Magnetic or Non-magnetic Sensory Bin

The little one was introduced to magnets earlier this month through the DIY Magnetic Fishing game, that we played at the his birthday and more recently through the Magnetic Paper Plate Maze we made last week.

So lately, his curiosity around how magnets work, is high! He goes around the house with his little magnetic stick (from the maze game) or the fishing hook trying to see what sticks to his magnet and what doesn't! 😅

Object Hunt and Letter Sound Match - Sensory Play

The little one's fondness for letter sounds is still very fresh and so am trying to make the most of it by thinking up new activities and games related to phonics. Our first two letter sound activities were much loved by the Mini. Listing them here, in case you have missed them. 

• Letter Sounds and Object Match
• Letter Sound (of colours) Car Park 

For this letter sound activity, I brought in some sensory play as well. I collected random items from around the house (Onion for O, Fork for F, Garbage Truck for G, Road Roller for R... etc). I used our rice bin as a base, in which I hid in these random objects. The little guy had to search through the rice bin and find these items one by and one and then match them with the letters written on sheets of paper, based on the starting letter of the items.

He was able to figure out the the starting letter of most items, while need a little bit of help with some. This is a very easy to set up game for toddler just starting out with letter sounds. They not only get familiar with everyday object and their names but also learn letter sounds and eventually to spell the names of these objects.

DIY Mini Construction Site

My boy loves LOVES vehicles. And I LOVE DIYs !! This one is an awesome combination of both :)

I had a huge cardboard box lying around that I decided to convert into a simple construction site for the Mini. With some inspiration from Pinterest and some own ideas I made this Mini Construction Site.

First off, I taped the bottom of the cardboard box shut so that it cannot be opened from below. 

Then, I painted one side blue depict the blue sky and stuck a few cotton balls randomly to make cute little puffy clouds. Once the paint dried, added a sun on one top corner and using a black sketch pen, drew little birdies and a few buildings.

Also drew some roads and lanes on the base of the cardboard box to depict little roads for the vehicles to go on. I placed a few trays here and there and filled them with chickpeas, cotton balls, pompoms to depict various construction materials. 

Then, in came all the little construction vehicles, randomly placed across the roadways that I just drew. I also placed a few cotton balls and some chickpeas on his mini construction vehicles as well, as play prompts.

That was it! A mini construction site was ready for the little one. He happily plopped himself right inside box, at the heart of the site and began exploring the various items I had in there for him. 

Looks like the little construction engineer is on a dream break :)

Rainbow Rice ABC Hunt | Sensory Play Ideas

A few weeks back, we made our own own Rainbow Rice at home. It is nothing but regular rice but in very pretty colours. These are coloured in food colouring and so are completely taste safe in case your little one decides to give them a little taste! If you have not made your self a bath of this pretty rice, do head over to my post on DIY Rainbow Rice and get cracking! It is super simple, you will be done in no time!

Once we had our rainbow rice ready, the first thing I did was to set up a Rainbow Rice Bin for him. I just let him explore and feel the coloured rice using different spoons, scooping tools and cups. There was no agenda, or plan. Just some fun rice play.

This time around, I gave the rainbow rice bin a more structure and combined our ABC foam puzzle to make it a fun ABC hunt game! I just took out the letter pieces from the puzzle, dunked them into the rice bin to hid them and then got the Mini to fish them out one by one and put the puzzle pieces back together!

The colourful rice and the colourful letters pieces of the puzzle went so well together that it was a riot of pretty colours! You could do this with wooden or plastic puzzle pieces too. I just found that the size of our foam ABC puzzle pieces were just the right size for this game so used them. Kept him happy and busy for a good amount of time as he wanted to do it over and over a few times!

Rainbow Rice Bin | Sensory Play Ideas

So, have you made your own batch of Rainbow Rice yet!? :) 

If not, go right over to my DIY Rainbow Rice post and make your mini a batch of it already! Its super easy and you will be done in no time!

