Textured Paint

This puts a new spin on painting with your little one!

All you need is: Paint brushes, a spoon, something to stir the paint with, construction paper, paints, containers for paint and rice

Have your child pick the colors they would like to use. 3 was plenty for us but if your child is older more would be more fun!

Put a small amount of paint in each container..

Have your child scoop a small amount of rice into each color...

[Lesson Learned: If your child is going to paint a picture with this you will need to add a few drops of water to the paint and rice mixture as well]

Stir your paint/rice mixture..

Have your child pick up their paint brushes...

And have them go to town!

After a few tries on the paper we realized that without the water it was easier to...

Scoop the rice up and paint our hands!

This was a whole different sensation then just using your fingers to paint :)

This was WAY more fun then trying to paint the paper :)

Clean up is a cinch!! Rinse out your containers (the rice will be soft enough to go down your kitchen sink) wash your kiddos hands with soap and water and your done!!

Can You Smell That??

It's so easy but, this concept sparks so many triggers in your child's brain!!

We used an old butter container and poked holes in it on the sides and on the top.

We made sure to make one bigger hole on the top to make smelling easier...

You will also need another small container to put your "smelly things" in. This makes it easier to change the scents so you don't have to wash out the whole container.

Pull a few different things from the kitchen with strong scents! (
Make sure your little one doesn't see what items you are going to use)

Put one of your items in the dish [This is vanillia]
 (you are only going to need just a little bit of the samples you want to use)


Place the small container in the "smelly container"

Have your child smell it and guess what is inside it.

Once they guess pull it out and let them smell the small container


Repeat this as many times as your little one's attention span allows! We got 2 in today! We did vanilla and coffee!!


[Sorry for the quality of pictures...as you can tell we didn't really have the best attention span today :) ]

Peanut Butter Play

Bug decided what her sensory project was going to be today! I gave her a snack and she turned it into a sensory project!!  :)

All you need is a paper plate, fork or spoon, and peanut butter

After she ate her banana.......She "painted" with it...

and enjoyed the rest of  her snack :) 

Use a wipe and wipe your child's hands and you are good to go :)

Noodle Play

How often do we tell our kids not to play with their food?? Yes, it's good manners at the table when they are eating BUT, letting them explore foods is a great sensory activity for them!! 

Materials needed:
Any sort of noodles or pasta. We used cold Ramen noodles!

Cook the noodles and let them cool. Playing with luke warm noodles or cold noodles will be 2 different experiences for your child as the noodles have a different texture..

After being told not to play with food it may take your child a little while to be "okay" with playing with them!

Slowly we got into it!!!

We used a container and a fork to play with. Toddlers love to fill and dump things!!

HERE ARE MORE PICTURES FROM TODAY!

Dough Play

1 - 2 - 3 GO!! TIME TO GET MESSY!!


This is one of the easiest way to keep kids occupied and one of the simplest things to QUICKLY be made!!
[Be sure the surface you use is easy to clean]

Items needed are:

About 1/2 cup flour, Spoon, About 1/2 cup water, and YELLOW food coloring

[Any color food coloring can be used but yellow won't stain your child's hands (or yours)]

Add your water slowly. Start by adding just a little and....

 stirring and add more as needed. It should be slightly runny when you have the right consistency.
[If you let your little one stir it you may need to step in to make sure it is completely stirred]

 Add a few drops of food coloring and....

Stir it again making sure to get it all mixed in

Scoop it out on to the play surface.

[We did it outside and used wax paper. Although the wax paper got soggy it still made for slightly easier clean up]

Encourage free play with hands and or feet...

The longer the dough is played with the more sticky it gets

Wash hands (and/or feet) in warm water and you are good to go!

Here are more pictures from today!

Squishy Bags

This is a mess free option to playing with shaving cream!!

Grab some food coloring, shaving cream, a ziplock (or 2), and some duct tape 

[The freezer bags are thicker and may work better but 2 regular ziplocks will do the same]

Have your little one hold open the ziplock for you

Fill the bag about 3/4 full of shaving cream...

Have your child pick a color of food coloring....

Add 10-15 drops to the shaving cream

Seal the ziplock making sure to get most the air out....

Add duct tape over the seal to be sure it won't pop open....

If you are using regular ziplocks put the duct taped bag into a second bag....

Hand it over and let them explore and watch it change colors as they squish it and squeeze it!!

Once your child is done you can either throw it away or put it up and pull it out at a later date!!  :)