Dancing/Obstacle Course

On Wednesdays we dance.  But lately that has turned into more of an obstacle course, which my kids are loving.  The night before (Tues. night) I sorta plan out my course and set out any materials I will need.  We generally use the same stuff with one or two new things each time.  Then on Wednesday the kids have to stay in the playroom while I set up.  Then I put on music and we follow the course!

We do have rules--

-no passing the person in front of you.  If you catch up to them you can jump or run in place while you wait patiently.  

-use the materials correctly 

-no pushing/shoving

-if you accidentally move an obstacle put it back where it was

Before we start the course I take them on a walk through and explain each obstacle.  

Here are some example photos:

We generally have a "step upon" which is something they can walk on that has a texture to it--in this case pom poms.  Sometimes they are in a pan or dish, sometimes just on the carpet.  Bubble wrap, marbles, or any other object that provides texture will work.  I trade this item out most times.  

This is a dish of nuts in shells (pecans, almonds, etc.)  They dump it out, walk across it, and then put them back in the dish.  Step-upons provide sensory input and teach them how to walk carefully on different surfaces.

This guy was not following one of the rules (don't remember which one now) and he had to sit on the couch for a time out.  My kids can definitely get wild and out of control during obstacles, and I don't want any blood or injuries, so we stick to the rules.

Riding the rocking horse:

Jumping across two rugs and into a down comforter, where you wallow yourself into it, then get up again.  We call it the "snow pit."

The tunnel is a big hit.  $4 at the Goodwill.  I see them there often.

Bendy board bridge.  Daddy made these for us.  Some of the best toys ever.

Stepping across to the ottoman:

Jumping off ottoman:

Rocking in the "boat" laundry basket:

We also have another bendy board that we put the other way so it can be rocked upon.  Sometimes we use diving rings that they have to step through.  We've put down a string line that gets walked upon....the possibilities are endless.  My kids LOVE this activity and it is awesome for proprioceptive awareness, motor control, rule following, and energy releasing, among other things!  I will try to post more obstacle course pics as the weeks go by!

Oats Play

Herb clipping

 I needed some finely chopped rosemary for some rosemary lemon bread we were making for Monday Bread Day.  We have a rosemary bush outside, so we gathered some sprigs, then I put the littles at the table to cut up the pieces.  They really enjoyed this!  Great fine motor, practical life, and finger-strength--in a different way than cutting paper, as the bulky rosemary requires that you hold/use the scissors a bit differently.  Beck asked a few other times during the week to cut rosemary.  One of the times I gave him some fresh oregano to cut, and he loved that, too!  Of course if you don't grow rosemary or other herbs (you TOTALLY should....rosemary is the easiest ever) then you can buy them at the grocery store in the produce section.  Sidenote--it makes your kitchen and your children smell lovely! A great sensory activity, as well!

Older children could actually use a cutting board and paring knife to do this, as well.  Quinn would be ready for that at this point, but she wanted to use the scissors like her brother. :)

And a older infant/young toddler who isn't ready for scissors?  Show them how to pull off the leaves with their hands....if they happen to eat some...it will be good for them!  

Polishing Coins

Something both of my kids enjoy is coin polishing.  I am sure there are tons of ways to do it, but Daddy recommended salt (we like the larger sea salt) and lemon juice, so that's what we use.  I think you can also use toothpaste!

Q was very intent on getting her pennies polished up!  This was great fine motor, practical life and attention practice for her.  She also noticed that the salt tasted like the ocean and she enjoyed smelling the lemon--so some great sensory awareness.  AND...we talked about the fact that both salt and lemon juice sting boo-boos or eyes. 

Of course this brand-new 2 year old wanted in on the action, too.  I gave him some quarters, a little bowl of warm soapy water and a toothbrush and he also enjoyed cleaning coins. 

 

Remember that introducing any activity such as this may only last 5 or so minutes the first time, but repeated presentations/offerings of the activity will usually be met with longer time periods for a child to stay engaged.... 

Melissa and Doug box repurposed for bean sensory play

Often I take our Melissa and Doug toys out of the original boxes to store in plastic bags as they fit in our cabinet better.  I save the wooden boxes, though, as they make great containers for sensory play!  Don't forget about the fun/learning opportunities in a simple handful (or two or three!) of dried beans and some empty containers. 

