About GHOK

Hi, I'm Heather!

Here at Growing Hands-On Kids, you'll find child development tips, tools, and strategies through hands-on activities.

My mission is to help you encourage your child or student to reach their fullest potential through hands-on play and developmentally age-appropriate activities.

What You'll Find at Growing Hands-On Kids

Growing Hands-On Kids started in 2015 as a way for me to share activity ideas that I was using in my school-based experience as an Occupational Therapy Assistant.

Since then, it has grown into a website filled with child development tips, tools, and strategies, along with digital download products to use with your child or students.

5 Things About Heather…

  1. I'm a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. I graduated in 2006 as an Occupational Therapy Assistant and started working in a skilled nursing facility. My dream position was to work in a school-based setting. Three years after graduating I was able to find a school-based position and worked there until 2013.
  2. I'm a homeschool graduate. I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school and was able to graduate a year early.
  3. I met my now husband when we were just 10 years old. We met through church and I was actually friends with one of his sisters first. In college, we started dating and the rest is history. We've been married for 17 years.
  4. I'm a homeschool mom! We have two children, ages 11 and 8, who we homeschool. Our daughter is in 5th grade and our son is in 2nd grade. For privacy reasons, they aren't on the website much anymore, but you will occasionally find older pictures of both of them doing some of the activities I write about on my site.
  5. I'm a breast cancer survivor. In December 2021 I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. 2022 through February 2023 has been filled with treatments, but I am thankful for the continued support of my family and the ability to still work from home when I felt like it.

My Books

I am the author of Basic Shapes for Beginners, a Hands-On Approach to Pre-writing Strokes for Preschoolers, and Basics of Fine Motor Skills – Developmental Activities for Kids.

Basic Shapes for Beginners
Basics of Fine Motor Skills - Developmental Activities for Kids.
Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.

You can also get to the FREE PRINTABLES I offer here.

Other Places Heather Writes

I have written guest posts and other articles from time to time around the internet. You can find some of them below.

Contact Growing Hands-On Kids

I would love to hear from you. You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.