Valentines 2015

Valentines 2015

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sensory play!

As the girls have gotten older I have made a conscious effort to create activities that are age appropriate, educational, and fun for them to do. It's definitely harder than I thought it would be! Although, I have to admit, I have gotten some pretty stellar ideas from Julia over at Pontifications of a Twin Mom. This is one of her brilliant creations =). The girls LOVED the sensory play!

Here's what we did:

We took these ingredients (White and wild rice, lentils, marshmallows, and penne pasta)
**Note - ALL edible and in no way harmful, because toddlers WILL try to eat them!**


And combined them in the girls (old) plastic baby bathtub with a couple of spoons, bowls, and small containers.

I contained the girls and pugs into the kitchen (with hard floors, NOT CARPET, lol) by closing all the doors I could, then using a baby gate to close off the remaining exit. Then I put the sensory concoction down on the floor.

The result???
Happy toddlers for sure! 45 minutes of continuous play! That is seriously AMAZING in the toddler world!




I will have to work with Livvy on the concept of not throwing rice at me, her sister, or across the kitchen, but otherwise, this activity went off without a hitch. I was concerned about clean up and clean up time considering the mess that was remaining when the girls were done playing...


But honestly, it took me approximately 7 minutes to clean up. I simply swept up the floor (putting the swept up rice/lentil/pasta concoction back into the bathtub), then came through with the vacuum to get under the cupboards, fridge, oven, etc..


You'd never know we just had a super messy sensory party in here would you?! LOL. I would highly recommend either doing this activity outside, or inside on a hard tile/laminate/wood floor for ease in clean up. I considered putting the baby bathtub inside the baby swimming pool that we have in the basement, but really, keeping the girls in the kitchen allowed for really easy clean up. I don't think I would do anything differently next time.

I'm really glad we did this activity. I put the marshmallows in a ziploc bag to keep them fresh until our next sensory play date, but I just left the rice, lentils, and pasta in the baby bathtub and moved it down to the basement for retrieval on a boring rainy day =).

So that was our fun sensory play activity! Have you done any cool, creative, or fun activities with your toddlers lately? If so, please do share! I'm always looking for new ideas for the girls!

Until next time -
Megan

16 comments:

  1. Oh! that looks like fun! I'm thinking of painting today... mine still try to eat the paint so I'm going to put a piece of construction paper inside a large plastic bag, squirt some paint in, and seal it up... that way they can "paint" and not make a huge mess or eat it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kelly - brilliant! I bet it feels really cool to them with the paint inside the bag...probably squishy like the marshmallows in the sensory bucket!!

      Delete
  2. Great idea....very creative! I'm not sure my nerves could stand the throwing of the rice though...LOL!

    Happy day to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ginger, you crack me up! I freaked out a couple of times with the throwing of the rice too! BUT...it cleans up SO easily...I felt silly after the fact for being so concerned...but I couldn't help it!

      Delete
  3. Wow good job! I need to start doing more stuff like this- I think my girls would love it. Some big dried beans would be fun too. My problem is that I need to find a way to block off the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You absolutely should try it! Your girls would love it for sure! The original "recipe" actually called for beans, but I was concerned about getting a size that wouldn't be considered a choking hazard. The girls try to eat EVERYTHING, so I figured either tiny stuff or stuff they would have to chew up would work the best - LOL! When I get up the nerve to add the beans in I think they will love the sensory box even more! =)

      Delete
  4. Nice! Love that! And I have lots of leftover pasta that I need to use up but is too small to cook with! I think this would be a great bathroom or outside idea too if you can't barricade your kitchen off.

    We did yogurt painting today. I just posted it! Kelly - its painting but with yogurt so they CAN eat it! And he did! It was a huge snack... The diaper the next day was..... well.... iiiiiiiiiiinteresting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got yogurt and new food coloring today so we can try the yogurt painting! I'm betting we don't sit still nearly as long as Adam did, but even if we get 30 minutes out of it I will be pleased!!!

      Delete
  5. Yay, Megan! So much fun! Isn't it amazing how intriguing it is to them?!?! Marshmallows---what a great addition! I'm stealing that!

    Ummm....LOVE those pigtails!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is amazing to watch them "discover" all the cool things they can do with the concoction in the bathtub! So fun! I thought the marshmallows would be good as it's a unique feel - squishy!
      Thanks for the idea to start with!
      And I LOVE the pigtails too! Your adorable girls sport them quite a bit, so we are following suit...naturally =)

      Delete
  6. Tomorrow night it's just me and the babies. I wanted to plan a fun night for us. I think I'll stop on the way home from work tomorrow and pick up all the supplies to make this box!

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How'd it go?! The girls absolutely loved it, so I hope you guys loved it too!!

      Delete
  7. The re-purposed baby bathtub is great! I use a busboy bin (like for restaurants) that I got at Sam's club. My girls love sensory play as well. Currently our bin has some very messy shredded paper packing material. I've also died rice with food coloring. I prefer ours in the living room as our kitchen is small but I spread out a large bedsheet underneath which catches most mess...not all! We even found a surprise in it this summer! http://dakotapam.com/2011/07/13/tot-school-aa-apples/

    Also...I have lots of twin stuff here: http://dakotapam.com/life-twins/ so spread the word with your twin friends!

    Your girls are adorable! I see that they have a similar hair disparity as my girls!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have got some of the best ideas Pam!! Thanks for letting me borrow some of them for my girls!
      Your girls are absolutely adorable as well!!! =) Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
  8. I hope you don't mind but I Pinterested your picture of the sensory play in the tub- great idea!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!