Our rice-filled, Japenese-themed sensory bin was such a hit with the little girls at Gracen’s 3rd birthday party, we decided to bring it out to enjoy again today. We brought a soft blanket, parked ourselves in the shade of a big tree on the far side of the yard, and Grae snuck in the calm, quiet time she quite desperately needed in order to regroup after a couple of busy people-filled days (if you’ve yet to try it, slowly running your hands through dry, cool rice is quite therapeutic).
The last few days have been hectic. With only 5 days to pack up our entire house and prepare for our first of two upcoming moves, Brad and I have been working at full steam sorting through things, preparing boxes of items we’ll need for August, boxes that will go straight to Kuwait, and boxes that will go into storage until we return home to Canada in a few years. Sort of sadly, that leaves our little lady to play independently almost all day long most days. As a result, I’ve been pulling together all kinds of random, super simple activities with whichever everyday materials are nearby at the moment. Luckily for me, this morning as I popped on the internet for a brief moment, there was a discussion on different ways to use fresh mint going on in one of the awesome blogger networks I belong to (if you’re not already one of the 68 000 people that follow our Pinterest board, you certainly should be!) We have loads of mint growing in our backyard, so I took a bunch of the suggestions, mashed them together and created this fresh mint soup station for Miss G to explore.
To start out, I set out a big bunch of fresh mint, a pair of Gracen’s scissors, and few plastic bowls and spoons. Grae began smelling and cutting and ripping the mint and the amazing scent of fresh mint filled our house. She dished out bowls of ‘salad’ and delivered them to us as we worked.
Before long, I sensed that something would have to be added to the mix in order to keep Grae engaged in her play, so I grabbed a small container of green glitter and a jug filled with water and a couple drops of green food colouring and quietly added them to the bin. (Slowly adding elements to sensory bins as play progresses is one of my favourite tips for keeping munchkins engaged in their play.)
In no time at all, bowls of sparkly green soup were rolling out of Gracen’s fresh mint kitchen.
Looks delicious, right?
This was such a simple set-up, but Grae enjoyed it so much that I just tidied it up to make it look inviting again, and I’m leaving it out overnight for Miss G to enjoy again tomorrow. We’ll see how the mint lasts!
♥
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On the way home from a little mama/daughter photo shoot today, Gracen asked if we could build a duck pond. I’m not sure where how or why this request came about, but I was as game as she was.
It’s been a while since we’ve put together a new sensory bin and what I loved this time around was that instead of me putting something together for her to explore and investigate, we created this one together. Very similar to a frog pond sensory bin we’ve played with before, our duck pond sensory bin included glass beads in blues and greens, rocks, driftwood, some flowered branches from the yard, and a couple of toy ducks we already had on hand.
In order to make it outdoor-friendly, the pond’s water was nice and warm.
So warm apparently that Miss G didn’t mind getting her entire body soaking wet.
Grae played for a little while before moving onto more exciting things with Grandma Charlotte, but I know she’ll get lots more play out of it once the excitement level gets back to normal around here.
♥
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I loved this simple variation on the usual cloud dough, and today I simplified it even further for some messy morning sensory play with the cousins. To create some “snow dough” of our own, I simply made our usual cloud/moon dough and dumped in a couple of small bottles of silvery light blue glitter. A fun way to kickstart the New Year, right?
Though I could have added more festive / wintery items (mini evergreen trees, plastic animals, snowman accessories, etc.) to the sensory bin, I just stuck to the usuals this time around… Plastic cups, bowls, spoons, and cookie cutters and the kiddos loved it.
Three of the four munchkins were very eager to join.
Let the fun begin!
The sparkles are hard to see, but if you look closely, you should be able to spot them.
Kinslee digging in.
The fourth monkey just couldn’t resist the fun.
Snow dough toes. ☺
Korbin was a master moulder.
A girl who isn’t afraid to get messy.
Snow dough smoothie, anyone?
Experimenting with snow dough snowmen…
A safer building site.
Snowballs stacked.
Ummm, Grae… What happened to your hair?
Who says the snow dough has to stay in the bin?
Mission accomplished!
This explains things.
Sparkly Snow Dough (we doubled this recipe for a group of 4 children)
Mix with your hands or a whisk until ingredients are evenly distributed. Play!
♥
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After making each of her little dance class friends a mini mason jar filled with pink sparkly slime, plus giving out another 40 slime packets at Strong Start this morning, Gracen was excited to get her hands on a batch or two of her own. So today, between the Halloween festivities, we carved out some time in the afternoon to set up a very simple little slime station.
