Indoor Fun Review

The second of the review posts I am doing will give you an idea of all the indoor fun we have had over the last two years. Yes, two years is a very long time but I will try my best to sum it up.

Fun with black eyed peas

             

D was out at farm adventures so it was just R and I at home. I decided to put together a sensory tub for him to explore. I chose black eyed peas as the filler and added some utensils for him to use to scoop and pour.

                       

Firs,t I set it up by the wall with a cardboard tube attached to the wall for R to pour the peas into. He loved doing this and watching them all fall into the tub underneath ready to be scooped up again.


              

When he lost interest with this, I moved the tub into the living room and added some more pots and utensils for him to play with.

              

He had fun using the tweezers to pick up individual peas. It's so lovely to see his fine motor skills develop!

Frozen bicarbonate of soda dough

                       

Everyone loves Frozen, right? It's the best selling Disney film of all time. I tried to put it off but in the end our home also got Frozen fever. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the film; I really enjoyed it. The songs are fabulous and I don't mind the kids singing them round the house, in fact I am contemplating getting the movie soundtrack. I love it!

With their love of Frozen in mind, I decided to create some Frozen themed bicarbonate of soda (baking soda in the US) dough for the children to explore. I saw it first on pinterest and you can see the original link here. Although we have tried lots of different play doughs and sensory doughs before, we had never tried this one so it was a new experience for us all. It is very simple to make, simply mix a little bit of water into the bicarbonate of soda along with the colours of your choice, We used liquid watercolours for this. You have to be careful not to add too much water or the bicarbonate of soda will start to dissolve! 

               

I left some of it white and made some purple and some blue. Then the kids got stuck in.

               

They immediately started to mix the purple and white together. Things never stay separate for long!

               

They used egg cups and bowls to create blue sandcastles.

               

D even made a cake with star-shaped sequins as sprinkles!

I have saved the  leftover dough to use for some more sensory play soon.

Mosaic salt tray

                     

I saw this activitiy on the imagination tree blog and immediately knew I had to try this with the children. I love how the coloured mosaic pieces stand out on the blanket of white salt. You can really create something spectacular with a bit of imagination.

Salt is a useful medium for a lot of play activities. It can be used to make play dough and salt dough for some modelling fun. It can be used as it is or coloured for a different sensory experience. On it's own it is a great base for mark or pattern making.

                   

I set up this activity by pouring salt on the base or a glass dish. I placed the coloured mosaic tiles in a bowl next to the dish of salt. Then I invited the children to play

                 

D got stuck in doing some mark making. She used her finger to swirl the salt around creating some lovely patterns. She also had a go at writing her name in the salt. A salt tray alone can turn into a great literacy activity.

                  

Following on with the literacy theme, D had a go at spelling out some simple words with the tiles. She said the salt looked like snow.

                  

Then the children began to make pictures and patterns in the salt with the tiles. This is R's creation.

                  

D made a beautiful butterfly.


You can get the mosaic tiles from amazon here:



This post contains amazon affiliate links.

Fizzy, Foaming Fun!

                 

When vinegar mixes with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) an exciting reaction occurs. It fizzes and bubbles and it's fascinating to watch. It's a fun introduction to science for little ones. You can explain how when the vinegar is added to the bicarbonate of soda a chemical reaction occurs and produces the fizzy eruption!

                 

I set up the activity on a plastic cloth on the floor. The bicarbonate of soda was in a tray and the vinegar was mixed with liquid watercolours in a muffin tin. I also gave the kids some pipettes to transfer the coloured vinegar to the baking soda.

                 

The children were amazed at what happened when they squirted the vinegar onto the bicarbonate of soda.


                   

This was the first time the children had used pipettes so I explained to them how they worked and how to use them and they soon got the hang of it. This was a great task for helping to develop fine motor skills.

                

                Soon the bicarbonate of soda became multicoloured!

               

                The mixture bubbled with eruptions everywhere!


                

The children played for a long time, especially D. T don't think there is any other activity which has held her attention for this long! She played and played until there was nothing but a mass of purple slime-like substance left. "Can we do it again tomorrow?" she asked.

Wooden letters and coloured rice sensory tub

                   

I often put together sensory play tubs for the kids to explore. For this one I used some coloured rice which we made about 6 months ago. We keep it in a plastic container and the children love to play with it. They often use spoons to scoop it up and pour it into bowls. This time I decided to add some petals and some wooden letters to encourage literacy development.

                   

Coloured rice is not difficult to make. All you need is a bag of rice and some food colouring. Put both ingredients in a zip lock bag and mix until all the rice has been coated with the food colouring. Then, thinly spread the rice on a tray and leave to dry overnight. Store in an airtight container and it will keep for months, perhaps even years! We have been using ours for at least 6 months now.

                   

I gave the children some kids size kitchen utensils to use and also our favourite Learning Resources Sorting Bowls (Set of 6). The children practiced their fine motor skills using the utensils to scoop and pour and the tweezers to pick up the objects. These actions are performed by using the vital pincer grip movement, a skill which develops between the ages of 9-12 months and is crucial for skills such as feeding oneself, holding a pencil and fastening closures on clothes and shoes.

The children began to separate all the different items, placing the petals together and pouring the rice into the sorting bowls. The letters got scattered all over the floor and did not end up being sorted by colour into the different bowls, which is what I had intended, but that's fine. With an activity like this, I like to let the children play the way they want without too many interruptions or suggestions from me. So, I set up the activity, invite them to play and sit back and watch the mess (it usually get's quite messy) occur!