Snack and Play Edible Rainbow Sensory Bin

As we headed into week two of social distancing, my kids were bored, lonely, and snacking non-stop. I am so thankful that we have books, streaming services, and FaceTime, but this situation that we're facing is scary and uncertain, and it just plain sucks! My older kids can usually find something to do, but my youngest two needed something to capture their attention - enter the "Snack 'n Play" Edible Rainbow Sensory Bin!

Sensory play is a big part of our lives. I believe my kids should be given opportunities to explore, so I'm always coming up with new ideas for them. They love sensory bins, so I always try to create 1-2 new sensory bins each month for them. Now that we're stuck at home, I'm changing them up weekly. We have done edible sensory bins before, but it has been a while. Last week was the PERFECT time to set one up and introduce Coen to edible sensory bin fillers!

Needless to say, it was an instant hit! The kids had fun playing, snacking, scooping, and color sorting. Sensory Bins do not have to be complex. It really can be as simple as throwing in dry cereal and marshmallows, and giving them tools so they can play. Just doing something out of the ordinary can make it extra fun! 

Arctic Sensory Bin for Indoor Winter Sensory Play

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The calendar might say it's Winter, but Mother Nature is a bit confused! Our weather has been all over the place lately. Last Monday, it was 65 degrees and sunny, and on Friday, we woke up to 4 inches of snow. Just two days later, all the snow has melted, and it's raining and in the high 40's. No matter the weather, we decided to make the Arctic our theme for this month's sensory bins!

I'm sure you already know this, but we are big fans of sensory play here! So much that we actually have a sensory table in our living room, and allow the kids to engage in messy play. Play is such an important part of early learning, and there are so many benefits of sensory play. I would rather have my kids explore a sensory bin than sit in front of the TV or iPad!

This month, we have been talking about the Arctic and the animals that live there. Even when my kids are in school, I believe in learning within the home as well. In addition to creating an Arctic world for my kids to explore, we read books about Arctic animals (National Geographic Kids has some great options), and there are some fun documentaries on Netflix and Disney+ to help kids learn more about the Arctic!

Ocean Sensory Bin

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Everybody seems to love Shark Week! Liam definitely loves sharks, so I put together this easy Ocean Sensory Bin for my littles to enjoy last week. It was a very busy week, so I didn't put as much detail into it as I usually do, but sometimes simple is plenty enough!

Liam happily scooped an poured for hours, and Lily even joined in! Baby Coen is starting to put everything in his mouth, so he had to skip this one. We put him in his UpSeat, sat him beside the bin, and gave him a baby-safe shark to teethe on!

The Ocean Sensory Bin was a big hit, and was so easy to prepare! (Spoiler Alert: I bought a kit on Amazon Prime for this one!) Although I will eventually have to throw away the water beads, we can keep the ocean animals for later use!

Water Beads & Soap Foam Sensory Bin - A Sensory Play Experience for Kids of All Ages

It's the first weekend of Summer, the weather is beautiful, and we're so excited to be outside! The only problem is our hose is temporarily out of commision, so water activities are a no go right now. Cooling down with a Water Beads & Soap Foam Sensory Bin was a fun alternative!

My kids are obsessed with water beads! I don't really blame them. They really are fun to play with. There's a reason they put them in gel masks now! ;) Plus they are super inexpensive, and a little goes a long way!

We are big fans of sensory play, and I'm a proponent of letting kids get messy and learn through play. Play really does matter, and introducing sensory experiences at a young age is really important. Sensory play helps kids learn with all of their senses, AND helps them work on their motor skills! Water Beads are a super cool sensory bin filler, and even babies can play (with supervision). Supercharging it with foam soap makes this bin extra fun!

Glow In The Dark Space Sensory Bin

We currently have a tough decision to make. Initially, we signed Liam up for Extended School Year so he doesn't regress between the end of this school year and the start of the next one. Now we're reconsidering, because we have a busy Summer ahead of us, and we think Liam deserves the chance to just be a kid and enjoy Summer Break. I think his once a week speech therapy session, baseball, lots of outdoor play, and sensory bins might be the path we take this Summer!

Our sensory bins, kids activities, and posts about Down syndrome bring this blog the most traffic, but I stopped sharing all of our ideas due to the busyness of life (more coming on life with five kids soon)! I'm getting back into creating weekly themed sensory bins, and pairing them with books, learning activities, crafts, and an occasional outing. This weekend, our town had a huge Mars New Year celebration and NASA attended, so I focused on a space themed sensory bin for the week!