Here’s how we set up the station… Slime in three colours, a handful of small containers, a strainer spoon, a sand sifting shovel, plastic cutlery, some bowls all on a plastic tray.
Gracen quickly settled on the blanket next to her tray and began exploring. She wasn’t so sure about really diving in at first, but before too long she was picking up full batches of slime at a time and watching them slip and stretch out of her hands.
What I like so much about this sort of slime (besides how cool it is to play with), is that despite the fact that it looks like it can get pretty messy, it’s very easy to tidy. Because it acts more like a solid when removed from little people, dishes, and blankets, it just kind of clumps up and comes away clean. Plus, it doesn’t stain skin and it washes off of clothes and blankets without any effort. Messy play being easy to tidy? A definite win in my books.
♥
Okay, so I know that we are very likely the last ever play-lovin’ people to jump aboard the water bead train, but we’ve finally done it. And they’re awesome.
The truth is, while I’ve known that they could be purchased online, I was hoping to just ‘bump’ into them one day while doing some shopping. I know this is ridiculous, but I’ve had my eyes peeled for months while at children’s stores and teaching stores, but of course I’ve had no luck finding them in those places… Am I the only person on the face of the planet that did not know what water beads were actually intended for?! Here I was, thinking that they were some sort of revolutionary sensory-based material designed especially for play, when they are actually intended for using in flower vases and readily available at florists and in the floral sections of craft and dollar stores. Duh! My bad…
That is until we were picking up a couple of lily-esque flowers for a pond sensory bin in our local dollar store the other day… Sure enough, there they were. Squishy, shiny, smooth marbles packed in small containers of water. Non-toxic and environmentally safe. Score! I may have been a little overly excited given the situation… But hey, what can I say?
We first used them during our recent messy play date and today we took them outside again in a simple water bead sensory bin. Miss G requested the water beads be in pink water, so pink water it was. We gathered up a few kitchen goodies (a slotted spoon is a must) and headed outside.
The coolest thing is that because these particular beads are clear, they’re nearly invisible when in water (especially in non-coloured water).
Then you put your hands in the bin expecting just water and discover a squishy, slippery surprise. (Of course, Gracen already knew what to expect, but apparently it still felt wonderful enough to get elbow deep in the bin.)
Catching them while in water can be a little tricky, but it’s a big part of the fun.
That’s where a slotted spoon comes in handy (especially one of this size). Grae quickly realized how much easier it made collecting her bouncy water beads and got to work filling up her tray.
Of course, what fun is a sensory bin without squishing your toes in it?
A few things to keep in mind about water beads… Firstly, though they’re non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally safe, they {obviously} should not be ingested. Also, from what I’ve read, they clog drains quite badly, so if you set up a water bead station in your bath tub or sink, be sure to use one of those mesh drain inserts to make sure none of them slip down into your pipes. Lastly, they will dehydrate over time if left out of water. Either store them in a sealed container with a little bit of water, or if they do dry out, simply soak them in water for 8 to 12 hours to rehydrate them.
I have a feeling there’s a lot of water bead fun in our future… Brad and I picked up several packages of the dehydrated kind while on a little date night to the Summer Night Market last week, so we’ve got a stock pile of red, purple, pink, aqua, and multicoloured ones ready to go. I’ve already got a million ways to use them floating around in my head… How fun would setting up a bubble tea station be? Or putting them into a big container of thick shaving foam? What about mixing them up with glow sticks and playing with them in the dark or creating a Halloween sensory bin filled with water beads, slime, and creepy crawlies? I feel a Pinterest visit coming on very soon… ☺
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Gracen loves “helping” wash dishes so much, I decided to turn it into a little afternoon activity today. While having a toddler standing on a chair beside you splashing in a sink of bubbles as you power through a load as fast as humanly possible isn’t always super convenient, this activity was easy and fun for everyone involved.
We got started by collecting some supplies we had around the house – a bin filled with warm soapy water, a dish drying rack, some plastic dishes, cups, and spoons, a nearly empty dish soap container topped up with water, some scrubber pads, steel wool, a dish brush, and a dish towel. In no time at all, we had an inviting little dishwashing station ready to go!
I asked Grae if she wanted to play, and she got going without hesitation. All dishes in the sink!
Without a doubt, squeezing the soap into the bin was her favourite part.
She scrubbed and washed each dish one at a time…
And when they met her expectations, they were added to the drying rack.
Though she was down to business for part of the activity, things got silly and wet too!
