MESS FREE?  ✔
EASILY TRANSPORTED? ✔
FUN AND ENGAGING? ✔
MORE THAN ONE THERAPY GOAL? ✔

This activity ticks all the right boxes for a mobile occupational therapist!

Have you heard of Q-tip painting? (Q-tips are also called "cotton tips" in Australia and are usually found in the personal care section of a supermarket). Q-tip painting has been quite popular in the last few years with Q-tips used as paint brushes dipping into paint and making "spots" onto various printables available.

Last year, I put together my Q-tips and my ink pads... creating Q-tip stamping! It was a hit with my kids;  providing the same fun engaging activity without the MESS!

This is why I love Q-tip stamping!

• Mess-free! I don't have to carry paint, bowls to pour the paint into or things to clean up the paint.  I don't have to  worry about cleaning up tables or be concerned about getting paint on school uniforms. An ink-pad is so much easier to transport - small and compact!  Ink pads usually have a lid which keeps the ink from getting on anything you don't want it to.
• Dynamic tripod grasp! We can work on holding a Q-tip like a pencil using a dynamic tripod grasp with a pinch between the thumb and index finger and open web space of the hand.
• Separation of the two sides of the hand! Whilst the thumb and index finger pinch the Q-tip, the other fingers are tucked away.  I can encourage the movement of the Q-tip with just the thumb and index fingers.  As Q-tips have tips on both ends of the stick which can be used for stamping; try having your child use one end of the stick for one colour and then spin it to dip the other end in a different colour! Read more about the separation of the two sides of the hand HERE.
  
• Pencil pressure! Kids need to apply just enough pressure to the Q-tip to apply the ink and to "stamp" the page.  If too much pressure is applied the Q-tip will bend and break. If too little pressure is applied you can't see the "stamping" on the page.
• Eye-hand coordination! A repetitive activity (most kids won't notice that it is repetitive) where focus is on stamping within the circles provided. Children will try to stay in the circles and control their hand movements.  I have found this is so much more successful for kids than other pencil paper tasks which require eye-hand coordination (perhaps it is more motivating?!).
  
• 1:1 correspondance! As each circle is stamped individually, children can count each circle as they stamp working an important pre-mathematics and pre-reading skill. 
  
• Visual Perceptual and Spatial skills! If you want to make this activity more complicated, you could pre-stamp in the circles of a example page and have your child match your colour patterns. 
  
• Fun and colourful! Kids love this activity and don't realise they are "working" when they are filling in the dots.  With a multi-colour ink pad, it is easy for kids to apply more than one colour on their page.  There are a range of printables available on the internet but I have created these sweet Easter printables for you (actually I created this for me too - I use everything I create so everything is "tried and tested" before I release it). Download yourFREE EASTER Q-TIP PRINTABLE HERE!

This is an activity that would well in a classroom, at home or in an OT session! You could shrink down the pages and turn them into a card or display the finished pictures!

Have you tried Q-tip STAMPING before?

Do you have other mess-free activities that you use in therapy sessions?

If you try this activity for yourself, I would love to see it! Tag #yourkidsot on Instagram or email me at cindy@yourkidsot.com

Don't forget to download  yourFREE EASTER Q-TIP PRINTABLE HERE!

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This craft is inspired by the district exhibits found at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  Instead of fruit and vegetables, we gathered some seed pods from the garden, lentils, rice and pasta. 

What do you do?

• Draw a picture or pattern (scribble works too) on the canvas.
  
• Cover a small section of your picture with craft glue (be generous with the glue).
  
• Place your textural element on your picture.  Repeat with other sections of your picture.
  

Drying time is quite a while (several hours, depending on how much glue is used).

This is a "free form" craft and suits kids of all ages.  As you can see from the photographs, Miss 7 drew a picture and was quite precise with her layout and placement of textural elements.  Mr 3 was less precise, however still enjoyed placing the various textures onto the canvas {and yes he received help to spell out his name}.

Depending on your child's attention span, this is a craft that your child might start and then come back to at a later time or even on a different day.  You could introduce a new element for them to paste when they return.

The finished work might not be as stunning as a fruit and vegetable display from the Sydney Royal Easter Show, however, it provides a textural board for hands to explore.  The textures are really interesting when the glue has dried. It also makes a unique artwork for your child's bedroom wall or as a gift.  Ours are displayed above our fireplace (still not completed, mind you).  

This is the perfect craft to do over the school holidays, maybe after a visit to the show. Do you enjoy visiting the Sydney Royal Easter Show? What do you like best?  If you live somewhere other than Sydney - do you have something similar to our district exhibits?

Ever had a pinterest inspired attempt at a craft and fail?  Guess which is mine?

It looked so beautiful, it sounded so easy ... anyway moving right along, I'm an OT - flexible, creative, adaptable ... the post is now called "Homemade sensory experience with colour!" See it sounds better already.

Here is what we did.

3. Use a toothpick to marble the food colouring into the shaving foam.

4. Roll the egg into the shaving foam mixture.

5. Place the shaving foam covered egg onto a tray with paper towel to dry for 30 minutes. Remove shaving foam with paper towel for final dyed eggs.

So our colour didn't really stick to the egg.  There are probably a few good reasons - our eggs were still warm from being recently boiled and I think the original eggs were white and maybe blown out so they were lighter than the shaving foam...

Well we certainly made a good coloured sensory mess and the kids loved it! They loved spraying the shaving cream, dropping the colour, mixing it with a toothpick and getting their hands into the mess. So as a homemade sensory experience with colour, it worked really well!

Have you had a Pinterest inspired fail? Have you got a tried and tested way of dyeing your eggs?  

Do your kids enjoy messy play?

Note: Shaving foam should not be consumed.  Children should be supervised during this activity and it is not recommended for children less than 3 years of age.  I would not recommend consuming the egg after this activity.