We have had some great fun creating elaborate imaginative play set ups and fancy sensory activities. When I have the time and the motivation I love creating these kinds of activities for my kids. But I don’t always have the time, or the motivation, or the equipment, or the space, or the energy.
Sometimes it’s a matter of using whatever I can lay my hands on to make a quick and easy invitation to play. Here’s what that looked this morning….
We used a cutlery tray from Ikea that sadly didn’t fit in our new kitchen drawers and then I collected the rest of the materials from our the house in under five minutes.
- Sand from the sand pit
- gum nuts from the tree in the back garden
- chicken feed – a selection of mixed seeds like we used for this activity.
- grass – cut with scissors from the back yard which is like a jungle!
- shredded paper from the bag for the guinea pig’s cage
- plastic and glass gems – from the vase/flower arrangement aisle at the local $2 shop
I also added a small collection of ‘characters’ to encourage some imaginative play – this time a set of tiny plastic dinosaurs. I set it all up on a cloth on the table and that was it.
The tray of goodies stayed there all day and Noah (3 years) came and went, making up stories, arranging and sorting, running his fingers through the items, adding items and generally having a lovely time.
While fancy, elaborate activities are awesome, I certainly feel I got my money’s worth from the five minutes of effort it took me to set this up this morning.
I love sensory bins,and having the options in this one is fabulous! Hope things are improving on the health front
Love this set up! My fave (lazy but rewarding) set up is a giant cardboard box that fits all four kids + loads of markers. Happy kids and happy mummy every time. (Hope you’re able to get some rest Kate). xo P
Definitely going to try this. You’re full of awesome ideas, Kate!
This looks like heaps of fun, but tell me, did the stuff really stay in the cutlery holder all day? I can imagine the seeds all over the living room by morning tea time… but maybe that’s just my three year old :)
What a great and simple idea, love it. Will have to try something similar with Ez now Annie is at school. Thanks for the inspiration again!
Loved this idea. Simple but awesome. I work with toddlers. They would love this idea!!