This station was a total hit and I can definitely see it becoming a regular in our play rotation. After all, what’s not to love about bubbles, water, splashing, scrubbing, and getting soaking wet on a warm day?
Summer has finally arrived in the Lower Mainland and it’s getting h.o.t. (no complaining here – we love it). Being that we like to be outside for the majority of the day (and our little old house heats up like an oven), there needs to be some sort of relief so that Miss G doesn’t overheat. So, when we’re not at a pool, beach, or water park, we’re most likely in the backyard playing with water, ice, or a combination of both. Today, we gathered a few things and put together an ocean sensory bin to splash around in.
Some rocks, a handful of seashells, a few pieces of driftwood, a fistful of greens plucked from the garden, a few floating sea creatures, and a couple drops of food colouring, and you’ve got yourself a mini ocean in your backyard.
These ocean creatures are so neat. We found them for $1.25 each and they have the coolest squishy / stretchy / rubbery texture to them. They feel eerily realistic.
Gracen dove in, and thought it was pretty hilarious that I’d set the crocodile up on a piece of driftwood. She experimented with taking him off and balancing him back on again, and once she’d pretty much mastered it, she moved on to balancing the dolphin and whale atop driftwood islands of their own.
Of course, there was plenty of swimming involved too.
She was just getting started on emptying the ocean out onto the towel when we heard a clattering coming around the side of the house… Grandma Charlotte and her friend, Judy, had arrived for an afternoon visit! And with all kinds of special gifts for Miss G, no less. Needless to say, our ocean fun came to a halt. Presents to open and and Manmaws to visit take priority, obviously. As they should. ☺
♥
Knowing that we were expecting a string of scorchers (for Vancouver, at least) here in the city, I prepped this sunny day activity a couple of days ago so it would be ready to go when the mood struck. All it took was a bunch of ice cube trays, a little food colouring, and some freezer space.
I know that some may wonder why on Earth I have so many shaped ice cube trays, and the only explanation I really have is – I’m a Kindergarten teacher. (They’re great for counting, sorting, AND making homemade soaps for Mother’s Day!) No, they’re not what we use on a regular basis. In fact, we have 8 regular ice cube trays in our freezer at this very moment. And while regular ice cubes would work just as well, I decided to pull out the fun ones to add some interest to our ice play.
With the ice cubes frozen and ready to go, I quickly gathered up a few kitchen goodies to accompany the ice. Some cups, a couple of spoons, and a spatula to mix, scoop, and stir with, and a jug, a squirt bottle, and spritzer {each filled with coloured water} to melt the ice and make “soup” with.
Gracen was pretty anxious to get her hands into this bin and didn’t hesitate to put her water reserves to good use.
Mmmmmm…. Soup!
With the soup ready to go, the tasting began. We did have to explain that she couldn’t put the small cubes right into her mouth, but she was more than happy to just lick the bigger cubes. Not as thrilled, was Papa, Grae’s official soup taste tester – yuuuummy!
Full of soup, it was time to climb in. Brrrrr! For being as cold as it was, she lasted a surprisingly long time in there.
With frozen feet, it was time to climb out, defrost those tootsies, and water the lawn a little…
And not long after, this is all we had left of our ice sensory bin…
Though this sensory bin doesn’t lend itself to repetitive use like most do, it’s easy to set up and so refreshing on a hot summer’s day that we’ll definitely be enjoying it again very soon. Bring on the heat!
♥
Today we gathered up some supplies, transferred the rice we dyed yesterday into a bin, and headed out into the backyard for some fun.
Gracen helped me pick out the items to add to our rainbow rice sensory bin. We kept things pretty simple today… Spoons, containers, cups, and a teapot (hmm… I wonder whose selection that was!)
First job – take everything out and get those colours mixed together!
The result? Rainbow rice!
Soooo beautiful!
Next job – filling up every single container in sight.
And then things got wild. For a while, it was raining rice, and shortly after the whole bucket tipped over, Grae still inside. The good thing was that Miss G found picking it all up and putting it back in the bin just as fun as dumping it in the first place.
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I was beyond thrilled when I stumbled upon Happy Hooligans a couple of weeks ago. Jackie, the woman behind the blog runs an in-home daycare and is all about old-fashioned play, open-ended exploration, and letting kiddos get down and dirty. My kind of gal! Upon scrolling through her posts, I immediately knew that this activity would be a huge hit with Miss G. The only problem was that I wanted to surprise Grae with it on a sunny day.
