Hi Peeps!
I wanted to do a quick post about some of the activities we were doing around the house with our 16 month old. We are currently coming out of an 80 day lockdown in Philadelphia, and during that time at home we had to get creative to replicate the activity level my son is used to getting at daycare.
Let me start by saying…
My family and I are truly blessed to have made it through this pandemic virtually unscathed. I was able to comfortably work from home while my husband watched the baby (thankfully not working from home but still getting paid). We had food, shelter, and even plenty of toilet paper to keep us happily indoors. We enjoyed watching milestones we would have otherwise missed if my son was in daycare. We also did some much needed spring cleaning and minimizing (Marie Kondo would be proud).
Now that we have hit toddlerhood, the range of activities we can try out has vastly expanded. One of our favorites is…
SENSORY PLAY!
Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses: touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing.
Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore. The sensory activities allow children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information helping their brain to create stronger connections to process and respond to sensory information.
Since we love FREE and EASY…
Our sensory material of choice is WATER PLAY! It literally requires nothing but a bucket or bowl and any random household items or waterproof toys.
Sensory Materials we use:
- Balls
- Bath Toys
- Applesauce Pouch caps
- Wooden spoons
Baby loves every minute of it and it’s always stimulating enough to his senses to incite a nap!
5 minute Sensory Idea
Sometimes after meals when Ju isn’t ready to get out just yet but he is done eating, we give him a bowl full of water and a wooden spoon and he goes to town. Water play is just that simple!
Tell me what sensory activities you are doing with your toddler so I can give them a try! I’m new to this and always looking to expand on FREE and EASY summer fun, so drop me a comment and share your favorite!
These are such great tips, I personally have my degree in ECE and love reading and learning more about developments children go through, it’s very interesting. Thank you for the great read!!
That’s awesome! I could learn a lot from you. Keep in contact 🙂 !
omg so cute!!! love it!!!
Thank you! And thanks for commenting!
This is so interesting. I don’t even have a child but really interesting to learn about 😉
Maybe I’ll do a post about adult sensory activities for my readers without kids!
These are really neat ideas! This is inspiring me to do some more sensory play with my kiddos 🙂
I’m glad this was helpful! Quarantine had me digging in all my bags of tricks. Lol
I don’t have kids yet but this post and your cute little baby is definitely giving me baby fever!
Thank you so much! ❤️