Franchesca Cox

Adventures with my muggles

Creative Ways to Get Kids to Read

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The author of the blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

When it comes to reading, some kids will gravitate toward it naturally and others will resist it. As a parent it can be frustrating trying to get kids to read, but I will discuss in a future post from an OT’s perspective, common underlying issues that make reading exceptionally challenging for some children.

For now though, I have listed some simple ways to create a reading-friendly atmosphere and make reading more accessible to kids on a daily basis. We have one natural reader and another child who initially struggled with the concept of reading and later struggled with reading comprehension. By implementing many of the things below throughout most of his elementary years, things have improved drastically, and reading for him is no longer like pulling teeth!

1. Books everywhere!

Make books accessible just about everywhere. Car rides, meal times, snack times, nap and bed times. As the kids began phasing out of the nap phase, but they still required a little bit of down time, I gave them the opportunity to lay quietly while “reading” books… which for them was mostly looking at books, since they were not reading independently yet. This was a privilege they could enjoy as long as they were quiet for a set amount of time.

2. Let them see you read

Children do what you do, not what you say. Kids are more likely to believe that reading is fun if they see you reading as well.

3. Make cozy spots for reading

There is almost nothing better than curling up with a good book during a stormy Sunday afternoon. For children, this is no different. Make a cozy spot in the home using things like: pillows, stuffed animals, twinkle lights, and homemade forts!

You can increase the sensory aspect of reading enjoyment by diffusing essential oils and placing soft background music during reading time. Piano Guys is one of our favorites!

4. Set up a reward system

If you have a child who is struggling with enjoying reading, a reward system can work wonders! You can use a sticker chart or offer small rewards like earning screen time for X amount of minutes/ pages read in a day.

5. Reading at bedtime

Going along with rewards, extending bedtimes are can be a way to encourage reading for the privilege of staying up a few extra minutes if they choose to read in bed. This has worked beautifully for us. The kids grab their chosen reads for the night, turn on their lamp and again, the association between reading and fun is reinforced.

6. Follow their interests

All children are interested in something. Are they interested in fast cars, reptiles, great war heroes, sea horses, mermaids, puppies? Find any books you can on the things that catch their attention. Explore your local library, friends’ libraries, thrift stores, garage sales, and even online sources. Reading is reading.

And for the sake of reading and literature, e-books and audiobooks totally count.

7. Quiet “play” during reading time is a good thing

Kids of all ages benefit from being read to! Even if they can read themselves, reading to a child encourages fluency and comprehension. Make reading together an enjoyable time by allowing kids to tinker with quiet activities like playdough, kinetic sand, arts and crafts, and LEGOS.

And once again, I must mention the benefit of audiobooks!

8. Set timers for struggling readers

For some children, especially children who struggle with reading, reading will be a chore. In this case, it is helpful to use a timer or set reading goals for the day (ie: reading 1 chapter a day). This gives the child clarity for your reading expectations for him and you can also gauge whether or not your goals are reasonable for their reading level, attention span, etc.

It is also helpful to pair rewards, even if small rewards, to completing the day’s reading goals!

9. Book challenge

Competition can be a motivating factor to finish books for kids who have a competitive streak! I found this out last year when our son’s school had a reading challenge. There was almost nothing else he chose to do, except get through forty books as quickly as possibly!

In the summer time, many libraries have summer reading programs which are fun and all kinds of rewarding to take part in!

10. Presentation is everything

Diligently protect the topic of reading and books as a purely positive thing. Get them excited about finding books at thrift stores, libraries, book stores, etc. Avoid using reading as a punishment. Association is powerful. If children associate reading with punishment, they may resist choosing to read on their own, for fun.

As mentioned above, try combining the child’s preferred quiet play activities when you read aloud to them such as mazes, crossword puzzles, arts and crafts, puzzles, Cat’s Cradle, etc.

Survival Guide for Homeschooling for Newbies and Working Parents

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The author of the blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Recently, I met a therapist who changed just about everything for me.

She was an acute speech language pathologist who told me she also homeschooled her two children for their entire education. I was intrigued!

