Sensory

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

Growing up, one of my neighbours had the Playdoh Barber Shop, you know the one where you could make their hair grow by pushing play dough in and then cut it with really dull plastic scissors! We played it almost every time I was over. I also had a friend from school who had the Playdoh McDonald’s set and I had fun playing it when I went over to her house. My parents didn’t have extra money for things like play sets, but my aunt used to make us play dough that was perfect in its consistency and I had just as much fun playing with a rolling pin and cookie cutters with homemade play dough as I did with their fancy play sets!

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough

My aunt’s play dough recipe has been my go-to for making play dough for my kids. I’ve altered the basic recipe to create a few of our own favourites such as our calming lavender playdough and our delicious smelling chocolate playdough.

Usually for the holidays, I make the kids gingerbread playdough but I thought I would change things up this year and attempt to make gluten free playdough, something I’ve never tried. We have a lot of different gluten free flours because Einstein is on a gluten free diet so I reasoned that I could adapt my aunt’s recipe and make some scented candy cane dough.

Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough Recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup salt
3 Tbsp. cream of tartar
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. or more peppermint extract or 10 drops of peppermint essential oil
1 cup boiling water
food colouring or food paste
optional: glitter

Mix the dry ingredients in a pot and stir in the oil, peppermint extract, water. Note: If you are only making one colour, you can add your food colouring to this step but if making multiple colours, knead the colour in at the end.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, being sure to scrape the sides and the bottom. Cook until the dough forms a ball. Remove from heat. Place it on a piece of wax paper. Knead. If you are adding glitter, this would be the time. Let cool. Store in an airtight container or in a resealable bag.

Working with the gluten free dough was quite different than regular dough. I made one attempt at a non-cook version and ended up having to repeatedly heat it up in the microwave so went back to the stovetop method. The rice flour doesn’t bind the same way regular flour does so if you find it is too sticky, try adding more cornstarch.

Scented Gluten Free Candy Cane Playdough I only made one recipe and split it into three sections. I left one white, made one red and the other green. Between the colours and the peppermint scent, this dough is perfect for shaping into candy canes, candy sticks and holiday wreaths.

Looking for other playdough recipes and ideas? You may be interested in following my Playing with Playdough board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Playing with Playdough on Pinterest.

Gingerbread Playdough Station

Free Printable Playdough Mats

Calming Lavender Scented Playdough

When Your Child Receives A New Diagnosis

By Sharla Kostelyk

Alphabet soup…it’s the term some people use to describe a situation where there are multiple diagnoses and their acronyms can begin to sound a bit like a strange rendition of the alphabet. It is not uncommon for a person to receive more than one diagnosis because there are some things that tend to have secondary diagnoses or put a person more at risk for having or developing other things.

When you are a parent, receiving a diagnosis for your child can bring about a variety of different emotions, everything from relief to devastation. When that same child receives another diagnosis, the same emotions can occur or be even more intense.

When Your Child Receives Another New Diagnosis Image Copyright: olinkau / 123RF Stock Photo

I know that there are those (who are not the parents of special needs children) who may assume that each diagnosis becomes easier as we somehow get used to or are more prepared for, hearing those words again. I cannot speak for all parents, but I know for myself, it actually gets harder with each new diagnosis.

There are several reasons for this. I sometimes feel that my child has so many other obstacles to overcome that one more doesn’t seem like it’s fair (I know, as I tell my kids, fair is an “f” word and shouldn’t be used – but as a mom watching my child who struggles so much already and knowing there are further obstacles ahead, the word escapes my mouth). I also worry about another new thing for us to learn about and about the additional appointments and specialists to get to know and how all of that will impact not only the child affected, but the other kids in our family. And let’s face it, there’s only one of me and I’m already stretched pretty thin, to I also think about myself and my time and how it will affect me.

We are a special needs family. We have seven children and five of them have special needs. Of the special needs in our home, these are what is represented:

Aspergers
RAD
FASD
PTSD
SPD
sensory issues
cognitive delays
developmental delays
speech delays
ADD/ADHD
anxiety disorder
subtractive bilingualism
progressive hearing loss

For some of our kids, a new diagnosis on top of the one or several they already had wasn’t a big surprise. FASD increases the chances of both ADD/ADHD and SPD and it is not at all uncommon for those with Aspergers to have SPD as well. Time spent in orphanages also increases the risk of SPD, so it honestly came as no real surprise that we had so many kids with sensory needs.

When our daughter Miss Optimism was diagnosed with SPD, I hadn’t even heard of it. It was before sensory issues were being discussed in mainstream parenting and I was new to all of it. Last week I wrote about how her diagnosis helped us to unravel the mystery of why she wanted to wear tight fitting clothing. It helped us unravel several other mysteries as well such as why she picked holes in her brightly painted walls or spun herself in circles constantly. By the time we received the SPD diagnosis for many of them, I was already well versed in sensory lingo and felt fairly confident that I could help them to meet their sensory needs.

