This blog post on learning at home with materials found around the home is a great resource for school based OT providers because many of the skills we work on in therapy sessions need to be carried over at home to ensure results. It’s the everyday practice that makes skills stick! Here you will find our top picks for DIY learning materials using items found around the home. These are great items for occupational therapy at home, too. The thing is that I love to share activities that build skills using everyday items.
diy learning materials
We are big fans of using free and recycled materials in our crafts and activities. Many times, people ask: “How do you do so many fun activities without spending a fortune?!” Most of our learning, crafts, and activities involve using free or almost free materials. While we are not a homeschooling family, we do SO many learning through play activities and homework extension skills that work on the skills that my kids are doing at school.
Some of our top picks using items found in the home include:
- Bead activities
- Sticker activities
- Scooping and Pouring activities
- The Benefits of Coloring
- Activities using just a deck of playing cards
- Activities using just craft pom poms or cotton balls
- Activities using just paper clips
We’re excited to join homeschooling bloggers with 31 Days of ideas for learning at home. In this series, we share 31 days of Learning at Home with Free (or almost free) Materials. Each day, we’ll bring you tips and ideas to use materials you already have in learning and school extension activities. Most of these materials are household items you may already have in the house and others will be recycled materials.
All of the activities will be using free (or almost free) items to build on learning concepts that are age appropriate for our kids. We will be sharing ways to use these items in different age ranges, as well.
These activities are sure to be a fun way to work on skills over the summer to prevent an academic “summer slide” and ways to creatively learn and extend on school homework and homeschool curricula during the year. Be sure to stop by each day in July for creative learning ideas as we fill in our month with Free Learning!
Learning with Free (or almost Free) materials at home:
This series is about easy learning ideas that you can make your own. Your child’s needs and interests will make these ideas work in your family. My hope for the 31 Days of Learning with (almost) Free materials is to bring you creative ideas.
Start with these games with paper clips to use an everyday material found in most junk drawers.
31 Days of Learning with Free Materials (items you probably already have):
Click on the images below and the list of posts for our month of learning at home!
More Learning at Home Ideas
These learning with free materials ideas use items you probably have in the home right now to work on math or writing concepts, AND build fine motor skills. Try some of these learning ideas using items in the home, including:
- Fine Motor Activities with Play Dough
- Fine Motor Activities with Paper Clips
- Fine Motor Activities with Craft Pom Poms or Cotton Balls
- Fine Motor Activities with Playing Cards
- Fine Motor Activities with Beads
- Fine Motor Activities with Chalk
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