If yes, yay! Read on to see some simple fun ways in which we enjoy rainbow rice sensory bin.

Scooping:

A few colourful stacking cups (a favourite toy from the Mini's babyhood days, re-purposed!), a shove, strainer and fork from a mini beach set and a few more random spoons of different sizes make for a lovely session of just scoop, fill and shove!

Mini Construction Vehicles Play:

Of course the little construction vehicles have to come in for some fun too! They always do :) So here is to more filling, scooping and dumping of gorgeous rainbow rice by tiny diggers and dump trucks.

Ice Cube Tray Counting:

This one was a self initiated activity by the Mini. I added an ice cube tray to the rice bin and he began filling the slots one by and one and went on to count them! So yeah, there you have a super fun counting activity as part of the rainbow rice bin! :) 

Guess the Letter - a Touch and Feel Game

I have been wanting to try a touch and feel activity with the Mini for a while now. An activity mainly focusing on his sense of touch. So, I had planned this particular game as a blindfold game initially, but turns out the little fellow is afraid of the dark and simply refused to wear the blindfold! 

Well...so, I had to DIY an empty cardboard box as plan B!

I cut out openings on the sides of the box and placed a bowl full of wooden letters inside. I made sure the Mini couldn't see the letters. He had to put his hands inside the box through the side cutouts and just touch each letter, feel it and try to guess without peeping! 

It took him a few attempts to understand the game and then he was on a roll! Honestly, it amazed me that he was able to do this activity way better than I had imagined. I did not think at 3 he would be able to get the concept and actually get going with the guessing. But he did! I am proud of my little guy and am glad I did try this with him.

The game was a huge hit with him, that he went on and on... Here he goes! :)

Artificial Grass Mat Farm | Sensory Play Ideas

This is a ready-made set up that has absolutely no-prep required! Well yes. I found this awesome inexpensive door mat on Amazon which is made of artificial grass. I felt it is just perfect for a simple fun farm set up for my little boy!

It feels just like real grass and has the similar character as real grass does. I loved the feel of it and from the number of times he ran his palms over the mat and smiled to himself, I can say so did the Mini!

He has a few of tractors, of all different colours and sizes and a few farm animals. We teamed them all up and set them up on this little mat of ours and.... Voila! Our little farm is ready! :)

Or you can just forget farm setup and just enjoy the feel of the artificial grass under your bare feet! :)

Animals Bath Station | Sensory Play Ideas

How can you go wrong with water play, right?! Which child does not like slapping around and frolicking in water!

My little Aquarian boy is no different and absolutely loves the water. He loves his bath time and always asks for a few minutes extra after bath to play around just a bit. It always calms him down after a long day or a cranky tantrum and makes him happy.

My boy is a little person who loves when there is a procedure to follow or a structure in place. So when I set up this animal bathing station, I did not just let him go wild on it. I guess that would have been fine too, but I knew a little procedure would be loved by him, so I gave him a little demo with just one animal...

I asked him to first dip the animal in soapy water. Then place it in the little bath tub. Then, spray water on it using the squirt bottle to rinse off soap. Use the towel to wipe the animal, off dry. And finally place the animal in the other bowl!

...he followed this procedure meticulously and repeated it with the rest of the animals one by one, giving me enough time to go finish up my lunch prep! :)

Rice Bin - Construction Site | Sensory Play Ideas

Okay, so this post needs not much text really! 

A bin full of rice and an army of construction vehicles -  what really needs to be said here!? Just go play and have fun loading, tipping and dumping :)

Okay, before you get started, maybe just read up my post on Sensory Play Setup and Ideas for some basic setup tips to contain the mess, if any and to ease up the process for you! 

I always set up my bins in our balcony for the open space available and for the natural lighting. And I always lay out a plastic mat under the bin to help set a boundary for spillage and also for easy cleanup.

Now, am going to just leave you with some pictures of my Mini at play at his little Rice Bin Construction site :)