Toddler Sensory Play

Welcome ICLW readers!  Today I wanted to share some of our best sensory play ideas!  


As busy as the boys are lately, we have had to work extra hard to keep them occupied (a.k.a. from tearing the house apart).  I have been loving all the great sensory activities for kids and we are trying to give them an opportunity to explore and try out new things whenever we can.  Of course, I can't wait until the weather is a little bit nicer so that we can take the exploration outdoors, if only to save a bit on the amounts of cleanup.

I thought I would share some of the activities that have been a hit so far.

I've been given tons of great ideas from Twin Talk.  To start off with, I found a Tupperware container to make our sensory bin with.  We first tried an assortment of lima beans with measuring cups.  The boys loved it, but it quickly became a game of seeing how many they could stuff in their mouths and laughing when I freaked out.  End of game.

Next I decided to try it with rice because it wasn't as worrisome if they were to eat it (also I expected they would think it was gross).  Nope, they still put it in their mouth, but they also spent a lot of time pouring, running their hands through it, and stirring.  That is, until MJ realized he could pick up handfuls of it and throw it on the floor outside of our clean mat area.  Oh well.  This one was quite messy, but it was worth it as the rice could be easily cleaned up.  Next time, though, I would probably do it outside.

As an old standby, I keep trying playdoh, but they still really aren't quite into it.  RJ will sit for quite a while.  He always makes a face of disgust with the first touch of it, but eventually he enjoys himself.  (MJ usually just throws his on the floor, surprise, surprise).

One of the most successful activities so far has been finger paint!  I did not do this one with the boys, but let my nanny do it on a rainy day when they were stuck indoors.  The paint was a simple edible homemade paint of flour, water and food colouring.  We put a dollar store vinyl table cloth on the floor and covered the table in butcher paper.  Apparently, at first RJ didn't like the feeling, but eventually they both got into it and created some beautiful paintings.  I will keep these ones for sure!

So there you have it!  I'm working on some "Easter" themed activities to teach the boys colours and shapes.  They seem to be slow to catch on, so I think my ideas are a little too advanced for them yet, but I'll keep trying and I'm sure we will get there soon enough.  I'll share those next time!