Sensory play is an everyday favourite in our household for both my little ones and it is so much fun for the kids (I have to admit, I love it too)! We get to share in the funny conversations, giggles and smiles together.
Let's take a look at what sensory play is and the benefits
Sensory play is an activity that stimulates your little one's senses - touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing, movement and balance.
Learning and exploring through sensory play comes naturally to infants and young children as they try and make sense of the world around them.
By setting up opportunities for your little ones to use their senses as they explore their world through 'sensory play' you help them build nerve connections in the brains pathways which helps with your little one's ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
Sensory play also allows young children to work on developing their fine motor skills, emotional skills, creativity and imagination, concentration, language and literacy, independent play, problem solving plus cause and effect. It's also used as a calming tool to settle and soothe your little one when they are upset, worried or anxious.
Our youngest, Rose started with sensory play activities when she was between 4 to 6 months old and was able to lift her head and push up onto her arms. We started with various sensory calm down bottles filled with glitter, chickpeas and coloured rice to zip lock bags filled with water beads.
Rose is now almost one and loves exploring with playdough - poking holes, squishing them between her little fingers and pulling out coloured counting sticks (great for practicing her pincer grasp)! Our eldest Axl, is four and loves all sorts of sensory play activities and gets to enjoy the sensory play kits I've put together!
Every child is different and you will know best when your little one is ready and what they're interested in!
Let's build lifelong learners and make learning fun at home with sensory play. Here at the Love and Giggles sensory play store you can start off with our sensory play kits - Unicorns, Mermaids, Dinosaurs and more. Each kit is carefully curated and comes with unique figurines, our delightfully scented homemade playdough in cute jars, sparkly trinkets, stickers plus wooden tools to keep your little one exploring, creating and learning through play. Our kits can also be used with different sensory bases.
We also have sensory rice and chickpeas in gorgeous colours plus quality wooden sensory bin tools for all the scooping, pouring, brushing and crushing fun. Best of all, these will last for years to come!
Another fun sensory base kit which is a must-try with your little ones is our sensory water bead kit where they can create their own sensory calm down jar. For a calming activity just add these to water with some glitter and flowers for little ones to stir, scoop, pour and mash. More on various ways to play with water beads in my next blog.
We have carefully sourced all the products so you have more time to enjoy sensory play with your little ones. Shop the range today and share in the laugh and giggles.
LAUGH x CREATE x IMAGINE x SHARE
- Amy x