15. Sensational Play - creating a "yes" space
Messes can be frustrating for parents, but constant scolding is discouraging for learning.
Lets find a middle ground.
Kids absolutely need the space to create messes. Sensory exploration widens their scope of creativity. Creativity creates life-long learners. Not only that but it is a safe environment for them to explore limitations. Many of us were not allowed to create messes as kids, and so this is a major stressors for us now, as parents.
Mixed play-dough colors anyone? 😬
My advice is to start small. Don't go for an elaborate themed rainbow rice bin right out of the gate.
Start with a simple water table outside on a warm day. Play with water temperatures, or put food coloring in the bin. Freeze small toys inside an ice cube tray or mix soap for foam. A messier option, and highly popular one, is to add cocoa powder and corn starch for 'mud'. Let them muddy, wash toys, and repeat until further notice. The options with this simple set up are nearly endless.
From there you might eventually graduate to rainbow rice but there is no rush to make your life more complicated. The dollar store has so many great options for sensory toys and tools. Foam stickers, feathers, and pom poms always come in handy. Pinterest can be a great tool too. I look for simplicity when I browse. Check out my board here.
Sensory play is messy.
Messes are not a bad thing! We have to let our littles make messes. This is how they learn to make mistakes gracefully and without guilt. It provides a valuable opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to correct them as we teach the skills to clean the messes up.
You'll figure out what works for you personally through trial and error. I've invested plenty of time into a fair amount of sensory activities that have been a total flop. The trick is to look for things they are already interested in (and don’t send your anxiety through the roof). It’s a sweet spot. Take things that they are "getting into" and look for a way to make it OK. Allowing them to follow their interests in an appropriate way is how we create a "yes space"
Pulling all the wipes out of the bag and throwing them around the room like confetti?
Find an little cardboard tissue box then stuff it with these Rainbow Scarves or this pulling toy on Amazon.
Pouring out their cups and bowls at the dinner table?
Set up a large cookie tray and a pouring activity. Here are my favorite supplies. Pouring is a valuable life skill to teach! Think of how often in your day you use that skill. The sooner they learn it the less work for you to clean up unwanted spills. When they can pour their own drinks think of all the spare time you'll have! 😏 Use a cup, a basket, a bowl, or anything they seem to like and fill it with dry moss, pom poms, beans, water, rice, dirt, kinetic sand, the possibilities are endless. My youngest went through a phase of collecting anything she could fit into a coconut half-shell and pouring it out on different surfaces. Then she would collect her treasures and move along to do it somewhere new, over and over again. This was her favorite hobby for several months. You really don’t need to buy any fancy materials. Just provide a vesicle and they will be satisfied to find treasures to fill it with. (This is one of the sensitive periods of the 1st plane)
Playing with their food?
Put it in a bin outside of meal time. Textures are fun! They will want to explore everything they do to the maximum capacity. If you are trying to teach table manners, I would tell my kiddos, “This is not where we play with our food. We can play in the bins. Would you like me to move the food there?” It is important to hold boundaries around manners but also let them have a “yes” space too. To avoid a power struggle we have to be clear with realistic expectations. We can use food play to our advantage. Letting kids play with their food in a low-pressure setting and they actually become less picky eaters! If there's a noodle shape or food texture they are afraid to try, give it to them in play. As they become familiar with it they are likely to find out it is actually quite edible and probably delicious.
If they continue to play at the meal table you can remind them we don't do that with “food” noodles by dying the noodles, rice, or beans to distinguish them as a “play” materials. You can also offer to get out the “play noodles” after the meal (or tomorrow). In their mind that's a win and its a pretty good incentive. They get what they want in fantasy and will have something to look forward to.
Sensory play invites curiosity, confidence, responsibility, and independent play. You may begin your play journey as a partnership, sitting alongside them and testing our experiments, but you’ll find yourself with more free time than you thought you would never get back when they learn to explore safely on their own.
Before I has the confidence to do the colored rice, I used dry beans and colored sand packs from the dollar store. Throw in some little figurines from Wild Republic and recyclables - you've got yourself a game! They have an awesome variety and my kids love the tiny life-like figures. They even have characters from the Oregon trail or space exploration.
You can use any old bin for sensory play but my kids like to stand when they dig around so the Ikea table has been great. I don't know about yours, but my kids are ROUGH on stuff. Most plastic bins don't hold up. We have had this table for nearly 4 years and its been durable enough. The plastic tubs too. They have climbed inside the bins to play with their feet and nothing is broken yet! It's easy enough to move around the house and chairs still fit below the bins. The wood top is so great for closing up the table when everything is finished.
When we are done with an activity I usually try to store the themes together in gallon ziptop bags for easy access but its ok to throw away the materials that aren't salvageable. Our kinetic sand was pretty gross after a month of dropping it on the carpet. We reuse materials several times before they're retired usually.
When it's all said and done I think I enjoy the bins as much as the kids so. Even if the goal is to develop independent play, there's no reason why we can't have fun too.
