Sensory Play for Babies

Today I'm welcoming one of my best blogging friends with a guest post. Anna blogs over at In the Playroom, her tremendously successful blog shares her life with her three beautiful boys and has a wealth of play and craft ideas. If you're not familiar with it (although I'm sure you are!) head over and take a look now! I'm definitely going to be trying some of these ideas with Little E.

Hi! I'm Anna. I love to share sensory play ideas over on my own blog intheplayroom.co.uk, so I'm happy to be bringing you this selection of sensory play ideas for babies here at Red Rose Mummy. Children of all ages learn through experiencing and doing, and babies in particular rely on exploring with their senses to help them make sense of the world around them. Feeling different textures and sensations, and exploring different sounds, smells and sights are all engaging to young babies - especially since everything is still so new to them! Home made sensory play toys and materials can offer hours of fun, and if you have older children they would probably enjoy making them together with you for their little baby brother or sister to play with. Here are a few simple sensory ideas for your baby.
 

Loom Band Sensory Bottles : If you do have older children, grab some of their spare loom bands to make this colourful and engaging sensory bottle. Your baby will love watching the colours move and float around

DIY Baby Sized Rain Sticks : Let your baby explore sounds with these DIY rain sticks to shake and roll.

Fabric Scraps in a Wipes Box make a fun sensory activity, while baby explores the different fabrics and colours. You can mix and change the fabric scraps from time to time to keep the activity fresh and exciting. Or you could use your fabric scraps, and other materials, to make one of these DIY sensory boards.

If you're ready to introduce your baby to messy sensory play, try this baby safe cloud dough recipe which is made from ingredients that are safe to taste, just in case baby wants to explore with his mouth!

Bubbles is a really simple sensory play activity that rarely fails to impress. Babies love these and they are never to young to enjoy watching the bubbles float by!

Mirrors are another item that offer a lot of enjoyment to young babies, and are always fun to explore together.

Making a treasure basket is a great way to offer your baby lots of different materials to explore, with a variety of textures and sounds. If you're feeling creative you could go with a theme, or just gather up interesting items from around your home. You can usually find ideal treasure basket supplies in the kitchen!

You might also like this post on sensory play and why it's important, which gives you a checklist of different materials and ideas by age too.

Thanks so much to Anna for sharing her idea. I'm definitely going to be trying these out with Little E.