Dollar Target Bins, OT dreams do come true…

All from dollar bins at Target. Lots of sticker books, sketch pad and writing pads…

Finger Sports: Bowling, OT

Sometimes Blogger perplexes me. So I’m adding a caption since I can’t figure out how to write text. I have never tried this, but finger sports/bowling seems like it might be cool 🙂 Update in July: I have tried this and it’s not that easy for my little ones. I think this was a relatively cheap purchase, luckily. They do better with tossing it almost rather than trying to “flick” at it. I do like that this has a fine motor component as well as a visual motor component, having to precisely put the pieces up without knocking them all over, eyeing and projecting where your ball will go to hit the pieces, etc.

Pictionary, Tangoes, and Dot to Dot, for OT

So I finally gave in and bought some Tangoes. For the visual perceptual/visual motor piece. And then a big ol’ pad of Dot to Dot, to make patterns and have the child copy it. These will be quite challenging though, so I’ll be grading it down in difficulty. Also a special version of Pictionary where you use pre-assembled pictures rather than your own. Hmm.

Squinkies for OT

Squinkies …never heard of them until today. I don’t have kids, and I live under a rock. But these seemed super cute. Basically tiny figurines in little pod things. I’ll definitely be using this as a tong/tweezer task….

Star Wars and OT :)

Star wars haul. I may have gone a little crazy here. Party City and Target. BUT Target was having a SALE on Star War thingies and that NEVER happens, Star Wars crap is always super expensive. So I got a bunch of stuff – a lot of tiny characters that can go in little circle pod thingies – can use with tongs, or for a 5 minute “free choice”, or who knows. Many options.

Squishy balls for OT

What else can I say. Squishy balls. All were a dollar or so at Target. I try to pick them up when cheap (Gosh I probably have like 20 + now) since often they are like 4 or 5 dollars.  Good for throwing/catching and sensory stuff. 🙂

Super Mario for OT…mostly bribery in this case

I am sure there are awesome ways to use super mario bros in therapy (my kids love it) and I am sure I’ll work on it but for now – SNERDLES – are little tiny fruit strips wtih mario stuff on them (those question mark boxes all are filled with snerdles, plus I have some loose ones. HOLY COW MY CAT JUST KNEADED BISCUITS ON ME WITH NO WARNING AND DREW BLOOD THANKS  LOT STRAY CAT ANYWAY also Mario stickers. All of this is reward stuff. Not that you should use candy as a reward ::straight face::

Angry Birds, OT style :)

Angry birds haul from target and party city.

Random OT tidbits…

I just pushed my 20 year old cat off me for the tenth time so I could write this. And then I deleted it by accident. Thank goodness i had only written a sentence or two or I would be P-I-S-E-D (hahaha, who gets that joke?) Anyway.

I am going through tons of paperwork due in a few weeks. I was pretty good about it in the fall, not so much in the spring. But in early Spring I had a lot of stuff going on personally and my grandmother died (I miss her so much!!) so I guess I got behind and never quite caught up, especially in the redundant documentation area. So. A few weeks to get it all done. I came home around 940pm tonight from a friend's house and did about 2 hours of work – I also did hours yesterday night as well. I'm CLOSE to being done with paperwork for one of my four schools. The smallest, easiest, school, but hey it's a start right? 🙂

I like to keep EVERYTHING as a sample including my part in it, so I usually end up with one piece of paper with a few of my own words, plus their paper. I need to be better about re-using paper instead of grabbing fresh each time. But I also need the paper to be clear and uncluttered. I found one paper where I had randomly taught a 4th grade girl how to draw a three-dimensional cube. In a million years I could not draw one myself except that I was taught how once (two overlapping squares, connect the lines). On another one I was showing a child how to draw a star. Sometimes putting aside your plan for a minute and showing the child something to increase their confidence is really important and helpful because it lets the child fit in better. 🙂

I'm attaching a few random pictures. I wanted to include a specific one but alas, I did not find it, so I threw in some funny ones. And one is my grandma with my Alabama cat.

