Tag Archives: sensory play

Kinetic Sand Play

Leave a reply

When we were in Florida for Christmas, we took Buddy to the beach. He had the best time playing in the sand. We would fill a bucket together, make a sand castle, and then knock it down. Buddy loved this activity!

*Disclaimer- This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Now that we’re back in the Great White North, I’ve been looking for ideas for fun indoor activities. I came across this recipe for DIY Kinetic Sand from Baby First Blog and immediately thought of our Florida beach fun. We had an open bag of play sand in our garage, so I had everything I needed on hand. Kinetic sand has the properties of wet sand, which means it is easy to mold. I was hoping that it would be less messy (it wasn’t) and more fun (it was!) than regular sand.

I doubled the recipe and used two cups of sand. The next time we do this, I will probably prepare at least another two cups for play. The recipe said to let dry for a couple hours, but I let mine out over night. It was a little dry, so I added a little more water before we started playing.

I set out the kinetic sand and a few tools in a pan for Buddy. He was so excited when he saw the it!

We recreated the same play activities that we did on the beach in Florida. I had a small pot from his water/sand table that we filled with sand. Just like on the beach, we filled, dumped, and knocked down our towers over and over. Every time we made a new sand tower, Buddy was in awe!

And then he immediately wanted to knock it down!

Buddy did a great job of keeping most of the sand in the pan. He actually was much neater with this activity that he is when we do our rice sensory bin. The kinetic sand kept Buddy entertained for over a half hour! It was a bit messy, but Buddy had so much fun, it was worth it.

I’m hoping to do some more sensory bins this winter. If you have any good ideas, I’d love to hear them!

Open the Barn Door Animal Activity

1 Reply

Disclaimer – this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you choose to purchase something using these links, I will receive a small commission. 

Even though my themed summer days are over, I still want to do some Time to Read Tuesday activities. Right now, Buddy is really into lift the flap books, so I chose Open the Barn Door to read. Buddy loves the flaps and the animals in this book! We read it together before I showed him the animal activity.

I put together a farm play area with some farm animal toys, the bucket from our Fisher Price Baby’s First Blocks, and some “hay” made of shredded paper. Buddy loves his farm animal toys and putting things in different containers, so I knew he’d enjoy this activity. I wasn’t sure how he’d react to the shredded paper, but I thought it would be a fun sensory activity for him.

Buddy was excited when he first saw the farm scene, but he wasn’t sure about the shredded paper. He started by just pulling out all of the animals out of the paper. He didn’t want to touch the paper at all! As he pulled out the animals, we talked about the animal’s name and found it in the book.

Animal activity first

Wow! Look at all these animals!

Checking out the cow in the book.

Checking out the cow in the book.

After I pulled out the red bucket from the paper, Buddy immediately started filling it up with animals. His favorite thing to do with these animals is to put them in their tube and spill them out again, so I figured he’d be interested in doing that with a different container. He spent a lot of time filling up the bucket with the animals and pouring it on himself.

Animals in bucket

I was amazed that Buddy wasn’t interested in the paper at all. We did our activity in the kitchen because I expected a huge mess. In fact, if I hadn’t interfered at all, Buddy would have just played with the animals and ignored the paper. But I wanted Buddy to explore in the paper, so I took his animals and buried them in the “hay”. He initially was nervous about digging in the paper to get them, but eventually he started having fun with the paper too.

Having fun with shredded paper

Playing with paper

Paper everywhere

In the end, it did make a mess, but it was easy to sweep up. Buddy had a lot of fun with his animals and a new sensory material. If you have any other ideas for sensory bins, please share in the comments. I hope to do another one soon.

Easter Egg Musical Shakers

Leave a reply

The first week of school is finally over, and things are starting to settle down. Thankfully, that means I’ll have a little more time for fun, new activities with Buddy and blogging about them.

