Tag Archives: baby play

Nov23

Ice Tub

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Ice in a tub.

Ice in a tub.

It was very hot today, and baby T was feeling it. He was getting around in just his nappy, but he still felt warm. We had just turned on the air conditioning inside, so I placed some plastic mats on the floor in the lounge room and placed a sensory tub on the mats with some ice cubes in it.

Baby T was carrying around one of the bath squirters and a Little People cow, so he tossed those straight into the ice, and then sat down and started picking it up. He liked how cool it was.

Eating ice.

Eating ice.

Playing with the ice.

Playing with the ice.

He ate quite a few pieces of ice, so I am glad that I used only the clean ice that we use in drinks! He also rubbed the ice cubes over his face, legs and body. He moved them around, and played with the water as the ice began to melt. Inevitably, he upended the tub of ice and water over his head and shrieked with laughter.

Rubbing ice on his chin.

Rubbing ice on his chin.

This was a cheap and easy activity to help him cool down and have fun. He spent a little while playing with this tub on his own before his sisters came to join him. He became very possessive of the melting ice and screamed at L and A when they took bits of ice to eat!

There wasn’t much of a clean up as the kids ate most of the solid pieces of ice, and the water on the mats was easily soaked up with a towel and the mats put outside to dry.

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Apr25

Blue Sensory Tub

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Now that Baby T is getting older, I have been thinking of ways to get him more involved with out activities. Sensory tubs seem like a great start for him. I made up a very simple tub using blue items. I found a range of blue things from around the house, including a peg, ribbon, pom poms, straws, cup and a spiky dryer ball.

Ready for playing.

Ready for playing.

Putting the straw into the cup.

Putting the straw into the cup.

Baby T was very interested in the tub, and straight away pulled out the cup and curly straw. He spent a lot of time investigating the straw from all angles, and putting it into and out of the cup. He also put the end of the straw into his mouth just like his sisters do.

Tasting a pom pom.

Tasting a pom pom.

The pom poms were also popular, though he tried to put them into his mouth a lot. He licked all the pom poms a number of times too, I suppose their furriness was interesting on his tongue.

L tickled Baby T all over with the feather, making him laugh. He was particularly ticklish on the bottom of his feet, and around his ears. The feather also went in his mouth, as did almost everything in the tub. He even tried to bite a piece out of the sponge.

L put the blue clip into his hair, but he didn’t notice, he was too busy putting the smaller items into the cup and the bowl. He crunched up the muffin case, seemingly enjoying the sound that it made.

Crinkling a muffin case.

Crinkling a muffin case.

We let Baby T lead this activity. Throughout it we named each item he picked up, and described it. We talked about the colour blue, the textures and sizes of the items, as well as their uses. He spent much longer exploring this tub than I thought he might, he was extremely interested, and very happy with the contents of the tub. We will be doing more sensory tubs for him soon.

Jan11

Cold Coloured Spaghetti

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It seemed like it was about time that Baby T got involved in some messy play with L and A. I wanted something that he could have fun with, but that wouldn’t be too bad if he ate some of it. So I decided that cooked spaghetti would be great to try. Of course, after cooking the spaghetti, it had to be completely cold before the kids could play with it.

I wanted to make the spaghetti coloured. I thought that if I cooked the spaghetti first, and then mixed food colouring through it, the food colouring would probably just rub off on the kids when they played with it. So I cooked the spaghetti in four batches, each with a different food colour added to the water during the cooking. This worked quite well, and gave us some lovely, vibrant colours. When I tipped the coloured spaghetti into the colander, I rinsed it thoroughly with cold water to cool it quickly and to wash any excess colour away. Some of the colour still came off on the kids’ skin, but it washed off easily. L and A kept trying to eat bits of it too, even though it was cold.

Red, green, blue and purple spaghetti.

Red, green, blue and purple spaghetti.

We started with four separate colours of spaghetti in a tub, but it quickly became mixed together. All of the kids really enjoyed this simple activity, running it through their fingers, squishing it, swirling it around. And because it was a bit sticky, they also enjoyed lifting their hands in the air and wobbling about the spaghetti that was stuck to them. Baby T also enjoyed throwing it, mushing it on his tummy, putting it in his hair, and trying to eat it several times. Overall, he had a ball with it.

First impressions.

First impressions.

Enjoying the spaghetti.

Enjoying the spaghetti.

Really getting into it.

Really getting into it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a while we added some water to the tub to see what would happen. This made the spaghetti slippery instead of sticky, and provided a new sensory experience for them.

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This was a very messy activity, and I was very glad we’d decided to do it outside. The kids came in one by one for a bath each, and I attempted to pick up as much of the spaghetti off the grass as possible. There was plenty of grass mixed up in it by then, so I put it in our compost bin. All the kids have asked to do this sensory activity again soon.