Sensory Play

Em and I had just a fun day yesterday.  She did some awesome sensory play in a tub of water with some sponges and spoons and bowls, and she played with play-dough for the first time. 

I'm not entirely sure she was ready for the play-dough... she kept wanting to put it in her mouth even though I told her it was very icky and not for eating.  She kept saying "icky, icky" and then putting it by her mouth just to see if I was paying attention.  I was.  Thankfully.

 

The water tub occupied her for close to an hour though. I told her she had to sit on the towel in the kitchen and that was the only thing I interjected. She didn't even try to get up from the towel - she just used her spoons to stir the water, pour it into other little bowls, pour it on her feet, tell me "brrrr brrr" (it's cold, mama!), and she definitely was well hydrated after the water play as well, as she drank a LOT of it.  This occupied her for close to an hour.  No joke.  It was all kinds of awesome. 

 

 

 

Oh!  And we whipped out this little fun again too.  Last week she wouldn't do it on her own - she kept asking for help and wanted me to do it for her.  This time I needed to walk away and do something in the kitchen, and when I came back she had put in 4-5 on her own.  Yippee!  As soon as I sat down next to her again though, she wanted help again.  But I know she can do it!  This also occupied her for 20 or so minutes, which was just the right amount of time for me to get some banana bread made.  It cracked me up because each time she put one in she said "poke poke" (like I did when I first showed her how to do it a week ago) and then when she took them out she set them in a little pile and said "pat pat" while she patted her little hands on them to straighten the pile (exactly like I did when I showed her how).  My little monkey-see-monkey-do!  (Scary!)  

I think I had just as much fun watching her as she did playing with it all.  I need some more ideas for sensory play that allow children to also explore with eating though, because I don't think she's quite ready for non-edibles.  (As proven by the play-dough.)  Ideas?

Yup.  So that was our day.  Plus some tantrums and whining and meltdowns and the normal stuff.  Don't think our day was just all peachy-keen.  I know it is easy to do that when you read someone else's blog.  I'm not a super mom and would never pretend to be.  Just saying.

So... while I'm admitting my non-super-mom tendencies... any ideas how to get a child to happily switch from one activity to the next?  I don't want to end too early because it is obviously way fun... but I also don't want to let it go too long for fear of losing the fun either. 

Yup, that's all.