Flying High In the Sky

This easy to set up sensory bin is perfect for little hands. It is fun to sort thru and play in, and it has a really fun feature for night time play; this Flying High in The Sky Sensory Bin Glows in the DARK!

We have been making sensory bins for about 8 years now.Even though Rolf is a tween and is generally too cool for my projects, even he wanted to get his hands into this one. I used things we had in our craft supplies, but for your convenience I added affiliate links to help you find some of these items that you may not have.

Supplies:

A Storage Bin with a lid

Neon Blue Food Color

Glow in the Dark Paint

A zipper seal baggie

White Rice, Uncooked (2 cups)

Rainbow Ribbon

Toobs - In the sky

Tongs

Glow in the Dark Stars

Cotton Balls

To dye the rice

Place 2 cups of white rice into a zipper seal baggie.

Add 2 tablespoons of non toxic glow in the dark paint (I used art deco brand) and 10 drops of neon blue food color to the baggie.

Seal and shake well.

Pour the rice on a paper towel, paper plate, or something like an old cookie sheet and allow to dry for about 4 hours. You may need to stir halfway through the drying time.

To assemble the bin:

Cut several sections of rainbow ribbon in various lengths from 1 to 3 inches.

Gently "fluff" several cotton balls to resemble clouds.

Pour the dry, dyed rice into the storage bin.

Bury several sections of rainbow ribbon in the rice bin.

Place the remaining rainbow ribbon on the top of the bin.

Bury several plastic glow in the dark stars in the rice bin.

Sprinkle the remaining stars on top of the bin. 

Add fluffy cotton clouds to the bin.

Add the planes and helicopters from the tube of Toobs 

Add a pair of tongs to the bin and invite your child to explore.

The tongs add a challenge to the bin, which is excellent for practicing fine motor skills.

I like to make sensory bins in a container with a lid,so we can snap the lid on it when play time is over and revisit the activity later.  For bins like this that are fun to play with anytime, that comes in handy because my kids want to dig around in this one all the time!

Here is the bin after dark. We LOVE glow in the dark activities! 

Some of our favorite glow in the dark activities include:

No Electric Night Lights

Galaxy Glow in the Dark Slime

Find more sensory ideas here:

Sensory Play

Mud Ice Cream

This mud ice cream station is so much fun for kids! It is easy to set up and is the perfect use for those leftover ice cream cones from summer, while serving up a bunch of good old fashioned fun!

I am always looking for great ways to keep my kids playing without turning to their video games.This mud ice cream activity kept them entertained with dramatic play all day. They naturally got filthy dirty which is half the fun! If you do this with your kids, opt for old clothes and shoes and do it outside!

Supplies:

Ice cream cone

Sprinkles

Old dishes like a bowl and spoons to scoop with

Mud

Directions:

Fill up a bowl with mud.

Offer your children spoons and scoops , sprinkles and a few ice cream cones.

You might like to add a few old bowls to the mix for variety.

Allow your child to scoop mud into the cones and dishes and add a generous amount of sprinkles!

Both of my kids were enthralled with this idea. It might have been one of the best activities I have ever set up for them. They laughed, they mixed up mud, served it to each other and got so incredibly dirty. It was wonderful fun!

Both kids agreed that this would be fun to try with snow too! Should we be so lucky this winter to have enough snow to play with!

When playtime is over, simply spray the tools your kids used to play with the hose, and toss the ice cream cones! I love easy clean up activities! If the weather is warm enough, your kids might enjoy a splash in the sprinkler, or the garden hose to clean off a little bit before going inside.

You can find more kids activities here

Play Doh Fine Motor Rainbows

Pine Cone Rescue

Play Doh Food Themed Puzzles

Do you need an easy way to keep the kids entertained? This play doh puzzle idea is perfect for challenging them with items you already have on hand!

It is no secret that we LOVE play doh! Homemade versions, ideas to play with it, and just the joy of squishing it in your hands! No matter how you do it, it is fun with play doh.

The kids have been out of school for a long time now; 6 weeks and counting. Keeping them learning, playing and happy has been a challenge. I have had to get creative in my efforts, but some of the best ideas are born out of idle time and basic supplies.

This play doh puzzle can be as challenging or easy you want it to be. We used play food because we have a lot of that.

Affiliate links are used in this post. If you make a purchase, I will earn a small advertising fee at no cost to you.

Supplies:

Play Doh

Several Play Foods

Directions:

Roll a can of play doh out until it covers about a 6 to 8" area

Press assorted play food into the play doh, leaving a little room in between the food to create impressions that you can match up.

After you have filled the play doh with imprints of play food, lay all play food around the play doh and invite your child to match up the play food to the imprint that the food left.

Repeat with more play food, or even other objects from around the house.
Make more imprints for more challenging puzzles, or fewer for an easier play experience.
We loved that we could make this fun for both kids without having to buy anything!

You can find all of my play doh ideas here

Reader favorites include:

Play Doh Flower Counting

Play Doh Multiplication

Paper Plate Lion Craft

This easy paper plate lion craft requires basic supplies and makes for a roaring good craft for the little ones!

I am an advocate for crafting with kids! I think that with simple supplies you can open up an entire world for the kids. This easy paper plate lion craft is a perfect activity for preschoolers and kindergarteners. It utilizes fine motor skills and it gives kids a chance to explore their own wild side as they give their paper plate lion a personality!

To make this easy craft we used:
Kwik Stik
Uncooked Rotini Noodles
A clean paper plate
school glue
2 googly eyes

Begin by painting the rim of the plate orange
Paint the center of the plate yellow
glue rotini noodles on the rim of the plate to make the mane
Add eyes
Draw on a face with your Kwik Stik

We love to make easy crafts! With 2 kids under the age of 6, I grab every opportunity I can to get crafty with them! Some of you might be familiar with my crafting show on facebook live, where we make a lot of adorable and easy crafts, if not, I hope you will join me on the Quirky Momma facebook page on Monday or Friday nights at 8:30 pm, or Wednesdays at 9 am eastern or 7:30 pm.

Find more paper plate crafts here:

Paper Plate Crafts for Kids

Paper Plate Witch

A Simple Fine Motor Activity

I like to keep Roo learning and developing skills even though he is on summer break. I also like to create tools for learning from items we already have at home.

I had an idea for a super simple fine motor activity that I could make in a matter of minutes. I had no idea how much bot of my kids would enjoy working on such a simple activity with such great fine motor skill practice.

You will need:
Pom Poms
A pair of plastic tongs
An egg carton

Photo Credit: Sara Lehman.

The rest is pretty self explanatory. Put the pom poms in the egg carton, then demonstrate how to pinch and pick up then sort the colors.

As you can see I used smaller pom poms for Roo exclusively so he would really have to work at pinching the pom poms with the tongs.

Harper isn't ready for the tongs yet, but using her fingers to grasp the varying sizes and the fuzzy texture of some compared to the hardness of the smaller pom poms is good for her fine motor development too. I use assorted sizes when working on this activity with her.