Of all the sensory projects for babies and toddlers out there, I’ve never considered trying them out. When Evan was little I don’t think I really fully understood it as a young mom. Now that I’m older and wiser this time around, I realize how important sensory play is for growing kids. This has made me put an honest effort to expand my horizons and start creating “crafts” with Max.
After browsing the internet for hours and being overloaded with options, I decided to mix things around and come up with my own little version sensory crafts. I hope over the next few months I can try to introduce Max to 2 or more crafts a month.
Let’s Get Speckled
First up? Sand. It’s probably every child’s favorite snack following dirt. It’s squishy, it can be cold or warm, different colors, textures, and more. I played around with food coloring and different base ingredients to come up with our very own toddler-safe speckled play sand.
Why speckled? Well, that’s because it’s way easier and more convenient for everyday moms to accomplish. Otherwise, if you are super crafty you can do solid colors. Making it speckled is a cheap option that gives play sand an edge yet keeps it realistic enough to speckled real sand.
Sensory Play Time
Speckled play sand is perfect for knowledge gaining toddlers. The texture is soft like the shores of Hawaii’s sand, ugh, I cried a little bit typing that. It feels like the softest sand you’ve ever laid your hands on. The sand is also capable of molding. Max loves making balls so he was extremely excited when we started rolling them out. Of course, the real excitement is crushing them right after.
Play sand is always pretty messy but in a good way.It’ss just flour so though it can get a little crazy, it’s incredibly easy to vacuum right up afterward. No worries on clogging your vacuum or broom with gunk. Better than that, all the ingredients are toddler-safe so if your little one shoves a handful in their mouth you’re safe. They will probably get grossed out and spit back out at most.
Toddler-Safe Speckled Play Sand
Are you ready for this incredibly difficult recipe? I’m just kidding, it will take you about 5 minutes to complete.
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 box food coloring
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 air tight container
- 1 pair vinyl gloves (optional)*
- Measure out your flour and dump into mixing bowl.
- Slowly add your oil to flour while moderately stirring to mix.
- Add in as much or as little food coloring until you reach your desired color and speckledness.
- Stir a few times to mix then finish mixing in color with hands. *Use gloves to keep hands color free.
- Pour into an air tight container and repeat with as many colors as you’d like.
That sand is so cool! What kid doesn’t love to play with sand? No kid. That’s the answer.
This is something that will make any kid happy. I remember playing with wet sand when I was a kid. I loved the feel of it. Mine wasn’t speckled, though.
What a cool version of sensory play! My kids are older now, but both were in Occupational Therapy and sensory play was a big part of that (they both have sensory integration disorder). I’m glad this is becoming more of a common things for kids in general!
I will have to get the ingredients I need to make this on the weekend. It is a great idea for the kids to enjoy.
My friend is bringing her little ones over this weekend. I will have to make some of this play sand for them to play with.
I love how many wonderful things are coming out for the little ones and especially the little ones who NEED more sensory items. This looks SO fun! I would totally sit down and play with the little ones with this sand!
This looks like a great hands-on activity for toddlers. Love the texture and colors involved.
& it keeps him occupied so it’s perfect!
Sand is a great tool for sensory play. The twins and I will have so much fun making this. Thanks for the recipe.
This is so cool. I love making stuff like this in the house especially when it is so cold out there. I will have to send this to my mom friends who have little ones.
My girls would love this. They love playing with sand. I love that it’s speckled too. They’d like that even more.
My boys used to love playing with sand. I bet they would have been all over this when they were little.
How cool! My son just played with real “sand” when he was little. I’ve never thought you could actually create a “sand”. 🙂 Brilliant idea!
Every kid where I am based needs this, if you can’t bring them to the beach you can bring the beach to them! LOL 🙂