Busy Kids Week! Day 3 - Sensory Tubs

Welcome back for Day 3 of

BUSY KIDS WEEK!!!!!

What I'm going to show you today might scare you a little...
But I hope you'll see what a great experience this is
if you are well prepared & brave enough to
JUST TRY IT!


 These are our
'Sensory Tubs' & Table.

The containers hold a variety of sensory materials: Rainbow rice; Dried beans & peas;
Or they're empty - for water, soap & sponges; pipe cleaners & magnets; bugs & magnifying glasses...the list can go on!

The table has been used for everything. It's the best $5 I've ever spent at a garage sale!

Right now it's full of rocks & dinosaurs, but it's also held water & ice cubes, crayons & paper, or anything I've put in containers.

 The kids enjoy the sounds the stones make as they move them around ($1/bag at Dollar General with home decor items). We talk about how the stones feel (cold & smooth) & what they would feel like if they were outside in the sun (hot & probably rough from dirt). They have a fascination with dinosaurs so we put some toy dinosaurs in with the rocks for the boys to pretend with.

We also enjoy adding water for some added fun water play!!

Rainbow Rice

The rainbow rice is definitely our most popular sensory tub! I eventually created another container of dried beans & peas to create a similar sensory experience. Sometimes we add colorful foam letters to hunt for which is really great for letter/color recognition! Other times they just want spoons/cups to scoop & pour the rice with.

 Here's are great instructions for making

RAINBOW RICE:

http://www.momtastic.com/home-and-living/home/168293-diy-kaleidoscope-rice

Water & Soap

This is another one the kids love!
 I put about 4 cups of water a few drops of dish soap into a blender & let it go till I get a good frothy-foamy lather!
This way the suds last a long time. They enjoy soaking it up with a sponge & squeeeezing it out, pretending to give toys a bath or just splashing. If you try this, have a towel around! Expect some splashing & spilling!

I LOVE having sensory opportunities available for my kids!
They love them so much & they keeps them SO busy...not to mention it's a fantastic enriching experience for them.

I definitely control when we get the tubs out. I have to expect there will be a mess to clean up when we're done. But believe me, I don't do the clean up alone! My boys know we play fun and fair & it's NOT fun or fair to make mommy clean up all of our messes!  Over time the messes have become less & less. They are much more careful about keeping the objects in their tubs!

Can't wait to hear what you think of our sensory tubs!
Love, Julie