My 2-year-old really enjoys doing sensory walks. He asks to do this activity all the time, which keeps him quiet busy! A sensory walk is a great way to explore the sense of touch, especially for children with sensory processing needs. A sensory walk is very easy to set up and clean up is easy! Here's what you need: plastic tubs material to fill the tub water beads sand dry black beans colored water shaving cream towels To set this up for my children, I … [Read more...]
Ten Ways to Play with Water Beads
Playing with water beads is one of our favorite play activities. They are squishy, bouncy, slimy, and are just plain awesome to play with. Here are 10 ways to play with water beads. 1. Sensory Bin The easiest way to play with water beads is to place them in large bin and let your little one play with them. You can place funnels, cups, scoops, in the bin for them to explore with. 2. Shaving Cream Add shaving cream to water beads for some super fun messy sensory play! 3. … [Read more...]
Safe Water Beads for Toddlers
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. We love water beads at our house. They are a favorite sensory activity, but water beads are actually not safe for little ones. They are used in flower arrangements and although they are nontoxic, they are not edible and a choking hazard. My kids really don't put items in their mouths, but to be on the safe side I wanted to make water beads that were safe for my children if they did ingest them. So to make these, … [Read more...]
Toddler Tuesday: Water Beads & Golf Tees
Water Beads + Golf Tees? That seems like a strange combination, but let me tell you...it's a great combination for working on fine motor skills!! Here's what you need for this activity: Water beads (found at craft stores, Dollar Tree, or Walmart in floral section) Piece of Styrofoam Golf Tees We LOVE water beads! These little hands couldn't wait to start playing with them! I love the orange/red/yellow color for summer! I found these water beads in a three pack at Walmart for … [Read more...]
Fine Motor Skills with Water Beads
We love playing with water beads and the kids are always thrilled when I get the water beads out. Today we not only played with them, but we used them for a fine motor activity. Wes was in a trance as he played. For this activity, I used our Discover Toys bath shapes. They have suction cups on the back, which are perfect for holding water beads. I laid the shapes in front of Troy and had him take water beads and put them in the suction cups. Since they are slippery, he had to practice … [Read more...]
Water Beads for Valentine’s Day
One of my boys' favorite sensory activity is playing with water beads. They have a slimy, squishy texture that screams fun for kids! We picked up these large red water beads and small clear water beads from The Dollar Tree yesterday. We also got ten little heart boxes in three colors. Whenever I'm walking around The Dollar Tree, it feels like a scavenger hunt to me. I see all the dollar items and try to think of a fun lesson or activity we could do with those. So when we were out there … [Read more...]