Our First Time Baking

Today was a super rainy day so we decided to bake something all of us could eat. Kiddo eats a strict vegan diet, I eat vegan and gluten free, and daddy basically eats whatever you put in front of him. Baking is usually difficult in this house because really, who has the time to make something all of us can eat? We usually only make vegan treats since I really hate baking gluten free things.

I don't even know if you could call this "baking" but it was easy for Ky to mix everything and dump the batter into the pan.

Pancake and Banana Bites

All we used for this recipe was

- 2 cups gluten free Bisquik

- 1 cup hemp milk

- 1 cup lite syrup

- 1 banana

Preheat oven to 350F

I got everything ready before I announced to her that I needed help, since we have never baked together before and I had no idea how this would go over. I laid out all the ingredients, the bowl, the pan, and measured out what we needed beforehand. She poured it all into the big bowl while I mixed, then without even telling her, she had started to dump it into the muffin tin.

I wanted this to be fun for her so there were no strict directions - Just pour and try not to spill too much on the floor. She did a really great job! We spent about 20 minutes just mixing and pouring. After we had all of the muffing tins full, we cut up the banana into little pieces and pushed them into the batter.

We baked them for about 15-18 minutes. I took them out without telling her, but included her in the process after they were cooled down. She helped take them out and put them on the plate. She did much better than I thought she would, especially since directions are really hard for her. I see a lot of baking in our future!

Fisher Price IXL for Autism

I want to talk a little bit about a product that I absolutely love. I'm not really one to full on fall in love with a product and recommend it. Nothing really seems to live up to my expectation or it always has one fatal flaw that will turn me off from talking about it. Even though this does have one issue with the design, I still feel it was such a huge positive in kiddo's development and perfect for special needs children that have trouble communicating.

Main Menu Screen

The Fisher Price IXL is a small computer system designed for kids ages 3-6. It is built to be handled roughly by small children unlike the Ipad, which is super expensive and can easily be broken. Although it can't do as much as the Ipad, it is still a good transition computer and can help you figure out where your child is as far as development goes and if they would even be able to navigate an Ipad. Up until now, she had no idea what a computer was, what it did, that you can even interact with it, or that you can learn from it. She was able to not only learn from it, but use it as a comfort object or a transition tool when we had to go out in the community. This thing taught her the ABCs in less than a week! Imagine my amazement when my non verbal 2 year old wakes up one morning and starts telling me all the letters on her alphabet poster. 

The IXL comes in pink, blue, or silver with the option of changing background colors on the screen

I personally would have never bought one of these for kiddo. She was a fresh 2 year old at the time when she received it, which seemed too young to me. With her level of communication, I would have never thought she would be able to do anything with it. I assumed she would look at it, try to play with it, get frustrated that she didn't understand it, and throw it to the ground. Her aunt and uncle got her one for Christmas after seeing how much their son loved it. I think this was one of the best gifts she could have gotten (thank you x1000!).

Using it during a hospital trip as a distraction

The way the IXL works is that you start off with their "Fisher Price no-name character" themed games and story. You can buy additional characters that have their own games and story as well, but it does come pre-loaded with general content. The way the child navigates the system is by which character they want. Once they pick that,  then they can choose a story (to be read to them, or a more interactive story), games, music, art studio, flash cards, piano player, virtual pet, spelling, writing practice, etc. There are so many features in this computer that it will keep your kid BUSY. It is easy to navigate with only a few buttons and the touch screen works well. There is a decent variety of characters so there should be something your kid likes. My daughter personally loves Kai Lan and the games that come along with her (making food, abc basketball). Handy Mandy also has a neat game where you can build cars and replace parts. You can't actually add any apps or games that aren't made for this computer. They do let you add music and pictures. Although I haven't tried, I've heard the picture feature doesn't work too well. The IXL also has a headphone jack, so this is perfect for kids who easily get overloaded and need to block out some unwanted noise.

Now...the complaint. It isn't a huge complaint, but it is hard to avoid and I guarantee every system will encounter this. The IXL comes with an SD card. This is what holds all of the memory for the computer. While this thing is built for being dropped, it still malfunctions sometimes when dropped. The SD card easily wiggles loose and it resets the system until you take the card out and put it back in. We've had it erase the games a few times but usually once you put the card back in, it will work. I recommend keeping extra batteries and a screwdriver on hand at all times.