I had long since given up my dream of homeschooling — when my son was five I was convinced I could not teach him to read. We had tried blend ladders, Abeka Book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and reading daily to him. He was having the worst time learning to read and I felt like a failure as a mother and a teacher!

Had I known what I know now, I would have realized that he just needed more time and that he learned differently. Time is almost everything when it comes to developmental milestones in children.

I began perusing the internet for more stories of working adults who were also homeschooling. To be honest, it sounded like signing up for pure madness.

That is, until I found the right podcasts, the right books, and listening to the right voices. (More on that below!)

I started to remember why I loved the idea of homeschooling all those years ago.

For me, the idea of homeschooling for us has always been about time with our kids and freedom. Freedom from schedules. Freedom to learn on our own accord, to embrace my childrens’ unique learning styles, freedom to embrace childhood, and encourage their personal interests.

Of course, in light of COVID-19, it is much more than this.

All the wonderful pros of homeschooling aside, the reality is that homeschooling is an enormous responsibility, and can feel like working two full-time jobs for working parents if you try to mimic the traditional classroom.

I’ve only been doing this for a few months, but I am here to tell you it can be done. Especially with all the internet resources available and the onslaught of so many new homeschoolers.

The simple fact is, you don’t have to do this alone. There are hundreds of blogs, podcasts, books, and groups to learn from others. I have found the online community of homeschoolers extremely eager to help, and I hope you find the same!

If you are considering permanently homeschooling (even if it’s just for one year) here are 10 tips to start your preparation and hopefully calm some nerves:

1. Staying Informed

Familiarize yourself with your state’s homeschooling laws and regulations. Some states like Texas have very lenient laws while some states like New York require lesson plans, records of attendance, and other things.

2. Homeschooling is Efficient

Homeschooling is A LOT less time consuming than regular school. You will spend 1-3 hours with elementary children, and 4-5 hours for older kids, on average. Don’t feel guilty about this. You will naturally finish faster teaching one child, one-on-one versus a full seven or eight hour day filled with bathroom breaks, disruptive behavior, and 20+ children demanding individual attention and needs throughout the day. Not to mention walking from one classroom to another, lunch, PE, recess and on it goes!

3. Reading is Almost Always Enough

If all you do is read aloud to your children (any age!) on your “worst” day, you have accomplished so much.

4. Outsource, outsource, outsource

You don’t have to be the one always reading to them! You can borrow audiobooks from your local library or for free through Audible. YouTube also has a lot of channels devoted to story read-alouds. And since COVID-19, many childrens books’ authors have been reading their books aloud on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Once Upon a Story, Let’s Read Stories, and Story Time at Awnie’s House are a few YouTube channels dedicated to read-alouds for children. If there is a specific book you are looking for, you can always search YouTube by typing “Book Title read aloud” in the search bar.

5. Did I mention outsourcing?

You can outsource the subjects that scare you, like math or science! You can outsource teaching through a homeschooling co-op, asking a reliable family member or friend to help out, or sign them up for an online class through a education website like Outschool or Beast Academy.

Other educational websites that offer educational support for homeschoolers are:

You Are An Artist

Khan Academy

Free Rice

Charlotte Mason Plenary

Beast Academy

Math Playground

Penzu

Typing.com

Around the World Stories

6. Working While Homeschooling is a Thing

If you plan to continue working, flexibility and open-mindedness is key. Homeschooling for working parents will never look the same as stay-at-home parents’ homeschooling, and that is OKAY. Even though I am a huge advocate of doing school in the first part of the day, it is 100% possible to do school during any waking hours, as long as you can be consistent. Sometimes we skip Fridays and have Saturday morning school! We rarely do school things in the evening, but that is only because my kids are truly morning people.

7. But what about curriculum?

When it comes to curriculum, it can be overwhelming to decide on one, but the good news is you have options. You will find something that jives with your family and fits yours and your child’s needs. You can go for an open-and-go box curriculum like The Good The Beautiful or Abeka Book, or you can create your own unit study from your child’s interests or current read. (Read How to Create a Lazy Unit Study). The best thing to do when considering a curriculum is ask around to see what others are saying about it, and how their children are receiving it.

