Paint chip color matching activity…

***My blog has moved over to WordPress.com!  Follow the link http://www.sewsweetcottage.com/2012/05/paint-chip-color-matching-activity/and move on over with me!!***

Summer is just around the corner and I am still trying to get my summer activities planned out for my kids!!  Justin will be doing some home therapy this summer—which means a therapist will be in our home doing one-to-one therapy with him.  What does that entail?? A therapist at our house for 10 hours a week.  We used to do 40+ hours of home therapy a week, which was wonderful, and CRAZY at the same time.  It was absolutely essential for Justin’s progression, but Little Miss and I couldn’t leave the house while a therapist was there, and I needed to be on hand to observe, learn, and help—so it was a little overwhelming at times.  It’s going to be a little different now, because we’re almost 5 years past the original year of ABA (one-to-one) therapy when Justin was just starting out and had quite a few tantrums.  And Justin has grown up so much since then and learned so many skills that it won’t (hopefully!) involve a lot of tantrums.  The therapy programs will mostly be focused on teaching Justin life skills—amidst all the distractions of his family:)  It’s going to be great, but a little crazy as I try to juggle therapists in and out, and try not to be OCD about keeping my house clean, and deal with the regular crazies of life with a 2 year old and 10 month old.  So what do I do when I’m overwhelmed??  Organize, over-plan, and get to work!!   I have made a huge list of fun activities to do—A WAY TOO LONG LIST of things to do!!  I’m in the process of editing it down:)  I did say OVER-plan, right??  Trying to stop that…

Here’s the first of a few clothespin activities for my kiddos to do this summer…

I used a free paint stick from Home Depot and then glued down strips of cut up paint chips leaving a little “handle” so it can be held in one hand.  Then I cut out matching paint chip tags (I just used a tag paper punch) and then glued them to regular sized clothespins.

My Little Guy is loving colors and saying them right now, so I wanted to teach him how to match them and also help him with his fine motor skills (opening and placing the clothespins).  Justin’s adaptation of this activity will be to first match the colors when asked, and then I’m making him a different paint stick with black and white names of colors so he can match the clothespin colors to the word—that will help us understand what words he can already read.  Justin can do so many great things—but doesn’t always want to do them when asked (funny that he’s a “typical” kid that way!!  Or just inherited some good stubborn genes that run so strong in our family…).

I have a few more of these I want to pull together with faces of family members and matching names, and number to quantity matching.  We’ll see how much I get done this weekend!!

I am linking to the following parties...