Using your Senses!

The summer is a great time to explore with your child all of their five senses (hearing, seeing, smelling, taste, tactile (touch).   Fueling curiosity is a big benefit of sensory play but other skills and learning is an added bonus like:  Using Fine Motor skills and eye-hand coordination, creativity, social skills such as sharing and cooperation, and self-control and confidence.

Here is some ideas in which to involve your preschooler in sensory play:
1.  Potting or garden soil.–Let them help you in the garden.  I was at Lowe’s the other day and they have tons of children’s first garden kits, gloves, tools that lets them be a part of the family garden.

2.  Play in the Sand– Messy?  Oh Ya but the kids love making creations in the sand.  Add some sea shells, molds, cars and shovels to add to their creativity.  If you can’t stand the mess of sand you can always fill a bucket with dried beans, rice, or oatmeal.  Provide scoops and pouring toys.  You can bury toys for your child to find

3.  Cotton balls–  On a hot day you can have pretend snow and play with cotton balls

4.  Shaving cream, or Ready Whip–Put on a cookie sheet or unbreakable mirror and let them create letters, or draw their face.

5.   Ice Cubes– Take them outside with a bunch of buckets, scoops and sunglasses.  What a riot

6.  Water– Endless possibilities with a bucket of water, spray bottles, and cups for pouring.  Experiment with things that float and things that don’t.  Make paper boats to float in the river.

7.  Scavenger Hunt–  This is a really fun thing to do at a park, or while your camping.  You could do a sound or smell scavenger hunt, a tactile scavenger hunt, where you give them paper and crayons and they find interesting surfaces to rub onto paper.

8.  I’m out of ideas for now, Anyone have something to add, please add it to the comments and have fun with helping your child explore all their senses this summer.