Compact Sensory Box

On rainy days like today, it's sometimes tough to keep a toddler entertained.  Penelope (my 14 month old) can only play with her toys so much before she gets bored and cranky.  When that happens, I've found it's really good for us to take out the sensory box to play with.  It's a great way to get a little messy during play!

When I originally decided to create a sensory box for Penelope, I did a quick search to get an idea of where to start.  I thought I would just find suggestions on what kind of material to fill a box with (sand, rice, grains...) but boy was I in for a surprise!  That's just the start!  There are boxes filled with food, water, or shaving cream.  Boxes with pieces to build tall towers, boxes that serve as an "Eye Spy" or "Treasure Hunt" game.  There are boxes that mimic the beach or the forest... boxes with themes for every season or holiday.  The possibilities are endless!

One day when I have the space to store a million boxes, I would love to create one for every month.  I'd love to have themed boxes with objects to help her learn to color sort or count.  But until then, I only have a small space under the kitchen sink to store something like this.

I introduce to you: The compact sensory box!

Most sensory boxes I've seen are build in large storage containers.  I simply don't have the room for that.  So instead, I found a larger food saver container from the dollar tree.  It's big enough to hold about one bag of rice and a few objects to play with the rice.

I started out with plain white rice, but thought it looked too bland.  I found this this
tutorial on how to create rainbow rice.  (All you need is some food coloring, rubbing alcohol, and some ziplock bags). And really, who doesn't love making things of all colors of the rainbow?  Things are just happier that way!

So after coloring my rice, I set out to the Dollar Tree again (Isn't that just the perfect place to go for small stuff??).  I found some small square containers for scooping, cupcake stencils for sifting, and bracelets because every little girl needs bracelets, right?

She loves it.  Every time I pull this out, she loves it.  She scoops, scatters, and stomps in it until she can't keep her eyes open!  And even when I start to put it away so I can lay her down for a nap, she asks for "more."

If you choose to go the route of colored rice, I do have a few suggestions for you.  First, make sure that you color the rice in a place that can easily be cleaned, preferably outside.  I only say this because I decided to color my rice on the dining table.  One or two rice grains were left behind, and when I went to clean the table after dinner, I kept seeing red on the cloth I was using.  It totally freaked me out for a while, thinking that someone was cut!  So these rice piece will bleed a little if they're wet.

I also suggest to find an easy to clean place to place.  Luckily, the kitchen in my little apartment has a door to it.  I can shut the door, and the rice stays on the kitchen floor.  There's also a door that leads outside from the kitchen, so when we're done, it just takes a couple sweeps out the door for clean up!  Of course, that means eventually, I'll need to add more rice... which means I'll have to color more rice... but that just means more colorful fun later with my girl!