Family

Fijit Friends Review: Great Toy for Kids with Autism or Sensory Issues

3 Dec posted by Robin

My daughter (M) and I were sent a Sage Fijit for review a few weeks back. It was not the first item she went for that day (a Little Mommy doll also came in at the same time), but a couple days later she brought me the box. M is non-verbal due to her autism, so she generally brings me items or picture cards to express what she wants, and Fijit had caught her attention.

When I had selected a Fijit Friends doll as one of the items I would like to review, I didn’t realize it was geared towards children a little older than M. I pretty much expected her to investigate the Fijit for a few minutes and toss it aside forgotten… I was oh-so-very wrong. You see this little Fijit named Sage is actually a fantastic toy for children with strong sensory needs, like my daughter. I don’t think the dolls were created with this demographic in mind, but they are a perfect fit.

Fijit Friends are covered with a rubbery skin. It is the same material used to make those stretchy “tentacle” balls, that many occupational therapists and teachers use with children who have sensory processing disorders and/or autism. The Sage character has ears that stick out and are flat like a leaf. My daughter likes to gnaw on these, when she needs a little extra sensory input. Sage has become one of my daughters favorite toys, and he is often dragged around the house with her, When my MIL & SIL saw how much she likes this Fijit , they picked her up one of the other characters for Christmas.

Fijits are intended for girls around 6-10 years of age. They’re cute interactive little dancing pals, but I can’t really tell you how girls this age will like the toy. I can tell you my preschool age autistic daughter is in love with hers. I think the toy would be fine for little boys in her age group with similar sensory issues, as well. Sage is not particularly “girly”, and Logan seems to be a male Fijit.

Disclosure: Product sample was provided. All experiences and opinions presented here are my own.

2 Comments
Filed Under: Autism, Children, Holiday Gift Guide 2011

The Free SignUpGenius Tool Makes Planning Your Party or Volunteer Event Easy

28 Oct posted by Robin

I don’t know about you, but for me one of the most daunting tasks associated with hosting an event or party, is the organization. Sending out invites and making sure that guests or participants aren’t bringing the same items, and all have the proper time and information can be more time consuming than you expect.

Doing these tasks online, and emailing guests/participants, can be a real time saver, but even this can be challenging to do without good organization. Using a ready-made template can make the whole planning and implementation process much easier for your event. The free event and volunteer organization service from SignUpGenius.com will make parties and events so much easier to manage.

SignUpGenius is all set up to help you put together your next, volunteer sign-up list, snack list, Potluck list or party RSVP. The free tool is easy to use, and you can send out and keep track of everything right in one convenient place. To show you how simple the process is I am going to set up a fictitious pot luck Halloween party, and walk you through the process.

After signing up for an account (this only takes about 30 seconds), I selected the Party Genius tool to help me organize the party. as you can see below a six step process will complete everything.

In step one, you simply fill in your group and event names, and fill in a message to guests/participants. Style and color of fonts can be readily changed, links can be added and several other customizations can be done.
The second step gives you the choice of many templates to change out the overall look of the emails and organizational sheet. This is just one page of the fall & winter themes. There are not just more pages under this category, but there are twelve more categories to choose from. You are sure to find something that will give you the perfect look for your event. Just click your choice and hit continue.
Time, date, place and RSVP settings are set in the next step.
The fourth step is where you input the items you would like guests to bring, how many are needed, and any additional notes that might be helpful for guests.
You then have the opportunity to preview what your emails will look like. I love the way everything is concisely assembled on the page.
In the final step, add the emails of the people you are inviting, select accessibility and whether you want to be notified of each sign-up, and choose whether guests can swap slots with each other. Press the button and your savvy invites are delivered.

It is just as easy as this to organize volunteer sign-ups or assemble “to bring” lists. Even if you just want to send out a party invite, without the need for task or item sign-up, this tool would be well worth using. I am surprised this great tool is free to use. Not only is it free, but they also offer free planning resource articles with tips on coordinating volunteers for all types of events, and hold regular contests to engage and reward site users. .

A few more benefits of SignUpGenius

Eco-friendly: Using this tool would save a lot of paper for just one small party, imagine how much it would save when used by a group such a a Little League team.
Eliminates the need for phone trees.
Simple wizards and video tutorials for creating sign ups, are provided.
Sends automated email reminders in advance of a sign up date to each volunteer/guest.
Sign ups can be copied and transferred to other SignUpGenius user accounts .
Users can create new groups or utilize old ones, from archives.
Each sign-up “sheet” has a unique url, so groups can add to their website or newsletters.
A customizable report is available for each sign up.

Disclosure: I was compensated for spreading the word about SignUpGenius with a gift card. There was no requirement for a positive review. All opinions presented here are my own.

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Family, Informational

Support Our Military and their Families through the sendCheer Program #sendCheer #CBias

26 Oct posted by Robin

I have many personal reasons to want to support our military families. Many of my family members have served, all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Of course the service of family members I know and love or loved are more pertinent to me. My father, uncles, brother-in-laws, father-in-law and my estranged husband all served. Some were touched by combat duty during their service time, and others were not, but all were away from their families, to serve our country. It is a thing to respect.

Care packages bring a bit of the simple comforts to our service members while they are away. Financial assistance and services are of course helpful to the families of deployed service men and women, and alleviate some of the worry of service people,not being there to take care of things. That being said, I have often heard the family members waiting at home say that respect and appreciation that they too are making sacrifices, goes a long way with them. This is something specifically addressed by the sendCheer initiative from Cheerios.

