Infant +
I am writing a short series of posts entitled "Super Easy Sensory Play". Activities included in the series all contain two or fewer ingredients and are items that are generally found in any house, so no need to run to the store for specialty items. I hope that you will give them all a try! You can read the other posts in the series here:
Super Easy Sensory Play: Ice and Warm Water
Super Easy Sensory Play: Cornstarch and WaterSuper Easy Sensory Play: Ice and Warm Water
Super Easy Sensory Play: Wet Cotton Balls
Super Easy Sensory Play: Dirt and Worms
We introduced X to rice play the other day and he was cracking me up with his expressions. For some reason he thought it was just the weirdest thing he'd ever touched! He kept grimacing and giving the handfuls of rice strange looks. I'm glad I had my camera on hand to capture it because he's since become used to it and plays with rice without any weird expressions.
I'd "hidden" some of his wooden toys in the rice, but at first go, he was really more interested in figuring out what the heck rice was.
He loved taking big handfuls and watching them drop. The rice made a pretty noise hitting the oilcloth (like rain), which my musical X enjoyed as well.
I'd made S a rice bin as well, with some of her dinos, but of course they each favored each others' bins. So they switched. Here X is super excited to be playing with the big kid toys!
Rice is a great alternative to sand if you have young children who are still mouthing. S didn't put things in her mouth by a year old, but many of her friends did, so for her first birthday party we filled her blowup pool with rice and had sand toys for the kids to play with in lieu of a sandbox.
For older children, it's fun to make colored rice for art projects or a sensory bin.
Rice is a safe, fun, and easy thing to play with that has almost universal appeal - I know I still enjoy getting down and playing with it as an adult! So long as you are not eating your rice or getting it wet, it stores for quite a while. We use shoe storage boxes that have snapping lids (we've gotten them from Target) to store our sensory items, and our rainbow rice is still in perfect shape almost 6 months later!
Please always supervise your infant/child at play. Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.
Thanks for this idea. My son loves playing with rice! He inevitably ends up dumping it then feeling it with his feet. It's so cute! I like the small inflatable pool idea from your other post... the splat mat is no match for my boy! :)
ReplyDeleteSoooo cute! X loves feeling it with his chubby feet, too! Hahaha - the pool should work much better at containing his joyful play. :)
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