Sensory Play: Shapes Rice Bin

I was slacking a little with their activities. I have been feeling lethargic and they did mostly worksheets and coloring. But yesterday, Y came running to me and asked for "activity time"! I was pleasantly surprised and of course it gives me great motivation. So, I took out the Green and Red rice we colored the previous week. I had wanted to do a Christmas sensory bin but haven't got to gathering the materials. With this request, I had to whip up something fast, so I poured the rice in the bin and threw in some shapes. I like the colors! They were supposed to scoop the shapes I asked for in their respective bowls. It was a lot of fun and they moved on to explore the bin on their own for a long time.

Y, concentrating on his scooping.

He calls this "Rain"

K, mixing the rice.

It look me a while to gather the bin and the boys waited patiently for me, following me in and out of the room, looking curiously at what I'm doing, shouting "activity time" from time to time. I can never associate the word Patience with a toddler so I can see that they really wanted their "activity time". They even let me take a picture of the bin before they dashed for it. There are many times when I feel like stopping the learning activities I'm doing with them and just switch on the box. But they never fail to stop me.

Coloring Rice

Rice is a regular for our Sensory Play. Hoping to make it more interesting, we colored the rice today. There are lots of tips and recipes on coloring rice online. Here are a few by:

DLTK
E-How
Suite 101

Most of them combine rubbing alcohol or vinegar with food coloring. Again, I'm lazy, I just poured food coloring into a Ziploc bag of rice and get the boys to shake. It's not too bad. But as you can see from the pictures below, the rice is not evenly colored. I used about 1 or 2 tablespoon of food coloring to dye this small bag of rice and I think that's a lot. So, maybe you shouldn't be lazy like me if you are intending to color rice.

Green Colored Rice

Red Colored Rice

Can anyone guess the theme of upcoming Sensory Bin with this Green/Red color combination?

Sensory Play - Goop

I have been looking for Goop recipes that does not requires Borax (I have no idea where to get Borax in Singapore, please let me know if you do) and I was happy to find it over at Be A Fun Mum.

What You Need:
300 gms of cornflour
1 cup water
Food coloring (option)
Tray or containers

All you need is to mix the water and the flour. The preparation only takes a few minutes. I'm not sure if it's due to our humidity here. I think we need less water but I've got to try it out again.

Goop is an amazing substance that even I was intridged by it. It feels like solid when you touch it and when you try to lift it up in your hands, it just melts into liquid. Y&K enjoyed exploring with it very much. And they spent 45 mins at it and was very unwilling to leave. K even burst into tears asking for more Goop when I brought him to the bathroom. I think they can play for hours.

I like how sensory activities catches their attention and keep them occupied for long periods of time. 45 mins is a long time for a toddler to be concentrating playing with something. I like to talk to them during the experience. "What are you doing?", "What is that?", "How does that feel?" and I like it even more now because they can talk to me. K nodded, in smiles when I asked him if this is fun and he repeated "fun". Y told me the goop is like rain when it trickle from his fingers.

Maths - Counting Beans

Y&K enjoys counting but they still can't count. They don't know when they should stop counting. :)
I was thinking of reusing the Red beans from the scooping activity we did for another activity and came up with this.

I'm doing this activity with 5 bowls each time. Their attention span is still extremely short. I'm already lucky to have them sit through the counting of 5 bowls.

What You Need:
Containers
Labels (to label the container with numbers)
Beans or any other counters

I showed them the number on the container and gave them the correct number of beans. For example, I give them 5 beans for bowl "5". And they put the beans into the container and we count together. They still don't know when to stop counting at the end of this activity but I think they are slowly getting it.

Sensory Play - Paint Table

The boys are not into messy play. They don't like to get their hands dirty! But I WANT them to! They refused to do hand painting. So, here's my trick. I lured them to the paint table with cars. Ha!


What You Need:
Small Table
Plastic Sheet (to wrap the table top)
Paint
Car (optional... you only need them as a bait)

They were shaking their heads when asked to go to the paint table but they dashed to the table once the cars were out.

K rolling the car.

Hah! Y finally used his fingers! And he told me he was drawing a train.

And then his hands! K followed suit when he saw Y having fun.

Y: "oh oh... dirty hands"

Misson success! This is a great activity. Cars are a nice addition. It was nice to see the wheels texture on plastic. it's nicer than on paper. And they explored the smooth texture of plastic with paint. They were at the table for 40 mins. K was reluctant to leave the table and I had a hard time coaxing him into giving the fire engine a car wash.

I think a great way to preserve the "painting" is to press a big piece of paper over the plastic. I didn't do that this time but will definitely try it the next time round.

