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