Babies are incredible little scientists that are just beginning their exploration of the world around them.
We get to enjoy watching them discover and learn new textures, sounds, and tastes and help guide them through the world.
It can be a lot of fun!
If you want to help teach your child about the world around them and have a few simple household items, you can create an environment for your baby to grow and develop a better sensory understanding while having fun!
DIY Sensory Activities Babies Will Love and Learn With
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Sea Foam
All you need is some some dish soap, a little water, and a hand mixer, and large bowl.
You can change its color based on the color of your soap (or add a bit of food coloring), and watch as your baby explores this strange new texture!
Keep an eye to ensure they don’t try to eat it all, but let them have fun figuring out this new sensation.
If you don’t have a hand mixer, you can try using a whisk – and strengthen your arms in the process!
Jello Archeology
Instead of having top plop down in the middle of a field and start digging for dinosaurs- bring the excitement indoors to your baby!
You can do this with any jello flavor and any hard plastic toy that won’t melt and isn’t a choking hazard.
Make jello as you usually would, and before it cools, pour it into small containers your baby can fit their hand into.
Once the jello starts to firm, slide in toys and things that your baby can dig out.
Alternatively, if you are worried about the sugar content in jello and your baby consuming it, you can simply use gelatin packs!
To turn this activity into an opportunity to work on speech and language skills label the toy your little one has dug out of the jello.
For older babies and toddlers you can say something like “I found ______” to work on short phrases!
Cotton Balls and Water
This idea may sound simple, but that’s all babies need.
The simplicity helps keep them focused and allows your baby to understand what they’re looking at thoroughly.
For this activity, put a dish with a couple of cups of water in front of your baby, and give them a few cotton balls to dip into it.
They’ll be distracted for ages exploring what dipping the cotton into the water does.
You will need to supervise this activity at all times to ensure your baby doesn’t put the cotton in their mouth.
Basil Seeds
Not many people realize how neat basil seeds are!
When you let them sit in water for around an hour, they become squishy and see-through like Orbeez!
Pour them into a bowl and let your baby squish them and play with their fun texture.
Bags of Fun
Plastic zip-lock bags can be a great way to let your child explore spatial reasoning!
Put anything from Orbeez to jello and beads into a plastic bag, and duct tape it shut so that your child can’t open it.
Your baby will squish, play, and reorganize these bags for hours, exploring them like they’re brand new every time.
Rain Sticks
This classic toy is one that you can make with anything you have around the home.
A small version can be made with a toilet paper roll, or you could size up to a Pringles can or paper towel roll.
From here, fill the inside with beads and duct tape the ends shut. You can decorate them to be as pretty as you want and then give it to your baby to explore.
They’ll be in awe at the sounds and the sensation of the thing moving around inside the rain stick.
A Light Jar
For this, you’ll need a heavy-duty glass or plastic jar and some fairy lights that run on a battery pack.
You can mix it up by adding a sheer fabric like tulle to diffuse some of the light.
Turn on the lights, close the jar, and let your baby explore the bright lights and react to how it looks when you move it. They’ll be entranced!
Pillow Forts
A pillow fort is so much fun!
Lay a blanket down over some pillows or couch cushions, and then build up around that!
Let your baby explore the different fabric textures, the way light shines through sheets, and get comfortable!
Too Many Bells
This exercise can be noisy, so save it for a time when you’re not expecting any big calls!
Sew/glue small bells to a long belt, or fill a plastic bottle with them! Let your child jingle and shake the bells to interact with them.
This craft is best done if you can get many different sizes and shapes of bells to let out different sounds!
If you want to make it a seasonal toy, you could dress it up for Christmas to look like reindeer bells. Have fun with it, and your little one will have fun too!
Swatch Cloth
This hack is a fun and creative way to get your baby to experience more textures than ever before.
Make a swatch cloth by sewing fabric to cover a cardboard square and sew little patches and strips of material onto the covered the board.
Vary the color, length, and texture, and make sure that none of the stripes are more than a couple of inches long to avoid a choking hazard.
This game will let your baby explore what textures they like and hate and learn how to identify things by touch.
Baby Sensory Play Activities Are A Fun Learning Experience
With these sensory activities you will introduce your baby to a whole new world of touch, sound, and taste.
Grab what you have lying around the house to try one (or all!) of these hacks to watch your baby learn and grow through sensory stimulation!
Author Bio: Kristina Marshall is a stay-at-home blogger. After having kids, she began sharing some of her tips and tricks with people in the community. Now she helps parents all over the internet by writing full articles on tips for children, family, and home. Her website is currently under construction!
