We Are Family!

When you work with children, you end up working with their entire family....and that's pretty fantastic.  We all know the importance of family, especially the role a sibling plays to a child who may have delays.  I believe that a pediatric occupational therapist has a lot of very important jobs and one of them is helping parents figure out the best way to promote a healthy sibling relationship.  I have lost count of how many times parents have told me that they feel terrible about the lack of attention their non-therapy children get.

There are a lot of ways to include siblings, especially those that are close in age, in the therapeutic process. As therapists, our goal is to make sure that the kids we work with meet their goals.  However, I find it equally important that I provide parents with activities that they can do at home with all of their children.  Kids spend a lot of time at home and for some parents, figuring out what to do with them at home can be difficult.  I try and suggest games, crafts and activities that can easily be done at home, especially for those times where the weather prevents kids from getting out of their houses.

Below, you will find some of the things I have done over the years to help support sibling relationships:

*whenever possible, I have siblings join in on a session...even if only for 5 minutes.  This is far more important when a sibling is close in age or a twin to the child you are treating who is always dragged from session to session and having to spend so much of their time in a waiting room.  This practice goes a long way for all people involved!  Maybe the parents or the caregivers get 5 minutes to run to the bathroom or make a phone call or maybe they can actually observe the shared time and pick up some of the language that you use to help make play time at home more successful.

*one of the things I like to do is help kids learn how to be the "masters" of a game during our sessions.  This means that they not only know how to play the game, but are able to set it up and explain the directions to people.  Once they are masters, I have the parents buy the game for home so they can play it with their siblings.  It is such a confidence booster for the kids to be able to be in charge of something as their siblings tend to be the ones in control most of the time.  It's important that the games are good for a variety of ages and that they aren't too complicated, especially when it comes to explaining the rules.  Some of my favorite family games:
-Uno
-Yeti In My Spaghetti 
-Tumbling Monkeys
-any of the matching or simple games by Eeboo
-Thumbs Up
-Spot It

*cooking and baking with kids can be a great way to not only address some of the occupational therapy goals at home, but can also be a fun way to help in developing a good sibling relationship.  You want to try and keep things simple and with not too many steps or ingredients so you can encourage as much independent and cooperative play as possible during these moments.  Something like making pizzas (put all the ingredients out and let the kids go to town) is a great choice and one of my favorites.  Need other ideas, check out this great website that has tons of videos with cooking activities just for kids.  Obviously, be there to supervise and do all the important parent things like turning on the oven, putting food in and out, etc. but really try and let kids work through any of the problems they may run into.

*arts and crafts can be a great way to have kids play together at home and if you choose the right thing, they may not even need that much help from grownups.  If you have an easel, set it up with an endless amount of paper for them to color, paint or draw all over.  Once they are done with their masterpiece, have them tell you what they did or maybe have them tell a story and write it on the paper and then make a big deal and hang it up somewhere for everyone to see.  If you need inspiration for craft activities, do yourself a favor and spend some time searching Pinterest.  It may be an easy way to procrastinate, but can help you come up with some great ideas. And check out this link on Parents that can send you to a bunch of kid-friendly crafting sites. Some of my other favorites craft ideas:
Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics (get a set of large ones that they can work on together)
Pirasta Coloring Posters-these are a huge favorite for my daughter and my nieces.  They are large enough that at least two can get involved in the coloring fun....many more if you get the super big posters!
Play-Doh Sets

*last, but not least, blocks and other kinds of building toys make a great activity for siblings to do together.  They can work together to build something and then can add characters and spend some time doing imaginative play together.  Investing in good building toys is worth it...it might hurt the wallet at the time of the purchase, but good ones will take a good beating and still last forever.  Some of my favorites (and ones that are used in my house all the time) are:
Tegu Magnetic Blocks
Magnatiles
Janod Building and Construction Toy Sets

As one of four girls, I realize how important a good sibling relationship is and how it is can be easy for one child to feel like they are getting short changed on attention.  As a therapist, I think it is important that we do what we can to help families understand how easy it is for them to play together, no matter what kind of difficulties one of their children may be having.  Try and encourage parents to take their kids outside and play together whenever the opportunity comes up.  Whether it be blowing and catching bubbles, drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, kicking a ball back and forth to one another or one pushing the other on a swing, there are tons of ways that parents can help strengthen the relationship between their children instead of one feeling slighted.  Let's not forget how much children learn from each other...especially what they can learn from a sibling that they adore.