 

Treasure Ice sensory play

Sunday night I got out two sandwich-sized cheapo tupperwares (the thinner ones make it easier to pop out the ice when you're ready to play), filled them half way with water and dropped in some treasures (beads, flat marbles, stones, colored paperclips, snowflake sequins, buttons, poker chips, etc., with bigger items for the little guy who tries to eat everything).  I froze them for a couple hours and before I went to bed I added another layer of water and a few more items. 
Monday morning I told the kids the river fairies had brought a piece of frozen river for them!  We took them outside, along with a tub of water and some salt.
They had fun touching, holding and dropping their pieces of ice.  We poured salt on, and I was thinking we'd talk about how ice melts faster with salt, but there was really no interest in this--they just wanted to try and get the stuff out! 
After a while we dropped them into the tub of water (I pointed out that ice floats) and they poured water over them to get them to melt.  There was ice play, ice eating, and finally all the treasures came out, so there was even a bit of fighting over whose rock was whos. 
But it was a successful sensory activity--little hands explored new textures, temperatures and surfaces (and little mouths did, too!) and they also absorbed some science concepts about the properties of matter (solids and liquids). 
I think we'll do this again soon!  Easy and fun!

-could be themed (animals, holidays, etc.)
-could be done in an ice cube tray to make individual treasure ices
-could be made edible by using berries

More sensory snow

I mentioned making shaving cream/cornstarch snow on Monday.  Remember my kids didn't really dig it?  Well later in the week Q asked to play with it again.  When he saw he get it down Beck started grunting for it, too, and I said he'd have to get in his highchair first.  He was so motivated he climbed up himself and was ready for his snow!  They both played and played with it (her longer than him, of course).  I had collected a little basket of items to play in the snow with--scoops, pots, lids, spoons, small pitchers, etc.  The most popular item was a metal melon baller.  He loved pounding it in the snow.  She figured out how to press snow into it and then tap it on the side of the pan to get a little half-snowball mold to pop out.  She had a blast making things from the little snowballs. 

Next week we may add winter animals or even vehicles to drive in the snow!

Snow nixed, shaving cream sensory play wins!

Monday we made pretend snow out of cornstarch and shaving cream.  You just mix them together and it makes a fun substance.  Except that Q had a cut on her finger and it stung her hand when she touched it.  Then Beck saw me spray the shaving cream out of the can and all he wanted was some shaving cream.  So no one played with the snow I'd been super excited about showing them.  Instead they had fun with plain ole shaving cream.

And fun for him lasted about 2 minutes.  But he did explore it for those two minutes.  And next time I bring it out he'll be engaged even longer.  Remember not to get discouraged about the amount of time toddlers (especially young ones!) stay engaged with a sensory or art experience.  Each time you revisit the material they'll most likely have longer interest, but tell yourself it's a process and not about the product--what is made, that they play for a sustained amount of time, etc.  You can try lengthening the time a bit by playing WITH them and modeling ways to use the material, but sometimes just a short spurt is enough!

Q and I drew a snowman in the shaving cream!!  She liked the plain cream because it only got on one finger and not all over into her boo-boo.  I used to love playing with shaving cream with my preschoolers and first graders--after we finished playing it was "desk cleaning" time and they used the cream to clean all the surfaces of their desks/tables. 

That's the poor, forlorn snow in the bowl.  I put it in a container and we'll try it again tomorrow!

Building snowmen...Texas style!

Around here we have to use vanilla-scented playdough to make our snowmen....
Q and I made a batch last week.  It ended up not being the best recipe and we didn't love the texture, but we had fun making snowmen, nonetheless!
 

Here's our snowman kit:
A muffin tin filled with a variety of objects collected around the house. 

And here's one of Quinn's creations:

We made big snowmen and tiny snowmen and snowmen with silly faces....you name it, we made it!  Q had the best time playing with these materials!  We'll be getting it out again over the next few weeks as we enjoy the winter season. 

