Playing Outside

Hello there friends!

To start my outside blog post, I thought I'd start with sharing what I did over the weekend... which was play OUTSIDE!!! My wonderful in-laws came to visit me and Scottie in Flagstaff. We showed them around the cute town, played in the mountains, and then went to Sedona! It really was a magical time. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend...

Now, for the good stuff that you all want. How on Earth (haha, get it?! Earth? 😉) do I work on speech and language skills outside?! 

To start, I think you should turn on one of my favorite Pandora stations, Ingrid Michaelson, get out a pen and paper, take some notes, write down inspirations, 

then take your radio and notes outside and 

PLAY!!

Okay, it's funny because being outside really brings out the 'littleness' in everyone. I'm proof to that statement. It makes my giddy. 

I'll give the example of going up into the mountains- because that's one of my favorite things to do.

⛰ Describing: The great thing about outside, is that there are so many things you can describe! Look for paw prints, flowers, trees, sticks, fallen logs... Don't force your child to say anything, just let them explore as you tell them loads of information about the goodness of the Earth. This is called 'Self-Talk', and it's a proven method for getting kiddies to talk- the more they hear you, the more the will talk right back.

OR, what about I SPY🔍- who doesn't love this game? Maybe after the 157th time it starts to lose it's charm, but the first 20 rounds seem to be fun. What's more, it's fabulous for describing. Shapes, colors, sizes, categories... these all fit into this kid-friendly game. They are describing and working on increasing their phrase length and vocabularies without even knowing it!


⛰ Categorize- 
As you go around describing all the things you see, collect them as well. At the end of your describing game talk about what items go together. You could categorize things that are alive vs. dead, by color... kids seem to always surprise me to find a commonality between 2 items that I hadn't seemed to think of before.
You can even work on categorizing before you leave the house. What items will we need to enjoy the outdoors? Will it be hot, or cold? Will we need food?


⛰ Art- Other than having to bring art supplies up into the mountains, this is so fun to do. Encourage your child's speech and language by 'playing stupid', "I wonder what color we should make the fire," or, "How are we going to get these sticks to stay on?" Your little one will think you are SO silly, and be delighted that they get to teach you. If they something that's incorrect, be careful not to shoot them down... try it, talk about why it didn't work, then move on to the next thing.

picture and idea from: gluedtomycraftsblog.com

⛰ Reading- For those of you who have read my previous blog posts or follow my Instagram account, you know I love books. LOVE them. And being outdoors is no exception to that. Jenna, at Speech Room News, gave an awesome book idea for outside, Scare a Bear. Bring this lovely book along, give it a read, talk about similarities between your day and the bear's day. Be hypothetical; what kind of things could you do to scare a bear? Or another animal that was near? Would you want to scare all the animals that came by? Why or why not?

What are your favorite things to do outside?! Where are some of your favorite, kid-friendly places to go?! Comment below ↓ and share with the rest of us.

Okay guys, thanks for reading- I'll see you next week!!!

~Kassi, the Speech Therapist in Phoenix