first dip into sensory bins

Bobo and I are on summer holiday until September, so we've had lots of time to play and relax with Wawa at home. Bobo (3) loves anything with wheels, trains and constructions vehicles most of all, and Wawa (1) loves to knock things over and hold a hand to her cheek, pretending it's a phone.

Easy sensory bin option #1: Ice 
Advantages: ice is free, readily available, and fun for arctic themes. Playing with something so cold is exciting! 
Disadvantages: we only have two ice trays, so there's never too much ice in our sensory bin. There's also a limit to how long the children can play, as ice melts pretty quickly in our warm climate.  

This morning, it occurred to me that we could try a sensory bin using ice - something we had never done before, although back when it was just me and Bobo at home, we did do a lot of painting and process art and such. I thought it might be a fun way for both kids to play together. 

Enjoying our Water World 

Because sensory bins are a new idea in our home, we didn't have a designated tub or bin for the activity. We put Wawa's bathtub on a big towel and poured in all the ice we had in the freezer, which was enough to cover the bottom. We added beach toys (shovels, scoops, buckets of various sizes, etc.), stuck up some pictures of sea creatures along the side, and called it 'Water World'. 

Wawa enjoyed holding the ice in her little hands, and Bobo loved scooping them into the buckets. He said he was building homes for the polar bears and the penguins. 

Easy sensory bin option #2: Beans 

Advantages: lots and lots of beans can be purchased for not very much money. Both Bobo and Wawa loved filling dump trucks and containers with beans and pouring them out. 
Disadvantages: really little ones can be tempted to eat beans!  

We tried a similar activity a few days later with beans instead of ice. When we bought the beans at the Chinese medicine shop the lady asked if we were making dessert! I told her we were just playing with them. 

Beans galore!

This time I only let Wawa play for a few moments (closely supervised) because I was afraid she might try and eat them. We didn't stick up any animal pictures this time but added some trucks and diggers. Theo ended up enjoying the bin for nearly an hour! 

Here's to more sensory bins in the future!