Farm Clean Up Sensory Play

Posted on March 25, 2022 by danielleridgway

What’s Mila’s favorite part about spring, minus the flowers and nice weather? All the baby animals! This Farm Clean Up Sensory Play idea is a perfect way to talk about new baby animals AND have fun being messy too.

This interactive play was easy to set up and let her play for a long time. The best part… it’s completely edible too.

First, I want to say a HUGE thank you to Terra by Battat for gifting Mila these animals to play with. They have these big Bucket Sets full of different types of animals that are amazing. Terra by Battat sent us farm animals, marine animals, and a few other goodies that we love.

Their toys are super realistic and come in their own world. Mila has spent hours with both the buckets. The marine animals have became her favorite bath tub toys. I’ll be posting different ways we’re playing with them. You should still totally check Terra by Battat out though. Would make perfect Easter presents!

Anyways…

When I saw the country world bucket, I instantly thought of this fun sensory play. To further create this world, here’s what you’ll need:

Country World Bucket from Terra by Battat
Chocolate Pudding
Kix (other cereal smashed)
Washcloth or Brush
Water
Towel or Place to Dry
Sensory Tray

The hardest part of this sensory play is the set up. It just takes a little time, but it’s worth it.

To set the scene, all you need to do is spread chocolate pudding in one part of your sensory tray. I also added some crushed kix cereal to make it look more realistic.

I also made sure to make the animals ‘muddy’ too. Honestly, I didn’t know if Mila would want to do that so it just made it a little more fun for me.

Then, I set up the cleaning area. This just consisted of a wash cloth, cleaning brush, and soapy water. It was nice doing the water in a bowl because Mila instantly thought it was a bathtub! Which works for me.

The next little area was where the animals dried off. I just used shredded paper and tissue paper.

After it was all ready for her, I just let her do whatever. When we do sensory set ups like this, I try not to give her too much direction. She immediately started cleaning off the animals.

It was so cute to listen to her too. She pretended she was a zookeeper and it was cleaning day.

After the first clean up was done, she made the animals muddy again and kept the process going. I loved watching how creative she was through it all.

I think this activity would have been even better outside with more space, but it worked well inside too.

The clean up for this activity was really easy too. All I did was recycle the paper. Then I just used water to clean everything else off. It was quick and simple!

I have a feeling we’ll definitely be doing this set up again in the near future. Until then, I can’t wait to show you the other fun activities we have planned with the marine world bucket. It was another hit with Mila.

Make sure to check out Terra by Battat and order realistic play animals that your kids will love.

What edible sensory play do you do with your kids? I would love to hear ideas.

Wooden Rainbow Stacker Play

Posted on March 2, 2022 by danielleridgway

If there’s one toy purchase I’m happy to have made, it’s this Wooden Rainbow Stacker. Not only is it colorful and meaningful to us, it’s a lot of fun for Mila to play with.

Packed with so many different ways to play, Mila spends hours with this toy.

I discovered this Wooden Rainbow Stacker in 2019. That was when I started buying more wooden toys instead of plastic ones. They’re so much better for our environment and they’ll last for generations.

When researching these toys, I found out so many different benefits to having kids just use their imaginations when playing. Since plain rainbow arches don’t give specific directions of how to play, kids can come up with their own ideas. Parents can also help guide play.

It’s also so beautiful. When Mila isn’t playing with it, it makes a perfect decoration in our playroom. Rainbows are so symbolic for us, so it has many purposes.

I figured I’d let you all know how we play with ours!

Learning Colors

When Mila was little, we used these arches to learn the different colors. It was nice that she could actually pick up the colors of the rainbow when she didn’t have the right words. We sang the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse rainbow song with this so many times to learn the colors. It was always a ton of fun.

As she grew older, I would have her find different objects that were the same color. She really liked this idea! It became a little scavenger hunt around the house for her.

We also would do matching or patterns with the arches too. Since there’s two of every color it made it fun to show her a combination, then she repeated!

Imaginative Play

Since these arches are so big, they make fabulous houses. Mila is always playing with her little dolls on these. I think it’s so cute to listen and see how her brain makes these wonderful play scenarios.

She also makes different shapes with them. It’s incredible to see what she comes up with and how she explains it.

One of my favorite times she used imaginative play is with her unicorns. They all raced through the different arches and even on top of them. It was like Mila came up with her own little world just out of this toy and her My Little Pony’s.

This is what’s so amazing about these plain play items; your child’s imagination will make them what they need to be at that time.

Stacking

Stacking is probably our favorite activity to do with this rainbow stacker now.

As I stated above, we LOVE to make different shapes with our rainbow. Mila loves to do ‘hearts.’ This is where we stack out rainbow like the picture below. We see how far they can balance until they all fall down.

It also is really cool (as an adult) to see how they fall too. It’s really satisfying to har the nose as they go down and just watching it too.

There are so many different shapes kids can make with this. While they’re figuring it out, they’re able to learn! It takes Mila a few times to stack up the shape just as she likes it, but she’s always proud of herself when she finally does it!

Extended Learning

Lately, Mila is at the age where she is learning how to spell her name and simple words. We use resin letters to balance her words on top of the rainbow.

We do little challenges of who can place the most letters on the rainbow arches or who can get their words to stay up the longest. It really helps Mila learn while she’s having fun. That’s really all that it’s about too!

I’m sure as she gets older there will be more and more ways to play with this stacker. It truly has been an investment in her future.

Do you have a rainbow stacker? What games does your kiddo like playing with it?

If you’d like to get a wooden rainbow stacker, you can find it here on Amazon.

Toddler Activity: Cake Decorating Sensory Bin

Posted on August 10, 2021 by danielleridgway

Cake it till you make it with this Cake Decorating Sensory Bin.

Shaving cream is such a fun ingredient to use during sensory play. It’s cheap, versatile, and easy to clean up. That makes this bin perfect for kids and their parents!

I also loved seeing Mila’s creativity again and again. She did a lot of different designs and pretended she was a cake decorated the entire time.

It was a sensory bin success!

Here’s the only things you’ll need for this one:

I feel like I always say this, but putting this bin together took no time.

The longest part was cutting up the straws into sprinkles. For this, all I did was randomly cut it in small pieces. I didn’t measure or make anything exact.

Then, I put shaving cream in the bin. There was a decent sized layer there, but I didn’t fill the bin.

After that, I set it in front of Mila and told her the goal of the sensory bin. She did everything else without me having to monitor it.

The only thing I did have to mention that this was shaving cream… not whipped cream.

Mila played with this activity for way longer than I set it up. Which is always a win in my book. When she wanted to clear off her cake, we put the sprinkles in a colander and cleaned them off.

This Cake Decorating Sensory Bin really was such a simple and fun activity for her!