Spaghetti!

This afternoon after school my boys were a bit tired and a bit agitated, they gravitated towards each other upsetting the other, feeling a little stressed by their behaviour i decided on this sensory activity. 

I thought it might calm them and distract them from their boredom. 

I was right.

The spaghetti was cool and slimy to touch, the colours were lovely to look at and i think it helped relieve some of that tension they had pent up and made them feel relaxed as the sat for ages squishing it between their little fingers like one of those squishy stress relievers. Very tactile activity.

It was easy to make too, the most time consuming part was the cooking of the pasta itself but once done it was pretty straightforward and quick to put together.

Cleaning up didn't take too long either, after brushing off excess pasta form their clothes i put what was left in the tub in the compost bin and swept the rest which had dried hard again in the sun 

To make:

1. I used 2 packets of spaghetti pasta, cook it until soft then drain and run under cool water. Pasta swells up when you cook so not to worry if it doesn't look like enough.

2. I divided up the pasta once cool into bowls then added a bit of oil to each bowl along with food colouring, you could use a spoon to mix but i find using your hand tends to be more helpful (gloves on!) to work the colour in.

3. Add to a container or a tray and let them go!

Its great fun!

Goop!

This was a such a successful sensory- fun filled activity I did with the boys today that i'm going to definitely recreate it again sometime.

What is it?

Cornflour and water. That's it.

To make;

Get a bag of cornflour - I used two because I had this large tub to do it in but you could use a bowl. 

Add water and mix it around, it pays to use your hands and a little warm water until you get this goopy consistency.

If you want you could add some colouring to it. I left mine plain as we have done a lot of activities of late with colours.

Its a super messy activity as you can see but the boys spent so long playing with it. They had such a great time and they were really engrossed in putting their hands and feet in it! 

Lots of laughter- lots of picking it up and watching it fall from their hands.

Great visual and tactile stimulation.

The great thing- actually few things is that :

1. Because its cornflour, its baby friendly if they put it in their mouth.

2. Because of the way it hardens and dries; it becomes like powder, you can sweep it away off the concrete (or carpet if they walk it through on the way to the shower- use a damp cloth and give any drops a wipe then vacuum). And also because of its consistency you could hose it off the concrete.

3. It washes out of clothes no problem.

What makes this even better?

You can turn into a science lesson because it can be a solid or a liquid.

Here is some more info on it for you!

No mess painting

 A friend of mine put up a picture of her daughter doing this activity and it was such a great idea that i decided to do it with the boys.

So what is it?

Paint in a bag- totally mess free.

To make:

If you have a large ziplock bag that's perfect for this as you can seal it but smaller ziplock bags will work just as well.

Slot a couple pieces of paper into the bag , then add a few blobs of paint onto the paper in the bag.

Seal the bag, try to get as much air as you can out so it doesn't pop.

They can push on the paint with their hands , swirl it around with their fingers to make patterns or even walk on it (maybe put newspaper down or do it outside if they want to walk on it just in case!!)

My middle was stunned that there was no paint on his hands!! He loved it and kept smushing the paint around the paper. Its an interesting feeling if you try it, cool and squishy.

Once they have finished you can take the paper out of the bag and dry in the sun to keep their pretty artistic prints!

Sensory bottles

I created these sensory bottles for the boys last holidays and they proved to be a hit, even now they'll stop and shake them about watching the colours and shapes float around inside the bottle.

To make:

I found some little soda bottles and emptied out the soda.

I added water almost to the top then put some confetti, glitter, googly eyes and even pompoms.

I mixed it up, making bottles of blue, some of green.

Once I had added the pretty things to the bottles I super glued the lids on so there would be no accidents.

 The baby especially loved these bottles. This activity is good for visual and cognitive stimulation as well as gross/fine motor having to use their muscles to make the bottle shake. Its also great for learning about cause and effect.

We had friends around with their children who sat shaking the bottles and watching the glitter or confetti float about,

Easy and quick to make.

A toy that keeps for a long time!

Drawing on windows

Last holiday break I bought these crayola window crayons. 

The boys loved them, they spent ages drawing on the windows. 

Using different tools like chalk/paint brushes/pens/crayons even doing an activity like finger painting- anything that encourages the use of their hands; making circles, drawing lines, attempting letters all help develop fine motor skills and the muscles in the hands needed for writing or to turn a page or pick up an object

Its also a great activity for them to develop cognitive skills- thinking, interpreting their pictures and  imagination.

The window crayons made by crayola are easy to clean off the windows - just some window spray and a cloth is all you need.

The window crayons aren't the cheapest thing to buy- but they do last a long time.

Alternatively I have in the past used felts or coloured markers on the windows, even whiteboard markers. They don't show up as much as the window crayons but still work and still come off with window cleaner. 

Do note: Make sure you do a test if using markers on a corner of a window or a mirror or even glass bottle first to make sure it comes off.

To the right side of my blog I have added some links related to fine motor and cognitive development if you are interested!

Jelly!

Jelly is a really fun activity which is great for their development.