Well, today that day finally arrived! I laid a blanket out in our backyard, filled a bin with some warm, soapy water, added a couple of drops of blue food colouring, and we had a bath. Next, I collected a couple of wash cloths, hand towels, a tooth brush, a hair brush, a bath poof (that’s my technical term), a water-filled mister, and a couple nearly empty soap bottles topped up with water. Gracen’s contribution was her naked and nearly 50 year old baby doll that used to be mine and was Grandma Sue’s before that. Voila – a baby bath station!
On a side note, have I ever mentioned the fact that there are 7 people living in the basement suite of our house? Because there is. Well 7 permanent residents, plus a few of extended family members that are around A LOT. In a suite that is probably fit for 2 or 3 college students who don’t care to cook. And while they’re quite nice, having that many people living below us can be quite challenging at times… The constant come and go, picking up after 5 children other than our own (in a yard that is supposed to be entirely ours), and the noise… Oh, the noise!
Why am I mentioning all this in a post about a baby bath station, you wonder? Well, because the middle child of the 5, a sweet little girl who is 6 years old, has taken quite a liking to Gracen and the activities I set up for her. For the past month or two, it seems like the moment we head out into the yard, she comes running up the stairs to join us. And while I really don’t mind including her and watching her for an hour here or there, it sometimes makes new activities fall a little flat. Because she’s several years older, she dives into new activities without a thought. But Grae, on the other hand, needs a little time to cautiously explore and figure things out before really getting into some things. The result is that Gracen sits backs and watches, doesn’t get involved, and then moves on to something else entirely.
Needless to say, today’s sensory bin got off to a bit of slow start. Gracen was really excited to get started, and had some fun, but once it became difficult to get her hands on any of the goodies, she sat back, watched, and soon decided she’d rather do something else while her little friend enjoyed her new baby bath.
I felt bad, but after a little while, I politely dismissed us from the backyard and shifted our things over to the solarium. The perk with having to move? The solarium was so nice and warm that the little lady was able to don her tankini. With a little more space to move and explore, Gracen really got into it.
There was washing, scrubbing, hair brushing, and grooming… And before long, our little fishy went for a bath of her own. It was inevitable, really.
Soon it became a bath a tooth brushing station for two.
Probably the favourite part of the whole station though, was this little one dollar purple spray bottle.
Somehow, over an hour in, our little bath station shifted gears a little…
With baby’s hair groomed just so, Gracen wanted her hair done too. She asked for a ponytail, quickly changed her mind to two ponies, and by the time she was done with the pack of elastics, she wanted eight. This was the result. She thought it was pretty hilarious and asked me to take photo after photo, just so she could see herself on the camera’s display.
Overall, this new sensory experience was a huge hit. When all was said and done, Gracen was clean, smiley, and sufficiently pruned.
Always looking for new, fun sensory bin ideas, I stumbled upon this webpage last week. Since Grae is such a little bird lover, I knew that a bird-themed sensory bin would be a total hit. We already had huge bag of bird seed on hand for our feathery friends who live in the backyard, and throughout the week, I went about collecting little extras. Everything needed was very inexpensive and was found at our local dollar stores, but would be available at craft stores too. The little birds are called ‘Mushroom Birds’ (I have no idea why, but they are) and can be found where fake flowers are sold. The nests are formed with faux moss (also found in a fake flower section), the flower branches are held in place by folding the branch over and anchoring it in the seeds, and the pinecones were borrowed from one of Gracen’s many collections. The little wooden bird house was painted by the little lady a few days ago, which was a fun activity in itself. With all of our items collected, I assembled everything during today’s nap and had it ready to go as a fun little afternoon surprise.
Gracen literally couldn’t get out the door fast enough when I told her I had something fun for us to do outside. And when she saw the birds? There was a serious squeal of excitement. She immediately set about exploring the nests, moving the birds from place to place, and filling the bird house with seed.
Shortly after, the birds started flying! Accompanied by little ‘whooshing’ sounds, they zipped through the air doing dives, spins, and figure eights. Hilarious.
Then it was time to empty the bin so that there was plenty of space for hand burying.
After selecting the very best peanuts from the mix, Gracen took the time to hand feed each bird. She tapped the peanut onto the birds’ beaks, and naturally, each responded with an enthusiastic “nom-a-nom-a-neh”.
With all of the birds properly cared for, it was time for the real fun. Gracen’s sensory bin finale of sorts. Off came the shoes, and in went the munchkin! Needless to say, we had seeds everywhere.
