LightHouse Little Learners Specialist, Elizabeth, holds a sensory activity tray filled with beans and colorful plastic bugs for a little girl who is a wheelchair user

Sunshine, Bubbles and Bugs! A Garden Party for LightHouse Little Learners

By Pam Chapin, LightHouse Little Learners Program Director

On May 9, the LightHouse Little Learners team hosted their first ever Garden Party event for children and their families on the patio of Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, where LightHouse has its East Bay office. Children poured over tactile and Braille books and delighted in exploring the toddler-sized Braille keyboard and letter sounds of a Braille Buzz by American Printing House.  Expressions of joy and wonderment abounded as children put their hands in a sensory tray filled with dried beans and plastic colorful bugs, to catch with a net, or view with a magnifying glass. Giggles and bubbles floated through the air as children used an accessible switch to play with a bubble frog machine. To engage little ones’ senses, children planted silk flowers into edible soil made of cocoa, flour, and a dash of oil to create a kinetic sand-like texture. Delicious snacks and lemonade-making were also part of the festivities.

Parents enjoyed meeting other families and taking family portraits thanks to the amazing photography skills of Early Childhood Blind and Low Vision Specialist, Emmalaine. Families took home little flower pots their children had planted, balloons and spring baskets. One parent shared afterwards, “I wanted to say how wonderful the garden party was today. The three of us had such a fun time and it was so great to see [our daughter] practicing a little independence. The activities that you all had out for the kids were just perfect.”
 
The LightHouse Little Learners program is designed to help young children, birth to age three, who are blind, DeafBlind, have low vision or a neurological visual impairment, or whose developmental delays include blindness or low vision. To find out more, visit the LightHouse Little Learners webpage.