Birthday Party Sensory Box

My son turned THREE a few days ago!! I still can hardly believe it.... :-) I had a small party for him and invited the kids he plays with. Most of the kids were able to come, and Josiah had a blast with his friends! But I was left with trying to figure out what activity I should do. The kids are all so young ranging in age from 16 months to 3.5 years old with the majority being 2 years old. At first I though of decorating cupcakes but scratched it when I found a cake donut mix at the store. And then it hit me.... A birthday sensory box!!! And the kids LOVED it! I was hoping they would since it is one of Josiah's favorite things to do. :-)

I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a bag of bows, candles, and a birthday tablecloth. I really wanted something with cupcakes and was thrilled to find some cupcake candles at the grocery store. Then I just used my sparkly pom poms and cut up two silver pipe cleaners and mixed them all up in the rice. With some help from Josiah, of course. I laid out some bowls, scoops, tongs, and an ice cube tray to encourage play and voila! A birthday sensory box! 

Josiah dug in right away! I was hoping to keep him from playing in it, but he was so excited. :-) Good thing I didn't put it together until 20 minutes beforehand. :-D

I thought it was hysterical that he immediately started separating out the pom poms using the tongs. He's like I've got this. I know what to do.

Doesn't it look like he's making a rice cupcake? 

Filling up the bowls.

Really, Mom? More pictures? :-D

Yay! Some kids are here, and they immediately ran to the rice box. Look at my son's happy face. :-) 

My sweet birthday boy.

I forgot to take pictures when all the kids were playing in the box. Argh. We did eventually move it outside so they could make as much mess as they wanted. :-D Honestly, I couldn't believe how big of a hit it was! If he has a party next year, I want to do another one. 

If you're planning a party for little kids, please think of making a sensory box. It could match the theme of the party, too. Dinosaurs, airplanes, cars, princesses, ponies, you get the idea. Trust me, it will be a huge hit! 

Fall Sensory Box

I put together a fall sensory box for my little guy. I found some cool things from Target for cheap that worked wonderfully! Little acorns, sparkly foam pumpkins, foam leaves (some sparkled and some didn't), a few of the sparkly, fuzzy pom poms, and then I threw in a real pumpkin and one stalk of Indian corn. I hid the corn under the rice except for the part with the dry husks. Just to make him curious. ;-)

Doesn't it look pretty?! Turned out better than I thought it would. :-)

He went for the corn right away. :-D

Digging out the leaves.

Haha Don't think that tastes too good....

Pulling out the foam pumpkins.

What now???

More leaves!

I think the real pumpkin is a hit. :-)

It needs a train, Mommy!! :-D

This has been one of the best sensory boxes for him. I left it out for a few days, and he has been playing with it every day. Several times a day! He added in new things, sorted everything and placed them in individual containers, made his own mini sensory box (!!!), and used the tongs perfectly! I wasn't surprised about the tongs because he has been able to use scissors correctly for about a month, but still... it was exciting! :-)

Whenever I can, I'm going to leave a sensory box out for about a week. I usually just do it for that one day, but now I'm like hmmm. This is a good idea... Since I have a new water table to put the sensory stuff in, I can keep it out longer for him. Well, it's not really "new". I got it at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago for a buck! It's the one I've been wanting since the beginning. :-)

As I've been writing this post my son has been playing with his rice and containers. Too funny. :-D Next time I think I'll use beans.

If you've never tried a sensory box, please do! You'll be surprised at how much your kids will love it. :-)