Thanksgiving Sensory Bin

To make this colorful Thanksgiving Sensory Bin I used this method to dye my rice (except I forgot to add the water - it still worked out just fine, it just took a bit longer to mix!) I also added a few teaspoons of cinnamon and other fall spices to each bag. It smells so good! 

I filled a quart-sized bag with rice for each color. I used orange, yellow, orange mixed with yellow, and dark blue. I added some mini pumpkins, an ear of Indian corn, some feathers, and some mini pie tins. It looks so beautiful!

She has had fun scooping and pouring the rice. She likes it when I bury her hands or feet in the rice. It does make quite a mess, but we try to keep it contained to the tablecloth we use as a playmat. Then I can pour it back in!

Monster Ice Sensory Soup

Halloween-themed sensory fun! Just add some food coloring to water in an ice cube tray and float some googly eyes on the top. Pop them in the freezer. Once frozen, add to some clear water! You could use this as color mixing discovery play as well - use red water and blue ice, for example. Since we did multi-colored ice, our water turned brown.

Beatrix enjoyed whisking the soup, which caused the ice to melt fairly quickly.

She also practiced using her tongs to fish out eyeballs.

Happy Halloween! 

Halloween Sensory Bin

It has been awhile since my last post, but now that the weather is starting to get cooler again, I should be updating more regularly. We spent the summer outside, learning to slide and teeter-totter, jumping in puddles and going on walks. Beatrix's gross motor skills improved by leaps and bounds this summer as she explored the great outdoors! 

The birth of our son in December, coupled with more time indoors once winter comes, has got me planning easy (and somewhat quiet!) indoor activities to engage and occupy Beatrix. I picked up a nice tub at Walmart for about $10. to use as our sensory bin. It has a tray that fits on top that will come in handy for tools and utensils, and the lid snaps on securely. 

I put together our Halloween sensory bin with items from Dollar Tree!

• Tri-colored dried pasta noodles
• Pom-poms in various sizes
• Googly eyes of various sizes and colors
• Spider and bat rings

I dumped everything together, gathered some scooping and pouring tools, and waited for the perfect time to introduce this to Beatrix.

I laid a tablecloth out on the floor to give Beatrix a "boundary" as to where she needed to keep the little pieces and also for easy clean-up. I laid everything out while she was otherwise occupied and waited for her. Soon enough she came running over and was very interested in what she saw.

She spent time looking at each "ingredient" in the bin, and then moved on to testing each utensil. She took this as very serious work

After some time, I showed her how she could wear the rings. Beatrix enjoyed rolling the pom-poms between her hands and spent a lot of time doing this (and asking me to do the same.) We enjoyed playing and experimenting with the different materials together.

She thought it was funny to put the googly eyes over her own eyes.

Experimenting with rolling the pom-poms down her leg!

We spent a solid hour and a half playing with this sensory bin, so I'd say it was a big hit!

Thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon with some more fun ideas!

Cooking with a Toddler

Cooking with a toddler is crazy, messy, practical fun. The skills they learn and the memories they make while cooking will be something they carry with them their whole lives. 

Beatrix has been in the kitchen with me since a few days old. I would either wear her or she would sit in her bouncy chair while I cooked and explained to her everything I was doing. I still wear her a lot of the time while I cook, but more and more I am having her help me out! 

Above are pictures of some of Bea's previous cooking adventures.

Here are some things to keep in mind while cooking with a toddler:

1. Plan ahead. Gather all of your ingredients, you may also want to pre-measure everything into bowls like they do on cooking shows. You don't want to leave your child sitting on the counter where they may fall while you rummage in the pantry for a new bag of sugar. 
2. Let them try. Cooking is a perfect opportunity to help them hone their scooping, dumping, and stirring skills.
3. It is okay to make a mess. ^see above^ Your child's skills likely need some perfecting. Just accept the fact there will be a mess. Obviously you don't want flour thrown all over your kitchen, but if they are really trying to make it in the bowl, encourage them! Make sure they participate in cleaning the mess afterward!
4. Be ready for lots of touching. All these ingredients are interesting! Some are cold, some are sticky. Let them explore with their senses. If it is safe, allow them to taste. They should wash their hands before cooking, to avoid germs.
5. Keep them safe. This really should go without saying, but never let a toddler handle hot food or sharp utensils.

Today, Bea and I baked chocolate chip cookies. She helped stir the dry ingredients together, after she dumped in the flour I measured for her. In the middle picture she is tasting the butter. In the picture on the right she is sneaking some dough.

She helped me by putting handfuls of chocolate chips in the mixing bowl.

She may have eaten a few!

The look on her face says it all :) she is so proud of the cookies she helped to make!