If you are looking for something specific, I am happy to put my little OT brain/homeschooling research to work to help guide you to something that would work for your own needs (some curriculums are open-and-go and some require much more parent involvement in the planning process), your child’s learning style, and more. You can email me at: theartsyot @ gmail dot com.

8. Using The Free Stuff

Free online resouces are LIFE! SpellingCity.com, Typing.com, and Penzu.com are some of our favorite ones to use for language arts and typing! If you are looking for something specific, I can almost guarantee it is out there!

Some of my favorite homeschooling podcasts are: Wild+Free, The Homeschool Sisters, and Working While Homeschooling.

9. Schooling With Games and Documentaries

Don’t underestimate the educational value of board games and documentaries. My Little Poppies is basically the Mecca of gameschooling. Some of our favorite games to include in our school days are card games with a basic deck of cards (Gold Fish, Black Jack, War), Parking Lot, Memory, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, Battleship, Monopoly, and Uno to name a few!

Documentaries can be wonderful brain breaks (and parent breaks!). Netflix, Disney+, and Curiosity Stream are all wonderful outlets to enrich your homeschool days. Pinterest also has many posts to guide you if you are looking for a documentary on specific subject.

10. You Can do this.

You were your child’s first teacher, don’t take that lightly. You may not feel equipped or qualified, but you can do this.

5 Ways to Prepare for Your Acute Pediatric Fieldwork

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The author of the blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

They say if you are looking for a book and cannot find it, to write it. In today’s world, I think the same goes for blog posts.

To prepare for my acute pediatric rotation I scoured the internet for resources on how to prepare for this narrow scope of practice in occupational therapy and was frustrated to come up empty with little to no resources. A lot of what I learned in an adult acute setting was transferable to pediatrics, but there are things that are naturally unique to pediatrics. If you have been placed in an acute pediatric setting for a fieldwork rotation during PT or OT school these are some of the things I did, and a few I wish I had known prior to starting.

Safety Precautions

The most important facet of the acute setting is the familiarize yourself with safety precautions that may impact your patient’s care such as:

It will also be beneficial to review line management and common medication precautions for your unit. The more you know about your unit/ floor, the better off you will be. Most of the time your supervisor will be happy to supply you with information about your unit or floor and what diagnoses are commonly treated.

An unconventional way to familiarize yourself with what your patients’ diagnoses may present like (and what to expect) is to follow social media accounts of families who are using hashtags to educate and connect with others. A common one is #medicalmama on Instagram.

Spending some time preparing yourself mentally for what you will see and experience is important, because acute pediatrics is not for the faint of heart.

Assessments

Thankfully in acute care we don’t use many standardized assessments. Aside from MMT and ROM, you learn to become an efficient evaluator through observation, and literally everything counts in acute care. From the moment you walk into the patient’s room, the evaluation begins. You are analyzing everything from visual scanning, cognition (short and long term memory, orientation, attention, etc), sitting balance, standing balance (if this can be safely done), grasp patterns, what level of assistance they require to complete every task, what level of verbal and tactile cues are needed, their activity tolerance, and ADLs.

Some acute settings will use standardized assessments, but most do not. It is always best to double check with your facility. My supervisor recommended the use of the HELP developmental charts for familiarizing myself with developmental stages, but we did not use the actual assessment as an assessment tool.

Chart Review

In the spirit of full transparency, I am going to admit this took me an insane amount of time to be any good at. There is a lot to consider before deciding that your patient is ready to be seen. I wrote myself reminders and edited lists for weeks but every patient is unique, and sometimes the lists are not specific enough. Hopefully, your supervisor understands this part takes time. Lab values, vital signs, what may have occurred overnight — these things all impact whether or not it is safe to treat a patient.

Take a deep breath, and just own it. You will be slow at first.

Better to be slow, than unsafe. Always.

Write a list of things you know you should be looking at for each patient, during chart review. Highlight the things that may change from hour to hour (these things you should be chart reviewing throughout the day, if you are going to see them hours after morning chart reviewing).

Show your list to your supervisor. Compare it to what they look for every morning.

