Your childhood senses are more important than you might think.
Sensory play is believed to help children develop by allowing them to experience and engage with properties on their own, such as cognitively through decision-making and physically through refining their fine motor skills. It also serves to help them connect the meanings of words to the experiences, which can help in prewriting skills. Finally, group sensory play can teach kids how to cooperate and interact with others in terms of problem-solving.
With just a few items you can create your own sensory bin -- and it's a lot better than sitting the kids in front of the television.
To do so, fill a shallow container with items that naturally stimulate a child's senses -- this can range from the scent from a cinnamon stick to feeling uncooked beans in a tub. Just be careful of chocking hazards.
1. Mud
Make a mini-Earth for your kids to play with by filling a bin with mud and small plants, toy cars or shovels. Nothing like playing in some dirt.
2. Soap foam bubbles
Who doesn't like bubbles? No one, that's who. In a shallow container, use an electric mixer to turn some dish soap and a little bit of water into a bubbly mess.
3. Homemade snow
Recreate Frozen by making some homemade snow -- except this kind won't melt. Mixing two 16-ounce boxes of cornstarch with small batches of shaving cream will create a moldable medium that's even cool to the touch.
4. Frozen Jell-O
Jell-O makes for a colorful and gooey time, but have you ever thought about freezing it? Mush up pre-made Jell-O into plastic bags before popping it into the fridge. Once it's frozen, just spray it with warm water and allow it to thaw. Watching the Jell-O change its state is sure to teach the little ones something.
5. Lava lamp bags
Recreate the hypnotizing colors of a lava lamp in just a few easy steps. In either a ziplock bag or plastic water bottle, mix baby oil with food coloring. Then add just enough water to break up the oil in colorful blobs.
6. Colored rice
Rice doesn't have to come in brown or white. In a ziplock bag, shake one tablespoon of vinegar and food coloring with a cup of uncooked rice to turn it every shade possible. After it dries, let the little ones draw pictures with the fine medium, or most likely make abstract art.