I know I am not the first therapist/professional who works with children that has faced this particular problem:  advising parents what to do to foster a healthy sibling relationship and limit the amount of guilt the parents feel about providing one child with more attention than the other.  What kind of advice or activities do you suggest?  Do you have a favorite Pinterest board or websites that you rely on for helping you come up with activities to do with your children?  Not only would I love to hear some of the things you all suggest to parents, I know that my readers would love to hear as well.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all.

Snow Day!

With the anticipation of the impending snow this weekend, I thought I would focus today's post on both outdoor and indoor activities you can do with your little ones.  We know that kids love being outside playing with the snow...making snow angels, going sledding, building snowmen and snowball fights are the obvious ones.  But we all know that as soon as your kid has to use the bathroom or they get cold, they want to be inside STAT!  Once they are inside, us parents are all worried about what we will do to keep everyone sane the rest of the day.

Below, I have shared some of my favorite winter activities that you can do with your kids.  All are fun and have a therapeutic value to them.  Whether it be building overall body strength, working on improving fine motor skills or encouraging cooperative play and social skills, they are all fun and don't require much more than things you will find at home or outdoors.

1.  Wanna Build a Snowman?-if the forecast is correct, many of us will have enough snow to make a snowman!  Snowman building is a great activity for so many reasons.  It's perfect for encouraging working as a group with your friends or siblings.  Also great for working on improving upper body strength, body awareness and encouraging creativity.  If building with little kids, use this as an opportunity to talk to them and teach them about all the different body and face parts.

2.  Snowball Games-kids love making snowballs!  Who am I kidding....everyone loves snowballs!  Sometimes snowball fights can get out of control so you have to think of solutions for that not to happen.  How about setting up targets for your kids to throw snowballs at instead of at each other?  Or how about a snowball catch where you see how many times you can toss it back and forth to each other before it falls apart?  There are lots of fun things you can do with snowballs that doesn't have to be throwing it at another person.

3.  Make Hot Chocolate-nothing tastes better after spending hours outside playing in the snow than a cup of hot chocolate.  Let your kids help you make the hot chocolate.  Whether you have them scoop the chocolate powder into the mug and let them stir or make hot chocolate from scratch.  Check out these great recipes from this PopSugar post a couple of winters ago.

4. Blow Bubbles in the Cold-when the temperature drops below 32 degrees, really cool things happen with bubbles.  Try and dig out some of your bubbles that you have hidden somewhere waiting for summer weather and bring them out into the cold.  See what happens when you blow them and catch them with the wand!  You and your kids will all be amazed by what happens.

5.  Tic-Tac-Snow-use a stick to make a giant tic-tac-toe board in the snow.  Collect some branches to make Xs and pinecones or rocks for Os.

6.  Snow Ice Cream-this may be harder for us city dwellers, but snow ice cream is an easy and fun activity to do with your kids.  You will need:
1/2 cup half & half or whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups clean snow
Blend the milk, sugar and vanilla together until the sugar dissolves.  Mix the 4 cups of snow and stir until the mixture is the consistency of ice cream.  Eat plain or add your favorite toppings!

7.  Paper Snowflakes-if your kids need to warm up and you aren't quite ready to plop them in front of the television quite yet, how about having them make their own snowflakes.  I remember spending hours and hours as a kid making paper snowflakes.  I loved how you could do it again and again and like a real snowflake, no two snowflakes were ever the same.  As I have been on the hunt for fun winter themed activities for my  kids at work, I stumbled upon these name snowflakes on Childhood 101.  It takes a little bit of practice and definitely better for older kids but once you get the hang of it, you will be obsessed and want to make one for every single person you know!