Jelly is really inexpensive but requires to be made up in advance, its quite easy to do and the instructions are usually on the back on the packet but if not, for the packets I used which were greggs- instructions are below

To make:

I put an open packet of jelly crystals in a bowl then added 500mls of boiling water and gave it a good stir, I left mine to cool a bit before refrigerating.

As you can see there are a lot of choices for colour and they always come out quite vibrant.

The next day, once the jelly was set, i flipped the jelly out onto a tray. Now heres where you can get creative; when you make up the jelly try some different shaped containers or even if you have any beach toys like a castle shaped bucket. 

I rolled up the boys sleeves and let them at it, they really enjoyed pushing their hands through the wibbly wobbly jelly and spent a decent amount of time playing. I hid some little cars in the jelly and they drove them around  occasionally taking int a mouthful of jelly.

This is another great sensory activity that can be done at home.

Post fun clean up message for you now from what i have learnt with this:

1. Do it on a hard floor or outside so the floor can be mopped or outside- hosed down, as i gave it them on the table above carpet. Jelly is not fun to get out of carpet!.

2. Its a messy activity so either have a wet soapy cloth they can wash their hands with after the have finished OR if they get a bit adventurous like mine and start to eat it and have lots of fun- they'll be covered in it so i put them in the shower, with the tray of jelly. They get clean and so does the tray! Voila!

3. Most jelly can be cleaned up with hot water and maybe a little soap.

But though its messy it is great fun so don't let the clean up prevent you from trying it!

Posting

 Posting is a such a great indoor activity that requires very little materials. 

I bought these cardboard tubes from a stationery shop but you could use any card board tube from a  toilet roll or paper towel roll even a piece of card rolled into a tube shape.

I taped the tubes to the window (thought the tape might strip the paint off the walls) but you could try a door. Then i gave them all some large pom poms i had lying about. I'm not quite sure what is so fascinating to little minds about posting but they loved it, they spent a decent amount of time posting the pom poms through. 

After a while when i could see their interest fading so i gave them some little cars and their excitement for posting came back.

For littlies like mine who are entering the posting stage you could leave a couple of these up in the house so that they can have a play.

Posting is a great developmental skill and milestone to do with hand eye co ordination and problem solving.

Play dough

Play dough is a lot of fun.

My boys love play dough, its always a hit in our house whether i get out little tools and shape cutters or do what i did today where i gave them coloured popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and pom poms

They will usually sit for a while with play dough, its not only a great sensory activity but its great for fine motor skills practicing rolling the dough into little balls or worms.

I love to sit with them and make different things and talk about our creations.- snowmen are usually the favourite.

My middle talked about what he was making with his dough- a machine he told me! 

I make my play dough by cooking it and ive found it keeps a really long time in doing so.

To make i used:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

6 teaspoons cream of tartar

3 cups water

3 tablespoons oil

few drops of colour 

I add it all to a pot and turn it on low, it pays to keep stirring as  after 5 or so minutes  it begins to clump together forming the dough. It eventually forms its own ball, before you take it out of the pot add a few drops of colour and knead the colour in. 

Keep in an airtight container and bring out whenever you have little ones who are bored. 

And dont forget its baby safe!

Squishy colours

These creations i made are so vibrant in colour but didn't last long as an activity i think perhaps because the boys were tired and another sensory activity was going to be too much. 

My middle played with them for a while before retreating to the comfort of the couch.

There are 2 ways for doing this, creating these and its totally up to you how you pursue it. 

They can be squishy fun or finger paints.

To make:

I used a couple of bags of instant mashed potato and split it into 6 small bowls.

 I added water enough to mix it into a ball then added colouring and with my hand kneaded the colour in(once again gloves on!) and they turned out like this. 

Its quite different to play dough completely different texture.

To make into finger paints just add more water so that its almost goopy and let them loose with some paper. This a totally baby safe play activity, if they eat it that's cool its just potato!

Not too time consuming to prepare (maybe 20 minutes), post preparation clean up took the same amount of time.

 I did this activity inside and lesson learnt- should have done it outside or on the hard floor as a few bits got stepped in to the carpet and it wasn't the easiest to get out. 

But do try it!

 Was an interesting activity that i'll probably try again another time. If you do try- let me know how it goes for you!

Coloured salt

This activity i put together for the boys was the easiest to make and was the one they loved the most.

It took all of maybe 5 minutes to prepare and post prep clean up was next to nothing.

To make: 

 I grabbed 3 bags of iodised table salt from the supermarket.

I added 2 bags of salt to a large ziplock bag, added a few drops of yellow food colouring and mixed it around with my hand (gloves on - no need to colour your hand!).

It made this vibrant yellow 'sand'. It doesnt clump and seems to keep pretty well.

I did the same as above for the blue.

I think any colour would turn out quite well, there's something about the salt that really brings out the colours well.

I poured the salt into a large tray making a beach scene using some little animals i bought. I used a few little plants for trees and cinnamon sticks for logs but you could add anything and make it how you like it. 

They loved it.

Post clean up involved a bit of brush down and any salt that fell to the ground was easily swept into the garden so probably best as an outside activity.

This is another great sensory activity for them, feeling the salt on their hands mixing up the colours and of course using their imagination as they made the little animals move about.