The sendCheer Program and How It Helps Our Military and their Families

Cheerios has partnered with the USO for the sendCheer initiative. Shoppers can look for specially marked boxes of Cheerios with “Cheer” postcards. These pre-addressed postcards are to be cut out by the purchaser, and mailed. They will then be distributed to military families via the USO. Cheerios will also donate $1 for each postcard received. The funds will go to the USO to support programs that help our military personnel and their families. Cheerios has already donated $150,000 and will donate up to $100,000 more based for postcards received by November 30, 2012.

Check out the sendCheer webpage for more information about the program and how it helps.

This post has been compensated as part of a sponsored charitable opportunity for Collective Bias. All opinions presented here are my own.

2 Comments
Filed Under: Family

She Said “Red” : Autism (ABA Therapy )

14 Sep posted by Robin

As many of my regular readers already know, my daughter is autistic and pretty much non-verbal. After sitting on a waiting list for nearly a year, M started ABA therapy (Applied Behavioral Analysis) set-up in the spring. Due to staffing changes, as well as, a change to her plan, the actual therapy sessions didn’t start until this Monday. This week she is only getting her 3 hour afternoon sessions. Next week, morning sessions should be staffed for her.

Although the ABA therapy is pretty intensive, M is handling it better than I expected, even often staying at the table during her breaks. She seems to enjoy all that extra focused attention, but gets frustrated with having demands placed on her.

The first day, included a little training of the therapist, by the clinician, but was mostly teaching. Yesterday was pretty much a regular ABA session. While working on colors with her therapist, M was repeatedly asked to “give red”, and hand her the appropriate colored card. Unexpectedly, M blurted out the word “red”, as clear as day. This is a word she has never said before. As the three hour session was nearly at an end, M announced “done”. It seems she had had enough at that point.

In just 6 hours of therapy, we have seen some great results. I am very hopeful that with the nearly 30 hours per week she will be doing, she will really blossom.

4 Comments
Filed Under: Autism

Touching Autism Video from a Dad who Cares

11 Sep posted by Robin

My friend Jessica, who also has a child affected by autism shared this video on Facebook and it really got to me. It brought waves of the memories of my daughter’s autism diagnosis crashing in. With the progress of my husband and I’s separation, my focus has been somewhat split. Thank goodness her ABA therapy is starting Monday.

It was good to see a man so dedicated to healing his little girl, and the music was a perfect choice.

2 Comments
Filed Under: Autism

Sometimes It is the Little Things…

25 Jul posted by Robin

I had a tough day yesterday. It seemed whenever I tried to get anything done, my darling little daughter would come along and make twice as much mess as I had just cleaned. She is autistic, and her sensory needs have been raging the past few days. On top of that, my soon -to-be-ex, was home last night, after staying out the past two nights. It is a situation we both have to deal with for awhile, but it can be a bit uncomfortable.

This morning I awoke at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am and couldn’t sleep. A few hours later, I was talking to the husband outside as he was leaving for work, when I looked down at the large planter near my steps, only to see the back-end of something dead hanging out of it (probably another dead possum courtesy of my German Shepherd). Soon-to-be-ex scurried off, saying he was late for work. I don’t have the constitution to deal with dead rodents, so the dread of a dead animal at my back steps all day, hovered with me as I went inside. Just then, my daughter whined a few times and came tromping down the stairs. I braced myself for a fussy display from her while choosing breakfast, but that is not how things went.

She came around the corner and went straight for me, hugged my legs, looked up with her big blue eyes and said mom-mom-mom. All the annoyances of the past two days melted away in an instant, as I heard that word I hadn’t heard in quite some time.

8 Comments
Filed Under: Family

Putting a Non-Verbal Preschooler on a Bus

17 Jul posted by Robin

As most of my regular readers already know, my daughter is autistic. She goes to a special education preschool program for a few hours 3-4 days a week, and it has really helped her with her social skills. I drive her back and forth each day, and during the regular school year, many other parents also choose not to put their children on the bus. Right now she is in the summer program. It is geared toward the children who need more help, and the teacher is concerned that missing all summer may make them take backwards steps.

I am the only parent driving their child in, all the rest of the children, are taking the bus to school. This seemed odd to me. I understand that some of these mom and dads don’t have the option to go get their child, but it still wouldn’t sit right with me personally. Call me over-protective if you wish, but I am not placing my non-verbal 4 year old on a bus, and hoping she is returned safely to me. I’ve heard a few too many stories of instances of poor student tracking, to feel comfortable with that. Every year we hear of a child that wandered off, was dropped in the wrong place or forgotten on a school bus. Of course some of these cases could easily be remedied by a simple vehicle inspection , at the end of each trip, but not all of them, and obviously despite rules being in place it doesn’t always happen.

To make me even more paranoid, in the next town over from me, a bus driver was blocked in by concerned citizens, when they saw him driving erratically on his way to pick up children at school. Police arrived and the school bus driver was arrested for drunk driving. That is pretty scary.

If I was in the position to have to put my little girl on a school bus sometime year, they would completely hate me. I would be doing a bus pre trip inspection each day, and eyeballing the driver with intense scrutiny. I sure hope that I am not put in that position.