Rockin B-Ball

Now everyone can "shoot for a hoop" with this addictive little 4 inch transparent orb. Play against the clock, head to head, best of 10, even "horse". Every time you score a basket, you're rewarded with flashing lights and cheers from the Cyber-audience. Now don't get too confident, it's not as easy as it looks. But with just the right flick of the wrist you too can be a high scorer.Now in 2 sizes.

Grab a timer and your Rockin B-ball and have a competition. Who can get the most baskets in your time frame. Can you score with two hands? One hand? How about with your eyes closed?
Do you have a small group? Play hot potato, one child scores a basket then passes it to the next. Keep passing til your timer runs out or you score 10 points. Good teamwork!!

This is a great warm up, then work on writing or other fine motor tasks. You can write about how many points you scored, who won the game, was it a tie? or maybe finish this story starter. The game was tied 45 to 45, I was on the foul line and.....

Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet?"

Are you going on any long car trips, train rides, or an airplane ride? Here are some fun and easy to bring along games to keep your children busy.

Freestyler Sketcher: The next generation from the Etch a Sketch people! Use the joystick like control knob to draw curves, squiggles, circles and even letters. As always, just shake to erase and start your next masterpiece. U7623

Water Magic- Take Along: Paint anywhere, anytime! Simply wet one of the brushes and start your masterpiece. Wait a few minutes and it disappears...just like magic. Self-contained for easy, take-along-travel fun. 12" by 12" book converts easily to an easel shape for vertical presentation of drawing surface. Fun, non-threatening way to practice formation of shapes, letters and numbers. Item # W5165

Wikki Stix Activity: Set: Comes with 84 short colored wikki stixs and a firm, durable, reusable playboard to work your wikki's on. Board can also be used as a write - wipe surface. You can draw a design, then outline it in wikki's (sorry-pens not included). Playboard is also great for working in a vertical plane, and also when no surface is available (i.e. travel, bed). R3004

Play Dough, Putty, Clay, Every Kind of Way!

Who knew you could have so many different options when it came to putty, play dough, and clay? Here are some of the best products to strengthen those small muscles of the hand.

EI EI Dough: Brightly colored packs of reuseable dough. Squeeze, roll, pound or mold the dough into the shape desired. Then simply add the printed punch-out parts to successfully create 10 different fun animal friends. This is a great product for your younger children, learning animals, animal sounds, or just having fun. Also a great birthday gift! Item # T3507

Clay Pictures: Just push and smush! Use the 8 bright colors of never dry clay to color the 3 pictures. Reuse the picture molds or decorate with included preprinted background cards and colorful frames. Great for children a little older, it will provide more input and need a little more strength. Item # S1184

Magnatabs

This unique sensory-motor product will have children asking you if they can practice their letters! Players use the magnetic stylis as their pencil and the bead board. (11x9) as their paper. Trace each letter using the stylus and directional arrow provided.It is fascinating to watch as the magnetic stylus pulls beads up to create solid lines and curves. Erase, or release beads back down by pushing with the top of a finger. The sensory input receive reinforces the lesson being worked. With the Free Play board, (6x7) you get to let your imagination run wild! Have fun, this is way cool!

My First Scissors

Innovative pair of ergonomically desigend, spring operated scissors, perfectly proportioned for children's hands. Works equally well for right or left hand cutting with a soft, no slip grip and rounded safety tips. Works great for children or adults with reduced hand strength and finger mobility.

Find It Board Game

Fun game for improving visual discrimination and figure ground skills. Players try to be the first to find all 12 of the items from their game board depicted on the 48 photo quality game cards. Play by taking turns or try everyone plays all at once, for a faster, zanier game. The picture quality of the game cards makes them perfect for language deveopment and vocabular building. Great take along travel size. V4031 $9.99

Let's PLay Ball!

E-Z Bat and Ball

With the E-Z Bat, all ball players can "hit one outta the park". Set comes with one E-Z bat, one E-Z Stopper and 2 specially desgined, E-Z Balls. Simply place the stopper over the bat followed by the ball...swing..and just watch it go! For younger children, place ball closer to the tip of the bat. In this position, a successful hit requires less force from the batter. If you want player to work harder, and use more force, start with the stopper and ball further down bat. All foam construction, so bat is very light and everyone gets to play! Easier and more successful than "T" ball for learning to swing. Dads really like the E-Z bat!

Spooner Boards

A truly amazing, "one of a kind" piece of equipment! Improve balance, weight shifting, coordination, motor planning, and gross motor skills while strengthening ankles, legs and core musculature. the "spoon shape" lets you replicate most board sports in any location and on any surface, inside or out. virtually indestructible, the balance boards safely hold 250+ pounds. Learn to stand, rock, pivot and spin, both regular and "goofy footed." Lots of online instructions and videos for learning basic moves and advanced tricks. A terrific product that's fun for all!