Don't be afraid to let your toddler help you cook! The memories you will make are priceless.

Messy Monday: Valentine's Day Sensory Rice

Why did I wait so long to try dying rice for sensory play? This was seriously one of the easiest activities I have put together. As a bonus, unless the rice gets wet or really dirty, it can be used over and over again!

All it took was some rice - I used extra long grain white rice. I bought way more than I needed for some DIY handwarmers we gave as gifts at Christmas this year, so this is just what I had on hand. You could really use whatever rice you like. I probably dyed 3 cups of rice red and 2 cups blue. I wanted a nice layer in my glass baking dish.

Just scoop the desired amount into a gallon zippy bag, add a small amount of food coloring and a splash of water, and mix up by squeezing/shaking the bag. (It took about 20 seconds to incorporate the coloring throughout the rice. I used gel food coloring and it really didn't take much at all. I used way too much with both the red and the blue.) Then I spread it out on a sheet tray to dry overnight.

This morning I carefully scooped it into the baking dish, making a heart shape in the middle!

I laid a tablecloth out on the floor for easy clean-up and gathered a few scooping/transferring/pouring utensils for us to use!

My little one-socked girl went right for the spoons!

Feeling the rice with her hands.

Bea discovered the rice falling into the glass measuring cup made a really pretty sound. She watched the rice fall out of her hand and listened to it hitting the cup for quite some time.

Really getting into it now :)

Quite proud of the mess she made!

It looks quite lovely mixed together. I love bright blue with red or pink! It is also worth noting that this will not stain hands or clothing, provided the rice is dry!

I gathered up all the rice, using the tablecloth to pour all the spilt rice into the baking dish. I put all the rice in a zippy bag and stowed it in the back of my refrigerator to be played with another day. :)

Valentine's Day Treasure Basket

Just a quick post with Bea's Valentine's day Treasure Basket

Less is best!

What's inside:

• A pink sponge
• Red and pink felt hearts
• A pink heart box
• Red and pink feathers
• Pink hair rollers
• A red pipe cleaner shaped into a heart

Everything in this basket was either from Dollar Tree or the Target Dollar Spot! The hair rollers and the sponge were from previous treasure baskets before I had this blog - I just went looking for the posts to link and then realized they didn't exist!

I have discovered Beatrix is more likely to play with the basket if it has less stuff in it. So far her favorite thing has been the feathers. We had a lot of fun letting them float down from above our heads and trying to land them in the basket!

I love doing holiday themed baskets - they are so easy to find things for! Remember, it doesn't have to be complicated! 

Tapioca Pearl Sensory Play!

We didn't get to do a Messy Monday this week because we were visiting my grandmother in the hospital. (Please keep her in your prayers.)

So we did our messy activity today! Check out the fun we had with Tapioca pearls!

Tapioca pearls are a lot like water beads - but baby and toddler safe! I bought the largest size my grocery store had, but you can order the ones used in boba tea online and those are closer to the size of real water beads. I have been wanting to do this for a few weeks now, but it does require a bit of planning ahead and I never seemed to remember. 

Example of the size.

This is the brand/size I used.

All you need to do is soak the pearls overnight (follow the instructions on the bag - I have seen on some blogs they had to cook the pearls, but my bag said to soak the pearls overnight and then gave the recipe for tapioca pudding, so I just soaked them.) To get the color, I added a few drops of food coloring to the water while they soaked. Since Valentines day is coming up. I used pink, red, and red+blue for purple for some seasonal colors! Right before we were ready to play, I rinsed them thoroughly, to remove the excess coloring. It didn't really stain our hands, we will see about the clothes.

This was a HUGE hit with Beatrix!

The first touch is always a little scary - something totally new! The pearls are a little slimy and a little squishy. She warmed up to them very quickly! She needed some purpose to the activity, so I gave her a toy pan to transfer them to. (It was right behind me.)

Bea kept giving me handfulls, so I got in on the fun as well!

Here is where it started to get messy...

I added some water to make things a little more interesting. They move quite nicely in the water as it keeps them from sticking together.

Beatrix thought it would be fun to dump them out.

She lay down on her tummy and was kicking her feet while rolling them on the floor.

Making a tapioca angel?

These are taste safe, but unless you give them some flavor your kiddo will likely make the face Bea is making above. This is not meant for a snack.

We had quite a good time with the plastic tub as well!

Beatrix helped me wash up afterwards. She is getting so big! She loves to help out with chores.

Tapioca pearls are a great alternative to water beads if your child still likes to explore with their mouth. They were fun "dry" and with a little water. Next time I think I will add a lot of water and do an ocean themed sensory tub with them!