Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 7

Today our sensory space comes from all the way in the UK and is being shared by Charlotte and her beautiful daughter Bella.

In this sensory area Bella is sitting in a corner seat with a tray in front of her for sensory activities. A black out sheet has been placed over her space with a UV light.
Charlotte and Bella thank you for sharing your very creative sensory space with us.

I am really enjoying seeing the many sensory spaces. Such wonderful ideas and amazing creativity. Please contact me if you would like to share your child's sensory space or even their favorite sensory items or activities.

Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 6

Todays sensory space comes to us from Krystal and her precious son Sean.

Krystal made the frame for this sensory space from pvc and then lined the sides with plastic. The plastic makes the noises Sean creates sound louder. She has many things hanging in the sensory space. The goal is to encourage him to explore his surroundings. Each thing he touches makes a sound or has a different texture. He will purposefully hit the items to make sounds.
Thank you Krystal and Sean for sharing with us.

It is so much fun to see the many wonderful ideas for sensory spaces from all of you. I love seeing how each person has created just the perfect space for their little ones.
If you have created a sensory space for your child and would like to share about it please let me know. I would love to include as many different sensory spaces as possible.

Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 5

Todays sensory space comes to us from Holly and her adorable little prince Ethan.

Holly made her first sensory room out of pvc pipe and the pressed wood peg board(I think thats what it is called). She used zip ties to hold the peg board onto the pvc and then had lots of places to hang things. They hung noisy or colorful toys inside along with lots of other sensory items. Pompoms(Ethan's fav), slinkys, shiny ribbons, aluminum cake pans, rope lights, wind chimes, lighted speakers, and bells. Mirrors worked well along the sides and they also placed glow in the dark stars on the sides and roof. When it comes to what to place in a sensory room the only limit is your imagination.
She also usually has music playing and uses a space blanket under Ethan during his sensory room time.

Holly now uses the ActiTunnel with Ethan which you can learn more about in my last post.
A huge thank you to Holly and Ethan for sharing there wonderful sensory spaces with us.

Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 4

Todays sensory space comes to us from Renee and her handsome son Brennan.

Here is what Renee shared about the sensory space she uses for her son.
I got this on-line at Abilitations. It's called an Acti-Tunnel. It's half mesh, half solid material. There are 12 rings that come with it to suspend anything you like. You can purchase their acti-tunnel accessory kit separately, purchase your own sensory items for less elsewhere, or just find things around the home that you already have. It's lightweight and portable and has a lot of room to accommodate a growing child (as both ends are open), and wide enough for a sibling or friend to join in :)
It also folds away for easy storage and comes with a lightweight carrying case.

Some of the things I have hanging are: Small chime, colorful bead necklaces, New Year's knockers, soft scarf, pom-pom keychain, chime ball,
good luck fish charm, jingle bells, etc. I have a crinkly sounding mat on the floor that he's laying on too.
I've thought about hanging some lights on it too but haven't got to it yet :)

If you want to check out the ActiTunnel at Abilitations click here.

Thanks so much to Renee and Brennan for sharing their very neat sensory space with us.

Valentines Crafts

There are so many fun Valentines crafts out there so I will just share a couple more of Junior's favorites. Yesterdays heart butterflies were a huge hit and probably his favorite Valentine craft this year.
He also loved making a Valentines card and wreathe.

I may have shared a different version of this wreathe last year but it is one Junior really likes so we do a version of each year.
You will need- a paper plate, glue, several hearts(in 3 sizes) cut out of various colors of construction paper, glitter(optional).

Cut the center out of your paper plate
Glue large hearts in a circle around the plate
Then glue the medium and then small hearts onto the large ones(last year we just put big hearts on)
Decorate with glitter

Each year Junior makes a giant Valentines card. The past couple years he has wanted to make an I Love You sign language card.
We just trace and cut out a hand print. Glue down the middle two fingers and then your set. Glue it to the card and decorate.
Here is our card for this year, Junior was having just a little fun making it.
Happy Valentines Day everyone


Tomorrow we will return to our Sensory spaces/rooms posts.