8.  Craft It Up-there are a lot of fun and simple crafts that you can do on these snowy days.  I don't know about you all, but I happen to have a little girl who could craft all day long and doesn't need snow days as an excuse.  Some of our favorites are:
Make Homemade Playdough
Valentine's Day Crafts
Homemade Snow Globes
Washi Tape Crafts
Coloring and Activity Books (click on the link to check out my post from the holidays for ideas)

9.  Send out Postcards/Write a Letter-one of my sisters has a job that takes her all over the USA.  One of the things that she has started with all the kids in her life is to send postcards from wherever she ends up.  My daughter looks forward to this mail and learning about new places in our country.  One thing you can do with your kids is have them pick out a friend, cousin or other family member to write a letter to and tell them all about their snowy day adventures.  It's not only a great way to work on handwriting but also a great way for kids to recall and talk about what they did with people who may not have been home to enjoy it with them.

10.  Get Physical-if your kids start to get a bit stir crazy and need to get some energy out, think of all the great games that you can play inside to get them up and moving.  I tend to suggest to parents that they have a secret stash of games that they take out on cold or rainy days.  I especially like ones that encourage movement in kids.  Here are some board games/activities that are you can save for these kinds of days:
Twister
5 Little Monkeys On The Bed
Kids on Stage
Zoom Ball
Simon Says
Charades
Hide and Seek

While I know that I will be outside as much as I can, I do know that I will need to have backup plans to keep my own daughter busy and not attached to an iPad or television once we are inside.  I can't wait to begin some new snowy day traditions with her now that she is older and doing so much more.  Do you have any favorite snowy/cold day activities, crafts or cooking/baking activities that you do with your kids?  Would love to hear what kinds of fun and creative things you all do!  I'm always a click away and love hearing from you all!

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful, But Play Inside Can Be Delightful!

I have a lot of memories of growing up and the fun things I did with my sisters.  We had a massive garage and no matter what the weather was, we would be outside in some way.  She would pull the car out into the driveway so we could ride our bikes or play games in that garage.  During the fall, we would be given rakes and make mazes or homes with our piles of leaves.  We were encouraged to play, be creative and have fun.  My husband and I have worked hard in making sure our daughter has a life where she is encouraged to do the same things.  Even though we live in New York City, we have found ways to make sure these things happen.  We build snowmen in front of our Brooklyn brownstone.  We walk through the park and collect leaves and acorns.  With the change in seasons comes a whole new level of creativity in order to keep our little one busy and excited!

So now that we are officially at that time of the year where you can't predict the weather, it can sometimes be much more challenging to keep your little ones entertained.  Whether it be because of rain, snow or that it's simply too cold to be outside, kids seem to become more easily bored and in need of entertainment.  As parents, we struggle with keeping our kids entertained and keeping ourselves sane! I live in NYC so snow days are not very common but when they happen, it means that we have to find ways to keep ourselves and kids as busy and occupied as possible.  And for most parents, that means we don't want to sit our kids down in front of the tv or the iPad all day long even though that would be the easiest solution to our keeping our kids busy problem.   While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that if it works for your family, there are a lot of other great activities out there that make those days that seem like they will never end.  If it's just a snowy day, the obvious thing is to just grab a sled and find a hill or find some friends to make a snow person with.  For many, this may not be an option so I am going to offer you some others.  Ones that get your kids moving, thinking and most importantly, having fun.

I have a lot of memories of growing up and the fun things I did with my sisters.  We had a massive garage and no matter what the weather was, we would be outside in some way.  She would pull the car out into the driveway so we could ride our bikes or play games in that garage.  During the fall, we would be given rakes and make mazes or homes with our piles of leaves.  We were encouraged to play, be creative and have fun.  My husband and I have worked hard in making sure our daughter has a life where she is encouraged to do the same things.  Even though we live in New York City, we have found ways to make sure these things happen.  We build snowmen in front of our Brooklyn brownstone.  We walk through the park and collect leaves and acorns.

