06 Aug 10 DIY SENSORY ACTIVITIES FOR LITTLES
Rainy days, hot weather days, pandemic days — no matter what your current limitation — these ideas are great for when you’re cooped up inside with kids. Most are geared towards young toddlers but they can easily be adapted for older kids as well! Here’s our Top 5 from the full list available on the Mommy Poppins blog.
DIY sensory toys nurture a basic understanding of the people, places, and stuff that populate their lives, along with the motor and communication skills that they’ll need to interact with the world. There will be new things for baby to touch, smell, see, and figure out. Watch as your little one giggles her way through these micro-discoveries.
Everything featured here can be crafted from simple, recycled materials and stuff found within reach around the house or a couple of clicks on Amazon. Read on for sensory fun, and check out our Boredom Busters Guide for more all-ages crafts, recipes, and rainy day fun.
Rice Bin
Once your baby has figured out how to grasp, dump a large bag or two of uncooked rice into a modest-sized bin and watch the good times roll. And roll. Tiny hands sifting through dry rice never gets old, for you or for them. Bury a small toy and encourage them to dig it out. Once they get down, help them fill up a small measuring cup and pour it into another. For variations on the rice bin, check out Busy Toddler for more ideas!
Sensory Bags
If you’ve heard of sensory play before this post, you likely heard about it through sensory bags, and that’s because there are literally countless variations. All of them effective. On a basic level, they enable babies to squeeze, feel, and pound without fear of anything breaking. With a strip of painter’s tape, they also become useful tools in training your baby to sit up on her own. Our friends over at Mama.Papa.Bubba. have all the details.
Baby Water Play
About as easy as it gets. Fill a baking sheet with just enough water and tub toys to splash around and watch his face light up. All the while, he’s moving objects around on his own and being totally comfortable with hanging out on his tummy. Of course, he should be pretty much there already. Hold off if your baby’s still working on holding his head up. The Pink Oatmeal blog has more wonderful ideas!
Scent Jars
Smelling activities are hard to come by, for whatever reason. Yet, they’re no less important than playing to any of the other senses. In fact, developing a sense of smell is tied to facilitating learning through memories. So, while he’s sniffing away at those lemon wedges, he’s also beginning to make the connection to lemons as something he eats, or will soon enough. Visit Mama’s Happy Hive for more sensory play creativity.
Baby Guitar
A great exercise in cause and effect. Pluck a rubber band and feel it vibrate. Listen to it hum. It may be chaos early on — little hands thumping down on all the rubberbands at once — but even that can be fun. Give it a little time, and as they begin to understand that the rubber bands sing too, their strumming will become a little more deliberate. Get the directions from Laughing Kids Learn blog.
Do you have a favorite sensory activity for your littles? Comment below!