I love this blog because it helps me reflect. Some minutes, hours, days, weeks I feel like a bad OT, and other times I feel like an awesome OT. Getting to write about OT, share about it, think about it, helps me love my profession more and more. I wish I could swallow a magic OT pill that would magically give me another 30 years of experience and knowledge. But since that doesn't exist, guess I'll just keep chugging along. I JUST started my second year of school OT practice last month, which is technically not even true considering summer vacation, but we'll go with the flow. Plus one year of adult physical dysfunction work before that. It feels good to finally have a year or two under my belt. 🙂

Blah blah blah, its almost midnight and I am delirious. Tomorrow is a new day….a new day to do paperwork, haha. Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday weekend.

Random Occupational therapy Tidbits….

1) http://www.theappacademy.org/        iPad and autism. Check it out if you're a school OT working with autistic kids and have access to iPads. In our district, EVERY teacher and speech therapist got ipads except the OTs and Adapted PE. Sad.  No bitterness. Except the cloying taste of almonds…..jk

2) I got some seamless socks to sample. Keep in mind if you're one of those people with kids who can not STAND seams….a lot of websites now exist to help you with that problem. Obviously it's more expensive than Wal-Mart, but at least a solution exists. Note: I was over 18 before I went to Wal-mart for the first time. It was not part of my childhood experience. But I spent a lot of time there in Tennessee and Georgia, lolol. People of walmart dot com? So true. Go at like eleven at night for the “best” experience 🙂  I shouldn't drink haterade though, they are the ONLY place that has my beloved rectangular firm corkboards….

3)  My stray cat has found his voice. His name is Stray Cat because he is a stray. But we've been feeding him for about 5 years and he regularly sleeps on my bed, so, well, I dunno. But anyway, he has started Meowing. It's driving me nuts. I prefer mute animals. Last night, I was up at LEAST five times between midnight and 6am with these two cats (Stray Cat and Black Cat – who is my 20 year old fragile cat). Meowing, or opening doors, or checking on them, etc etc. Guess I know what it's like to have to wake up a lot for a baby……speaking of which I just heard a meow and it's our NEWEST stray cat, White Cat, peeking his head in my bedroom to eat their dry cat food. Oh, and the racoons eat it. And the black crows. Fun times. That wasn't an OT tidbit, but I'm an OT dictator, so you have no choice but to bear it. Sorry.

4) Today we had an incident and a cop was in the principal's office – I could see him through the window taking notes and my first comment was “He has a pretty good pencil grip”. I love when parents complain about their child's handwriting and/or grip in the IEP meeting, then I watch them sign the IEP sign-in and their grip and HW is horrendous. THE APPLE DOES NOT FALL FAR FROM THE TREE!!!!  That is of course not always true. But sometimes when I meet parents I am like “ohhhhhhhh”. Then suddenly a lot more things make sense. I really enjoy meeting the parents. I'm super big on regular communication with parents.

5) I'm still in paperwork hell. I got through two annual IEPs today – 3 more annuals, 3 triennials, and 3 initials to go in the next 11 days of work. Not to mention treatment and evaluations for those triennials and initials.

6) For those of you who are not into school or pediatric OT….if you hit around BEFORE march 2009, in that 9 months before, I had three three-month rotations. First in outpatient pediatric clinic in semi-rural Mississippi which included home visits and satellite expansion, then an acute care hospital, and finally a locked geriatric psych ward. Fun times, I tell ya. So you might find stories from back then.

7) A lot of the OT students who started following me years ago…are now OTs themselves. Super fun to watch their journey!! Love it!!

8) I have lots of OT paperwork to get done before June 8th….but I will have several days without a car, stranded in an empty house, in Alabama, after June 8th, where I plan to go through my emails etc from the blog.

9) I'll stop now. Although as soon as I stop I'll remember something else to say.