Letter Matching

I think some of the best activities I do with the boys are the impromptu ones. Sometimes, an idea will strike me. Or the boys are so grumpy that I'm forced under circumstances to come up with something new and interesting to keep them entertained and occupied. Or most of my planned activities just fail to generate their interest and participation. These activities are usually easy to put together with little preparation. I'm a lazy busy Mum. Here's another easy one.

What You Need:
White Board
Paper with Letters on it
Magnet Letters
Masking Tape

I printed some letters on a paper and tape it to a A4 white board. I picked out some magnet letters in a tray. They are supposed to pick out the letters on the tray and match it with the letters on the board. If you are short for time, handwritten words work too. I printed a few sheets with different letters and I can just change it once they get bored with the current sheet. I just wished I have a bigger board so I have more letters on 1 board.

They made me quite happy at the end of this activity as they got all the letters right. :)

Sensory Art - Painting with Feathers

The boys like to go to our craft box to check out our craft materials and specifically asked for paint. So, I did a painting activity with them using feathers.

What You Need:
Paper/Drawing Block
Paint
Feathers

First, I started choosing the paint colors that goes with the feather colors I have and I did a matching activity with them. They weren't keen as they were anxious to start painting.

They were free to do what they want with the feathers and paint.

K smiled at the camera! :)

K got a little frustrated as the feather is too soft to hold like a brush/pen.

I like to give them the freedom to do what they want with the materials provided. The basic rule is, they should not end up on the floor. I think they react differently when they were told right the begining of what to do and when I left it open. For crafts, I give instructions and will demostrate on what to do but with Art, I like to leave it open. It's interesting to see them exploring with the feathers and thinking what they should do with the feathers and paint. And actually, no explaination is required, they just paint. They tried to hold the feathers like a pen, they tried to brush the feathers over the paper, etc. I just love to see them explore.

Pegs Match Game

Completed these in 5 mins to get my twins up the high chair for lunch, all with available materials on my dining table. I just gave myself away. Now you can imagine the kind of junk and clutter I have on my dining table!

Things You Need:

• Index Cards or any card stock
• Wooden Clothes Pegs
• 2 sets of stickers

Methods:
Just paste 1 set of stickers on the card and the other set on the pegs. Tata!

Kept them occupied for a while and we had a cooperative meal.

Letter J Craft - J is for Jellyfish

We did a Letter J craft.

What You Need:
Paper Plates
Streamers made from Crepe Paper/Tissue Paper/Ribbons, etc
Googly Eyes (optional, the eyes can be drawn)
Stickers (optional too but my sons love them)

I broke down this craft into few parts due to their very grouchy mood and short attention span.

Part 1: Cut the paper plate in half and let them color

Part 2: I gave them dot stickers to paste on the streamers that I have cut out.

Part 3:
- I had double sided tape at the back of the paper plate and they attached the streamers.
- They pasted the googly eyes with my help
- I drew the mouth of the jellyfish
- They asked for more stickers for their jellyfish. They are still crazy over transportation. That's the reason why you are seeing a scooter sticker on the jellyfish.

Painting with Homemade Paint

After the last messy painting session, a friend gave me a splendid idea of making my own paint. I have never thought of making my own paint. It sounds like a crazy idea for a twin mom. My hands and legs (literally) are kept busy countering their fights and meltdowns, “Where got time?” (in Singlish) But since I’m not willing to part with more money paint for another painting session, I kept that in mind but I didn’t expect to do it so soon.

Y crept up to my computer sneakily on this day and saw the pictures of the messy painting after I finished blogging. K was rummaging the shopping bag and dug out the squeeze bottles that I bought. They were a steal at S$0.40 each at Japan Home and I swept the whole shelf. Then they started harassing me to let them paint.

Of course I’m not willing to take out my brand new bottles of Crayola paint so I told them we are going to make our own. It’s so easy that I managed to whip something out when I have no idea at all how to start. I simply put some corn flour and water in a pot and put to boil on the stove. While waiting for the starch to cool, I got out my box of water color tubes and let them choose their own colors to put into the squeeze bottles. After that, pour the starch in and shake. Tata!

Ok, I know this sounds like crap tutorial but since it was so impromptu, I didn’t know how much flour and water I used and with sticky hands, it was not possible to take pictures while doing it and making sure that my 2 toddlers won’t fight themselves to death or run round the house with the corn starch. I will do this again and next time, I’m gonna share with you a better tutorial.
Here’s Paint in Progress.

Y was making tracks with the paint.

K kept shouting "My car is stuck in the mud!!" while painting.

Writing and Drawing Practice - With Sand

Eversince the small "accident" we had after our first Sand Sensory Play at home, we did not touch the bag of sand I bought. I didn't want to let it go to waste, especially after so much effort of finding it and lugging the 10kg load back home on public transport. I decided to do some writing and drawing practice with them today. Papa is home to join us in this activity, which is great because it's also safer with another adult supervising the activity.

