Baby Play

 Sensory Baskets

I developed a "fall" sensory basket (with a few random surprises thrown in such as a silicone muffin cup, a metal measuring cup, and some popsicle sticks.)  I cut autumn colored string about the same length as a binkie string holder and layered it like spaghetti.  I found some silk leaves (no small pieces) a shell, a wood block and some feathers.  Special K just loved it!  In fact ALL my children have been playing with these special baskets!  I wish I had a snapshot of my 12 year old constructing a tower with the big sensory tub, or my little ballerina making "soup" with the metal pot and wooden spoon!  It makes me wonder if mixing objects in a tub would work for the older set.  Hmmmmm.

Baby food jar tops.

Bowl of tied up baby socks anyone?  Satisfies K's sock obsession!

 Baby Play
I devote a great deal of time and energy creating learning opportunities for my bigger babes, all while my little guy looks on sitting in a ring of toys that he is content to explore.  He's a "potted plant" baby.  Such a nice stage!

But he is changing!.  Both physically and cognitively.  He wants to move!  He is ready to uproot but is frustrated as to how!  He pulls one leg back, extends the other, reaches as far as he can and attempts to "scoot",  Emotionally, this is tough on little guy,  As evidenced by the fact that every time I get up and walk away from him, he cries and shrieks! Almost to say, "I wish I could move to come with you too, mommy!"  I know this will pass, and he will be too busy trying to move away from me to remember this sentiment in a matter of months now!

He has also rejected his usual fare of toys.  He's in a "Dude.  Been there, done that!" state!  So he shrieks and fusses in boredom.  "Someone come make things exciting for me!"  Usually big babes come to his beckon and make faces, give kisses, sing to him, or hand him a new toy to play with.  That's great.  But observation was that he enjoyed baskets and bins of found and random objects from around the house.  So, I formalized it and dubbed them sensory baskets. Turns out I'm not alone with this idea!  My friend over at the Imagination Tree talks about the importance of heuristic play and open exploration.  Here's what I've developed thus far.

A fabric box with $5 in a plethora of  textures!

A variety of textures, shapes, and sizes were found around the house..

Discovery bottles,  super glue the caps!

Imagination Tree Treasure Baskets

Sand dough recipe

Building Bridges and Brains!

Five Observations:

1.  Never underestimate the power of the recycling bin.

2.  Let the child lead their own learning and the rest will come.

3. Allow for innovation.

4.  Tie it to a book!

5.  Sometimes something new comes out of a well-laid plan.  Go with it.  It might be just what his/her brain was looking for! 

I decided to extend a library story hour theme on apples with apple stamping.

Monster play dough!  Pipe cleaners and googly eyes. Just add imagination!

Still life painting our black eyed susan flowers using real petals.

Our toilet paper tube collage owls.

Riley loved the "sticky blocks" with contact paper on an easel.

Indoor golf/croquet

Quin extended it to include a felt "green", a real hole, and a flag  made from a pizza box.

Riley's tape obsession unleased on recycleables!

Building bridges.  Quin became fascinated with bridges after reading a picture book describing all the types of bridges.  So we tried a bridge challenge.   We could only use 3 pieces of paper, 5 paper clips, and a pair of scissors.

A flat piece of paper doesn't hold very many pennies!

Quin first tried making the flat piece of paper stronger
 by putting paper clips around the perimeter.  

Quin looking at a bridge.

How many pennies can a bridge with a triangle structure hold?  A lot more!

Nature collages
  We took a walk outside and gathered many

items we've been finding on the ground.   We sorted them, and then used our treasures to create art!  Practicing squeezing with a glue bottle was a hidden small motor objective I had.  I also wanted the kids to take notice of the different textures, shapes, and smells of the found objects.

nature collages

Mask making

Quin was dying to make a salamander room!
I helped him collect the moss and we went
on a salamander hunt together.  Just the 2
of us!  What a great time we had together!

Paper strip art on contact paper.  This sat in the middle of our
dinner table all day and each time we had
a snack or meal, we added more to it!

A spooky bath following a day filled with holiday festivities!

It was a 2 Glass of Wine Sort of Day...

It  all sounded super practical that I sneak out to do some necessary appointments at the crack of dawn this morning.  Didn't seem so super once 6 am rolled along!  I hit the ground running and literally did.  not.  stop.  all day.  Until I was done folding the laundry at 10:30.  While everyone else was sleeping and had been for at least 2 hours.  Hey, I like being busy but this is tired!  I will make a clear point to slow down tomorrow!

Picking a pumpkin!

Leaf suncatchers we made.  An oldie but a goodie.  And certainly new to the kids.

Pattern blocks with sticky board.  (contact paper on an easel)

Some favorite titles for right now:

Our friend Presleigh came for a play day today and we had an amazing time at a local farm.  I especially enjoyed watching the kids run and giggle in the sunlight with the pale hues of fall as the back drop to their fun. 

The entrance to the corn maze I was NOT crazy enough to let them enter!  Riley is thinking "Don't make us go in there!"

Kier somehow knew sand was not for eating but enjoyed massaging with his fingers instead!

What We Did Today and some new ideas to pursue....

Besides spending an annoying amount of time in the car listening to infant complaints about his accommodations, we actually spent a lot of time together being productive.  What I actually heard was a whole lot of sibling fighting, constant demanding, and whining.  Oh, the whining!  I thought I was going to chew off my arm if they were awake another hour!  A flitting nap amongst all campers involved, and a day concluded with a flu shot, we have to look on the bright side, right?

We started painting pots to look like Halloween guys. 

We painted plates to make a garland.

Q just painted around the plate and we cut the plate into wedges.

We made q tip skeletons

And we can't forget the super awesome spooky fort for a cool lunch spot!

For some other days perhaps: