Oh, how I love me a good sensory bin. When Miss G was a toddler, we were sensory bin QUEENS. Seriously though. We probably had a minimum of two sensory bins going on any given day. She loved them, I loved them, and they come with SO many benefits, so we just ran with it.
Well, as soon Sam started digging in our freshly planted container garden, I knew exactly what we needed to put together for him – a gardening sensory bin! A place where he’d be free to dig, fill, plant, and rake to his heart’s content.
So that’s exactly what we did.
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Here’s what it included:
– potting soil (the plainest, nothing added soil the store had)
– several small pots from the seedlings we’d purchased for our garden
– some dried beans for seeds
– plant tags from our seedlings
– faux tulips
We also used the double bin method that I often use with Sam (my boy who can destroy an entire room in approximately 30 seconds flat). It’s not a perfect system, but it does help contain the sensory bin filler (in this case, soil) and the extra space can also be used to house materials you want nearby, but not necessarily right in the sensory bin itself. This is our go-to small sensory bin and this is my beloved jumbo sensory bin.
As I usually do when introducing an open-ended activity, I sort of just sat back and observed from the get-go.
Now he had spent the last few days helping Grae and I transplant seedlings into containers, but it was the sweetest thing to watch him carefully fill his pot with soil and then stick a flower in the centre.
Before long, Miss G joined in. I’m always more than happy to let her enjoy activities I’ve set up with Sam in mind, but I do sometimes like him to get a stab at it first – before seeing how his big sister would interact with the materials.
Now I don’t know whose idea it was, but once Grae joined in it wasn’t very long before one of our pump pressure water sprayers came into play. {Side note: I looove these for gardening with kids as I feel like they make it hard to over water or hurt the seedling with a flow that’s too strong.}
Of course once the water came into play, a whole lot of drinking and showering came along with it – hah!
Just for fun, let’s take a look at the last time I did a gardening sensory bin for Miss G, shall we? This was back in October of 2014 {so Grae was just over 4 years old} in the courtyard of our apartments in Kuwait. I took the photos for the purpose of sharing them here on the site, but never got around to it {#storyofmylife}. Her bin was similar, but included the CUTEST white picket fence and tiny wooden ladybugs. Also, those lilacs? Beautiful. {Still sad that I had to leave so many fun things behind when we moved home.}
Aw, my sweet baby girl!!
You can also see another gardening sensory bin we did when Miss G was just a year old here. My gosh – the concentration and determination in that video just kills me!
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While we made 
Here’s what we used for the project… Eggshells (washed well), craft glue, googly eyes, quick sprouting seeds of some sort (we went with radishes), a couple of Sharpies, and some soil.
Gracen started off by gluing a pair of googly eyes to each eggshell using craft glue and a Q-tip.
After letting the eyes dry a little bit, she used Sharpies to add on little button noses and pink smiles.
Then we carefully set all of the little egg heads into an empty carton, making sure to be mindful of the still slightly wet eyes.
Using a small spoon, Miss G then filled each of the egg heads with potting soil.
Next up was the addition of seeds. While you should probably only plant a couple of seeds in the space an eggshell provides, one or two sprouts wouldn’t make for a very good head of hair. With that in mind, Gracen sprinkled them generously. 
Then she covered them with another sprinkling of soil and patted the surfaces down with her finger tips.
One of our last steps was finding them a good, safe spot with lots of sunlight, so on a crate in front of our living room window it was. Grae gave them a good misting, and we hoped for the best. (When having kids water seeds, I always opt for using a spray bottle. It’s fun, it’s great for motor skill development, and it’s nearly impossible to overwater.)
Counting the afternoon we planted as day one, here’s what we had on days 3 and 4. Not bad, right?
And here’s after a couple more days…
By day 7 (today), here’s what we have. Little egg heads with wild green hair. Before long, it’ll be time for a 
Though our little miss is normally a rockstar sleeper, Grandma Charlotte is staying with us right now and sleep is difficult when excitement levels are running this high. After a tough time getting to sleep last night, today’s nap didn’t happen. And a skipped nap in this house is not just an ‘oh well’… This little lady needs her naps. Desperately. Our coping mechanism to get through the afternoon as gracefully as possible? Getting outside and soaking in some fresh air and sunshine. It just so happens that today it was in the {yet to be planted} garden in pajamas. White ones.
I’ve seen 
This afternoon we took out our crate, opened it up, and found all of the materials needed to put together a window garden. Needless to say, my little gardening enthusiast was thrilled.
Included was a clearly laid out instruction card complete with diagrams, and a sweet little observation booklet for Miss G to draw in. 
We carefully set up the garden, referring back to the instruction card after each step. Gracen, Miss ‘Let’s Do a Project!’, loved it and took her work very seriously.
With the exception of really making sure the suction cups were stuck to the window and printing the words “mint” and “basil”, Grae was able to do everything on her own, which was lovely.
We now have a sweet little garden set up right in our living room and I can’t wait to help Grae water it each day and watch as our fresh herbs grow. ☺
It may be the first of October, but the flowers in our front gardens would never let you know it. Today Miss G took some time to sniff her way around our yard and comment on each of the flowers she found – “Dis one soooo beautiful, Mama!”. 
We returned home from vacation to a garden overflowing with goodies. Judging by the repetitive “More baby green balls, please!”, these are Grae’s new favourite.
garden goodies round 1 // garden goodies round 2
About time for a hairdo of some sort, I’d say. So while Gracen napped, I set up a little play invitation for her. I gathered up some hair goodies, a couple of elastics, and an old hairbrush and set them all out on her table along with her grasshead.
She wasted no time getting started. She climbed up on the chair, and got busy trying to put the clips in. It wasn’t easy, but with a little bit of help, she put every single clip in the grasshead’s hair.
That is, until she decided she’d wear it instead!
Afterwards, I helped her make little grass pigtails. She thought it was completely hilarious and kept stroking her own pigtails and then pointing to those belonging to the grasshead.
And this is what we did for much of our afternoon:
Gracen sat up on her chair, hydrangea right beside her, and told me all about how it was “Grae Grae’s” flower (as she did her little sniff sniff nose), how it was purple, and how it was from her Manmaw.
Dandelion puff collection.
A serious sunhat.
Missing hands and feet.
Freshly bloomed.
Dirty little hands.
Afternoon snacks.
Watermelon monster.
Garden investigating.
Homegrown strawberries in progress.
Lawn rolling.
Pussywillow plucking.
A shoe full.
A teeny friend.
Guess who arrived tonight… And guess who is up past her bedtime chomping on a slice of watermelon while showing Manmaw our {blossom-covered} garden…
I absolutely adore how magical the little things are when seen through Gracen’s eyes.