Farewell Inner Kate Gosselin!

Sensory days at our Building Blocks Coop Preschool used to be my most dreaded. Apparently I was channeling an inner Kate Gosselin, unable to see past the mess, or mess potential, to reach the learning opportunities sensory play provides. Before becoming a mom myself, I used to shudder watching her stress about the mess her sextuplets made while fingerprinting or pumpkin carving, and thought, "Relax lady! Let them be kids!". Well that was before I had a boy whose favorite activity at the sensory table was throwing or dumping cups of rice all over the room.

Thankfully my fellow teachers were more courageous and patient, and taught both Ethan and me the joys and benefits of sensory play. By months of repeating, "Keep it in the bin Ethan. Okay, let's play with something else then and you can try and do it right later (and then letting him!)," Ethan neatly plays with the sensory materials inside the container (most of the time!) and even attempts to sweep or pick up the times he doesn't.

Honestly, I didn't think we'd ever come that far and would have banned the sensory table from the class if it were up to me.

"Look at the goooo!" exclaimed Ethan at school.

And my fellow teachers not only taught me the ways of coaching him how to play appropriately, but how to coach further learning. By saying descriptive statements, like "that cup looks full of beans now!" instead of the vague and overly praise heavy "good job!" I'm helping learn new language. You'll still catch, me saying good job sometimes (why is that so ingrained?!), but now I know what to try and do instead.

So now that I have seen success with sensory play for both of us in the classroom, I was inspired to bring it home. But not enough to pay full price for a professionally made one! So here is how I constructed my own sensory table with interchangeable bins- no tools required!

First I started with a clearance $7 Ikea Lack end table.

(My little apprentice)

I bought two plastic storage bins with lids. My plan is to be able to prepare the next activity to replace an old one he tires from ahead of time. And this way I dont have to wait until a bin is cleaned and dried to shift activities.

Velcro was chosen so I could wash the bins in the sink or with a hose without the cumbersome table. My boy needs the bin stuck to the table so dumping the entire contents in one push doesn't become the activity.

I stuck adhesive Velcro to the base of the plastic bin. Put together both pieces so when you peel off the other backing, it sticks to the table lined up to the bin perfectly.

Place sticky adhesive tape on your table and you have your own sensory table!

This morning Ethan has played with his "Play Bin" a total of an hour and a half! That is an eternity in toddler minutes!

I stockpiled a bunch of options for exploration, inspired by my Pinterest Sensory Bin board (much more creative options I hope to someday tackle can be found there). For now I have two items I plan to enhance with food coloring; rice and different uncooked pasta. I also grabbed a bunch of clearance Easter basket grass to hide objects in, mand some plastic bugs to start with.