These Sensory Activities Won’t Make a Big Mess in Your Home.
Sensory activity is a very important aspect of a child’s development. In particular, activities that include “dirty play” help children integrate different experiences into their lives, which helps them develop motor skills, language skills and creativity. For children with “sensory sensitivity” or sensory processing disorder , acclimatization to the busy, sensational world in which we live is often an important part of therapy or work.
Children who are highly sensitive are often classified as sensory seekers or sensory avoiders. Dirty play is either their favorite pastime, something they seek and enjoy, or something they find disgusting or even disgusting. Maybe you – the one who cleans the house – also find dirty play less than wonderful and, although you see its value, want to keep your house at least somewhat intact. Here are some tips for turning on a dirty game in a way that is clean, clean, or at least easier to clean up.
Sensory play materials that don’t get dirty
As someone who has a slightly sensitive side himself, sand is one of my “disgusting” textures. I’m a bit overwhelmed after being on the beach for too long. Also, slime was banned in my house after the carpet stain incident. But those grainy and sticky textures are great for dirty play, so you might need alternatives. Kinetic sand is my favorite; I can watch kinetic sand ASMR videos every day my friends. It’s stickier than “real” sand because it’s coated with silicone oil , which keeps it from falling apart into a million tiny pieces.
Other products that many parents love include water balloons that look and feel great – just be mindful of your child’s temperament when it comes to putting things in their mouths with them, even if you’re buying non-toxic ones . Fun Foam and Therapeutic Putty are other clay-free or slime-free products that are good for developing fine motor skills and make cleaning a little easier. Then there’s the ” fake ” or “fairy mud” water and cornstarch that you can color and play with for hours and are fairly easy to wipe off.
While many parents replace sand with rice or pasta in sandboxes and sensory baskets, others replace sand or rice with dry beans. They’re easy to grab and won’t break like pasta – ask your child to help clean up the fallen beans at the end and he’ll work on his claw grip, an important fine motor skill, for a bit. Check out other sensory basket ideas , many of which are less messy than sand and rice.
Sensory lovers also love to smash things, so you can try freezing small toys in ice and letting your kids free their treasures by smashing or poking at them with sticks or other child-safe sharp objects. If you’re doing this inside, you’ll need towels, but little else for cleaning. Outside, no mess at all.
Take care of cleaning and storage from start to finish. A rimmed pan can work well to contain certain materials and make it easier to scoop up the contents to discard at the end. For a more permanent solution, consider dedicating a large container under your bed for sensory play—they’re easy to store, easy to clean, and can be taken outside.
And finally, for the fun of painting without ANY mess, try painting with your fingers in a zippered plastic bag .
Location is everything
Many parents prefer to have dirty play mostly outdoors, which minimizes indoor damage. You can go all out and create an earthenware kitchen for your kids, or just set them up on your patio or patio (or anywhere else that’s easy to sweep or vacuum the mess out of). But for most of us, this is not a year-round solution.
A bathtub is usually the next best choice, as many baby paints are washable and made specifically for use on bathtubs and tiles. Shaving cream is also an awesome messy play stuff and perfect for taking a bath. Make sure your cream doesn’t irritate your baby’s skin and add food coloring to the cream (test it on a small area of tile or enamel first) to make a magical bath paint. (It’s also fun to make art with shaving cream).
If you park them at the dining table instead, you can lay down towels or a placemat to protect any carpets or rugs from being squeezed and crushed. If you’re cooking dinner and need to keep them around, throw a towel in front of the kitchen sink, pull up a stool, partially fill it with water, and let them choose a few water-safe toys to soak and dive in. in water.
One last option, if you really don’t want to be responsible for all of this: send them to a preschool that focuses on including dirty games. They can get it out of their system at school and be more clutter-free at home.