Baking

One of my daughter's favorite activities to do with me is to bake.  We keep it simple and something that she can be actively involved with the entire time.  Baking can be something that can be done with just one child or a small group of kids.  I love using baking as a tool to improve social skills. Here are some of our favorites right now:

Pizza-we are partial to using real pizza dough when we make our pizza, but you can also make pizza bagels and english muffin pizzas if you want to simplify things a bit.  Kids can be fairly independent in the whole process starting at kneading and flattening the dough to putting the sauce and cheese on.  If you have an older child, you can have them cut toppings like mushrooms, peppers or tear basil.  Making pizza is a great OT activity because you can work on so many skills including improving bilateral coordination, increase upper body and fine motor strength and executive functioning skills.  

If you want to make this project last a little longer, you can read Pete's A Pizza, a great board book by William Steig.  You can read it to them while the pizza is cooking and cooling off before eating it!

Cookies and Brownies-we happen to be a family who has a pretty big sweet tooth and baking cookies and brownies is one of our favorite things to do, especially when we are stuck inside for one reason or another.  If you aren't into making cookies from scratch, you can get the pre-made dough.  Have the kids either slice the cookies or rip off a piece of the dough and roll them into balls.  With sugar cookies, they can do the same thing and decorate them with sprinkles or candies.  This whole activity is great for working on bilateral coordination, increasing upper body/fine motor strength and executive functioning skills.

Arts and Crafts

I happen to live in a neighborhood that offers a ton of great rainy day craft places.  Our personal favorite is Hiho Batik, a DIY batik studio where you can make shirts, bags and other great items.  What I love about it is that you are actually making something that you can use.  However, most people aren't as lucky as we are to live in such a neighborhood so they have to find things that they can do at home.  While people want to keep their kids entertained, they don't want to get involved in something too time consuming or messy.  You also want to do things that your kids can do mostly on their own.  Here are a couple of simple but fun activities you can do with your kids.

Superhero Mask-this can be a simple and very fun activity to do with your kids.  Using felt and a glue gun, your child can express their personality through their masks.   I've done this before where I

cut out different shaped eye masks and then a bunch of shapes that they can glue on.  For older kids, they can be in charge of cutting out all the shapes.  

Superhero Cape-I LOVE this easy DIY superhero cape and can't wait to try this with some of my kids at work.  All you need is a large t-shirt (the larger the better so it can really flow like a cape), felt, scissors and glue.  Kids can make a cape with their initial, their favorite superhero log or whatever else they want to make this speak to what kind of superhero they are.  For step-by-step instructions, check out this link.  

Arts and crafts should be fun and exciting for kids.  It should not be stressful or make them feel like they have to follow a bunch of rules.  It should be a time for them to be creative and to express themselves and let their personality shine through.
Crafts are also a great way to work on improving fine motor, visual motor/perceptual and executive functioning skills.  Carefully choose the writing instruments you provide your child with.  If they have an immature pencil grip, you should present broken crayons or short pencils.  If your child has a weak grip and tires easily when coloring or drawing, be sure to use markers as they require less strength

Science Experments

I've been running small social skills groups for years and what I have discovered is that kids love a good science experiment.  They love seeing something new and exciting and the more hands on it is, the better it is.  Science activities are great for working on focus and attention, following directions, increasing fine motor skills and encouraging language.  While I am the baker in my house, my husband is the science guy and has done some pretty cool experiments using everyday household items.  Here are a couple of fun ones for you to try!

A Color Symphony-you will need a flat baking tray, whole milk, liquid dish soap and food coloring.  Pour the whole milk into the pan so it covers the entire bottom of the tray.  Put 6-8 drops of different colored food coloring in different parts of the pan.  Next place a few drops of soap onto each colored spot and see what happens.  Kids love watching the colors move all around. 

We have done this at home with our daughter and instead of dropping the soap onto the food coloring, we dipped a q-tip into the soap and placed them into the food coloring.  This is good because you can work on improving fine motor and grasping skills at the same time.  

