About a year ago, I came across
this post at Play at Home Mom. It was a play invitation for a toddler or preschooler to make their own filled ornaments. I LOVED this idea and mentally filed it away to use this past holiday season with my son.
Michael's had tiny little Christmas fillers on sale and I bought things that I thought would appeal to my son's sensory needs. I picked bright, shiny or textured objects. Some were little bells that rang when you shook them. And I bought PLASTIC ornaments for him to fill. I knew glass would not be the way to go with this kid. ;-)
Here is the invitation:
He seemed genuinely intrigued....at first.
He did what I was hoping for with the activity with ONE ornament. BUT, some activities just don't really go how you think they will. Now, I had imagined him having a grand ol' time filling all the ornaments with all the different items in the tray. And I had shiny shredded material to put in as filler as well as red-colored Epsom salt. However, as soon as I showed him the Epsom salt and funnel, he was done for. LOL!
He started off filling the ornament with the salt. But then he just dumped it out. And then wanted to dump his other ornament (with the bells) out. Then he wanted to pile all the shiny little objects together in one part of the dish.
And then he wanted nothing more to do with them. BUT, he did want to play with the Epsom salt more! So I let go of my expectations for the activity and we turned it into a total sensory play moment with the Epsom salt.
He scooped!
Put it in his hands
Wrote in the salt
And poured!
He investigated the material thoroughly and to his heart's content. And I just sat back and enjoyed watching him learn about it!
Sometimes we just need to not have any expectations and see where things take us! :-)
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