Sensory Play Ideas Using Everyday Household Items

Key Takeaways

• Sensory play is any activity that stimulates your child’s senses.
• Sensory activities help children learn through exploration and are crucial for their developmental skills.
• Sensory play ideas for babies include sensory boxes and bottles, finger painting, homemade playdough, and water play in a small tub.
• Sensory activities can get messy for toddlers. Make cleanup easy with your waterproof silicone bib and Beyond Junior® high chair, which has a dishwasher-safe tray cover.

Sensory play is a lot of fun. But it also plays an important role in children’s development, supporting brain development and fine motor skills, enhancing observational skills, and helping children understand how their actions affect what’s around them. With so many benefits, it’s no surprise that many parents and caregivers seek out sensory play activities. 

No need to be intimidated. There are loads of activities that can be set up with items you already have within reach. Need ideas? Don’t know where to start? Try these sensory play ideas for babies from Abiie®.

What Is Sensory Play?

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates our senses, whether that be touch, sight, hearing, smell, or taste, along with movement and balance. It’s often unstructured and process-oriented rather than results-focused. 

Why Is Sensory Play Important?

When children are born, their senses aren’t fully developed. They mature over time as they explore the world around them. Every new experience they have with a different sense builds nerve connections in their brain’s neural pathways, improving sensory and memory processing. Sensory activities are also great for helping toddlers:

• Understand cause-and-effect
• Build gross and fine motor skills
• Build language skills
• Regulate their emotions
• Learn through exploration

Sensory Play Ideas for Babies and Toddlers

Learning activities can be as simple or complex as you’d like. They can also be tailored to any age. For example, you could use taste-safe paint for babies and regular paint for school-aged children. Get started with these sensory activities for toddlers from Abiie®.

Make a Sensory Box

Also known as a sensory bin or messy play tub, a sensory box is one of the most popular sensory play ideas for babies and toddlers, and for good reason. These boxes are easy to assemble and can be adapted for children of all ages. 

All you’ll do is fill a box or container with objects of varying textures. Common materials include dried beans, rice, pasta, oatmeal, and small toys. They often also include scoops, measuring cups, or funnels to encourage fine motor skill development. 

Fill Up a Sensory Bottle

Looking for less messy sensory play ideas for babies? Try a sensory bottle. You’ll fill a transparent bottle with materials like water, glitter, food colouring, pom-poms, or any other small objects you have at home.

Toddlers can shake the bottle and watch as the materials inside swirl, settle, or make various sounds. 

Let Your Child Finger Paint

Finger painting is a brilliant way for children to explore, learn, and develop through sensory play. And, of course, it’s also loads of fun.

To get started with this sensory play idea for babies, you’ll need:

• Finger paint that is store-bought or homemade (more on that later)
• Paper
• A waterproof smock or silicone bib so clothing won’t be ruined by paint
• An easy-to-clean painting surface (Note: We recommend your Beyond Junior® wooden high chair at Abiie®, as it has a dishwasher-safe tray cover.)
• A towel for drying hands

Once your little one is set up in their easy-clean high chair, they can begin to paint with their hands and fingers. Chat with them about the different textures or colours they’re using, or feel free to join in. 

This sensory play idea is excellent for infants and babies, too. You’ll just need taste-safe paint, which can be made right at home. 

• Yoghurt Paint: Mix a few drops of food colouring into containers of yoghurt.
• Cornflour (Cornstarch) Paint: Mix together equal parts cornflour and water in a saucepan. Slowly add 250ml of boiling water whilst stirring. Stir continuously until it reaches a custard-like consistency, then let it cool and add food colouring.

DIY Playdough

Playdough and sensory doughs are also brilliant sensory activities for toddlers. They can squeeze, pull, or form the dough into different shapes. Tip: Your baby can do this activity in their high chair if you’re worried about messes.

Don’t have any playdough? You can make it at home with a few simple ingredients: flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Food colouring is nice to have, but not necessary.

1. Mix 250ml of flour, 150g salt, and 2 tablespoons of oil into a large bowl. Divide this mixture into separate bowls if you’re making colourful playdough.
2. If you’re using food colouring, add it to 250ml of warm water. 
3. Pour the water into the flour mixture a little at a time. It should form a sticky dough.
4. Allow it to cool.
5. Sprinkle a bit of flour on a table, then knead your dough until it’s no longer sticky.

Need more playdough-related sensory play ideas for babies? You could add toys or scents to your dough to ignite their imagination, such as lemon juice or essential oils.

Keep it Simple (and Fun) With Water Play

Our last sensory play idea for babies is also the easiest.

All you’ll do is grab a shallow tub and fill it with water. You can leave it as is and just let them splash to learn more about cause-and-effect. Or, you can add sponges for soaking and squeezing (great for strengthening hand muscles), plastic cups for pouring (and building fine motor skills), or different toys to see what floats and what sinks.

Make Sensory Activities Fun for Your Toddler

You don’t need any complicated toys or materials to engage your child with sensory play. You just need some imagination and a little help from your Abiie® baby products. 

Set up your Beyond Junior®, pick out one of our sensory play activities for babies, and let your little one have their own adventure.