This year, we have received 3 new diagnoses for 2 of our kids and even though you might think that by now, I’m old hat at this and should be less affected, I was fairly devastated. As I’m unfortunately a bit of an expert at this, here is my advice for parents who receive a new diagnosis for their child:

Take time to grieve.

Tell others around you what you need and how they can help.

Take care of yourself.

Remember that your child is the same child they were before there was another label put on them.

When you are ready, begin to build yourself a support network within the new community. Join a support group if possible for parents who have children with that diagnosis. If you can’t find one locally, you will be able to find one online and those can be a wealth of information.

When you are ready, arm yourself with information so that you can advocate for your child and help them to reach their fullest possible potential.

You may feel that you have already grieved and then encounter a circumstance that requires you to grieve all over again. That’s ok and normal.

Coping with another diagnosis for your child takes time to adjust to. Eventually, you will live in that “new normal” and the pain that you are feeling right now will not be as acute, but when you first hear those words, even if they are words you were expecting and had thought you had prepared yourself for, it can feel like the bottom has come out from under you.

Hang in there…I can tell you from experience that the world will right itself again. You will get to a place where you discover that this diagnosis comes with some blessings as well as challenges. Your family will get through this. You will get through this.

For today, just breathe.

Join me for a free 5 part email series, Little Hearts, Big Worries offering resources and hope for parents.

Flower Petal Fingerpaint

By Sharla Kostelyk

Making flower petal fingerpaint turned out to be an interesting science and art activity. We were surprised by what colours were made with the flowers and even by how the smells changed throughout the process.

Fingerpaints made with Flower Petals My neighbour had given me a beautiful fall bouquet of flowers and after a week or so, it had begun to look a bit on the sad side. The flowers were drooping and had started to wither but there were such gorgeous colours in the bouquet that it really seemed a shame to throw it away.

fall flower bouquet I was trying to think of a way to use the flowers and decided to make them into a hands-on history lesson to demonstrate to the kids how clothing and linens used to be dyed using flowers and other items found in nature.

Once the colours were created though, I realized that I could turn them into paints and extend the activity to cover science, art and sensory elements.

The kids and I started by pulling off the petals and grouping like colours together. We used small clear bowls that have measuring lines on the sides so that it was easy to measure how much of each colour we had collected.

Homemade Fingerpaints made with Flower Petals We added water and the petals to a pot and brought the mixture to a boil. Once it was at a rolling boil, we turned it down to simmer and let it simmer for half an hour. We stirred it from time to time and also used a pestle to press the petals to get more colour from them. The reason we let the mixture simmer for so long was so that some of the liquid could boil off and the colour could become more concentrated.

Snuggle Puppy came up with the idea to try to create green paint using the stems and leaves from the bouquet so he filled a pot with those and used the same process. The colour of that one created more of a yellowy colour than green and had a very earthy smell.

Once we had achieved a strong enough colour, we drained the liquid into a bowl placed beneath a strainer and pressed the petals with the pestle.

The liquid then went back into the pot and I whisked in a bit of flour and brought that to a boil, stirring the whole time. Once it was boiling, it only took a few minutes at most for the paint to reach the consistency I was looking for. I then took it off the heat, poured it into the small bowls we had used for the petals earlier and it was ready to paint with.

Flower Petal Fingerpaint Recipe:

3/4 – 1 cup of flower petals
1 1/2 – 2 cups of water
1 Tbsp. flour

Bring water and flower petals to a boil over medium-high heat in a pot. Turn heat to low. Simmer for half an hour.

Place a strainer over a bowl and drain the coloured water through the strainer. Press the petals to get maximum colour.

Put the water back into the pot and whisk in the flour. Bring it to a boil, stirring the whole time. Remove from heat.

steps to making fingerprint using flower petals The paints had different smells depending on the type of flowers used. The colours did not turn out the way we expected them to. The purple petals created an unattractive greenish-brown colour. The red flowers created a burgundy-purplish colour. The leaves and stems made a yellowish colour. The orange petals created a light brown.

Before we made each colour, I had the kids hypothesize about what colour they thought would result. When other colours were the result, we discussed what factors may have contributed to that. It became a very interesting science lesson. Honestly, one of the colours looked pretty gross so we had a bit of a laugh over that!

Miss Optimism wanted to know what would happen if she mixed several colours of flower petals together. The result was a purple with specks of a darker shade.