Some things I prioritized during my morning chart review for each patient were:

  • Vital signs
  • Age
  • First name
  • Precautions (sometimes these can be in more than one place on your EMR)
  • Active therapy order
  • Social situation (this one takes a little digging, often found in social worker notes)
  • Emergency or admit note (this sometimes gives baseline data)
  • Lines
  • Diet restrictions
  • Oxygen therapy
  • Hematology results for transplant and critical patients

Interventions

Aside from mastering chart reviewing, learning how to make OT meaningful to children in the acute setting was very difficult. Many of our kiddos were on contact precautions, which further limited what we could bring into the room. I quickly learned I could not take for granted that we could just take any toy or game into the room for treatments. Sometimes we could only use what was already in the room.

Thankfully I had a friend who had recently graduated and worked as an OT at this hospital and her insight was invaluable. She told me that she trained herself to look around the room for intervention ideas during evaluations. Sometimes families bring things like toys and books, and sometimes there is nothing but what already comes in a typical hospital room. She made me think differently about interventions.

Lastly, in acute pediatrics don’t forget to make it fun! I am embarrassed to admit this, but coming straight out of an adult acute rotation, having fun was far from my mind. I was focused of function, but my supervisor challenged me to make my treatments functional, but also fun! They are still kids after all.

Socio-Emotional Factor

Something we don’t learn a lot about in occupational therapy school is how to treat… a family. In the acute setting, emotions and stress are often heightened due to recent events and a plethora of unknowns for the child’s future. Unlike the outpatient setting, in acute pediatrics, you don’t always have an extensive medical background to reference for data; sometimes it is still being pieced together. You may be one of the first, if not the first OT to enter their lives.

You start this continuum of treatment.

You get the job of educating the family on what in the world OT is.

You get the incredibly daunting task of explaining and justifying how OT can help their child, on top of all the other interruptions they are getting in a day.

Don’t take it personal if some parents turn you down, tell you to go away, come back later. It’s not personal. Many are living some of the worst days of their entire lives.

In the event that you are welcomed into the room and begin treatment, remembering client-centered care is vital. If behaviors arise, ask caregivers if this is standard. Be flexible. Many times, children respond better during certain parts of the day due to medication, diet, naps, or tests being run. Be willing to come back at another time if possible to complete treatment.

Last Minute Tips

Some things you may want to review for your acute peds rotation:

  • ADL re-training
  • Pediatric Developmental Chart (HELP charts are really good for 0-6 years of age); CDC also has some
  • Goal Writing
  • SOAP notes
  • Interdisciplinary vs. Multi-disciplinary teams
  • Levels of Complexity during OT Evaluations
  • Therapeutic Use of Self

A final note:

Since you will be in a children’s hospital, you have opportunities to learn SO MUCH in a short amount of time. In the beginning of your rotation express your interest in observing in other units and other floors, and even other disciplines. This gives your supervisor time to plan and coordinate these observation times with faculty.

Recommended Reading

Gift Ideas for Bereaved Mothers on Mother’s Day During a Pandemic

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When you know someone who has lost a baby, it is near impossible to know what to do, and how to help her. And as if grief wasn’t isolating enough, the COVID-19 crisis has added a dark twist to how much we can interact with and help our grieving loved ones.

I cannot count how many times people have approached me and asked me about how to help their cousin, sister, sister-in-law, friend, etc who has recently suffered the loss of her child.

It is hard to tell what the “right” thing to do is, but if you’ve been there, the answer is pretty simple: bereaved mothers want their children to be remembered.

With Mother’s Day swiftly approaching, here are a few things that are meaningful even outside of a traditional holiday or birthday. And some cost nothing at all!

