Last night, Noah asked for a banana, but he proceeded to only eat a bite of it. I decided, rather than eating yet another leftover banana, I'd use it in a smoothie. I remembered seeing a paleo chocolate banana smoothie recipe on pinterest, so I googled it. I saw several different versions, so I decided to pick them apart and come up with my own. It was soooooo good! I froze them into popsicles, and Noah definitely approves.
Paleo Chocolate-Banana Smoothie:
- 1 large ripe banana
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 avocado (for added creaminess and fiber)
- about 1 cup coconut milk
- handful of ice cubes (less if you thought ahead and have frozen bananas)
Cover the ingredients with vanilla almond milk and blend. Pour leftovers into popsicle molds if you like. :)
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Noah has several apps that are really awesome, both for kids on the spectrum and typical kids. He's learned his letters (maybe not in alphabetical order, but beggars can't be choosers...), numbers, words, etc through this apps. So in case you're looking for some new ones to add to your phone/ipad, here are some of our favorites...
Favorite apps:
1. Injini - by far, one of the best apps we've found. Noah loves it. It specializes in teaching fine motor skills, cause and effect understanding, spatial awareness, memory, differentiation, response inhibition, visual processing, etc (all great for kids with ASD). It also deals with pre-math skills, letters (including combining letters to make sounds such as "ch"), and responsibility (feeding the farm animals and flowers, for example, so they grow).They have a light version that you can download for free, but after over a month of him playing it, we went ahead and got him the full version which is like $30, I think. Obviously, it's not cheap, but it was totally worth the investment. His therapists have seen it and are shocked when they watch how far he's come just through using this one app. Available for iPad only.
While it was designed for kids with ASD, it's obviously really useful for any early learners working on their letters and spelling. It's also great for fine motor skills. They also offer a free app per month to educators. Only available on the iPad.
3. Match It Up by myfirstapp.com - This one is a simple matching game that Noah mastered pretty quickly. There's a free version or you can download the full version for $2.99 (again, not bad). They have a LOT more apps to choose from that I need to look through. But Noah really struggles with complex matching games, so this one was perfect for him. They also have a "Teacher's Pack" with 15 of them, designed for teachers and therapists (including a progress chart). Available for both iPad and iPhones.
4. Bright Start - I love this app. When Noah first starting using it several months ago (before Christmas), he would get frustrated trying to trace the letters. Now? He zips through them, no problem at all. It really has helped his fine motor skills, and it helps him learn his letters and numbers (in proper order, haha). There is a free version or you can download the full version for $1.99. Available on both iPad and iPhones.
3 comments:
Oooh! Thank you. I will check out these apps. For the longest time Henry would play with apps but now all he does is makes videos with the ipad. He has literally 100's of them. Mostly of himself doing things! What a weirdo right? We joke he's going to be a film-maker someday. :-)
I find myself picking recipes apart, too. Since I don't have the option of running out to the store to pick up a missing ingredient, I look at two or three recipes for the same dish and then cobble together my own version. Unfortunately, I often forget to write down my cobbled version of the recipe if the dish turns out to be tasty!
I'm trying that smoothie as soon as I get an avocado.
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