If you come across some old or new pallets, this is an awesome way to recycle them! I did nothing fancy to these pieces (I’m not really even sure I cleaned them properly to be honest!) 😂 I did take some acrylic paint and acrylic marker across the front of the boards to label them appropriately. This whole shelf was used a ton last summer and so we updated it again this spring— we added loose building parts (blocks and ramps) and ingredients for our mud kitchen, along with s

Talk about sensory explosion! 💥 This one is simple, but lots of fun for older kiddos to explore scents, textures and creativity! If you have more than one child, I highly recommend setting up each kiddo with their own “station” and stash of supplies so they can focus on exploring instead of sharing! 😉 What you need: 🍃 Old herbs and spices from your cabinet! 🍃 Bits and pieces of nature. Think flowers, grass, dirt, sticks, pinecones! 🍃 Utensils and bowls/cups for mixing! �

Phonemic awareness (the ability to listen to and manipulate sounds in words) is a critical element to beginning to spell and read words. This is a simple sensory activity that you can use with your little learner (most likely ages 4 to 6) to help build their ability to listen to sounds and blend them together to make a word. What you need: 🌀FOAM! https://amzn.to/4lPvaZs 🌀A surface suited for mess! What to do: ☝🏻Tell your little learner that they will be listening to some s

If this sounds similar to Minecraft… it should. Boys age, as they do. I’m learning to embrace every single interest and run with it. The goal is to give them space to be creative and messy and unique for as long as they’ll have it! Minecraft was a huge hit last summer and we decided on making the big, tall boys their own “crafting table”. This was a space out of reach for small hands. Sometimes the crafting table holds homemade battle weapons. Sometimes it holds mixtures of s

This scoop and poor challenge is for bigs and littles… But mostly BIGS! Believe it or not big kids have trouble scooping and pouring too! This is a great activity to teach patience, stamina, coordination and frustration tolerance! The goal is to try to move a substance from container to container without spilling it! What you need: 🍶some type of sticky substance able to be scooped, but challenging (we used sticky tapioca pearls)! 🍶 a surface that can get messy! 🍶 containe

The EASIEST… SIMPLEST… sensory learning activity ever. I say sensory, because this involves so many senses to work as a team here! There are two jobs in this set up, but don’t let that stop you from adding more! The “forklift” starts by pushing a pan or container of pom-poms across a good amount of floor space to the “distributor”. The “forklift“ listens for the “distributor” directions: a specific color and number. The “forklift” then picks out the color and quantity of pom

My definition of “Let Them” pictured below. 😂 Children are going to dig. They are going to explore, and they want to get messy (for the most part). Let them. It really helped from day one to assign a specific digging area in our space. It’s their own space to get messy and into explore all the senses with shovels, buckets, cars, figurines, water, other nature materials and a bunch of loose parts! If you’re able to, pick a spot that will give them enough space where they wil

Like my other Top 10 posts, these are in no way ranked in any particular order, but I need to say that all of them have been a major source of sensory play, creativity, and engagement in this household! Below are ten items that my kiddos ages 4 - 11 years old have been gifted over the past year! There is a solid mix of preschool and elementary school-aged toys and items! Stickikubes: https://amzn.to/4rpLuBg My kids love these teensy, tiny cubes! They are SUPER sticky! They

Another oldie, but goodie! SUPER oldie! If you’ve seen my Thanksgiving turkey feather poke, then you are familiar with this activity! Use a sharpie or acrylic marker to outline holes in different colors on a colander. Hand your toddler some pipe cleaners, colored match sticks or feathers and have him or her poke the colored item through the matching colander color hole. This is a playful, yet challenging activity for littles who are just starting to use their tiny motor musc

Last summer we completely upped our game (see what I did there?! 😉) and added a few more natural items to our yard space! We lined up some old tree stumps as a partial barrier and after I smoothed the surfaces, I got started on making a tic-tac-toe board and a checkers board. I’m not gonna lie… I’m not sure how many checkers squares are on award, but my kids were happy with this one and so I didn’t want to mess with it. We also added two more stumps— one with a small world p

This activity meant so much to my preschooler at the time! The desire at this age to be first to be a leader is super strong… especially when you have multiple siblings! We decided to try a Meal Manager Day, where one of our middle guys made dinner (witha parent), prepped the table (cleaned, decorated, and set), made name cards for each seat, and then served everyone’s meal! For us, this is a great way to knock out a bunch of needs in one activity. Our little guy gained conf

📒📙📕📘📗 I'm a strong believer that one of the best things that you can do for yourself and your kiddos is to use books as tools! Kids...

Never underestimate the power of a visual checklist or chart! A lot of times when we want our child, little or big, to complete a task we...

Do you have ice trays? Letter beads? Looped cereal? Pipe cleaners or string? Grab a dry erase marker and write a letter in each icecube slot! String your pipe cleaner with a mix of letter beads and cereal. Now it’s time for your child to snack and sort!! Encourage your child to name the letters and sounds that each letter makes! When your kiddo has finished all of the beads and treats, restring them again! This activity can also be used with color identification or number ide

What can you do with a paper towel holder and wooden rings?! Many things! If you have toddlers who like to stack items, or preschoolers who love making colorful designs or patterns, this activity might be for your family! Ways to use this activity: Name colors aloud and have your child follow your auditory directions for placing rings. Identify different colors of the rainbow while sorting colors and stacking. Talk about patterns and demonstrate making patterns from colored r

Why is it I am only learning about this wonderful thing called, “Black Glue” now? Holy smokes, it’s fun! I had the boys trace their first...

Enjoy ten ideas for Tuff Tray play! These activities are best suited for ages 3-10 years old. Some are a bit more “holiday-themed” than...

We are in the season of playdough! With the new scented and sparkle playdough addition to our loose part library, we decided to break out...

There is nothing fancy about this one, folks!! Just a tuff tray , chalk marker , and some wooden hearts ! Each kiddo took turns matching...

What happens when you have older elementary aged children who are into cards, like Pokémon? A great way to get them to be creative independently and break up screen-time is to have them create their own cards like Pokémon. This is super inexpensive and can really go a long way as far as stretching the imagination. Have your child come up with a name for their card system or theme, and have them draw out different characters just as Pokémon characters have weird and unique nam