Valentines Butterflies

I still have more sensory room/spaces posts to put up but thought with Valentines right around the corner I would share this craft.

Junior and I made these heart butterflies today. He thought making a butterfly completely out of hearts was just way toooo funny. The idea for this came from Enchanted Learning and we just adjusted it to meet our needs. By adjusting the size of your hearts you could make really big butterflies or small ones.

You will need construction paper(in multiple colors), scissors, glue, a large piece of paper, paint/marker(or just use colored paper).

Using markers/paints color the large sheet of paper. Junior used a blue dot marker(they dry really quickly). We used blue so it will look like the sky but any color would be cute.
*you could also skip this and hang your butterfly from something and not glue it to a paper like we did.

Cut out 8 small heart shapes of various colors for each butterfly(we used black for the center of the butterfly but any color would work), 8 of these will be for the center of the butterfly. Cut out 2 large hearts.

Glue 2 of your small hearts side by side on top of each large heart. Glue the large hearts to the paper(as shown in the picture)

Glue four small hearts in a line between the two large hearts. Use a marker or construction paper to add antenna and add a tiny heart to the top of each antenna(we used stickers but you could also just cut out a tiny heart out of construction paper)
Junior had lots of fun making these and we may make a few more and hang them from his iv pole instead of gluing them to the blue paper.

We also made "stained glass" hearts though they weren't nearly the hit that the butterflies were.
For these you will need - 1 piece of construction paper(we used a large piece), crate/tissue paper cut into tiny pieces, glue, scissors, contact paper, puff paint(optional).

Cut heart shapes out of the construction paper. You could do one heart or several
Cut your crate/tissue paper into tiny pieces
You will need a piece of contact paper that when folded in half is about the same size as your construction paper.
Sprinkle the cut up crate paper over half of the contact paper(sprinkle on the sticky side)
then fold the contact paper so the crate paper is trapped inside.
Glue your construction paper over the top(we also glued a solid piece of construction paper onto the back but you could have hearts cut out of the back as well). We then outlined our hearts with pink puff paint.

Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 3

Todays sensory space comes to us all the way from Australia. Lisa has created a fabulous version of the "little room" for her, super cute, son Noah. Be sure to jump on over to their blog and visit Noah and his family.

This sensory space uses a wood frame and has lots of space for hanging things inside.
Here is Lisa's description of their sensory room.
My brother made up the little room for us out of ply wood - it has windows on each side so we can look through and talk to him and on the top it has dowel so things can easily be tied to hang down. We recently put a black fabric over the top to make it more of a sensory experience as it is now very dark and it's a lot easier to see anything that is lit up in there.
He has speakers that light up and also a glitter lamp in there as well as Christmas lights that we have strung around and star lights that hang down and change colours. We don't use them all at once, but usually just one so to not over load him with different sensory experiences at once.
Click here to go to a post on Lisa's blog with video of Noah in his little room.
Lisa and Noah, thank you so very much for sharing your sensory space with us.

Sensory Rooms/Spaces part 2

This is part 2 of our sensory spaces posts. If you missed part one click here. There are so many wonderful ideas for different types of sensory spaces and this one comes to you from our friend Sarah and her little prince Drew and princess Emmie.

Sarah used a playpen for these sensory spaces. By adding the links(the type used on baby gyms) to hang toys as well as lights she created a multi sensory play area for her sweet kids. The baby gym inside the playpen is the musical kind so touching the toys will start the music. She also has a space blanket under Drew's feet so any motion will cause noise. Lots of sensory input. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful sensory spaces with us Sarah.

Wheel Chair Jeans giveaway winners

Looks like 6 people left comments and since we have 6 pairs of jeans, you will all get a pair.
I will email you sometime this weekend to get your addy and get the jeans in the mail this coming week.