The spooner board is a great addition to any therapy bag or play room. It is light and easy to carry. Add the spooner to your gross motor play;
- Make balancing on the board a step in your obstacle course; can you balance for five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds? Then step off and move on to the next obstacle course step.
- For your older, more advanced children, stand on the board as you play with our zoomball, throw a bean bag at a target or balance while they are having a catch.
- For your younger children, place the spooner board near a therapy mat or your couch pillows, just in case they fall or if they want to crash!

FACES

FACES:“Fun Activities to Connect Engage and Socially Succeed!" -->"Why do some children have difficulty navigating the social arena?""Why does he think I'm joking, when I'm really angry?""Can't she see that the other kids are bored with the game?"

What began as a social skills group, has become FACES; An extensively researched and fully kid-tested tool to help children recognize and gain an understanding of different facial expressions and the emotions they non-verbally communicate. It was developed by 3 creative and experienced professionals (An Occupational Therapist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Computer whiz who specializes in creating curriculum-based games).

There are 4 components

Easter Egg Ideas

Easter is coming let’s go egg hunting…

Use plastic eggs, and hide them around the room or your yard. For your younger children, here are a few ideas to help them with their hunting. Assign each child a color, let them wear a colored bracelet or have a specific colored basket. You can give them hints for where to start or work on learning directional concepts such as up, down, in and on. You can assign each child an area. Or do you need to make the hunting a little more difficult? Give each child a scavenger hunt list in order to find the eggs. You can use scooterboards or tri/bicycles to hunt for eggs, to work on some gross motor skills. When the child finds an egg, have them bring it back to their basket balancing it on a spoon. These are just a few ideas, check out our townsquare for some more fun egg hunting ideas!

Messy Play
You will need plastic eggs, glue and colored tissue paper. Have your child rip the tissue paper into small squares. While holding the egg place some glue on one side. Then cover it with tissue paper. This sounds simple but can get very messy. When you are finished the egg will look tie dyed.

Messy Play

It is the perfect time to plant flowers! You need an empty soda bottle, some dirt and flower seeds.

Cut the soda bottle in half, have your child scoop the dirt up with their hands and fill in, place some seeds in the dirt and water. You can punch holes in either side of the soda bottle and string a ribbon through to make a hanging planter.

Don’t want to plant real flowers?

You can make flower pictures with just about anything. Glue brown sugar or coffee grinds on the paper for dirt. Outline flowers on their paper or have your child draw a flower. You can use paint- finger paint, sponge paint, paint with toothbrushes or q-tips. Glue pieces of ripped tissue paper, cereal, or colored sand in the petals. You can also mix paint with your elmers glue. When it dries you will have puffy flowers!!!

Broken Crayons

Are most of your child’s crayons broken? Don’t throw them out. You can use them for a few different projects. First if the crayons are broken- use them!! The smaller crayon pieces promote a mature tripod grasp in children. The smaller crayon forces them to hold it with thumb, index an middle finger rather then their whole palm.

You can also tape five or six piece of crayon together and let your child color with the multi colored crayon! Or make your own rainbow crayon. Have your child pick out smaller pieces of crayon and place them in the bottom of a muffin tin. Melt the crayons in your oven, when they are completely melted, remove from the heat and let cool. You will have one large rainbow crayon when you are finished.

Wax paper transparencies- Take small pieces of crayon or have your child practice using a pencil sharpener with their crayons. You can use the crayon shavings for this project. Cut shapes out of wax paper. I like to make butterflies or flowers this time of year. Make sure you have 2 the same size (top and bottom). Have your child sprinkle the crayon shavings on the wax paper then lay the second sheet on top- if you have a tray or baking sheet, it will be easier and a little less messy. When the second sheet is on top- place a hot iron on top for about 2 minutes. The crayons will melt holding the two sides together. You can punch a hole in the top, thread a string through and hang it in the window. You can also decorate the outside- simply glue google eyes to your butterfly or petals to your flower.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

There are so many activities you can do with items you throw away. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Plastic bottles:

- Take plastic soda or water bottles and cut the top half off. After cleaning and drying them, they make a great funnel. Use the funnel in your sand table, sensory bean/rice bucket, or in the water table.

- Small plastic water bottles, are great for salt art. Make you salt or sand art in these small bottles. You can glue fins on and make fish.

- Make instruments out of water or soda bottles. Place some beans or sand inside and make maracas. Use two empty bottles for drum sticks.

- Shampoo or body wash bottles are perfect for water play. Who needs a water gun? Fill them up and start a water fight!

Newspaper and Magazines

- Cut, Cut, Cut- Don’t throw out your newspapers, have your children practice cutting. Make a collage of animals, plants, words, or feelings. Have your child flip through your old magazines and cut out the pictures. You can also have them search for certain letters or numbers. Give them a list of words that they have to find or they can find the letters to spell the word.

- Do you have younger children that aren’t ready for cutting? Give them some paper and ask them to rip it. They will have so much fun and work on bilateral coordination all at the same time.