Homemade Slime-I've always loved this science project.  Most of us have made homemade playdough (which is also a really fun thing to do on an inside kind of day) at some point in our lives but there is something really fun about the slime and what I like most about it is that there is no cooking involved with it.  I actually just made this last week for Halloween with my little friends at The Meeting House.  We had the kids put googley eyes and spiders in their mixture and then they had to dig them out which is great for working on building grasp strength and fine motor skills.  Using glue, water, food coloring and Borax (the powder kind that you can find near the detergents in grocery stores or some bodegas).  Kids have the best time watching this liquid concoction turn into a blob of fun that they get to play around with.
These are just a couple of science activities you can do with your kids but there are hundreds more out there.  Check out these websites for more ideas:

ScienceBob-this page has oodles of ideas for you to try at home or in therapy with your kids.  Most instructions are clear and most have videos for you to watch.  There are a variety of experiments so you can find one that will spark any child's interest.  

Red Tricyle-I follow the national and New York Red Tricyle and have gotten some really great ideas from them.  This article from a few weeks ago provides you with almost 20 different classic science experiments you can do at home.  Some of them will bring you back to your childhood!

ScienceFun-this is a great resource for a variety of experiments that is dedicated to making science fun for kids.  Their goal is to make learning a magical experience where you take science and allow kids to use their imagination.  They have partnered with students, teachers and parents in putting together a website filled with great activities.  I like how this particular page breaks down activities by age ranges making it easy to figure out what is appropriate for your kid.

Blocks and Building Toys

It seems simple, but building toys can take up hours and hours of a day that has to be spent inside.  Encourage your kids to dump out all their blocks and other building toys and mix and match them to make something amazing.  Who says that Legos can't be used with MagnaTiles?  The more you have, the larger and more creative your kids can be as they are building.   If you want to wild, give them a bunch of characters and have them come up with stories with their siblings or friends.  You can have them practice and then have them put on a show you can record and share with people.  Don't worry about making a mess...that's easy enough to clean up later on!
Some of my favorite building toys are:

MagnaTiles

Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks

Lego/Duplo

Janod Building Sets

Games

I think it's important to have a hidden stash of games that only come out on these kinds of inside days.  If your kids are anything like my daughter or the kids I work with, they get obsessed with a certain game or two and play them until everyone in the house is sick and tired of them.  When you find yourself with a day that you know will be keeping you all inside, it's fun to pull out a few things that they can look forward to.  I like to pick games that are more physical and get the kids up and moving around.  For example, Twister, Kids On Stage and Charades for Kids are good choices.  They not only get your kids up and moving around, they are great for improving language skills, gross motor skills and social skills.  

For some of you, it might be pulling out those kid-friendly video game systems you have and letting them get some action.  I appreciate that not everyone is into video games, but While I know not everyone believes in video games for their kids, there are several systems out there now that provide your children with more physically active gaming opportunities.  For example, the Nintendo Wii has all kinds of fun sports related games like baseball, bowling and golf.  My nieces are big fans of the Just Dance and SingStar games.  The nice thing about all of these games are that you have to be on your feet, you have to move your body and you have to focus and attend to what is on the screen.  For kids who may struggle with focus and attention, this could be a really fun way to work on this skill.  In addition, all of these kinds of video games are great for working on improving motor planning, eye-hand coordination and visual perceptual skills.   

I'm cutting this post short as to not bore you all but I could go on and on with fun activities to do with your kids during bad weather.  I've shared some of my favorites but would really love to hear from some of you about your favorite inclement weather activities.  Do you have something that you love to do with your kids when you are stuck inside all day?  If you have some fantastic family activity you do with your kids, please share them with me and my readers.  I'm always a click away and love hearing from each and every one of you!

Let's Get Cooking!

