Sensory Sunday - Pipe Cleaner Fine Motor Play

We did this fun little activity when Lilly was 8 months old. It was so much fun and so easy! All you need is a colander from your kitchen and a packet of pipe cleaners. Just thread them through the holes and let your bubba at it. This activity is great for older children too as they can thread the pipe cleaners through the holes themselves. If you're a bit anxious about the wire in the pipe cleaners, you can curl then ends up.

Sensory Sunday - Play dough

This week, we made some play dough for sensory play! As a teacher, I've had to make my own fair share of play dough but I've always followed the recipe on the back of the Cream of Tartar tin. I stumbled across a fantastic no-cook recipe on Pinterest last week so I knew I had to try it!

The following recipe is from The Imagination Tree - one of my favourite blogs!

- 1/2 cup salt

- 1 cup flour

- 1 tbsp oil

- 1 tbsp cream of tartar (I used what was left in my tin, about 3/4 tbsp)

- 1 cup boiling water

- food colouring

You just mix it all up in a bowl and then knead it together. It's such a nice consistency! You could also add glitter and some flavouring such as green glitter and peppermint for Christmas play dough or strawberry with red glitter for Valentine's Day. The options are endless! We stayed with a nice neutral light purple for our first go!

Lilly wasn't too sure to begin with and kept peeking up over the coffee table to see what was going on. She would pick a tiny bit off which would stick to her finger so she would shake it around until it fell off. It wasn't until I started playing with it that she became interested!

Sensory Sunday - Edible Painting

This might just be the best idea ever invented - edible paint! I have seen lots of recipes around the place lately with the most popular being yoghurt and food colouring. My little one has a milk allergy though so yoghurt is out of the question. We use the next best thing - baby rice cereal!

First you mix it up with lots of water until you get a nice consistency then you add the food colouring. I probably added a little bit too much but I love how bright the colours were!

I put a splash mat down outside on our patio and let Lilly go to town - she absolutely loved it and so did I! It was really fun watching her mix the colours together with her hands and she had a little taste as well. I would definitely recommend this activity to everyone! So simple, cheap and not much mess either if you pop a mat down - you can just hose it off and put bub in the bath afterwards!

Sensory Sunday - Touchy Feely Frames

As you know, sensory play is one of our favourite activities! I am trying to move away from traditional plastic toys and make our own fun. I've been reading a lot into the Montessori way of learning and I'm so impressed. I've seen lots of amazing sensory boards on Pinterest so I decided to give it a go.

I had a packet of plastic frames in the cupboard that we had never used, so I very carefully removed all of the glass leaving just the cardboard backing frame behind. I then headed to Mum's house and raided her craft cupboard (she used to have a little craft shop selling all sorts of goodies).

I then went through my basket and selected which materials I was going to use. I wanted Lilly to have a variety of textures to explore. I heated up my hot glue gun and attached each material to the back board of each frame and then I just popped it back in as if it were just a normal photo. I contemplated gluing the frames to a piece of MDF but I like the idea of being able to lay out just a few frames at a time and Lilly loves picking them up and exploring both the front and backs of the frames.

Lilly's learning corner

As some of you may know, I am a primary school teacher. I taught Prep/Kindergarten for two years before I fell pregnant with Lilly and I always loved making a difference in the lives of our little people. Now that I am a stay at home Mummy, I design and create teaching products which I sell over at Little Lifelong Learners. This has just been a little hobby but I'm thinking of taking the leap and turning it into my very own small business very soon!

I decided to make some cute alphabet posters which I shrunk down and laminated for my home office where I spend a lot of my day. Once they were up, we decided to make a little learning corner for Lilly seeing as though she spends some of her day in here with me.

 

Once the posters were up on the wall, we went to Ikea and got some wooden learning toys. Lilly absolutely loves the abacus and whacks the beads across with a big grin on her face.At Kmart, we got the white bookshelf and the little baskets. I think Lilly actually enjoys playing with the baskets more than she likes the things inside them. They are great for sensory play.

