While many kids around the country are heading back to school, there’s still a few weeks of summer vacation for kids in the New York City area which means there’s a lot of vacationing and downtime for many kids.This is also the time of summer that parents start to panic that they need to start getting their kids ready for the upcoming school year. So to make my dive back into blogging, I am going to share some great games, toys, craft kits and apps that will help pass time during vacation and get your kids ready for school. I have tried to share ideas for kids of all ages and was also mindful of the toys and activities I chose were not big and bulky making it easier to throw into a travel or beach bag.
I Can Draw Animals Book-so many of the kids I work with want to be able to draw but really struggle with it and get frustrated during these tasks. I have been using this step-by-step drawing book from PaperPie Learning for a few years and have seen so many of my kids drawing skills improve drastically. Kids can learn how to draw some of their favorite animals by following very simple visual directions. One of the things I like best about this book is that they also give you ideas on how to add details to your drawings. I find that kids who have focus and attentional issues tend to have difficulty with drawing details to their drawings without a lot of prompting.
Plip Charms-I am a kid of the 80s and one of my favorite things was my Charm Necklace. When I found these charm bracelets on Fat Brain Toys, I was immediately obsessed.Thekids I work with are loving these charm bracelets and I love that they don’t even know that they are working on improving fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills as they are playing with them. There are three different colored bracelet and ring sets each including 8 unique charms. The food-grade silicone charms are so cute and include animals, foods, gems and sports related charms appeal to all kids. I bought all three (each set is $10) and the kids are having so much fun making themed bracelets. The bracelets have 5 sockets that you can push the charms into and when they pull them out, it makes the most satisfying “pop” noise you have ever heard. Great for working on improving fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills, improves hand-eye and bilateral coordination skills, encourages creativity and can work on sorting skills. This is a fun and affordable on-the go activity making it perfect for summer traveling, keeping kids entertained at restaurants and so much more.
Toddler Busy Circuit Board-I was recently on vacation and out to dinner and noticed a little one completely engrossed by this gadget with buttons and switches andlights. I loved how they were engaging and exploring all the different kinds of buttons and switches and how it worked on encouraging problem solving skills at such a young age. If you are looking for something to not only keep your little ones entertained without a screen but that also works on encouraging fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills and improves visual motor and visual perceptual skills than this is a perfect toy for you. It is small enough to throw in any travel bag and will keep your kids entertained for hours on end.
Pet Sticker Activity Books-with 12 different activity books to choose from, these are great for you animal loving little ones who you are looking to keep busy while traveling and getting ready for the upcoming school year without depending on screen time. Each of the books contains 12 pages with over 500 stickers to put on different scenes. Kids build fine motor skills, explore spatial awareness, and strengthen hand-eye coordination as they peel and stick stickers onto colorful scenes! These are great for entertaining your kids while traveling, at a restaurant, by the pool or at the beach.
Stickiville Color In Sticker Book-it’s amazing how stickers can make almost any child so happy. I end each of my sessions with my kids offering them a sticker and it makes them so happy. If you are looking for a motivating way to work on coloring skills before school starts, this coloring book by Ooly is a great pick. The book features over 400 sticker that can be colored using their preferred tools. means of Featuring over 400 stickers you can color, young artists can use colored gel pens, markers, or colored pencils to customize each sticker. The cute doodles in this sticker book include whimsical characters, adorable animals, and playful motifs that will capture the hearts and imaginations of children everywhere!
Enchanted Cupcake Party-this is one of my favorite games at work and I have never actually played it as a game! It’s one of the most perfect occupational therapy activities and it is great for taking on the go during summer travels. The game comes with the ingredients for 9 or 10 cupcakes and double-sided cards for kids to create delicious cupcakes. One side of the card is a cupcake for 1 character while the other has you make a cupcake using 1 ingredient from 4 different characters. Kids follow the visual prompts on either side of the card to create the cupcakes. This is great for working on improving fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills, works on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills and improves focus and attention.
Paint By Sticker Books-I have loved any kind of paint by sticker books for my older kids but I was so happy when I found these Paint By Sticker books geared more towards younger children. Many of the paint by sticker books that are great for my older kids have a lot of smaller stickers that are nearly impossible for little fingers to manipulate but these books have much larger and far fewer stickers making it much more manageable for younger children who have decreased grasp strength and delayed manipulation skills. Paint By Sticker books work towards so many occupational therapy goals including improving fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills, improves hand-eye coordination, works on number and letter identification/matching and improves focus and attentional skills. Additionally, they are great for improving self-esteem and confidence each time they complete a picture and can be a helpful tool for calming kids down when they are feeling overwhelmed.
Gem Art Kits-I love these gem art kits for kids who need to work on improving grasping and manipulation skills with a pencil but don’t want to work on actual handwriting. There are 5 different pictures to choose from and each kit comes with a little wax pencil that picks up the gems, 6 packs of different colored gems and a tray to hold the gems. Using the pencil, kids pick up the gems and place them on the matching color/letter. This is a great way to work on improving grasping and manipulation skills, improves hand-eye coordination, work on improving visual motor and tracking skills and works on building up a child’s focus and attention to details. In the end, they have a really fun and sparkly picture that they can show off to everyone which builds confidence and self-esteem.