It's totally crazy to think about how quickly this summer is going.  I don't know about you, but even though we are having a lot of fun and doing lots of things with our own daughter, my husband and I are sometimes trying to figure out what to do with her.  We are getting to that point, especially these last few days, that it's so hot out that we don't even really have the motivation to go outside.  So even though there are several weeks left of summer, it is now it is time to get creative and keep us all from going to stir crazy.

One thing that brings me more joy than pretty much anything is baking.  It is something that connects me to my father and acts as my personal therapy.  As soon was Quinn was old enough, I started having her bake with me.  As a matter of fact, one of my favorite gifts for her was her first apron (thank you Carrie Cook!  Quinn still wears it when baking all these years later).  It started off simple and I would have her pour all the ingredients in for me.  As she got older and could be more involved, I'd let her do more.  The day I let her crack her own eggs was a pretty exciting day for her.  Baking with Quinn has been something that has not only been something we could do together to bond over, but has been a fun way to teach her new things.

Cooking and baking with your kids can be a wonderful activity, especially in air conditioning on these super hot days.  When parents are asking me for things to do over the summer to keep their kids up to speed with their occupational therapy goals, baking is one of the first things I suggest.  Not only is it fun, it can be tremendously therapeutic. Additionally, introducing kids to cooking/baking early on in life makes them more likely to take risks when eating and try new foods.  There are also a lot of ways to sneak in opportunities for learning when baking.  For example, if your child is working on learning their letters and numbers, they can make cookies using alphabet or number cookie cutters. If they need to work on building up strength, you can do it while stirring ingredients.

**before I begin the next half of my post, I am going to admit I am much more of a baker than a cooker.  So going forward, when I say baking, it represents both baking AND cooking***

Some of the therapeutic benefits of baking with your kids are:
Improve Upper Body and Hand Strength-baking is a great way to work on this skill in a fun and sneaky way.  Stirring the ingredients, especially as they start blending all together, can become increasingly difficult and require a lot of strength and endurance.  When baking for your family, I suggest that parents let their kids roll up their sleeves and mix with their hands instead of a spoon or a spatula....this really helps with building up the strength in those small muscles of the hands.
Improve Bilateral Coordination-baking is a great way to work on improving bilateral coordination because there are so many parts of this activity that require the use of two hands.  For example, when pouring the ingredients you need one hand to hold the measuring cup or spoon and the other pours the ingredients.  When mixing the ingredients together, it's essential that you hold the you hold the spoon or spatula with one hand and keep the bowl stable with the other one.  How about cracking an egg?  You need to hold the egg with one hand and keep the cup or bowl still with the other.
Improve Fine Motor Skills-do you have kids who need to work on improving cutting, grasping and other fine motor skills?  Baking is a great way to do that in a really fun way.  Need to work on cutting?  How about getting your kids to cut open the bag of chocolate chips?  If you have a ton of patience and time, you can use a pair of Zoo Sticks to put some of the smaller ingredients in (chocolate chips, pieces of fruit, etc.).  Even the simple task of pulling the paper off the butter is a great fine motor activity.
Improve Visual Motor/Visual Perceptual Skills-baking is a great way to work on improving visual skills.  When you are following a recipe, you have to be able to visually track between the recipe and the ingredients.  You need to be able to pour ingredients into a measuring cup or spoon and be able stop pouring them when they hit the line.
Improve Executive Functioning Skills-what I love about baking is that it is a great activity to work on improving higher level skills for older children.  Baking requires an incredible amount of focus and attention.  It requires one to be able to organize their ingredients, sequence and follow directions.  If you one doesn't (and I have lots of experience here) follow directions and focus carefully, you can end up with a mess of a project.  Baking is a great activity for older kids who need to work on improving their executive functioning skills and the best part is that much of the work can be hidden.
Improve Social Skills-baking is an incredibly social activity. Even though I am an occupational therapist and I tend to see kids on a 1:1 basis, I have also been lucky enough to spend a lot of my time working in social skills groups.  As a matter of fact, in September, I will be working with The Meeting House again as we begin our TMH Juniors group.  One of our program offerings will be a baking/cooking class once per month.  The social benefits of baking are endless and can be easily carried over at home with siblings and friends.  You can work on taking turns (pouring ingredients in), work on compromise and working as a team to complete a final project.  Once a cooking project is finished, there is a tremendous social opportunity to take advantage of.  You can set up a table or a picnic blanket and let the kids have conversations about what is happening in their lives.  If you have kids who have difficulty with conversation, you can throw a pile of conversation cards out in the middle of the table for them to reach out for when there is a lull in conversation.