 We are using one of the baskets to keep all her board books and touchy feely books in. It's the perfect size for Lilly to be able to reach in and grab what she wants. Read my Books for Babies post to see what our favourites are at the moment.

The next basket is our sensory play / exploration basket. At the moment, it's full of different balls with different textures. Lilly loves to pick them up and throw them so it's no surprise that some have mysteriously disappeared already!

Last but certainly not least, are my sensory play bottles! The first is just cooking oil and coloured water. When Lilly shakes it, the oil and water starts to mix together then separate again. It's more fun for me to watch and play with but I'm sure Lilly will appreciate it soon! The next is just different coloured rice. You pop some rice in a zip lock bag with some food colouring and a splash of white vinegar and shake it up until the rice is dyed. Then you spread it on some cooking paper out in the sun to dry. So easy and so effective!

The others are my rainbow shakers filled with bits and pieces from my craft cupboard. If you don't have a stash, you can grab some bits and pieces from the $2 or junk shop. I used things like feathers, paddle pop sticks, beads, pebbles, pipe cleaners and coloured pasta. So cheap and so much fun!

So there you go! Lilly now has a little space to play and learn in while Mummy works on her business!

Lilly's first painting experience

As many of you know, I am a big supporter of sensory play for little ones. A friend of mine did some cute little paintings with her bubba which inspired me to paint with Lilly too!

I headed to the $2 shop and grabbed some bright, non-toxic paint (just in case) and some canvases. When we got home, I put an old sheet on the floor and dabbed some paint onto the canvas. Next I wrapped some cling wrap around it and popped Lilly down for some painting fun.

She loved smooshing the paint with her feet and her fingers, but I think Mumma had more fun! This is a great little craft activity and the resulting canvas is now sitting proudly in her Learning Nook.

Spaghetti sensory play

Sometimes I worry that Lilly gets bored of me during the day. We tend to do the same things day in day out when we are hanging out at home together. We have play mats set up in several different rooms of the house with different toys at each. She has a jumperoo which she enjoys playing in while I cook dinner....but I still can't shake the 'bored feeling.'

Now that Lilly is sitting up, we have started some sensory play which is super important for her brain development and her understanding of how the world around her works. As an early childhood educator myself, I have been aching to get started with some fun play experiences. I am trying to set aside one day a week for some new play activities. Our latest play experience was spaghetti and boy did she love it.

I simply boiled a big pot of spaghetti and added a few drops of food dye while it was cooking away. You can definitely skip this step or use natural food dyes such as beetroot or spinach to add some colour.

As you can see, the spaghetti was very well received and Lilly couldn't help having a little taste, an important part of sensory play especially for little babies. I'm not sure who had the most fun though, me or her! I just HAD to help her pop some spaghetti on her head - it was really funny and sweet to watch her try to work out what was going on and how to solve the problem of not being able to see!

A lot of people shy away from sensory play because it can be very messy (as is baby led weaning!) but it really is so much fun! I am so looking forward to trying lots of new sensory play with Lilly as she grows.

Sensory play with homemade paint

Lilly loves playing in her highchair so I often pop her in there with some toys while I do the dishes. Today I decided to whip up some homemade paint for her to play with and she loved it!

You will need:

• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1 squirt of dish-washing liquid
• Food colouring
• Bowls and spoons for mixing
• Ziplock bag
• Tape

First I measured out the flour and slowly added water until I had a nice paint-like consistency. Then I added the squirt of dish-washing liquid and separated the mixture into cups. I decided to make two different colours so I had a lot of mixture left over. Next time I will just make a tiny little bit! Once I had my two sets of paint, I used a spoon to put the blue paint down one side of the ziplock bag and pink down the other but you could use as many different colours as you like!

Next I used ordinary tape to attach the bag to Lilly's highchair. At first she wasn't too sure what to do so I helped her moosh the paint with her hands. She loved kneading the paint with her fist and using her palm to squash the paint.

Next time I must remember to make sure her nails aren't too sharp because she did pierce the bag towards the end. She really enjoyed this little sensory play activity and I can't wait to try a few more with her over the coming weeks!