Things have been really hectic around our house lately (more to come on that), so I haven’t had much time to focus on creating new activities for the boys.  However, these three winter sensory activities were so quick and easy to pull together!  I love giving Noah the opportunity to explore new items through sensory play.  It gives us a great opportunity to introduce new vocabulary and topics.  He’s loved this Winter themed sensory bin!  Most of all, he loves the animals in it!

Winter Sensory Bin

Here’s what I included in our Winter themed sensory bin:

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We had snow here last night and it is cold outside!  I love being able to watch the snow fall from inside this time of year, but with it getting colder outside, what better time to bring some warm weather fun inside?!  A sand sensory bin is a really fun way to play in the sand year round!  Here are five ideas for fun ways to use kinetic sand indoors.  Of course, I keep our sand in a bin with the lid on and pop it into our sensory table when we are ready to play!

Dinosaur Dig

One way that we love playing with kinetic sand is with dinosaurs.  I recently picked up a dinosaur dig puzzle kit and we’ve had so much fun with it!  I bury the dinosaur “bones” in the sand and Noah uses the tools to dig them up.  He still needs me to put the puzzle together for him at the end, but then he loves to play in the sand with the finished dinosaur.  If you are feeling really creative, here’s a fun post about creating your own dinosaur fossils!

 

Create a Beach

Another way that we use our kinetic sand is when talking about different ocean animals.  Early in the summer, you can often find miniature sand castle molds.  (I picked mine up at Michael’s).  Noah loves instructing me to build the castles so that he can “mash them down” with his ocean animals.  He’s a toddler boy, what can I say.  I have learned through his “mashing castle phase” that kinetic sand is far better to have inside than real sand because it sticks together, so its much easier to clean up!  We even use things like measuring spoons and cups to build sand castles!  Different sizes of measuring cups are a great way to build tiered castles.

 

Cookie Cutter Shapes

A third way to enjoy your sand sensory bin is by using cookie cutters to make outlines in the sand.  You could use letters, shapes, or a fun theme of cookie cutters.  No surprise here, we used trucks!  This would be a great way to encourage kids to learn letters!  I happen to have a set of alphabet cookie cutters, but if you don’t, just draw the letters in the sand with your finger and let your kids copy or trace over it.

 

Treasure Hunt

Another fun way to play in the sand is to create a treasure hunt!  I hide the mini Thomas trains in the sand and then Noah digs for them.  (We do the same thing in our beans bin).  He gets excited about digging for treasure!

Shapes, Numbers, and Alphabet Tracing

This one really couldn’t be more simple.  Just draw a shape, number, or letter with your finger.  You can either have them copy it or have them trace it with their finger!  We’ve recently started doing this with Noah’s name too so that he starts to recognize the letters in his name!

 

**This is not a sponsored post.  When I find something that I love to use, I love to share it with all of you!  This is one of those things. 🙂 **

I have struggled for a long time with keeping childhood memories organized for Noah and now Liam.  Noah says probably a hundred hilarious things every day and I have countless videos and pictures of the boys!  I love sharing their cute moments and milestones with my family as well.  My brothers all live far away but they love seeing what their little nephews are up to!  Today I’m sharing my favorite way to keep it all organized in a place that can be easily shared!  I can’t even count how many different apps and sites I tried before landing on this one.  So here goes….my favorite app for keeping childhood memories organized is called Notabli.

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Wow!  I cannot believe it’s December!  Thanksgiving is over, so you know what that means.  Time for Christmas decorations and activities!  I don’t know about you, but the huge lists online of activities to do with kids kind of overwhelm me!  When there’s 25 options, I just don’t know what to do with that big of a list!  🙂  So, to keep it super simple, here are just two fun Christmas Sensory activities for kids.  All of the materials can be found at a craft store (Hobby Lobby, Michaels) and you most likely already have the spices at home!

Christmas Sensory Bin – to create this bin, I used shredded paper in Christmas colors, red and green bells, mini presents, pom poms, pinecones, and fake snow balls.  One quick trip to the craft store, throw it all in a bin, and you’re ready for the kids to explore!

 

Holiday Scents – I found these little jars with lids that turn open (like a spice container does) at Michael’s (craft store).  They are perfect for holding cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and peppermint extract on a cotton ball.  This gives Noah the opportunity to smell some of the scents of the season without handling them.

I hope this post gives you a couple simple ideas for kicking off holiday fun with your kids!  What are your favorite Christmas activities?

As organized as I am with a lot of things in life, gift giving is just not one of them!  I prefer to give gifts that are special for each person – something that really made me think of that person when I saw it.  So when I’m under pressure to get gifts by a certain date, I tend to procrastinate.  This year, I’m really trying to be on the ball and get my Christmas shopping done early!  One of my favorite ways to give gifts to little ones is by giving them a book and an experience or educational (but fun) toy to go with it.  I love themed gifts as a way to make it fun for the littles! There really just isn’t anything better than a good book and great memories, right?!  Here’s my 2016 Christmas gift giving guide for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers!

