Birdseed Sensory Play

I love sensory materials that are safe if tasted because babies and toddlers are notorious tasters! Wild birdseedis one of our favorites because it won't harm kids if they taste (not that you should allow them to actively eat birdseed - please do discourage eating/tasting!), it's scoopable, pourable, and it easily vacuums up if you are inside (and if you are outside, it will simply sprout and grow like grass!).

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When S was younger, birdseed was one of my go-to sensory fills for parties because toddlers like to pour and they like to taste!  Here's little S (around 19 months) and some of her little buddies enjoying scooping and pouring at a water table full of birdseed.

X had never played with birdseed before, so he was super excited to see something so tiny!  It was great fine motor practice for him to isolate seeds to examine.

S still loves playing with birdseed and now that she's older, she loves to interact with it in new ways - like sorting! 

Very shortly after introducing the bin, they both jumped in.  :)  I love how you can see each of their reflections in the spoons they're holding!

Because it's such a fun scoop/pour material, I provided several different "scoopers" - measuring spoons, a large spoon, and a soup ladle - as well as something to "pour" into - a muffin pan.

X was really fascinated by the pouring.

So much so that we decided to move the muffin tin into their laps.

X loves music and sound, so he appreciated the tinkling noise the seeds made as they fell into the muffin tin while S was busy making birdseed muffins.  :)

Such a good sis - she kept pouring the seeds for mesmerized X over and over.

Love their cute little feet hanging out in a giant bin.

Oh my strange children...I really don't know what they were up to here, hahaha.

S loves to pretend to sleep in our bins.  X usually pokes at her until she "wakes up".

S decided to bring some of her "guys" in to play.  She would bury them and dig them out.  X got to help.

He loves when he gets to help.  :)

Good thing the "guys" have two rescuers hard at work - the situation looks a bit serious!

We are lucky to live in a forest, basically, with tons of birds, so after we're done playing with this, it goes into a feeder on our back deck.  If you're looking for birdseed to use with a baby/toddler, be sure to get the kind that is just seeds (generally speaking - this is the type advertised for wild birds vs the type advertised for pet birds) as some mixes have weird vitamins mixed in (usually the seeds for pet birds).

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.