So there you have it - Who knows, maybe in no time your kid will become a super genius. Probably not, but for those of us that can't afford an Ipad, this is probably the next best thing.

Quality bonding time with Daddy - note the android tablet that can't get any apps we need (no, I'm not bitter about him buying it, I swear...)

Treasure Chest

This was a little something special I made for my daughter shortly after we started introducing sensory play. I'll go through everything I used and then include a cheaper and easier way!

(Click on any picture to see a bigger version)

My daughter LOVES the ocean and anything that has to do with sea animals. This project seemed perfect for her especially because she loves small pebbles. I decided to make her a treasure chest using small aquarium rocks and small sea animals. This exact project isn't great for every age - please use supervision if your child loves to stick toys in their mouth.

I waited until Michael's had a 50% off one item coupon. They sell a few different size wooden unfinished chests, so pick out a size that works for you. I believe I paid $10 after the coupon. I also picked up a few pre-painted decorations for the outside. At the time, Michael's had these little erasers in the shape of sea animals. You can usually find these also at dollar stores or discount stores. They might still have them at Michaels. Another alternative is Squinkies - they are a small, squishy toy that is sold at any toy store. You can pretty much use any type of sea toy you want! You'll want to pick up some paint or stain too. My daughter is rough with her toys so we used a sealer for the paint so she didn't chip it.

The last thing we needed was aquarium rocks. We bought the little rocks since she prefers them over the bigger ones. I bought two 5lb bags of the small colored aquarium rocks. You could easily get away with one bag. You could even buy the bigger stones if you are worried about the choking hazard. Or you could take a trip to the park and have your child collect rocks to put inside. I added a few aquarium decorations that we already had to make it feel more real. Get creative and add whatever you want! You could do sand, but I'm not sure how well the chest would hold it. If you decide to try it, seal all the cracks with hot glue first so the sand doesn't pour out.

The end result of supplies will look something like this -
Treasure Chest - $10-$20 (depending on size & coupon)
Aquarium Rocks - $10-15
Sea Animals - $5-10
Decorations - $5-10
Paint/Stain - $5-10 (We had ours at home already)

Our treasure chest came to about $40. This was a lot more than we would have spent normally on a project, so we tried to incorporate a lot of what we had at home. We had the paint and some of the decorations already. We waited until we had coupons to keep the cost low.

A cheaper way of doing this would be using a small storage container with a lid so you can easily store it away for next time. This would eliminate the cost of the treasure chest, paint, and the outside decorations. If you do it this way, you could use rocks or sand without making a huge mess. This would also make a great activity for a sensory bucket or a sensory table!

Water Beads

This is our favorite activity to do! We have our sensory bucket out almost all day long with water beads sitting in them.

Never heard of water beads? They are basically little polymer balls that hold water and release them slowly over time. They are usually used in flower vases. Some beads bleed the color into the water and others do not. You can buy these already at a full size or you can buy the smaller, dried version that you have to soak in water for 4-6 hours.

You can play with these without any water in the bucket, but it is also fun to add a lot of water too! The water beads look like they 'dissolve' but if you stick your hand in, you can still feel them! It is super fun and also great for sensory play. We also like putting in larger glass stones (they can be found in the flower section of craft stores) and giving the child a cup to collect them in. Try to pick a different color than the beads so it is easier to see. Always supervise the child if you do this - they can be a choking hazard! This activity is great for fine motor skills and color sorting!

We buy our beads at Michaels but you can probably find these at any other craft store. They run around $4.99 for a large container of already full sized beads that do not leak color. Our last trip, we picked up red beads and they DID bleed the color into the water, but all of the other colors have been okay. We usually use two containers in her sensory bucket.

In order to keep these fresh, you have to put a little bit of water back into the container when you package them up. We had a problem in the beginning where after a few weeks, the water would start to smell. We threw out three containers of beads over the course of 4 months because there was no way to get the smell out. We did come up with a solution!! We found if we put a small drop of Tea Tree Oil into the container, it would kill the bacteria from leaving water in the container (and also whatever bacteria makes its way in from your toddler's hands) and it would give them a nice smell! Do not put more than a small drop into the water though. This stuff is powerful and too much is not a good thing.

Does anyone else use water beads? How do YOU play with them?