Hospital

Sorry to have disappeared again, Junior had some tummy issues and we ended up spending the past few days in the hospital. We are home now but it will be awhile before Junior is back up to speed. Feel free to click on over to Junior's blog to read more about our hospital stay.

Kid Walk

Junior is trialing the KidWalk gait trainer and we really like it. It holds him securely and there is nothing in front of him so he can be right up at a table or the window. It moves very easily so even pushing with his legs makes it move forward.
I wanted to share a pic and the link in case others are trying to find out whats available.
I have shared a few of our "can't live without" pieces of equipment(including toys, switches, medical equipment, etc.) and will be continuing with more over the next couple weeks.
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Junior has been ill with a stomach bug and UTI.

Everyone Wins

Since only a few people entered Junior wants to give each of them their favorite app set. So for those who left an email you should get an email with codes soon. I think you will actually get an email for each of the apps. If I don't have your email I will leave a comment on your blog with my email so you can contact me and I can get the codes to you.
Thanks for following our blog.

The antibiotics are kicking in and Junior is having a much better day.
Is that a smile I see.

Junior's Favorite Apps Giveaway

Junior has a stomach bug and UTI so I have been unable to get the winners picked for the apps. I apologize for the delay and will be posting the winners tomorrow.

While you wait for the winners to be announced you can meet Junior's need buddy Tubie. Here he is having a chat with tubie monkey(This was last week before he got sick). We discussed lots and lots of names but Junior thinks his monkey needs to be named tubie(Since had has all the tubes Junior does I guess it is a fitting name).
Sharing a treatment earlier in the week, poor guy was not feeling well.
Tubie now has shorts and glasses. I thought since I did a little surgery and gave him all the same tubes as Junior(feeding tube, port, oxygen pulse ox) he also needed glasses like Junior(though I think the glasses may make him look a bit more Harry Potter then Junior).
This little guy was quite easy to make(or should I say add tubies to) and I will do a separate post at a later time describing it.

Junior's Favorite Apps Giveaway

We now have over 100 followers so wanted to give away some of Junior's favorite apps and apps we use most.

We will give these away in sets.
First a couple of our favorite interactive stories, both of these have lot of interactive components throughout the story.
1. Treasure Kai and the Lost Gold of Shark Island
2. The Adventures of Peter Pan (by SoQuat)

Second set are some of our most used educational apps.
1.Math Magic
2.Word Magic
3.Teach Me 1st Grade
4.Teach Me Kindergarten

Last set is a few of our favorite "Just for Fun" apps
1.Animal Sound Chaser
2.I Love Fireworks
3.Clicky Sticky
4.Snake Me

Just leave me a comment with which set you prefer and make sure I have a way to contact you.
Junior will choose a name for each set by Wednesday of this coming week.

Sensory Fun - Water Beads

I have heard water beads mentioned on several blogs so when Junior got some for Christmas we couldn't wait to try them out. They are a wonderful sensory item and Junior loves them. The ones he got are called Orbeez. I later hunted for water beads and found you could get them at a craft store or online for fairly cheap. The only problem I found is that you had to buy one color at a time meaning you would have a huge amount of one color.
You place them in water, leave them for a few hours and you are all set. Junior wanted to mix all the colors together but you could also keep them separate.
Using them on the light board. This was while they were still growing so you can see different sizes.
Once they have finished growing
Junior loves using his trucks to haul them around.
I am sure we will find many more ways to play with water beads.
Do you use water beads? What are your favorite activities with them?

Beware that these bounce and will jump right out of the tub. I highly recommend using something with an edge when playing.

I just realized that we are at 99 blog followers, thanks so much everyone. When we hit 100 Junior is going to give away some of our favorite ipad/ipod apps. I will let Junior choose his favorite educational and "just for fun" apps to share.

Game Time - Angry Birds

Junior got the Angry Birds card game for Christmas. He has been sick so we haven't had a chance to play it but I did find a few minutes today to read the instructions and figure out how to make it work for Junior.
We changed the game some and adapted it for Junior's needs.

The first step was adapting the dice to work on the switch adapted spinner.
I photo copied each side of the dice on 200%. The dice make the scanner cover stay open causing it to make a large part of the copy black which wasted a lot of ink. To avoid this I first put a sheet of white paper in the scanner with a small square cut out to set the dice in. I then cut out the copied dice picture and recopied it again at 200%.
I then used contact paper to laminate each square
I attached velcro to the back of each card so it could attach to the game spinner
The game has what they call power cards which can be used during the game. The way these are used is not something that would work for Junior so we picked out a couple of them and added them to the spinner. Changes the game a bit but doesn't change the "fun" factor.
I placed velcro on the back of the playing cards so they can be set up for the game. Each player gets 6 cards and lines them up, this is their "castle". You spin to knock down your "castle" and the player who knocks down all their cards has to knock down the green bird/pig.
Playing the card game the typical way you would actually flick the dice to knock over the pig(picture above next to the playing cards, there is a little stand for it if you aren't velcroing it like we did). Flicking a dice is not optional for Junior and though I could do hand over hand with him I would rather he be able to play as independently as possible.
There are some green pig playing cards so we put velcro on the back of them and put them on the spinner at the end.
If the other person playing still has cards left we will just replace the "power cards" with the green pigs instead of putting them on the spinner alone.

Ready to play
This is how we adapted the game to work for Junior but I am sure there are lots of other ways to make it work for your child's needs. I remember seeing an adaption to hold playing cards easier on a blog(though I haven't had time to hunt down the post) for those with motor issues but who can use their hands.

Have you adapted games for your child's needs. I would love to see them and have you share them here so we can all learn.

Update: Thanks to Adapting Creatively for letting me know about their post on card holders. Here is the link: Card holders
Be sure to check out their other posts with awesome ideas and adaptions.

Light Box part 2

Before Christmas I shared about the light box I made for Junior. He loves it and so I thought I would do a part 2 and share him playing with it and some of the fun things we use with it. Also a few adjustments I have made/will be making.

I added a small edge around it to keep toys from rolling off as easily. I used the thin foam weather stripping and it is perfect because it keeps his toys from rolling easily off but also doesn't get in the way. I still want to come up with something that is several inches high and can be put on and taken off for when we have his hex bugs on top. I will definitely be putting velcro in the box to attach the light. It is a pain to have to stay close to a plug in any time he wants to play with the box. With velcro I can use battery operated lights when needed. I also want to add another light so it is more even(though Junior loves it like it is).

Looking at it on Christmas morning for the first time.
He got hex bugs and see through legos for Christmas and they are perfect for the lightbox.
Hex bugs in action on top of the light box

Water beads were a huge hit for Christmas. These are a wonderful sensory toy and perfect on his lightbox. We put them in a clear box before putting them on his lightbox.
In this pic and the one above the water beads are still sitting in water to finish growing.
The water beads after they finished growing and we strained the excess water off.
Playing with his cars on the lightbox
We are quickly finding that the skies the limit when it comes to finding uses for the light box. The only thing I still want to figure out is a way for him to use his markers on it. I tried using white board markers and window markers on a sheet of clear vinyl/plastic(the type used for window stickers) over the lightbox but the markers won't wipe off. I will look into getting a piece of plexiglass or some similar material to try. This way we could use it during his school work and I think it will help with his focus.