If you’ve ever stepped foot inside a preschool classroom, you’re probably familiar with the mysterious attention-holding sensory box. Its ability to keep a young child’s attention is so life changing that you need to have one in your own home – trust me! Not only will it keep them occupied for unheard of amounts of time, it also comes with all these developmental benefits.
A sensory box is simply a container (preferably with a lid for storage) filled with tactile materials for kids to explore. I know it looks messy and scary but your kids will learn to keep everything in the box. Start out with a filler like rice or dried beans, add cups and other scoopers and start experimenting from there. I searched high and low to find these Little Tuffies Trucks, which are the perfect size and have working parts for moving and dumping beans (my current filler of choice). Click through for more ideas.
I made C this “diggers and dumpers” sensory box for Christmas and he comes up with new ways to play with it on a daily basis (building mountains of beans, burying trucks in the beans, transporting the beans from truck to truck, etc.).
For a great source of inspiration on what else to put in your box, check out Pink and Green Mama. If you’re a regular reader here you should recognize that name by now. MaryLea is a virtual guru of enriching kid activities (remember this?) and she has a special gift for creating all sorts of sensory box themes. I’m eyeing the rainbow rice for S’s first box.
What do you think, feeling brave enough to try this? Which ideas are your favorites?
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