. Spinning in circles, rolling down a hill, or rolling across the floor are other simple ways that a child can experience movement in natural and playful ways.

Pillow Crash

What home does not have pillows! Pull cushions off the couch or grab the bed pillows and let the fun begin. Jumping into pillows, rolling across pillows, or hiding under them while others give gentle pushes is a great way to provide deep pressure or proprioceptive input. This type of sensory play helps your child understand where their bodies are in space and helps in developing body awareness.

Water Sensory Play

Water play may be the simplest way to give your child sensory play experiences. Whether it is in the bath tub, the kitchen sink, the outdoor pool, at the lake or nearby stream water provides endless fun for all ages. Adding simple common items such as cups, balls, sponges, squirt guns only add to the fun. Water play can be as simple as putting fingertips in, or jumping with both feet, or totally immersing themselves – each one giving a unique sensory experience.

These are only a few ways to provide your child with sensory play activities. They do not need to be complicated to be fun and most items can be found in your home. While it can get messy from time to time, helping your child engage with their senses will give them the chance to learn and grow as they interact with the world around them!

For more ideas, check out Little Bins for Little Hands to get over 50 sensory play activities. If you have concerns that your child doesn’t want to engage in sensory play, check out this blog on Sensory Processing Disorder to learn more and to learn how occupational therapy can help.