Baby Gift Box – Elephants

I just think this is such a sweet baby gift!  The That’s Not My series is seriously so cute!  My boys have loved these books.  They are colorful and there’s a different texture on each page.  Plus the story is repetitive and simple, so Noah can now read these books to Liam.  Melts this momma’s heart!

That’s Not my Elephant

Elephant blanket and rattle

Baby Gift Box – Tummy Time!

This is another adorable gift for any new baby!  How cute is this?!  An adorable ‘under the sea’ themed play mat and tummy time book!

Tummy Time Play Mat

Fold out tummy time books These are simply some of the coolest books for a baby!  They fold out and stand up in front of baby!  Baby can either be on their tummy or even sitting up.  Liam loves looking at the high contrast pictures and Noah loves telling him what each picture is!
Baby Gift Box – Beginning Shapes

Lift the Flap Shapes

Fisher Price Shape Sorter

 

Toddler Gift Box – We’re Going to the Zoo!

Noisy Jungle

Peek Inside the Zoo

Tickets to the Zoo

 

Toddler Gift Box – Learning Colors and Taking Turns

Taking turns is something we are working on, and the Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel game gives us a fun way to practice!  I love that when it’s your turn, you hold the squirrel.  This provides the child a very concrete way of knowing whose turn it is.  This game also targets learning colors!  We get a lot of laughs out of this game!  Noah gets very protective of his acorns!

Lift the Flap Colors

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

 

Toddler Gift Box – Exploring My World

My Very First Book About the World

Big Picture Atlas

World Map Floor Puzzle

Soft Globe (We have this soft globe at home and love it.  It’s not only educational, but gives him something to hold while we read our books about the world.  It also is great for learning to play catch!  It’s soft enough that no one will get hurt and its squishy, so it’s easy for Noah to catch).

 

Preschool Gift Box – Secret Hide Out

There’s just something that is so much fun about having a secret hide out.  We have a tee pee in Noah’s room with a basket of books right outside its door.  He loves to go hide in there and read (sometimes I even get invited in!).  Pair this with a secret flashlight book and I guarantee this is one gift your kids will love!

Teepee (I loooove the selection from Land of Nod!!)

Shine-a-light book (There are so many in this collection and they are all so much fun!  Definitely a favorite in our house!).  Give it with a flashlight to make it a complete gift.

 

Preschool Gift Box – Learn how to code!  Yep, you read that right!  How fun does this look?!

Look Inside How Computers Work

Fisher Price Code-a-pillar

Wonder Workshop Dash Robot

 

Preschool Gift Box – Natural History Experience

Big Book of Big Dinosaurs

Big Book of Big Animals

Dino Dig

Tickets to local Natural History Museum

 

Preschool Gift Box – Snowy Day Rescue Kit

Zoo on the Loose is hands down our favorite game right now!  It’s so fun and interactive.  Best of all, it burns energy!  We don’t always follow the rules exactly and modify it for when it’s just Noah and I playing, but nonetheless, we run around the house laughing while we play this game!

Dinosaur Activity Pack

Sticker Dolly Dressing Activity Pack

Get Ready for School Wipe Clean Activity Pack

Zoo on the Loose

 

 

 

 

Noah is being a wild and crazy two year old this week.  It’s only Wednesday and he’s already worn me out!  I’m sure some of you mommas out there know the feeling.  Since there are still several days remaining in this week, I knew I had to find a way to channel all of his energy!  Today I’m sharing my top ten picks for kids Fall activities from around the web!

1.  Paint Pumpkins!  Our mini pumpkins were getting close to the point of needing to be thrown out, so I let Noah paint them.  He had a great time and there was virtually no set up required.  Pumpkins and paint – pretty simple!
   
2. Stained Glass Pumpkin and Leaves – again a super simple activity!  Cut pieces of tissue paper into squares and tape contact paper cut into the shape of a pumpkin or leaf to a window.  This is so pretty when the light shines through!  Of course, being a two year old boy, Noah had a great time throwing the tissue paper pieces into the air and watching them float down to the floor.  🙂 
3. Play Doh Turkeys – For this activity, I shaped play doh into a turkey and gave Noah a bowl of feathers.  He had a great time making his turkey!  
4. Easy Marbled Fall Leaves – i heart arts and crafts
5. Leaf Handprints – House of Burke
6. Fall Bucket List for Toddlers – Busy Toddler (Love the pumpkin wash idea!  Now I know what to do with the rest of my pumpkins)!
7. Pumpkin Counting Cards – Life Over C’s (Noah would be totally on board with these, since they feature trucks)!
8. Turkey Color Match – I Heart Crafty Things
9. Autumn Sensory Writing Tray – The Imagination Tree (hands down, one of my absolute favorite sites)!!
10. Fall Sensory Bin – Fantastic Fun and Learning

Here’s how my take on the Fall Sensory Bin turned out!

I absolutely love Fall.  It’s definitely my favorite season of the year!  So, it’s no surprise that I love coming up with fun Fall themed activities.  Today I’m sharing a Fall sensory activity that we love every year!  It’s so incredibly simple to create.  I leave this basket out through the Fall season and it looks so pretty sitting in our playroom!  Fall decoration and activity all in one – can’t beat that!