Baby texture basket

One of Beck's work items on the shelf right now is a basket filled with different textures....Hard to see them all from this picture but objects include:
-tulle
-coffee wrapper (smells amazing, too!)
-empty plastic liner from cereal box (great and crunchy sounding!)
-corrugated cardboard
-minky fabric
-(not pictured) empty heavy paper flour sack

These objects provide listening, feeling, tasting stimulation as Beck can explore them with his hands and mouth.  He likes to crawl around the house carrying one or two of them.  :)

March sensory tub

Yesterday someone gave us a big baggie of colored spiral noodles. So I put em in our sensory tub along with cut up pieces of mardi gras beads. Q loves being loud with them--stirring and scooping them as loudly as she can. Once she settles down over the excitement of their newness she can practice pouring, measuring, scooping, etc.

When I taught 2 year olds we did a big tub just of the cut mardi gras beads. The nice thing is you can cut them in longer sections so that they aren't easily swallowed. Then you can use them for impromptu math lessons--can you find 4 beads? 5 beads?

Snow Play

For Christmas my grandma sent Quinn a little tube of fake snow. You just add water to it and it's kinda like shaved up styrofoam or something. Not cold, but white and fluffy and lots of fun. We put it out for Quinn's sensory tub and she has been really enjoying pouring, scooping, measuring, etc. with it!

You could use one of those big bags of economically priced powdered laundry detergent, soap shavings, baking or washing soda, dishwasher detergent powder......any of those items would make great "snow" for those of us frozen-precipitation-challenged southerners.

Beans!

I got a couple small containers out of our Christmas tubs--just some I had already. They came with the cutest little spoons! I took out the other pouring/scooping work in our beans and changed out for these. This created renewed interest in the beans and Q had a fun time with them this morning.

Other fun ideas would be any Christmas tins, mugs, etc. that could be used. You might notice that these containers are ceramic. I am big on letting toddlers and preschoolers handle fragile items so that they learn to "use gentle touches." Obviously I don't put out items that are precious to me in case they do get broken. Also, I am not overly concerned about an injury if something glass breaks--typically it makes a loud noise that I hear and also children come running right away to tell you when something gets broken, so I've never had an instance of a breakable item shattering without my knowledge. Also, children are pretty low to the ground, so often dropped items survive the fall!

The importance of a sensory tub

A sensory tub is one of the most important teaching "tools" you can provide for your child of any age--from infant to school age.

I suggest using one container all the time as your designated "sensory tub" and changing out the items inside it from time to time.

Ours currently has a mixture of dried beans--for scooping, filling, dumping, sorting, counting, shaking, and spooning.

There are gazillions of ideas out there on what to put in sensory tubs--from simple to complex.

For babies--start easy! Water is a great first sensory experience and you don"t have to worry about them eating it! But I encourage you to move on to other substances like shredded paper, bubbles, feathers, fabric scraps, etc. Sit with your child for 5-10 minutes while they play and explore to monitor safety. For infants, you may not want to provide any tools--just let them use their hands.

For toddlers, begin introducing tools such as scoops, funnels, measuring cups, spoons, jars and pans with lids, shakers (empty parm cheese containers or spice containers), etc., so they can practice measurement and fine motor skills. They can use a variety of materials--beads, sand, shaving cream, pasta, rice, cornmeal, birdseed, cedar chips (from petstore), leaves, etc.

For older children, hide plastic letters or numbers in the sorting mix. Mix in metal and non metal objects and provide a magnet for them to sort through the mix and find all magnetic materials.

The internet abounds with different sensory tub experiences you can give your children.....and usually putting together a sensory tub takes about 5 minutes....so it's not super involved to set up.

We usually keep the same materials in our tub for 3-4 weeks to give lots of opportunities for exploration and EXTENDED exploration. Initially I just teach Q the rules of whatever materials she's using (ie: keep the beans on the tray) and let her explore. Then over time I might challenge her in different ways--
"Can you fill the measuring cup up using the green scoop?"
"How many scoops fit in the pan?"
"Let's sort the beans by type! Let me tell you their names."

So.....happy sensory-tubbing!!

Egg mold playdough

This plastic jello mold that makes eggs has been working out great for playdough play this month. Q enjoys putting a little dough in each compartment. This is great counting and one-to-one correspondence work, as well as fine motor--as she has to pinch off the little pieces! These are often sold at the dollar store and can come in handy for all sorts of different activities. They can also hold play eggs (one to one correspondence), can be filled with different colors of paint for art experiences, or can be used in conjunction with an eye dropper/baster--fill dropper with water and use to drop into each compartment.