I first made these Easter egg shakers last Easter. He loves anything that makes sounds, so I filled his eggs with different materials. (I knew if he found eggs and they didn’t make sound, he wouldn’t be interested in them.) I filled the eggs with different materials. Some had a couple bells, some had pony beads, and some had rice. Buddy loved them and were a highlight of our Easter celebration.  At the time, I sealed them with Gorilla Glue, but Buddy broke into all of them. Since the fillings are a choking hazard, I had to put them away until they could be fixed.

Easter

Buddy last Easter. He’s so little here!

Last weekend, I finally got around to fixing the Easter Egg Shakers. I used superglue to seal three of the eggs. The other two eggs were left empty, so Buddy can take them apart and put them together. I put all of the eggs in an old egg carton because I know how much Buddy loves putting things in containers.

Buddy was so excited to see the eggs, and he immediately started shaking them. He loves the different sounds they make! He was a little disappointed with the empty eggs, but it was fun for him to figure out which ones were musical.

Egg shakers

Buddy really enjoyed putting the eggs in the egg carton and taking them out again. He also liked opening and closing the carton. The egg carton definitely enhanced his playtime with the eggs.

Egg sorting

After a little while, Buddy  decided to start pouring them over his head like he did with the balls in the muffin tin. (Is it just my kid that thinks this is fun?)

Pouring eggs on head

Buddy and I had a lot of fun with the eggs, and the egg carton made them easy to store until our next playtime. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fill the last few eggs with different sounds soon.

A Week of One Year Old Activities

Leave a reply

This week, we’ve had house guests for the holiday, so we’ve been busy cleaning and entertaining. Buddy and I didn’t have our normal schedule this week, but we were still able to have lots of fun.

Most of the things we did this week were too small for me to do a whole blog post on that activity.  However, we did do a lot of fun things.  I thought a list of quick and easy  activities might be useful for other parents. I know I’m constantly looking for ideas for keeping Buddy entertained.

This week we have:

  • Played in our water tableWater table play
  • Watched fireworks
  • Played with glow in the dark bracelets
  • Swung on swingsSwings
  • Played with homemade playdough
  • Colored with crayons
  • Made pictures with stickers
  • Tried to put lids on containersPutting on lid
  • Crawled in the grass
  • Blown and popped bubbles
  • Put pom poms in an ice cube trayIce cube tray and poms
  • Rediscovered forgotten toys
  • Tossed a beach ball with a friend
  • Crawled in a tunneltunnel play
  • Went on walks around the neighborhood
  • Pushed around in the laundry basket
  • Played in a rice sensory binRice bin
  • Decorated a window with gel clings
  • Built towers and knocked them over
  • Put pom poms in a paper towel tubePom Pom Tube
  • Crawled on and helped to deflate an air mattress
  • Made and ate pudding
  • Played with a stack of lidsLids in high chair
  • Read books
  • “Helped” with laundry (put dirty towels in laundry basket and pulled out clean socks into a pile for matching)
  • Played with friends

This week, we have gone to:

  • Story time at Barnes and Noble
  • The grocery store and rode on the horse
  • Shedd Aquarium
  • Two different parks
  • The library

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy preparing for our upcoming trip to Utah and California. I hope to finish and blog about those projects soon!

Now that we’ve reached the weekend, I’m ready to find new activities to do with Buddy. If you have any fun and easy ideas for young kids, I’d love to hear them!

 

 

 

Cornstarch and Water Sensory Play

1 Reply

This week, I wanted to try a new sensory activity for Try Something New Thursday. I first saw the idea of playing with cornstarch and water at Fun at Home with Kids. I knew this activity would be messy, but I was willing to deal with the mess to have a little fun.

I mixed some cornstarch and water in a glass pan. I didn’t measure what I put in. I started with a little water, and I kept adding until it was just slightly runny. It was a great slimy texture that was somewhat solid and somewhat liquid.

