Hailey is at the really fun age where you can do a lot of sensory activities! Of course I have been on Pinterest.com to find all of these wonderful activities you can do it at home with your baby to promote stimulation! I thought I would share some of the activities Hailey and I have been doing and how well the experience has been!
SENSORY BOTTLES
I had a lot of fun making these sensory bottles for Hailey! I have more bottles not pictured here! Hailey especially loves her "Ocean In a Bottle"- made with vegetable oil, water, blue food coloring, and shells! These bottles are easy to throw into the diaper bag and they provide a great distraction for your baby when you are in the waiting room at the doctor's, restaurants, really anywhere! The sensory bottles are also easy to make! I am a craft ninja, so I had many of the supplies needed to make them. I used various colors of glitter, confetti stars and shells, and bedazzle jewels. The actual bottles were leftover favors from my baby shower; they are very small and easy for a baby to hold! I have seen bottles you can make with themes to them, such as "Minions", monsters, buttons, "Night Sky", etc. A helpful bit of advice to those thinking about doing this craft: GLUE THE LIDS DOWN! This way the water, glitter, buttons, etc do not leak or come out of the bottle :) Such cool ideas and they give mama some crafts to do! Very worth the little bit of time it takes to make them! Sensory bottles are a sucessful sensory activity!
RIBBON WAND
This craft idea was spur of the moment and I decided to do this when I realized I had a ton of various colored ribbons in my craft supply. I was lucky when I found the wooden stick! I think this craft only took me 10 minutes at the most to make involving cutting the ribbons and tying them onto the stick! Hailey likes to watch the different designs the ribbons make when you move the wand and she enjoys trying to grab the ribbons in her hands. This activity is great with helping hand coordination skills and keeps baby occupied for at least 10 minutes. Ribbons can also stimulate using touch. Hailey giggles when you run the ribbons over her arms or legs. I know this ribbon wand seems like it was meant for cats, but babies love it too! :D
RAINBOW SPAGHETTI NOODLES
As you can see from Hailey's face, she loved this activity! I don't think she quite knew what to make of the noodles at first! I wish I had gotten a picture of her after she played with the colorful noodles! She had them everywhere and was giggling so hard! To do this activity you need: spaghetti noodles, water, oil, food coloring, a pan or a plastic container. I found this idea on Pinterest. The only thing I would do differently is not coat the noodles after they are cooked in oil. I get that the oil makes the noodles more slimy, but I didn't want to give Hailey any acne from the oil being on her soft baby skin. I would add the oil to the water when the noodles are cooking. After the noodles are done cooking, add various colors of food coloring to your drained noodles. LET THE NOODLES DRY FOR A LONG TIME AFTER COOKED. I say this to avoid having your child's hands, arms, legs, etc turn into a rainbow. Now, watch your kid enjoying touching something new, slimy, and weird!
THE BEAN BIN
The Bean Bin activity was recommended to me by a friend and Hailey really enjoyed it!I chose to do a variety of the beans because I felt the colors would also be stimulating! She loved putting her hands and feet in the beans, throwing the beans, and watching the beans fall out of the measuring cup. When she is older, she may enjoy "digging" in the beans and scooping up the beans by herself! The only issue I had with this activity was making sure Hailey did not place any of the beans in her mouth! She is all about her mouth right now! She has not discovered that she a nose or ears yet, thank God! I like that this activity you can save and do again and that it was not an expensive activity to do! I bought three bags of beans from Food Lion for $1.39 each. I already had the cake pan and the measuring cup at home! If you are not sold on this activity yet, here is a video of Hailey enjoying it!
RAINBOW ICE
Hailey was very surprised by this sensory activity! We did it so that she could feel both warm and cold at the same time! The cold water excited her! This a great activity to do for a few minutes (you don't want little baby fingers and hands to get too cold!) No the colored water did not dye her hands! If she was to touch the ice cube, there could be some potential for dyeing of little fingers! To do this activity you need: a few ice cube trays, food coloring, a pan or plastic container, and water. I dyed water in a few separate bowls and placed a different color of the food coloring in each bowl. Then poured each different color into the different compartments of the ice cube tray! Once the water is frozen and has become ice, you can do your sensory activity! I actually really wanted to do this activity outside on a warm and sunny day, but we had a week full of rain so I opted to do it in the kitchen instead! Very easy and enjoyable for both mom and baby!
Here are a few videos of Hailey doing this sensory activity!
Me and Hailey will be doing some more sensory activities soon and we will share them with you all! Sorry about not posting for awhile, we have been very busy lately! I promise I will update more :D
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