Our First Adventure with the Family Adventure Challenge Book!

These days, finding activities that my kids are excited about and doesn't involve a screen, is huge! Since Christmas time, I have seen ads on Facebook for The Adventure Challenge Books. I was intrigued, but it took a few friends to show off their adventures before I finally bought one for my crew as a Valentine's Day gift. 

A few weeks ago we finally had some free time and decided to partake in our first adventure. 

   

When you open the book, there is a legend that tells you how much time the activity will take, if you need to make a trip to the store to complete it, if you need to be outside, etc. So you can easily choose an activity that fits your availability for that day. 

We decided, based on the requirements, that our first adventure would be an activity called FLOATERS!

After we scratched off the explanation of the activity, we learned that we were going to have to collect fruits and vegetables from the fridge, grab a bucket of water,  and have a bobbing challenge! We were also instructed to create a point system for each food item. Then, we each had 60 seconds to grab as many fruits/veggies out of the water as we could. 

    

Bobbing for fruit proved to be a much harder task than the kids expected! I was proud of their determination to keep trying and not give up. 

This was such a fun way to show our kids that mom and dad can have fun, too. No worries about getting wet or dirty, after all, we had to follow the adventure rules!

   

Plus, I got to show them who's boss when I  kicked all their booties with 22 points!

I think we are going to get one of those old, large wrestling belts and create an Adventure Challenge Champ belt to pass between the winners after each challenge!

One of my favorite things about this book is that it creates a scrapbook for you! There is a place to stick on a picture from your adventure and then write a little summary of what you did. These books would be fantastic gifts for friends or family. There is also a couples version (which is now my new go to gift for weddings!) and best friends version. 

I cannot wait to see what our next family adventure will be!

If you want to purchase your own book, use this link here and code SPEECH for 10% off your purchase!

Bring the Coffee Shop Home!

I am a huge coffee fan. My usual order is a venti iced coffee with classic and cream. I've probably spent half of my income at Starbucks... sometimes visiting my favorite baristas twice a day. My bank account was screaming at me to stop, so I decided that there has to be a way to make these delicious lattes at home. There is! Of course, I still make the occasional coffee stops but I can confidently say, my lattes are better!

I make my coffee with a Keurig. Nothing fancy with the one I own, but there are some fancy coffee makers out there. The secret weapon is the milk frother.  I add half oat milk and half vanilla almond milk creamer to the frother and whip up a latte. So easy and so good.  And way less sugar than my usual order. The frother has both cold and hot settings so you can make iced or hot coffees. 

Whatever your coffee order is at the coffee shop, you can make it at home. Starbucks sells their flavored syrups online and a quick google search can get you the recipe for just about anything on the menu. I may have even ordered paper cups with lids so I still feel like I am enjoying a cup from Starbucks! 

I have linked everything I use, and a few extra items on my LIKEtoKnow.it page.

  See it here!

5 Ways to Play: Counting Surprise Party!

I am very excited about this new blog series, Toy of the Week: 5 Ways to Play! There are so many ways to use toys, games, and regular household items (more than just their original intended use) to teach and elicit lots of language. I chose the Learning Resources Counting Surprise Party as my first toy of the week because I have used it so much since COVID hit. This set has been a fantastic, engaging activity for both in person and teletherapy sessions. 

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience. This means that if you make a purchase using my link, I may make a small commission. 

This toy set was created and intended to use to help children learn colors and numbers. But as we all know, every good toy can be used in more than one way. 

Here are 5 ways I have used this toy in therapy.

Number 1: What's Inside?

Work on those inference skills by giving your child clues about what object is inside the box. For example,  take a peek inside one of the boxes and say to your little one, "Ohhhhhh!! This one has big ears, loves carrots, and can hop! What do you think it is?" As your child's language grows, switch it up. Tell them that they get to be the teacher and let them give you clues about what is inside. This is a great way to also work on descriptive words and object function. 

Number 2: Following Directions!

These are great objects for working on listening and following directions. Set out the objects and the boxes on a table or the floor. You can use simple directions, such as: "Put the cat in the orange box." work on spatial concepts, such as: "Put the duck behind the blue box" and temporal directions, such as: "Before you put the bear in the green box, put the teapot in the purple box."

Number 3: Simple Reinforcement

These presents bring a lot of engagement to my sessions. I often use these as simple reinforcements for answering questions or practicing a target speech sound. After the child answers the questions, they get to open one box. During teletherapy, this was often a reinforcement for finishing one activity before we moved on to the next one. 

Number 4: Make Skill and Drill Practice More Fun!

Grab some flashcards and lay them out on the floor or table. These can be for shapes, letters, numbers, vocabulary words, articulation targets.... anything! Place one of the presents on top of each card. Have the child tell you which present he/she wants to open by naming/ practicing what is on the card first. Since there are 10 boxes, you can easily get to 100 trials in a session with this activity. 

Number 5: Movement!

So many of my students need movement breaks between activities. Hide these presents around your therapy space. After each task is complete or after a certain amount of time, instruct your student to go search for one of the presents and bring it back to you. This helps bring excitement and engagement to your sessions as well as work on attention to task. 

As I said before, all good toys can be used in more than one way. These are just 5 examples. I would love to hear your ideas or ways that you would use them in therapy! 

To purchase this set, you can use this link, here!