After we had made five colours of flower petal fingerpaint, I let the kids start painting. Granola Girl and Dancing Queen painted a cute looking monster on a large poster paper. This had both sensory (touch, sight and smell) and art elements. I love it when one activity can encompass so many different things!

fingerpainting with flower petal paint

Shaving Cream Painting

Condensed Milk Painting

Pumpkin Puffy Paint

If you are looking for other fun activities to do with your kids, you may want to join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Frog Sensory Bin with Play Puffs

By Sharla Kostelyk

Back when we first started using sensory bins, we made a frog sensory bin. It was well, ugly. It was one of my first efforts at dying pasta and thankfully, I have gotten better at certain aspects of making sensory bins since then!

I decided that it was time to try a frog themed sensory bin again and this time, I opted out of using orangey, red mini pasta shells and used a bright coloured base instead.

This actually was one of the bins that we put together at our sensory bin swap a few months ago. We had thrown most of the items into a resealable bag so all I had to do was dump it into a bin and it was ready for the kids to play with.

I added a few extra frogs but other than that, the bin was ready to go from the swap. The base for this bin was play puffs. They are a great multi-purpose item as they can be used for sensory play or for craft creation. Once they are wet, play puffs stick together to form whatever shape they can imagine.

Also in this bin, a kitchen sponge “lily pad”, plastic jump frogs, stretchy frogs, toy frogs, and a glossy paper die cut frog.

My plan for the kids to use the play puffs for a craft project after I retired this sensory bin didn’t pan out the way I’d planned it. As soon as the kids discovered the ability to stick the play puffs together, they added that as part of their sensory bin play. It made this a popular activity!

For hundreds of sensory bin ideas, you can also follow my Sensory Bins board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Sensory Bins on Pinterest.

If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book.

Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.

Pumpkin Puffy Paint

By Sharla Kostelyk

This scented pumpkin puffy paint is a great sensory activity as well as a fun way to create fall artwork. I used real pumpkin (canned although I’m sure cooked pumpkin leftover from a jack-o-lantern would work just as well) and added pumpkin pie spice. These two ingredients give the paint its smell. For me, the smell of pumpkin and spices brings me back to my Gramma’s kitchen and her muffins.

To make this pumpkin puffy paint recipe, stir together:

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1 cup shaving cream (unscented)
1 cup white school glue
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (you can use a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice if you don’t have this spice blend)
optional: orange food coloring or food paste for extra colour

When you stir the ingredients together, don’t over mix so as to keep it nice and fluffy. There will be specks of texture because of the spice blend but this will only add more realism to the painting.

We used fingerpaint paper but any paper would do. I let the kids have complete freedom on this one to create in whatever way they wanted to. Some of them poured the paint onto their paper, others used a spoon to scoop it on and two of them just got right in there with their fingers. Granola Girl was hesitant at first but really got into the sensory experience!

As in most of the activities that I plan for them, the kids came up with ideas that I hadn’t thought of to make things more interesting. Snuggle Puppy discovered that once he had waited for his pumpkin to dry just slightly, he was able to create a face in his pumpkin just by blowing on it!

It worked really well and the pumpkin’s face stayed that way once the paint had completely dried. Snuggle Puppy told me that he added little flecks of eraser to make the face look scarier…that boy has a way of making me laugh!

This puffy paint is great as a sensory activity as it includes both olfactory (scent) and tactile feedback. It is also just a plain fun craft! Once the creations are dry, kids could also cut around them and use them for fall decorations.

If you are looking for other easy and fun sensory recipes, just input your email in the box below to get a sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Rainbow Soap Foam

By Sharla Kostelyk

I used this fun recipe to create a sensory bin of sorts for the kids to play in. This rainbow soap foam activity was part art activity, part sensory, part colour mixing science experiment, and all fun!

Rainbow Soap Foam Recipe:

Materials needed:

food colouring
water
Palmolive dish soap
hand mixer
optional: glitter

1. In a bowl, add 1/4 cup water, 2 Tbsp. Palmolive dish soap and 5-10 drops of food colouring. I also added some glitter in the same colour as the food colouring to this step.

2. Mix on high with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes, until peaks form.

3. Put the foam into a shallow bin. On a rainy day, you could put it into the bathtub.

4. Rinse the bowl and beaters and follow the instructions again using a different colour of food colouring. Repeat until the desired number of colours are created, adding each to the bin.

When I had made four colours of soap foam, I brought the bin outside and let the kids play and explore with it. They enjoyed mixing the colours and playing with the foam. They tried to use it to paint on the concrete with their hands, but mostly only the glitter stayed visible.

My girls really enjoyed the textures of the soap foam and seeing the different colours they could create by mixing.

They enjoyed every step of this activity from helping me mix the recipe in the kitchen to playing with the finished product.

Even one of our new kittens came over to see what all the fuss was about!

Be sure to have your kids wash their hands when they are done playing so that they don’t get soap in the eyes accidentally and of course, as with all projects, adult supervision is recommended.

Find these instructions along with the coolest sensory play recipes around in the Sensory Play Recipes eBook. You’ll find recipes for everything from slimes to oobleck to edible paints and playdoughs and more.

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