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! :)

Number Game: Count - Match - Stick

After our first counting activity, the Pompoms and Muffin Tray Counting activity, I figured the Mini loves counting! So, to keep up with his interest, I planned to do more of such easy to set up and fun activities that involved counting.

So before we go over to the activity, wanted to share an awesome hack I found out recently. I have had an eye on the easel paper roll that is most commonly used for toddler art and craft work. I love the long roll of paper that can be cut to any size and spread over on the floor or wall. But honestly I found the easel paper rolls that are available in India a bit too expensive for my kind of use! I was on the lookout for something more economical. On a recent visit to a packaging and paper cups/plates store, I found this long roll of paper that he was selling. It was meant to be used a dining table liner at functions and parties. It looked longer than a regular easel paper roll only slightly thinner. Also, it was more greyish than white, but who cared. It costed only Rs.70! Without a second thought, I bought it and there you see is our very own easel paper roll for our very many activities and fun times ahead ! :)

So, coming back to this activity, I used a strip of my version of the easel paper roll, a marker pen, sticky notes and our favorite white board. It took me all of 10 minutes to set it up and kept the little one entertained and occupied for about 30 minutes! :)

Pompom and Muffin Tray Counting Activity

Transferring activities are a huge hit with toddlers. They love transferring things from one container to another, one place to another. My boy is no different and has always enjoyed moving things around. We have done a lot of transferring activities before. 

This time around, I introduced tongs to him to enhance his pincer grip. As a preschooler, he is gearing up to soon begin writing and the usage of tongs is one of the many little activities that help the little hands to get ready to start writing. They help strengthen the finger muscles and pincer grip that is needed to hold a writing tool, the right way.

Also, I gave a structure to the transfer activity this time by combining it with some basic counting. My Mini knows his numbers well. But associating the quantities to each number is something he is just about learning. So these days I try to give him a lot of simple fun counting activities to help him understand the association between a number and the quantity it defines. 

This fun transferring activity requires him to associate the number written on the muffin tray with the number of pompoms he is required to fill each slot with. All along while using the tiny tongs! It was a huge hit with him and he enjoyed doing this over and over again. Easy to put together and perfect for little ones just beginning to learn counting. Have fun! :)

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 :) 

Rice Bin - Scooping and Pouring Station | Sensory Play Ideas

If you are new to sensory play and need some tips on how to set up a simple sensory bin and the basic items you would need for it, go over and read my post on Sensory Play Setup and Play Ideas. You will get a good idea and tips on getting started and I hope it will in fact encourage you to get started with sensory play, if you are weary like I was before I gave it a go!

In this post here, I am going to show you how I set up our rice bin scooping station. This is a very basic setup which actually needs no real setup bu some very simple tools that can keep a toddler busy for hours! Well, mine is a huge fan and is happy to play with this set up any day!

We add the following to our rice bin to make it a scooping station:

• Mini beach set - shovel, form and strainer.
• A few different sized spoons.
• Ice cube tray.
• Funnel
• Empty containers.

Sensory Play Setup and Ideas

After a couple of weeks of researching on sensory play and reading about its benefits and gathering some simple items from around the house, I have finally put together a dedicated sensory bin for the Mini. I have been weary of sensory bins as I was afraid of the mess! But then, after reading on how good it is for little ones and understanding how to teach them to contain the mess, I decided to give it a try. It's been a few weeks now and am so very glad I decided to go for it.

I am no expert in this, but after I put in so much effort into planning this, I really wanted to document some simple pointers that works well for us when we do sensory activities or play with our sensory bins. It's definitely worth the effort!

• Dedicated Storage: A big transparent shallow box is great for play and for storing all the little sensory play items. I store the different play items in individual ziploc bags. I store this box away, out of sight under the bed when not in play.
• Rice: I bought a few kilos of the least expensive rice I could find and have kept it only for sensory play. If stored well (in ziploc bag), I understand it can last for years!
• Play Setup: I always setup our sensory bins in our balcony, as there is a lot of open space. And I layout a plastic sheet below the bin to allow for easy cleanup and to allow him a boundary beyond which he shouldn't spill.
• Set Basic Ground Rules: Just before we begin play, I always remind him of few rules around sensory play. Like, to be careful and to not spill. To play only with the items I have set up and not include more toys in the bin. I play with him to demonstrate and repeat and remind him of the rules as we play.
• Limit Play Time: I set up the sensory bin/setup for him once in a few days and invite him to play for a limited time. 45-60 mins has been our time so far, after which I tell him it's time to put it away and bring to his notice another toy/activity that he's very fond of.
• Simple Variations: We try and do a variety of simple sensory play activities with slight variations. Initially I plan to set up the bins/activities for him in rotation and eventually, will let him choose what he wants to do.

