Sensory play

Who doesn't love sensory play?

Stimulating your child's senses helps with their thinking, language, social-emotional and physical skills. 

Here are some of my favourite sensory activities:

Discovery bags 

One is filled with bubbly water and sequins. The idea was to see if the sequins would stick in the foam if the foam was moved to the top of the bag. 

One is filled with paint. This is a mess free way to practice mark making. 

One is filled with soapy water and a straw for making bubbles.

Paddling Pool Worms

This activity is usually contained in a water tray but the children were feeling adventurous and went all in with the paddling pool! We used expired tricolore spaghetti. Rolling around in a pool full of worms was "super fun but also gross!"

Finger Painting

Pretty self explanatory really. You can also use your feet! 

Face painting

Let them use your face as a canvas. 

Let them also experiment on their own faces! 

Just be sure to use non-toxic washable facepaint/paint/makeup

Edible Paint

Check out the recipe here

You will notice your child putting all sorts in their mouth. Oral exploration is a very important developmental stage. 

Cooking

When you child is a little older, they can cook with you and sample the goods and learn about tastes and textures. It also helps foster a good relationship with food. 

Music

Children LOVE music. There are no two ways about that! They love playing music, they love listening to music, they love experiencing music. 

You don't need to be a musical genius when working with kids. You just need willingness. I can play about 4 pieces on the guitar and now one of my former charges is having guitar lessons at school.

Playing music is great for fine motor skill development whereas dance helps gross motor development, confidence, balance, rhythm and a whole host of other skills!