For our Fall sensory basket, I simply take Noah to a local pumpkin patch (or you could even pick these up at the grocery store!).  I let him choose a variety of gourds and small pumpkins.  I just make sure we get a variety of colors, textures, and shapes!  Then, I just throw them in a basket when we get home and let him explore them.

Another really fun way to change this activity up a bit is to put the pumpkins and gourds on a mirrored surface. Just be sure it’s shatter proof for kiddos, as they will likely drop the pumpkins on the surface! This is a really fun way to talk about mirror images. They even get to see their own reflection as they play!

Here are a few other ideas for adding additional elements to your sensory basket for Fall:

• Help your children explore difference scents of Fall by adding spice containers to your basket.  Pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves are a few that are great!  I always supervise this activity to be sure Noah doesn’t spill or try to eat them.
• When you are getting close to the end of the season, paint your pumpkins and gourds!
• Cut them open.  Let your kids explore the inside.
• Talk about the colors and shapes of the pumpkins and gourds.  Talk about the texture of their surfaces (smooth, bumpy, ridges, etc).
• Encourage creative play.  Noah likes to drive little trucks around and over them and make bridges with the tree block pieces to connect one pumpkin to another.  You’ll be surprised what your kiddos can come up with!
• Use the pumpkins and gourds to make imprints in play doh.

For more creative and fun ideas for Fall activities, I’m loving this post by The Imagination Tree!!

I am so excited to share how to create a sensory table with a simple IKEA hack!  We love experimenting with different sensory bins, so this table has gotten a ton of use!  I searched high and low for an affordable table and just couldn’t find one.  So, I got creative and made my own.  It’s actually turned out better than the tables I could have purchased because mine allows me to switch out the activity in seconds!  I don’t have to empty out the bin and fill it with new materials.  I just swap out the entire bin.  This means that I always have a new activity ready for those moments where you need to change things up quickly with a new distraction (hello tantrums of the terrible twos).

For this project, I started with the Lack coffee table from Ikea.  I then bought several fairly shallow plastic bins with lids from Target.  You want to be sure that the bin has enough of an edge on it that it will hold in the table without falling through.

My dad cut a hole in the top of the table to allow the bin to sit down in the table using a hand saw.

To do this, we measured out the dimensions of the top of the bin.  You want to get this part pretty exact so that the lip of the bin sits down on the edge of the hole and doesn’t fall through.

Once it was cut, I just wiped it down, filled a bin and we were ready to go!  A seriously quick and cheap project that has provided hours and hours of entertainment.  What’s better than that?!

Check out this post for an idea to get you started creating your own sensory bins with your kiddos!

Today I thought I’d share a super fun project that I tackled recently – how to make a light table for kids!  I’d seen light tables that were crazy expensive online and thought they looked like so much fun to experiment with colors, but we just couldn’t pay a few hundred dollars for one, so I decided to try to make one myself!  It turned out great and we’ve had a blast with it!

To start with, I went digging in the basement for something that I could use as the box for our light table.  I wanted ours to be fairly small and portable so that we could use it on the floor or at a table and so that I could easily store it when we aren’t using it.  I ended up finding an old coffee table tray that was all scratched up.  Who knows why I kept it, but I’m sure glad I did!  The next step was to spray paint it a metallic silver inside and out so that the inside would help reflect light.

Once the box was painted and dry, I went hunting for lights and a topper for the box.  The top piece was a bit tricky, but through a lot of trial and error, I ended up with something that worked wonderfully!  I got a piece of plexiglass from Lowes for FREE.  I explained what I was attempting to do to a sales associate but told him that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it because I didn’t know if my idea would even work!  He ended up finding me a scrap piece of plexiglass that he was able to cut to the size I needed!  Yay for free stuff!!

In order to make the top opaque, I experimented with different contact papers and even the window frosting sheets.  None of these got it opaque enough.  I finally found a frosted glass spray paint and sprayed both sides of the plexiglass several times to get a nice thick coat on both sides.  This worked like a charm!

I ordered lights that came in four strips from amazon and used electrical tape to secure them in place inside the box at an equal distance apart.  I chose these because they turn multiple colors and have a remote for turning them on and off since my lights would be inside the box.  I just made sure I put the receiver for the remote at the edge of the box so that the remote could connect to it.

The last step was to secure the top.  I wanted it to be secure enough that Noah couldn’t rip it off, but not so secure that I couldn’t get it off if the lights went bad.  I ended up just using Scotch double sided tape on the edges of the box and the pressed the plexiglass down really tight on top.

Here’s what the finished box looks like (and an adorable little boy who loves to play with it):

We’ve since gotten a variety of fun objects to use on the light box.  Color paddles, color shapes, and even rock slices!  I love the color paddles because we can talk about mixing colors as well!  Noah’s had a great time with this and he loves pushing the buttons on the remote to change the color of the lights.  I’d love to get a set of Magnatiles for it too!  Maybe for Christmas.  🙂

 

I hope this inspires you to get creative with materials you have at home!  All said and done, this light box cost me $25 for the lights and about $7 for the frosted glass spray paint.  I already had the tray, tapes, and silver metallic spray paint.  So all in, I’m at $32!