Like the majority of our sensory bins, this space sensory bin is easy to put together. I reuse a lot of our fillers and just mix and match according to the theme, and everything I use is inexpensive! And this sensory bin is extra fun because it glows in the dark!

The Ultimate Beach Sensory Bin

We are big fans of sensory play! It's messy, it's fun, and the benefits are extensive. With Summer Break officially beginning this week, I put together a beach themed sensory bin to get my kids excited about having a summer full of fun!

Egg-cellent Easter Sensory Bin

Liam and Lily love sensory bins! We have a big collection of sensory bin fillers, and I try to rotate through themed bins twice a month. Sensory play is my secret weapon for those inevitable "I'm bored" moments! Our current Sensory Bin encourages egg-cellent Easter sensory play!

The Flower Garden Sensory Bin

Sensory Play has always been a favorite with my kids! I'm a firm believer that childhood should be messy, and that kids should be allowed to explore and learn through different textures. I just prefer that the mess be contained, which is why I love Sensory Bins!

Sensory Play is especially important for Liam. After we received his Down syndrome diagnosis, I began researching, and I discovered that sensory issues can be quite common. I was determined to help him as much as I could, so I introduced sensory play and sensory bins when he was a baby. Thankfully, he's a BIG fan of messy play!

My girls love sensory bins, too. They get a lot of use in our home! I try to come up with at least one new sensory bin and sensory activity each month to keep things interesting, and they usually play with that bin for a few weeks before switching to a different sensory bin filler in our stockpile.

When I was brainstorming ideas for this month's theme (purple) for the Year of Color link party that I co-host, I decided to make a flower garden sensory bin using fake purple flowers that I recently bought. They paired perfectly with the black beans sensory bin filler that is part of our usual sensory bin rotation!

Flower Garden Sensory Bin

This fun sensory bin is very easy to set up, and is perfect for sensory AND pretend play! All the scooping, filling and pouring really helps strengthen Liam's fine and gross motor skills, too!

SUPPLIES:

• Sensory Bin with a lid (An under the bed storage tote works perfectly!) 
• 8-10 lbs of black beans
• Several bunches of fake flowers (I just used purple for the theme, but get creative.)
• Small flower pots
• 2 garden shovels
• 1 garden rake
• Ziploc gallon bags for easy storage

SET UP:

1. Empty the beans into a clean sensory bin.
2. Separate the stems on one bunch of flowers, and cut each stem so they are only about 10-12 inches long.
3. Pull just the flowers off the second bunch (no stems).
4. Toss the flowers, flower pots and gardening tools into the sensory bin.
5. Have fun! 

NOTE: I highly recommend playing with this sensory bin outdoors. Those beans have the tendency to go everywhere! (I learned that lesson!) We also use THIS ROUND PLAY MAT all the time! It's perfect for pretty much everything, especially toys with small pieces. After the kids are done playing, I just have to pull the drawstring, and it turns into a toy storage/travel bag. We take it on vacation every year!

PLAY:

Here are a few ideas to get started:

*Rake the beans with the garden rake.

*Plant the small flowers in the bin.

*Fill the pots with beans and plant the flowers.

*Create different floral arrangements by adding different flowers to the mix.

*Take pictures of their creations.

*Pick up the beans with a shovel and use it to fill all the pots.

*Scoop up the beans with the pots, and pour into other containers.

*Dig into the beans with bare hands for a full sensory experience!

CLEAN UP:

When the kids are done playing, clean up is so easy! I just shake all the beans that landed on the play mat back into the bin, put the flowers in a gallon ziploc bag, and let the kids pour the beans into a few gallon bags. I place everything back into the bin, put on the lid, and store it until the next use!

If your kids love sensory play as much as mine do, this fun sensory bin will keep them busy for a long time. And that, my friends, is a mom win!

All of my kids have played with sensory bins filled with beans before, but they loved The Flower Garden Sensory Bin! It was so much more than just sensory play, so they played for hours. This is definitely and idea that we will be adding to our regular sensory bin rotation!

In case you are wondering, the "A Year of Color" link party with me, Little Dove, Macke Monologues, and Work It Mommy happens on the third Friday of the month. Each month focuses on one color and you can link up any post that revolves around that particular color: Fashion, Recipes, Activities for Kids, Crafts...ANYTHING is welcome! The link will be open for a month, so you can link up any time. We hope you will join us!

Obviously, it's NOT Friday. I'm posting a bit late this month, but with good reason. Lexie and Lily's dance recital was on Saturday, and the week leading up to it was unbelievably chaotic. We lived and breathed dance, and I didn't have time to do anything else. It was well worth it, though. I will be sharing that adventure on my blog tomorrow, and let me just say, it's definitely the start of a new journey!