- Make a scarecrow- more of a fall activity, I know, but your children can scrunch the paper into balls and stuff shirts, pants, and a pillowcase for a head. Then put him together.

- And don’t forget you can always use newspaper/magazines to help save your table when your children paint or do other messy projects.

Rockin B ball

Now everyone can "shoot for a hoop" with this addictive little 4 inch transparent orb. Play against the clock, head to head, best of 10, even "horse". Every time you score a basket, you're rewarded with flashing lights and cheers from the Cyber-audience. Now don't get too confident, it's not as easy as it looks. But with just the right flick of the wrist you too can be a high scorer

Fun Outside Games

Here are some fun outside summer games you can play with your children or with a classroom group.
All you need is chalk:

1. Hopscotch: Remember when you used to play? Find a larger area on concrete and draw a hopscotch board. Have your children jump with two feet throughout the entire board. To make the game more difficult, jump with two feet then alternate to hopping on one foot. Now add a rock to the game- have your child toss a rock onto one of the squares, this is the square you now have to jump over, on the way back remember to pick up the rock. You can also try to jump in order. So have your child throw the rock onto the first square, jump through the board, then toss onto the second square, and so on. If you put your foot down or jump on the square with the rock, you are “out” and it is the next player’s turn.

2. Mazes: Find a large area of concrete, with chalk draw a maze. You can draw a simple straight line, curved line, circle, or other shape for your child to follow. Need a more difficult maze, draw twists and turns, angles and curves. They can walk, jump or crawl through it. You can ride a scooter board through the maze. Follow the maze, pretending it is a forest and walk like an animal. You can walk through the beach maze, picking up shells along the way while walking like a crab.

3. Drawing and writing: Draw shapes on the floor and have your children make a picture out of them. Make people or animals out of the shapes. Use your imagination and have your child make a city out of the shapes you drew. Practice writing letters. After you write the alphabet you can play jump and spell. Give your child a word to spell and they have to jump to each letter in order to spell the word.

Orbo

Orbo, the snap and match puzzle ball! Baseball sized orb comes with 13 holes, 12 of which have different colored balls resting in them. Players must push the balls out of one hole and get it to "snap" into another hole. This continues until all the balls are resting in the hole ringed in the same color. One hole is unringed and will remain empty. When complete, mix it up and do it again! Hands, eyes, patientce and planning all get a real work out with colorful little Orbo.

Super Fun toy- have races to see who matches all the colors first.

Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!

Let’s make bubbles!!!!
You will need Dawn dish soap, water, and a small bottle of glycerin

You can use any dish soap, I have found that Dawn works the best. In a large bowl add 1 part water and 1 part soap, add about a teaspoon of glycerin and you have bubbles. Want to put your children in a bubble??? You will need a small hard plastic pool, a hula hoop, and the above ingredients.

Fill the pool about two inches high, add half a bottle of Dawn dish and three tablespoons of glycerin. Have your child take off their socks and shoes and one at a time step into the center of the pool. Once in the center of the pool, place the hula hoop at the bottom of the pool and lift it above their head. Lift it slowly, a bubble will form around your child. We have used this as a group activity or just for fun in the backyard!!!

Rainbow River Stone

Q5753 Colorful, highly versatile piece of equipment for home, school and clinic. You get 6 stones in 3 sizes. Use them individually or stack 2 or 3 together to create a wider variety of heights. By rotating the stacked pieces you can also create stone tops that are flat or angled increasing or decreasing the balance challenge as needed. Step, jump, balance, stoop. The kids will love this piece of equipment! Comes with carry bag for ease of transport. Holds up to 80 Kg. *(Sorry this item does not qualify for free shipping)

What to do with old Magazines and Newspapers

- Cut, Cut, Cut- Don’t throw out your newspapers, have your children practice cutting. Make a collage of animals, plants, words, or feelings. Have your child flip through your old magazines and cut out the pictures. You can also have them search for certain letters or numbers. Give them a list of words that they have to find or they can find the letters to spell the word.

-Do you have younger children that aren’t ready for cutting? Give them some paper and ask them to rip it. They will have so much fun and work on bilateral coordination all at the same time.

- Make a scarecrow- more of a fall activity, I know, but your children can scrunch the paper into balls and stuff shirts, pants, and a pillowcase for a head. Then put him together.

- And don’t forget you can always use newspaper/magazines to help save your table when your children paint or do other messy projects.

Flour and Oatmeal Dough

This recipe is great! You will need a large bowl, 1 cup of flour, 2 cups of oatmeal, and 1 cup of water. Have your children mix the dry ingredients first with their hands, then add water. Keep mixing until all ingredients form a large ball of dough. It will be sticky at first but keep mixing. You can then roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to make shapes, letters, or numbers. The dough will harden after a few hours.

You can also use liquid food coloring to add some color to the dough. After using the cookie cutters, push a straw through the top to make an ornament, or once the dough dries you can have your children paint them.