And then this happened. Perhaps she’s working on a new grand finale? I don’t know, but all I can say is that I’m happy she chose to break me in with this new maneuver on a bird seed day instead of a cloud dough day.
♥
After our grasshead hairstyling session this afternoon, we headed out into the warmth of our solarium to explore something else I had set up during nap time… A new sensory bin! Truthfully, I wanted to create a construction sensory bin, but didn’t really have the materials I needed. I improvised and included some ‘building cups’, a shovel, a rake, a pumpkin scraper, and the one and only actual construction thing I could find – a little front loader. Of course, Gracen didn’t mind a bit that there wasn’t the variety of construction vehicles, workers, and signs that Mama had wanted. She got busy taking apart the towers, rebuilding them, scooping up pebbles, dumping them, and driving her little front loader up and down the rock hill. She did of course get into the bin and even tried laying down and rolling around in the pebbles this time around… Silly girl!
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I’d been waiting a long time to show Gracen the magic that is moon dough, and today was the perfect day. It just so happened we had white flour in the house and I randomly came across a half bottle of baby oil when organizing the bathroom cabinets… So it was kind of meant to be. Plus, it was plenty warm to be outside doing something messy, but not so beautiful that you wished you were sitting on the beach or beside an outdoor pool. Gracen helped me make the moon dough first, and then I transferred it into one of our empty sensory bins, gathered some fun stuff from around the kitchen, and brought everything into the backyard.
Gracen had wanted to get her hands into the dough from the time we started mixing the oil into the flour, so she was more than ready to get started.
She began by filling up the bowl and silicon baking cups one spoonful at a time and patted each one down when full, just as she does when making sandcastles at the beach. She quickly decided that the straws were the perfect ‘cake’ toppers. She’d carefully place them in one container, take a sideways glance, then move them to another, as if she were trying to get it just right. Turns out, the big bowl was the best place for all of them.
And though filling up the containers was fun in itself, she was extremely pleased with the discovery that she could tip them over to make little moon dough castles. (While the plastic bowl was harder, the silicon baking cups were perfect for this because she could give them a little squeeze and the castle would pop right out.) Of course smashing the castles was just as much fun as making them.
Next, we tried making some balls. She loved the finished product, but got frustrated with the fact that she couldn’t make them independently.
It didn’t matter too much though because in no time, she’d pushed all of the moon dough over to one side of the bin and started playing one of her very favourite sandbox games – ‘Where are Gracen’s hands?’
While the dough was all over on one side, we tried something else too – making imprints. Gracen pressed in the spoons and cups, and then we tried the same with our hands.
The best part though, happened when she got busy with the cookie cutters. She was fully enjoying pressing them into the dough and seeing the outlines they created when this happened… Puzzling! It took her a second, but she figured out. She tried to make it happen again afterwards, but sadly, no luck.
Of course, she ended the sensory box experience in her usual way… You should have seen the look on her face as the silky smooth dough smushed up in between her toes. Pure delight!
This sensory bin was ridiculously fun. Grae played with it for almost an hour and I can see us revisiting it very soon. The only thing I might do differently next time is either add more moon dough or use a smaller container so that there is a thicker base in the bin. And although I may be brave enough to try it indoors on a very rainy day (on a giant blanket in the kitchen), I think I’d rather keep this one outside as it’s just as messy as it is fun.
You can see Gracen’s beach, ocean, and gardening-themed bins by clicking on the links.
♥
During our afternoon in the backyard, I brought out another one of the sensory bins I recently put together for Gracen to explore. This one was beach-themed and included all of the beach treasures Gracen’s worked so hard to collect, as well as a few fancy shells from Grandma Charlotte and a mini shovel and rake.
After exploring both her ocean and gardening-themed bins, she knows exactly what these bins are all about now. She oohed and ahhed for a minute, and then got busy.
The first thing she did was scoop up sand and fill her bowl.
Then she flipped the giant shell and filled it up too.
When she was done with that, she decided it was time to take all of the shells out.
And once she had sufficiently patted the sand down, she placed each item back into the bin just so.
She was sure to place the driftwood pieces upright and called them her “trees”.
When she was all done, this is what her reorganized masterpiece looked like.
While she certainly enjoyed this beach sensory bin, it wasn’t as big of a hit as the others. Maybe it’s because we have a full-sized sandbox in the backyard, or maybe because we spend so much time down at the beach, but either way, it’ll be a great addition to the growing sensory box collection we have in our solarium and perfect for those times when Mama needs a few minutes and can’t be in the backyard with her girl.