Squishy Baff

Have you heard about Squishy Baff? I bought some last summer at Walmart but here's a link to it on Amazon. It is pretty weird stuff. Imagine playing in a tub of applesauce that is colored. You are supposed to use it in a bathtub and let the kids play in the think goop and then you add a deactivator and it dissolves back to water. I knew Lil Lady would FREAK if we attempted that but thought we'd give it a try in a water table. I filled up the table with water then added half a package of Squishy Baff. Then we had to stir and stir until it thickened. She didn't want to help me stir it, surprise surprise. Once it was thick and goopy I plopped in some fun scoops and let the kids loose.

She was quite intrigued with it as long as it didn't touch her! See how carefully she is holding her bowl?

 

But eventually she got more brave and put her hands in and started to hold the gunk but still wasn't very comfortable with it.

 

Lil Man didn't like it at all surprisingly. He usually likes to get messy!

I left one side of the water table with plain water for her to use to rinse off as needed (which she did every time she got any on her!) but then she decided to add more water to the Squishy Baff to see what happened.

 

 

We then practiced scooping it up and pouring it in each others hands. She liked to dump it in mine more than hers. Lil Man still didn't know what to think of it!

It is a very fun sensory activity but is a bit pricey. I always use just a little of the pack so it goes a bit further and I highly doubt we will ever use it in the bathtub! 

Soapy Water Tub

Last year we had some friends over and I decided to do a Sensory Tub with them. I filled a container with a few inches of water them squirted some dish soap into it. I left it like that and then threw in a handful of sponges for the kids and told them to start squeezing the sponges in the water. It was so fun to see their reactions as bubbles galore appeared. Pretty soon there were more bubbles than water and they loved it. I also gave them scoops and bowls and things to play with in the tub.
It was a super easy sensory tub and didn't cost anything and used things that anyone would have around the house. It's always fun to do sensory play with friends too! :)

Water Paint

Lil Lady prefers to stay clean. She is getting better about being a little dirty but she still stresses a little about it. Painting with water was a great activity for us! You can't get sticky or muddy or messy with water! It's also great on warm sunny days to do in the shade and cool down a bit.

We had a neighbor friend over to play for a few hours who has Down Syndrome and I decided that it'd be a great time to Water Paint. All you do is get a cup of water, any type of paint brush, and head outside. They each enjoyed painting pictures and then a few minutes later discovering that they had disappeared. At first, it stressed Lil Lady out that her art was gone but once I explained what happened she was okay with it. Our friend also had fun painting himself!

They had fun moving area to area on the back patio making new creations. 

And when the "paint" spills, no worries! It'll clean up quite nicely! The only problem we found with this activity was when our friend decided to throw his cup of water at Lil Lady-that didn't go over so well! :)

Splash Pad

Summertime makes sensory play so much easier! There are so many more options when you can go outside! While on our vacation we found a fun splash pad that had a lot of variety. It didn't only have splashing water! Lil Lady doesn't like to be splashed so I was thrilled!

It had a fun river that at the deepest was maybe 8" deep. It had rocks in the river and along the river to climb on and explore.

It had a fun rock waterfall that you could climb on and splash in. At the top were a couple fish that squirted water out.

Some kids thought it was fun to lay in the stream and swim. Others got a group of kids together and squished together as closely as they could lay in the water and made a dam to flood the river.

Of course she found some flowers to smell and play with. She also had fun watching them go down the stream and then would go find new flowers.

Lil Man loved all the rocks to play on

 

 

They had a fun staircase with a waterfall. The first time Lil Lady walked down the dry steps but then got brave and enjoyed the wet ones.

 

At the bottom of the park there was what Lil Lady called Water Glass. "Look mom! It's water that feels like glass!!"

This is how Lil Man decided to walk up the waterfall steps! Such a creative boy! And of course his pants were falling off almost the whole time we were there.

Smelly Walks

Every time we go on a walk these days, Lil Lady enjoys smelling all the flowers we pass. She is obsessed with it! We started doing smelly walks last year just to keep her entertained while out walking and to get some sensory exposure at the same time. When we first started these walks I would ask her how each flower smelt and her answer would always be "It smells like yellow, green, pink..." whatever color the flower was, that is what it smelt like to her. It made me giggle.

This strip of flowers was quite long and she had to smell every single flower that she passed. 

Lil Man wanted in on the fun too! He liked the green ones.

I love Indian Paintbrush flowers!

Such fun colors and varieties for us to explore and enjoy smelling

Her favorite find of the day were the rose bushes. She LOVED them. She was quite disappointed that there weren't any soft rose petals on the ground that she could pick up and keep. I've had to teach her that we can only keep flowers if they are on the ground and not growing still in the ground.

Park Play

The great thing about sensory play is that it doesn't have to be anything hard or cost any money. As long as you think of a way to make the play incorporate your child's senses, it works! Parks are great in the nice weather for children to play and explore their world. While we were on vacation we found a fun park to play at and explore.

Lil Lady doesn't like to feel unbalanced. She likes to feel grounded and secure. I was surprised to see her play on these stepping stools at the park. She crossed them in her own unique way but I didn't care, I was just excited to see her figure out a way to get over them! She didn't want to walk over them because she didn't feel secure so she came up with her own bear walk to get over them!

Lil Man loved walking up the rock path stairs!

Lil Lady climbed up these tiny steps with the help of a chair. Way to go!! 

Cotton Days

Our next door neighbors have a giant cotton tree which blows pretty much all of its cotton into our yard. It's awful. It literally looks like it is snowing that week of the year when the cotton starts flying. Everything in our backyard gets covered in the annoying stuff. Since our backyard was snowing in cotton we played in the front yard for sensory play this day. I also decided to have some fun with our own cotton. I grabbed a handful of cotton balls and filled a water table up in the driveway. I then threw in some cups, scoops, and funnels. I let the kids hold some cotton balls dry and then see what happened as they got them wet. They both had lots of fun with it. Lil Lady loved putting cotton in the funnel and clogging it so water couldn't get out and Lil Man loved shredding the wet cotton.


Look mom! There's cotton in the funnel!

Watching the cotton sink to the bottom

Squish squish squish!

Lil Lady learned that if you don't put enough cotton in the funnel, water can still come out

And now the water is clogged!

 

 

 

Who knew wet cotton on a cotton flying day could be so fun!?

Cloud Dough

We tried a new activity this week. It's called Cloud Dough. It's super easy to make! You mix in 8 cups flour and 1 cup Baby Oil. I've read you can use any oil but haven't tried others yet. The baby oil made it smell yummy and made it super soft as well. You just mix it all up with your hands and then let the kids loose! I would highly recommend this being an activity for outside because it gets messy if you have a toddler like mine that loves to throw anything!

 I put it in my clear storage tub and put in a few scoops, cups, and measuring cups. 

 Mom-it's so soft!

 Lil Man didn't like touching it at the beginning

 Making hand prints

 Lil Man helping Lil Lady fill her scoop

 When you squeeze it, it forms into shapes then with any pressure dissolves into flour consistency again

 Smashing towers

Lil Man had fun stressing his sister out by throwing some in her hair-oh what fun! Our driveway was covered in this stuff after we were done playing. I've heard it lasts for a few weeks in a sealed container so we shall see what other fun we can have with it! Be careful with clothing too, you'll want to add some stain remover to the clothes due to the oil in the dough.