One of BabyGirl’s presents from Baby New Year yesterday (what, me with the weird present-givers again?) was a sensory table. BabyGirl is a very hands-on and active kid, wanting to touch and feel and hold and taste everything (even tables!). I wanted her to have a good chance for lots of sensory play.
But our house is very small, and crowded, and full of clutter to begin with. I was looking around at sensory tables online, especially at home-daycare sites, just to get an idea of what other people had bought or made. Everything I saw looked too big, except for the folks who use dishpans set out on tables. I wanted two things to be different, though: I wanted something with a lid so when we’re using rice or beans in the table I can keep her out of it when I can’t be playing with her, and I wanted something she could stand at and walk around. I looked at plans several folks posted of making a PVC frame to hold a storage bin, and I knew that was close to what I wanted. Here’s what I came up with…
I found two Rubbermaid storage bins which had the same size interlocking lid; one is about twice as deep as the other. I superglued them together by the bases (that’s the genius part, see?), making a stand-alone table. Most of the time, I plan to use the shallow bin as the sensory area, and the bottom, deeper bin as extra storage for the funnels, measuring cups and spoons that rapidly accumulate near a sensory table! But when the mood strikes, and we’re playing with something that just begs for a bigger amount or a deeper container, I can flip the whole thing over and use the deeper bin for sensory play too.
It is just a perfect height for my one-year-old toddler to stand and play. It’s a good height also for my five-year-old to kneel at. Today we just played with warm water and measuring cups, spoons and funnels. I wanted to give her a little taste of what this table was for and how we could use it, and also to give it a test run for height and sturdiness before I filled the top with something that’s harder to take in and out.
You can see how much she loves it! BabyGirl is a splasher by nature and thought it was hilarious when her very serious big brother JediBoy poured water through the funnel from way up high.
When JediBoy was this age, he was very content to sit and play, so I just used a lidded bin on the floor for his sensory stuff. He also had a longer interest period, so I could give him rice and beans for the winter, and water in the summer, and he was content. BabyGirl is so much more active and exploratory that I wanted her to have a stand-up table, and I plan to change what we’re playing with much more frequently.
I have a list in my notebook of other things to try, including: water with soap, with boats, with dolls, with scent, with ice, ice cubes, with colored salt water, rice, colored rice, rice and beans, beans, sand, snow, cotton balls, dry instant mashed potatoes, flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, with water, water softener salt, table salt, shaving cream, jell-o, pudding, oatmeal (dry and cooked), pasta (dry and cooked, plain and colored), deer corn, flax seed, pine needles, leaves, grass clippings, sawdust, seashells, aspen bedding, snips of ribbon, snips of straws, buttons, coffee grounds, with flour, playdough, fingerpaint, dirt, birdseed, rocks, river rocks, aquarium rocks, packing peanuts.
If you have other good ideas or fun things you’ve done with a sensory table, please share them!