There are a lot of fun and simple baking and cooking activities that you can do with your children...some that don't even require oven or heat!  Just keep in mind, when cooking with children, you will need patience and extra time.  Kids will ask a lot of questions, make a mess and may even lose their attention part way through your activity.  One thing to do in order to prevent that from happening is set up all the materials before you call your kids in....have your ingredients out, eggs cracked and in a cup, measuring spoons and cups ready, etc..  As children have more success with a cooking activity, you can start to add on responsibilities such as having them take out the ingredients.
Here are a few ideas for you to try with your kids, either at home or at work. I've tried them all and they have been a huge hit!

Zipsicle-I saw these when in Bed, Bath and Beyond a few weeks ago and had to try them.  Who doesn't love a refreshing ice-pop?  How about making your own with your kids?  These little pouches are perfectly designed for making your ice pops.  If you go here, you will find a bunch of tasty and easy recipes you can follow to make your very own ice pops.  The best part, is that you can avoid artificial flavors and colors, which so many of the kids I work with are unable to eat, and add lots of fruits and other healthy ingredients.  
Zoku-this is another fun way to make your own ice pops at home.  I wrote out the Zoku ice pop maker about two years (check out that post here) and since then, they have expanded their line.  They still have their original pop maker, but now have smaller ones that don't take up as much room in your freezer.  They also have molds that are in the shape of fish, people and rockets, which might make your little ones more willing to try a new flavor. You can follow one of their recipes or make something of your own.  
Rainbow Fruit Kabobs-another activity that doesn't require the use of an oven or heat.  I love the idea of fruit kabobs and have actually made these with many of my kids when I was running social skills groups.  This activity is great because it can encourage your child to try new fruits.  It works on building fine motor, visual motor/perceptual and bilateral coordination skills.  For younger children who are just beginning to learn their colors, it's a fun way to reinforce it for them.  It's also nice to work on improving organizational and sequencing skills for older children who are struggling with both of these things.  Lastly, this is a simple enough of an activity that you can do it in small groups and encourage conversation, cooperation and team work.
Alphabet Cookies-I have always found that if you hide the work in learning, kids are more likely to hold onto the information.  I have always had a set of alphabet cookie cutters in my office to use with playdough and the kids really love it.  At home, you can take those same cookie cutters and make cookies instead.  If you are motivated, you can make your dough from scratch but if you want to
make it simple and fast, buy the rolls of sugar or chocolate chip dough at the store....the end product is the same.  There are so many opportunities to talk about the letters during this activity...you can have them look through the pile to find a certain letter and talk about words that start with certain letters.  Once they are all baked (and cooled), you can have children put them in order.  And if you want to make it really fun and therapeutic, you can decorate the cookies after using icing, sprinkles and other fun decorations.

These are just a few ideas to get you started but really, you can make any recipe a good recipe for kids.  I know that my daughter just loves being part of the process.  It can be as simple as pouring the cheese, butter and milk into the macaroni when making mac and cheese or as complicated as shredding cheese with a grater (kid friendly of course) for meals.  In addition to all of the skills that can be worked on while baking or cooking, it's a great source of pride for a child to be able to tell people that they helped make whatever they are eating.

Do you have a favorite recipe or cooking activity that you do with your child?  It would be fun to be able to put together a list of things that you have been successful with and share them with each other.  While I am an avid baker, I am always looking for new and tasty recipes to try with Quinn.  I'm always a click away and love hearing from you all.

Stay cool and fun baking with your kids.  Who knows, if you start your kids off early in the kitchen, maybe they will be the next top chef!