  • Surprise them with a chalk illustration!
  • Send her a typical Mother’s Day gift, like a necklace or a fashionable item like one of these designer fashion masks by Von Sorella:
  • Do a drive-by parade with friends and loved ones to honor her on Mother’s Day.
  • Name a star after her child for free through Staracle
Staracle has a free option plus other options to upgrade. Their free plan includes a customizable certificate that I am assuming you print on your own, with an online interactive star map.
  • Ask friends and loved ones to record themselves sending their love and maybe even reminding her of some of the sweetest memories they shared during her pregnancy, or with her child. You can also have loved ones send their messages through video apps like Marco Polo, Instagram Stories, or GroupMe
via GIPHY
  • Deliver her favorite plants in a pot, something that can keep growing with a little sunshine and water. Oftentimes a flower delivery can remind her of the funeral, and the fact that they die within days or weeks is often a painful reminder of death. Succulents are a girl’s best friends. Pretty, and fantastically resilient against those without a green thumb!
  • Do a butterfly release in an open area that allows for social distancing
  • Plant a tree in her child’s remembrance
  • Do a random act of kindness with a note attached and send it to her, to let her know what was done in her child’s memory
  • If you do nothing else, you will still be ahead of the curve if you tell her Happy Mother’s Day – through phone call, a simple text, in a drive-by parade. Acknowledge her motherhood. It is by far the most valuable gift she will receive. She is still a mother.
Digital print by Franchesca Cox

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I hope this gives some ideas! What can we add to this list?

Doing NYC With Kids at Christmas in 3 Days

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In the past 11 years, my husband and I have visited Manhattan a few times with friends and just the two of us. Wrapping up graduate school had me itching to do this beautiful city again, but this time with our kids! Much like our first time on the island, I found it super helpful to create a simple itinerary on a Google doc, and map out where we wanted to go ahead of time. At the bottom of this post, I share some practical tips to ensure an enjoyable experience, in spite of icy winds and low temperatures!

Since we had 2 1/2 days on the island I wanted to minimize our walking as much as possible and maximize our time enjoying all the things Manhattan offers, especially around Christmas! We decided to do two “big” NYC things, and explore “smaller” things along the way. The key for us was deciding what attractions/ activities were priorities for us, and what things we were willing to give up if it just didn’t work out.

Being flexible is key to having a great time.

Planning helps, but fluctuation with crowds and weather around Christmas (or any peak season), it’s best to go with the flow when things don’t pan out, or end up taking more time.

Even when things do not go as planned, NYC is still, and will always be a BLAST!

And for the record, I would do this all over again. Crowds and all. NYC at Christmas does not disappoint. For children, it is especially magical.

We decided for our kids and their particular interests and ages, they would enjoy the Empire State Building and the Statute of Liberty. Using these two locations as a guide, I planned our two full days around these attractions.

Where We Stayed

To save money, we stayed in an AirBnb in Weekhawken and took a 10 minute bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel into the city, which landed us in Times Square each morning. This was the place we rented, super affordable and great host!

Save $55 on your first AirBnb Stay using this link

Day 1

Times Square, Rockfeller Center, FAO Schwarz

The first day was our half day, which we used to explore Times Square and Rockfeller Center, since both were fairly close to our AirBnb and bus stop.

I had previously read that Rockfeller Center around Christmas is best to visit as late as possible (after 8pm-ish) because the crowds are seriously dense before then. The lights get turned off at 11:30 pm. After Times Square we walked a few blocks to Rockfeller Center and took in the wonder of the Rockfeller Christmas Tree. We also visited FAO Schwarz!

Day 2

World Trade Center Station, 9/11 Memorial, Freedom Tower, Statute of Liberty, Liberty Island, Battery Park, Seaglass Carousel, Little Italy, Rockfeller Center (LEGO store and Nintendo store)

We reserved tickets for the Statute of Liberty ahead of time using Statute Cruises. When we saw the lines, we realized this saved us a great deal of time and we did not have to wait very long in line. Be ware though, there are scammers who were trying to convince us that the ferries were delayed and we could “upgrade” to get into the “express” line. Thankfully we did not fall for it! Our reserved tickets were all we needed!

Statute of Liberty from start to finish takes about 3-4 hours, depending on how long the lines are, how long you decide to spend in the statute of liberty, whether you are going to the crown or pedestal, and whether or not you are also visiting Ellis Island. We spent quite a bit of time in the Liberty Museum of Statute, and paid to go to the pedestal. If you would like to visit the crown, be sure to book tickets months in advance here.