It delights me to see him happily explore and play while also follow instructions. The textures, the movement, the feel of the various elements, he explores them all and enjoys the whole experience. It is a joy to watch his little self at play!

The more sensory play we do, he is learning to get more careful and conscious of not making a mess. He was with both bins for a good one hour after which I put them away. I can now leave him unattended for a few minutes while he's at play, and get some work done!

He looks forward to sensory play lately and its heartwarming to see him run towards our dining room window after he comes home from school, and peep into the balcony to see what 'sesory been' I have set up for him! The effort involved is worth it all.

Name Hunt and Clip | Name Recognition Game

For the last couple of months, my little boy has been showing a lot of interest in spelling his name. He has a cushion cover that I had sewn for him with his name appliqued onto it. That was where I first noticed his interest in reading the letters of his name when he kept pointing and calling out each of the letters of his name. 

So, I wanted to set up an activity that involved his love to spell out his name and his fondness for cloth clips! This game was set up when the little fellow was napping one day. It took me all of 15 minutes or so to prep it up. Just some cloth line clips, paper and pen is all that you need for this game. 

I tried it with multiple names/simple words in different colours and the entire list in just one colour to see if it makes any difference. It didn't seem to. I plan to try this in lower case and a mix of cases next time. He found the wooden clips too hard, so we switched to plastic ones 

After doing it a couple of times over, he wanted to find my name... So he went ahead and pinned clips against my name on the other side of the paper strip! 

If you have a little one who loves reading out his/her name or is just about beginning reading, this game is for you! Try it out :)

Colour Matching Dry Transfer Activity

When the Mini was as little as 15 months old, I had made this Chunky Puzzle for him out of cardboard. This was his first ever puzzle and I was super impressed with the way he nailed it in just the first attempt! Little did I know back then that it was just the start to his love affair with puzzles! :)

So a year later, when the little guy was around 27 months old, I set up this activity for him, which uses only the base of the chunky puzzle and a few lentils and beads. The objective of the activity was colour matching. Transferring of items is an activity toddlers love! So I mixed up colour matching with transferring and made it a dry transfer colour match activity.

The chunky puzzle board had 4 colours on its base - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. So to match those colours, I used three different coloured lentils and blue beads. 

I placed the 3 kinds of lentils and blue beads in 4 separate bowls. Kept a tray under the puzzle board to catch any stray items that may fall off during the transfer activity. I then presented the activity to the little guy, handed him a spoon and asked him to just go ahead and match the colours.

Boy, did he love it. 

I was pretty impressed with how neat he was and conscious of not wanting to create any mess by either mixing the differently coloured lentils and beads or dropping them on the floor. It takes a tiny bit of effort to transfer back the lentils/beads back into their cups, but for the fun and learning happening here, I think it is worth it :)

Number Hunt and Erase

This was an impromptu activity that I set up for the Mini one day when he had a holiday from school. Our favourite white board and wooden numbers come together in this one. And to add in some sensory fun, a tub of toor dal/lentil was included. I knew the little guy would love this one... and he sure did!

We had earlier done a Number Hunt and Match sensory bin activity similar to this. It was loved by the little fellow that I wanted to do it again, but gave it a little twist this time. This fun little activity mainly revolves around number recognition and number matching. The objective of the game was to hunt for the hidden wooden numbers from the tub of lentils, find the same number written on the white board and erase them with the white board eraser! The sensory tub and the white board eraser add on to the fun element in this activity, making it a learn while you play activity!

Maze Walk Animal and Animal Pattern Match

We love maze games, we have done a few in the past like this one and I have noticed mazes always delight my little boy. Simple maze games are a great way to encourage toddlers to follow instructions, a procedure, improve their body balance and most importantly... they are a lot of fun!!

So in this maze game, we used a few cards from our Animal and Animal Patterns matching card game. We used just the animal patterns cards from the game and instead of the corresponding cards with the animals, we used our little toy animals to make it more fun!

I just made a little maze using our foam ABC blocks, kept all the pattern cards at one end of the maze and the toy animals at the other end of the maze. I asked my little guy to pick one animal at a time from the start of the maze, walk on the foam block maze to reach the other end and place the animal on its corresponding animal pattern card. 

He had to then go back to the start, pick another animal and down the maze again to match it... he did this till he matched all the animals and animal patterns!