Having premature twins and a toddler meant that I spent 90% of my one year maternity leave housebound. With the twins unable to sit unaided our options for trips out with only one parent on hand were limited, meaning Monday to Friday we had to make our own entertainment at home. Looking back it was actually a really magical time, despite it obviously being challenging and tiring too. Below are a few of my toddler sensory play go to activity ideas.
- Foil blanket ball pit play – a simple foil ‘rescue’ blanket from Amazon and an Argos ball pit and balls brought hours of fun to the boys. They absolutely loved the way the light shined off the blanket and the crunching sound it made when they moved around.
- Sensory discovery box – I used to throw in a few safe items like rubber kitchen utensils, homemade sensory bottles, homemade ribbon toys and stickle bricks into a box. The boys would then happily sit exploring what was in the box, taking things out and putting them back in again, chewing them, shaking them and generally having fun.
- Sensory bottles
- Glow in the dark bath – I brought glow in the dark bath toys from Amazon and put the boys fiberoptic lights on the window sill, they absolutely loved having a bath in the dark and watching all of the lights.
- Pots and pans band
- Disco in a den – I brought a large multicoloured parachute from Amazon (the sort you use at baby classes) and I would pin it down the sofa and over to a chair making a little den. I used a disco light (Amazon again) and put some instruments in and their sensory bottles and we all had a sensory disco in our colourful den.
- Colourful spaghetti – I used food colouring to dye cooked spaghetti different colours and then let the kids explore. It took around 24 hours for the spaghetti to dry with the food colouring and I didn’t get the really vibrant finish that I was hoping for but the kids didn’t seem to mind.
