Autism resources: "calm down" bag

B is becoming more and more difficult to engage at school,  This has resulted in something that I produced first for A being revisited.  The calm down bag.  Used whenever A got himself in a state it was given to him and he was given 5 minutes alone to calm down.

The original contained:

bubbles - in order to be able to blow bubbles you have to control your breathing
squishy ball for tactile stimulation; ours was made from balloons and rice - A WILL put it in his mouth and I don't want him swallowing the contents of a commercial stress ball since I don't know what is in it.
chewy tube for oral stimulation. This came from a SEN products specialist and cost about £15.  We have also tried dog toys etc in the past up they don't stand up to being chewed as well as this has; it also has the benefit of being able to fit in the steriliser on those rare occasions when we manage to get it back!
discovery bottle for visual stimulation - we used water/glycerine with chopped up metallic shreds.  But we could have used any of our other bottles - see here for master list.
Dried pasta - again for oral stimulation A likes crunchy things.

This hasn't been necessary  for a couple of years now but over the last year but A has started to take it in again since starting a new secondary school where it lives in "the Blue Room" which is the timeout room for kids with learning difficulties.

B doesn't like to chew like A does, although he has started on his cuffs lately so his version would not have the chewy or the pasta.  Just have to convince the school to let him use it now!

Update September 2018 - four years on and this is now being used properly at school thanks to a new SENCO.  We have since expanded it to include a wobble board which is small enough for B to sit on and so goes into assembly with him to sit on the floor.  Pulling in his core muscles to sit still requires focus and also stimulates the propreoception (sp?) part of his brain. We also get the assistants to do pressure on his shoulders, marching across the room and wall pressups as well.

Simple instructions on how to make a scarcrow

Printable instruction sheet available from here.  Just the thing for us to use with B for following ordered instructions as it uses tools and is an outside activity.  B is not into worksheets normally and even doing things like cooking cupcakes won't get him to read so I am hoping that the thought of using a hammer and nails will help enthuse him about this project and actually READ the sheet out loud...

The site itself also includes many other Youth gardening and outdoor projects so well worth a look.

How to turn £20 into hundreds - quest continues

Just an update to let you know that although I haven't had enough time to blog about it I have been keeping up with the stocking up challenge.  Money transferred into the savings account to date is just over £400, not bad for 5 months but a long way short of the £800 we need to pay for A's music lessons over the year.  As ever Christmas and B's birthday in January have knocked everything off kilter but should be back on track with more money saving posts later this year.