I started by giving Buddy the pan while he was still in his highchair. It was less messy in this setup, but it was hard for Buddy to actually play while strapped into the seat. I decided to embrace the mess, so I grabbed a towel and moved the activity to the kitchen floor.

cornstarch and water

Buddy was a little timid at first, but he was definitely interested in feeling the mixture. It didn’t take long before he was digging in with both hands.

cornstarch and water 3cornstarch and water 2

It was a huge mess, but it was worth it. Buddy had a great time playing with the cornstarch mixture. He loved spattering it around the towel. Eventually he pulled the pan and set it in his lap, so he could get easier access to the good stuff.

cornstarch and water 4

Originally, I thought about doing this activity in the bathtub. I decided against it because I knew I needed to clean my kitchen floor and do a load of laundry today anyway. However, I might do it in a tub next time, because Buddy definitely needed a bath after our play time was done. We both had a good time, though, so the mess was worth it.

Edible Finger Paint

Leave a reply

This week for Make it Monday, I made edible finger paint for Buddy. Since I haven’t done finger painting with Buddy before, I wanted an edible recipe in case Buddy wanted to taste it.  I found this recipe from Meri Cherry that used only yogurt and food coloring.  For each color, I used a couple spoonfuls of plain yogurt and two drops of food coloring. (For the purple, I did one drop of blue and one drop of red.)

I put the paint in a muffin tin to make it easy for Buddy to reach all of the different colors. I also used painters tape to tape down a piece of paper, so the paper would stay in one place.

Edible Finger Paint 6

Buddy put his fingers into the paint right away. He was very interested in the paint, but he wasn’t as interested in putting it on the paper. After I showed him how to put the paint on the paper, he starting putting paint on the paper too.

Edible Finger Paint 2

Trying to figure out how to finger paint.

Edible Finger paint 3

Having lots of fun.

Buddy had a great time playing with the paint, especially in the tin. Once he realized he could make a noise by banging the muffin tin against the counter, he had a great time doing that as well.

I can make a lot of noise with this tin!

I can make a lot of noise with this tin!

Ooh - paint is so squishy!

Ooh – paint is so squishy!

This turned out as a great sensory activity. Buddy enjoyed seeing the colors, feeling the cool paint, and hearing the noise of the clanging tin. He didn’t taste the paint, but it would have been fine if he tried it. Even though the actual painting was a mess, I still think it was a great activity.

Making Rain Sensory Activity

2 Replies

Since today’s weather forecast showed afternoon thunderstorms, I planned to do our Water Wednesday activity inside and decided to use the theme of rain. (Of course, we ended up having a sunny day, but it was way too hot to play outside so the inside activity worked out.)

While Buddy was napping, I used a hammer and nail to poke holes in the bottom of two plastic cups. I also pulled out pans made of several different materials, and put water in one of them. I wanted Buddy to be able to hear the different sound that the “rain” made when it hit different surfaces. (He loves things that make sound, so I knew the sound factor would increase his enjoyment of the activity.) I put water in a glass pan, and then I also pulled out an aluminum foil pain, a metal baking pan, and a plastic tupperware. I put everything on a beach towel because I knew there would be spilled water, and I wanted to minimize the amount that would need to be mopped up at the end.

Making rain set up

Buddy loved this activity. He loved the water, and he especially loved the sounds. The “rain” on the aluminum pan was his favorite! It was a huge mess, though. Buddy had trouble keeping the cup upright so the water would rain out the bottom instead of pouring out the top. He also had a tendency to pour it out the top of the cup onto himself (as shown in the photo below). He didn’t mind getting wet though!

Making rain 1

After awhile, Buddy started to have fun stacking and unstacking the two cups. Some day, I’ll just have to pull out a bunch of these cups and let him play. (He has his own set of stacking cups that he loves, but I think this was fun because they were new cups and could stack in any order.)

making rain 2

Although Buddy struggled with using the cups to consistently make rain, I would still call this activity a huge success. He was laughing and smiling and having so much fun! I think this was his favorite activity of the summer so far! We will definitely be pulling these materials out again soon.

Making rain 3