Plan ahead for next month:

Stop by on Friday, July 21st, to link up your RED posts!

You might also like:

Rubber Ducks Sensory Bins & Sensory Play

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An InLinkz Link-up

Rubber Ducks Sensory Bins & Sensory Play {A Year Of Color - Yellow}

My kids love sensory play! I introduced each of them to the concept when they were babies and it quickly became something they did every day. I'm a firm believer in letting kids explore and get messy!

It's amazing how even the simplest items can seem so much more exciting when they are thrown into a sensory bin! I rotate our bins weekly and most of them never even make it onto the blog, but I'm going to try to share them more often. They are a lot of fun, and they inspire kids to think, create and explore while building their fine motor skills!

On the third Friday of each month,  I co-host a monthly linkup called A Year of Color with Little Dove, Macke Monologues, and Work It Mommy. Each month focuses on one color and you can link up any post that revolves around that particular color: Fashion, Recipes, Activities for Kids, Crafts...ANYTHING is welcome! The link will be open for a month, so you can link up any time. We hope you will join us!

When I saw this month's theme for the A Year Of Color link party, I immediately knew what I was going to share: Our Rubber Ducks Sensory Bins and Rubber Ducks Play Dough Kit! It was the perfect choice for:

Rubber Ducks Sensory Bins

This classic bath toy is the focus of these sensory bins, but I add lots of different fillers to keep things interesting! Here are Liam, Lexie and Lily's three favorites:

RUBBER DUCKS POND SENSORY BIN:

Creating a Rubber Duck Pond using inexpensive items is so much fun!

For this sensory bin, you will need:

• 6-12 rubber ducks
• Fake flowers (bunches of 6 are $1 at Walmart)
• Small aquarium plants
• Blue gems
• Natural rocks
• Pieces of wood (we used mulch)
• Foam lilypads cut out of sheets of green craft foam (we pay 33 cents/sheet)

Note: I highly recommend swimsuits for this activity, especially if the sensory bin that is being used is a baby pool!

RUBBER DUCKS & SHAVING CREAM SENSORY BIN:

What is it about shaving cream that makes any activity seem so much more fun?!? All you need for this simple sensory bin is rubber ducks and 2-3 cans of inexpensive shaving cream (a must have sensory bin filler)!

Let the kids squirt the shaving cream into the sensory bin, then toss in the ducks and back away before they dig in! (Trust me!!!)

FYI: Bathtime after this activity is almost always a necessity! Or, if it's warm enough, just have them run through the sprinkler!

RUBBER DUCKS & COTTON BALL BUBBLES SENSORY BIN:

Adding this simple, everyday item to a sensory bin can turn into hours of fun!

All you need is 2-4 bags of cotton balls for your sensory bin, depending on its size, and 6-12 rubber ducks. Grab some tongs, bowls, cups and spoons to transfer, scoop and pour!

We have also used these fun fillers for our rubber ducks sensory bins:

• blue aqua beads
• mini marshmallows
• rice dyed blue
• blue Easter grass
• bubble bath mixed into warm water

Try switching up the sensory play area, too! Here are a few things my kids loved:

• "Rubber Duck Pond" in a baby pool
• Rubber Duck races in rain gutter "rivers" (very inexpensive at hardware stores)
• Rubber Duck Sensory Play in the water table (same as in the bin)
• Rubber Duck Sensory Bath using bubble bath and foam flower and grass wall decals (in addition to the Duck Pond Sensory Bin items)

Rubber Ducks Play Dough Kit

This play dough kit is a huge hit with my girls! They love play dough, so when I give them a Play Dough Kit, they will play for hours. Just like the sensory bins, I usually keep each play dough kit out for a week, then switch it for something else.

For this Play Dough Kit you will need:

• Sectioned plate or tray
• Blue play dough
• Fake flowers (bunches of 6 are $1 at Walmart)
• Small aquarium plants
• Blue gems
• Natural rocks
• Pieces of wood (we used mulch)
• Small rubber ducks

Encourage your kids to use their imagination to create play dough duck ponds or decorate the ducks with play dough!

Sensory Play is a hit with kids of all ages! When the kids are done playing, store each filler and sensory bin item in separate ziploc bags and place them inside the sensory bin for easy storage until next time. Let them be little, let them play and let them get messy!

Link up your "YELLOW" post with us for A Year of Color!

Plan ahead for next month!

June 16th

An InLinkz Link-up