Sensory Bins, Take One

Earlier this month, I suddenly thought to myself, “Oh my god! I’m stunting my babies’ growth by not doing sensory bins! I need to do sensory bins, stat!” And then I looked at pinterest and like twenty resulting blog posts about sensory bins.

The main thing I kept thinking was, “But my babies are going to eat everything.” Which put most of the bin ideas right out.

But I did see one with giant pasta shells and plastic links. I already had links, so I went to the dollar store for a couple cheap, small bins, and WalMart for some cheap big pasta.

I was all proud of myself and my new sensory bin. I sat the babies together and set the bin down, anticipating all kinds of fun and exploration.

Immediately, M grabbed a shell and put it in his mouth. E grabbed the bin and shook it until it was empty.

M did also figure out he could bang two shells together to make a nice sound. So he alternated between eating them and clapping them.

Sigh. So much for exploration and growth and Pinterest-worthy anything. Oh, babies.

Then I realized that I could easily do a water sensory bin, too! And even easier than the pasta one! They love splashing in the bath and in the baby pool. So just put some water in a bin and let them go to town!

So I filled the second bin three-fourths full with water, and put it in the kitchen, then brought the babies over.

After half a second they started splashing splashing splashing away.

I quickly realized that I would need a towel for the water being splashed onto the floor. I ran upstairs and grabbed an extra bath towel from the linen closet. By the time I got back, less than sixty seconds later, all of the water was out of the bin and on the floor.

Sigh. Oh, babies.

At least I have backup activity if the babies get bored–give them some pasta shells to eat or a bunch of water to spill on the floor.