Little Children’s Drawing Book-this activity book is great for introducing little ones to drawing and pencil control in a fun and motivating way. The book is 48 pages of colorful pictures that they can add details to. Children can learn how to draw squiggles, wiggles, spots, stripes, curly lines, straight lines, and lots more, with the help of the friendly animal characters throughout the book. For example, kids are asked to color in a cactus and then add more spikes to them or put more spots on a giraffe. This is great for working on following directions, encourages creativity and works on improving hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills and grasping and manipulation skills.
Plus Plus Blocks Tubes-these open-ended building toys have been a long time favorite of mine and make a great on-the-go activity to keep your kids busy. There are a ton of different tubes to choose from in varying colors and themes in both regular size Plus Plus blocks and Plus Plus Big blocks. While many of the tubes come with directions on how to build something specific but they are really great for encouraging creativity and imagination as children use the blocks to build their own creations. Plus Plus blocks are great for working on developing fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills, improves hand=eye and bilateral coordination skills and can enhance confidence and self-esteem as they create their masterpieces.
Learning Apps
LetterSchool Handwriting App-this is hands down my favorite writing app and totally worth the price tag that goes along with it. I have found that not only is using an engaging and fun writing app motivating it is also great for younger kids learning how to correctly write upper and lowercase letters and numbers. Each letter or number has three steps to writing: first tap the lines of the letter/number, second you drag the lines of the letter/number and third you practice on a chalkboard with no lines available. What I love about using an app with younger kids is that they can’t move onto the next step if they don’t do the previous one correctly so they learn to self correct without too many verbal prompts from me which helps them learn better and faster. Two things I do whenever I use LetterSchool with my kids is that I always use a stylus (this is my go-to stylus) when practicing the letters/numbers and always practice with pencil and paper immediately after to help with generalization.
ABC Ride-in this educational app, kids learn about letters and sounds through interactive play with the two characters, Beck and Bo. Children ride a bike with Beck and Bo to explore the alphabet (it can be in order or mixed up for an increased challenge) through interactive scenes and puzzles. It features a bike ride adventure with characters Beck and Bo, where kids explore 26 scenes, each corresponding to a letter and a word, using their imagination and problem-solving skills to find hidden letters. ABC Ride focuses on letter recognition, phonics, word association, and creative thinking, while also offering opportunities for vocabulary building and reinforcing spelling. It’s great for working on a variety of visual motor and visual perceptual skills including visual tracking, improves hand-eye coordination, encourages problem solving skills and improves sequencing, focus and attentional skills.
Paw Patrol Learning Academy-sometimes it takes more to motivate some of my kids to work on harder things like writing letters, learning shapes or following directions. This Paw Patrol educational app has been a game changer for some of my more challenging kids and I have been able to get some of the more stubborn kids to spend much more time working on those challenging tasks. In this fun and engaging app children learn and interact with their favorite PAW Patrol characters while learning about spelling, vocabulary, numbers, shapes, and problem-solving. It offers a variety of interactive missions where kids can control the pups and participate in self-guided activities. In addition to all the learning opportunities, kids can work on hand-eye coordination, encourages visual motor and visual perceptual skills and works on increasing focus and attentional skills.
Bugs and Bubbles-this educational app for preschoolers features 18 mini-games designed to develop skills in areas such as math, pre-reading, and critical thinking. It’s a highly motivating and engaging app that gets kids to work on learning letters and numbers, works on matching and sorting skills, works on learning colors and so much more. One of the things that I really look about this app is that it also has couple of games that encourage fine motor, grasping and manipulation skills by pinching bubbles to put them in a sorting machine. There is also a really great game that works on concepts such as more and less, moving and still, right and left, color and shape identification and so much more.
Little Fox Animal Doctor-this is one of my absolute favorite apps and more importantly, it is one of the favorites of the kids I work with. Kids get to work on improving visual motor and perceptual skills, improve hand-eye coordination, visual tracking, following directions and so much more. In this 3D app, kids act as a doctor for the 7 adorable animals treating them for colds, eating too much candy, falling off a bike, getting stung by a bee and many more. My favorite thing about this is that before you treat the animals, you have to watch a short little video which encourages focus and attention and then having the kids tell me what happened to the animal and why they need to see the doctor. Also, in the top right hand corner, there are visual prompts on what you have to do in order to help each animal. Endless Learning Academy-
Labo Fabric Friends-I am sucker for cute animal apps and this one checks off all the boxes for me. Fabric friends is an interactive app that lets young children create virtual fabric animals and then play mini games. There are 11 different animals to create including a penguin, pig, elephant and so many more. Before they can play the games with the animals, they have to follow directions to create their outfits which requires them to “cut” out the fabric and then match the shapes to the right place. This is great for working on improving fine motor and grasping skills, improves visual tracking, hand-eye coordination, visual motor and visual perceptual skills and following directions. Like I do with handwriting games, I have the kids use my stylus to “cut” the shapes out and drag them into the correct places to form each animals outfit.
Thinkrolls-this app from Avokiddo is one of my go-to apps for my older kids, especially those who are into STEM. It is great for working on spatial cognition, sustained attention and memory skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills for kids who need to work on executive functioning. In this series of interactive puzzles, kids move cute little characters called Thinkrolls through a series of mazes and challenges while introducing a variety of science concepts like force, acceleration, gravity and much more. There are two levels of play (easy and hard) and it allows you to create several profiles so kids can gradually work their way through all of the challenges. In addition to all the skills I have already mentioned, this app is great for working on improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills, visual tracking and focus and attention. I like to have some of my kids who are working on improving social skills to work together to solve the puzzles and take turns completing the different levels. There are a handful of Thinkrolls games to choose from including one that allows your child to work on building their own challenges.