Since the Seaglass Carousel is also in Battery Park, we did the Seaglass Carousel right after the Statue of Liberty. Worth every cent (only $5) for this whimsical experience! And adults are welcome to ride, so so fun!

We did not visit the 9/11 Museum, but hope to return once the kids get a little older. We did, however, visit the 9/11 Memorial and the World Trade Center Station, which is an impressive architectural wonder.

From there, we took the Subway up to Canal Street and walked to Little Italy, where we dined with some yummy Italian food on Mulberry Street.

We ended our day back in Rockfeller Center, where we were able to take the kids to the LEGO store and the Nintendo store.

We also saw the beautiful lights display on Saks 5th Avenue which completely mesmerized the kids!

Day 3

Empire State Building, shopping on 34th Street, Bryant Holiday Open-Air Market, NYC Public Library, Central Park, Flatiron district, Union Square Park

We started our last full day bright and early! We arrived at the Empire State Building a few minutes before it opened around 8am, so the lines were tolerable. We also reserved tickets ahead of time for this experience through their website.

We visited some major retailers on 34th just for fun, including the 7-story Macy’s, 2-story Target, and Amazon Bookstore (my personal favorite!!). We took a subway up to Bryant Park for their open-air holiday market, to do a little more shopping, watch ice-skating, and get some hot cocoa. We arrived when this opened as well, around 11am, and were so glad we did, because this got extremely packed within the hour! Macy’s has a free Macy’s Santaland, but we did not get to go since this required reservations well in advance. Thankfully our kids weren’t aware of this, and enjoyed other parts of Macy’s! I also think they were over lines at this point, so it all worked out. If you want to do Macy’s Santaland, be sure to book at least 4 days in advance!

We followed Bryant Park with a quick trip to the NYC Public Library which is located on the same block, and found some much needed down time in their kids’ section of the library. It felt like home to the kids and me!

From Bryant Park, we headed to Central Park, which ended up being one of my favorite parts of this trip. In spite of some light rain in 30ish degree weather, we enjoyed the openness and beauty of Central Park. Like the library, this served as an oasis for us, and a place to let the kids run, climb, and play.

The rest of the day, we ventured to Union Square Park and Flatiron district to visit a few smaller shops. We stumbled on an iHop near Union Square and ate breakfast for dinner! This was a wonderful retreat to our weary feet. There were no crowds, no lines and we were able to stretch out a bit before hopping on the subway again. It also didn’t hurt that kids ate free 7/days a week!

We had the absolute best time in the small window of time we had, and made the most of it! We were so excited that the kids tolerated about 20,000 steps a day with little to no complaints. They were captivated with the city and did better than we expected on this kind of trip.

I had moments where I wondered whether or not they were ready for this kind of adventure, but kids are amazing and will surprise you.

Top Tips for Traveling to NYC during winter months:

  • If you have more than a few days, consider investing in a New York City Pass, which will give you access to some of the most popular attractions for a discounted rate. We used this previously but decided to pass since we were only interested in two of the main attractions included on this pass. If we had had more time, this would have been a no-brainer.
  • Invest in winter coats that will sustain the cold temps and potential precipitation
  • Get long johns for the whole family! Lands’ End also has some fun colors at an affordable price.
  • Pack winter waterproof boots in case you encounter melted snow, ice, or puddles in all your walking
  • Pack gloves and scarves, and my advice would be to bring spare gloves for everyone since laundry days may be limited during your stay, and your gloves touch everything!
  • Pack a winter hat or ear muffs, because the wind will literally make your ears hurt!
  • Pack hand sanitizer
  • Bring a portable cell phone charger
  • Have older kids bring their own backpack to hold snacks, water, gloves, and scarves, and anything they may purchase. This was a new experience for us, and it was AWESOME to not have to carry it all for once.

Follow my travel Pinterest board to get more traveling tips from some of my favorite blogs:

Be sure to check out the following websites/ blogs on visiting NYC at Christmas time:

What You Need to Know for a Successful Christmas in New York City

NYC Christmas Favorites

NYC Christmas Events: The Complete Guide