RDI Activity Ideas

Summer / Outdoor Ideas

· Spring/Summer Discovery: Go for a walk together and collect items that remind you of spring/summer. Use declarative language throughout your walk to enhance your experience together. When you get home glue the things you found onto a poster board and talk about your walk (encode episodic memory).

· Bird Feeder: Get a pine cone or cup. Cover with peanut butter and then roll in bird seed (create a regulatory pattern) “roll, roll, roll.” You could also incorporate a pattern of, “bird seed – drop.” Easy, messy, and serious fun for everyone!! Attach a string and hang from a tree. Build anticipation waiting for a bird or squirrel to eat it. Don’t forget to take pictures of the activity and spotlight episodic memory.

· Collect flowers together: go around the yard and collect dandelions together. This is a great way to get your weeding done! You can also incorporate a regulatory pattern, “flower – pick.” Collect flowers and spotlight working together. This is a great activity to practice declarative language if you’re getting a little rusty.

· Balloon catch/toss: (only if child is not scared of balloons) Fill balloons with water & toss (water plants, create a target, etc) or have a catch. Spotlight the anticipation. Also, create a regulatory pattern, “1, 2, 3…splat!”

Keep checking in for new ideas...more to come soon!

Spring Ideas

· Egg hunt. Hide eggs around the house and go on an egg hunt together. Chanting will create a lot of fun for you and your child and will also help him/her stay mentally engaged. This game offers many opportunities for productive uncertainty and regulatory patterns. Also, you could add prizes inside the eggs & open them together in the end. Make sure to spotlight the anticipation involved with opening the eggs, "I wonder what's inside!"

· Dye Eggs together. Create a regulatory pattern of "egg-dip, egg-dip, etc" You could also do "egg-drop, egg-drop, etc" count to ten together and then take them out, spotlight the anticipation of, "I wonder what color it will be!" Also, you could write on your eggs with a white crayon and discover the cool pattern it leaves after they are dyed.

· Create an Easter basket together. This is a great time to incorporate mental engagement. "Hmm, I wonder what we should put in Daddy's basket?" Leave enough time for your child to actively problem solve, but not enough time to let them get lost in the moment.

Seasonal Regulation (RDR) Ideas

• Make your own garlands: Use dental floss (double the thickness), thread it through a plastic canvas needle and knot at one end. Then thread through a variety of things (eg packing peanuts, pony beads, popcorn, cranberries.) A regulating chant may be: “Pick it up, put it on and sssssssssslide it down the line.”

• Make a holiday card assembly line: create a regulatory pattern through stuffing envelopes, sealing them, and affixing stamps or stickers. (Use other “assembly lines” for making gift tags, ornaments, wrapping paper, and for wrapping the gifts themselves.)

• Shovel snow together with a big shovel.

• Hang tree ornaments: put on hooks, hang on tree, redistribute as needed.
• Set up an artificial tree: sort pieces, put pieces into base, fluff pieces.

• Have younger apprentices help make cookies by greasing the cookie pans together or make cookies that need to be shaped into balls and have them roll the balls. Show them how to put sprinkles or small candies on cookies or cakes. (Chant: "dot, dot, dot ... *sprinkle!*) Or have them help you mix ingredients together, with their hands. If you're making pies or baking potatoes, have them do the pricking with a fork.

• For easy cookies, use pre-made refrigerated cookie dough. (Some do not even require slicing.) Or get a pre-made gingerbread house, gingerbread tree or gingerbread man kit and decorate with icing and candies.

• Make paper chains to put on your tree: Another great chant and regulatory pattern: Rip the paper, wrap it around, and staple it on the chain. Chant: “Rip it, wrap it, staple it on the chain.”

• Sing carols together and have different family members accompany with simple hand drums or other instruments.

Version 1, November 2005.

Thanks to Certified Consultants: Katherine Lee, Nicole Beurkens, Michelle Broeckelmann, Amy Cameron, Kim Downey, Barbara A. Duckett, E. Cheryl Fletcher, Nicole Labonte, Trudi Pacheco and Lisa Palasti, and the Trainees who contributed to this handout. "© Copyright 2005, Connections Center, All rights reserved. www.rdiconnect.com"

Holiday Productive Uncertainty

• “Mistletoe” Magic: move certain decorations around daily (eg hang mistletoe and move it to a different place every day, for a surprise).

• Decorate each other with garland, ornaments or lights when you’re decorating your home or the tree.

• Make it snow: rip paper into tiny pieces and throw into the air together.
• Plan "secret santa" surprises for mom, dad or siblings every day and enjoy reactions together.

• Go on a gift-planning treasure hunt: i.e. 'Not sure what to buy dad, I bet he needs socks!' Then go hunt where dad keeps his socks to decide whether he already has enough or not. 'Oh no! Dad already has lots of socks, hmmmm!' and so on.

• Build anticipation and facilitate taking on another's perspective: have child and one parent place a gift in a small box, and then place that box into a slightly larger box, etc.

• Play hide and seek in the Christmas tree lot. Sneak up on family members with Silly String.

• Play "follow my eyes to the candy cane" (or other ornament).

• Put holiday window clings on a window/door/mirror - move around each day, and do a scavenger hunt to find the clings.

• Sample a variety of candy canes ("same but different" theme).