What You Need:
2 trays or any shallow dish or container
Play Sand
Sticks (optional, I used disposable chopsticks)

I had originally wanted them to write/draw with their fingers but they refused to let go of their new motorbikes and were a little finicky about having sand on their fingers. I find it very weird. They don't think twice to touch the sand when we are at a beach but they need lots of encouragements to touch it when we are home. I guess Sand and Home just don't go together. :)

We went through some of the alphabets that had been taught and drew some objects that starts with the letter.

We used sticks to draw and smoothen the sand for new drawing.

Open Ended Painting - The Messy Version

My boys love painting and I love to let them paint, with anything and everything. I prefer doing open ended art with them than craft work as I like how different the artwork turns out from them. And there’s no right and wrong or very obvious comparison as to who did a better job. I’m extremely sensitive since they are of the same age and jealousy issue can be a big problem. They are constantly subjected to comparison in school, from strangers, relatives and friends. Who is smarter? Who is more independent? Who eats more?

Anyway, back to the activity, on this day, I was adventurous enough to take out all my paint, possible tools that they can use to paint such as sponge, squeeze bottles, pipe cleaners, pom poms, etc and let them do whatever they want with it. I was feeling the pinch with the amount of paint (esp when it’s Crayola) they used at the end but I guess the freedom of expression that they get to experience should be worth it.

The boys enjoyed themselves but I had a major double meltdown towards the end as the paper gave way.

I still like the whole experience but I will only attempt this again until they (and I) forget how upset they were at the end. Until I find a thicker paper that can withstand their artistic strokes and also cheaper paint.

The boys totally engrossed in their play.

Paper + Glue + Beans = 45 mins of peace

We are not quite done with the terrible twos x2 phase though the boys are turning 3 years old in about 3 months time. I made a very brave decision to transit them to a big bed as they are outgrowing their baby cots and with the allergy cough that I suspect the bed to the culprit, we purchased 2 car beds for them. It had been a nightmare . It’s been 1 month and I’m happy to say that they are slowly adjusting to their new beds though they still ask for their old beds every now and then.

It’s mostly child led activities in the house these days since they have their old favorites like Marble Painting and Car Painting. It’s not an uncommon sight to see them with their cars and paint at 7am in the morning still in their PJs.

Back to the activity, on this day, Y suddenly ask for glue. “Glue?! What do you want to glue?” I asked. And all that came after that was whining “I want Glue! I want Glue!”. Ok, they want Glue and I’ve got to find them something to glue. In the kitchen I go and out came some beans and so here are my boys totally focused. I just love the serious work on their faces when they play. I like to observe how they different they play. Y make patterns with his glue before pasting the beans creating a masterpiece while K puts a dot for every bean, very systematic.

Cardboard Car

Both my boys were down with HFMD last week. But I'm happy that other than the few dreadful days of very bad ulcers that's affecting meal times for K, we had been busy creating and learning. It's been a while since we did so many activities. Our no school mornings are spent creating and playing. The activities were all child directed and I became their slaves.

On this day...

K: Mummy, let's build a cardboard car.
Me: (thought bubble: "Let's"?? You mean "me" Nooooo....) Let's do some other things, how about watching the Cars movie? (wrong move)
K: I want to build Lightning Mcqueen! Ka Chow!
Y: I want to build The King!
Me: (thought bubble: Ok, we have cardboards... maybe it's not that difficult to do afterall) Alright, let's see what we need.

Their persistence paid off and once I got my butt off from the sofa, we were on the roll.

What You Need:
Carton Box
Paint
Brushes
Pen Knife
Markers
White Paper
Construction Paper

I got 2 carton boxes and cut off 3 sides of the flap for the top, leaving one side for the car front. All 4 flaps at the bottom are removed.

   Cut a small rectangle at the sides as a handle for the kid to hold.

Then it's time to get the rascals to work.

I printed out the car number 43 for The King and got the graphic online for Lightning Mcqueen. Cut them out and paste it at the side.

My "designers" had a hard time deciding on the design of their car wheels. They had an even harder time trying to express what they want to me. But we sorted it out in the end and I thought they looked good. I kept the cardboard pieces that I cut out earlier for the wheels. Cut the circles and parts out of construction paper and the boys were responsible for putting them together.

For the front of the car, I cut a piece of White paper to paste over to draw the eyes. Y wanted a "serious" look. He drew a dinosaur (looked nothing like one) for the Dinoco sign and we found a Rusteze stickers for Lightning Mcqueen. I drew the eyes and mouth for Y while K drew everything on his own.

The boys were so happy with their cars and they wanted to bring to school as their Chinese learning theme is Cars. K asked his teacher for permission to bring to school. She agreed and so I let them drive to school today.