Like Playing House: Colored Rice Sensory Box

My daughter is 2 ½ years old and is basically my whole world. My main objective in life is to make her have the best life and be the best person she can be. I am probably seen as one of those ridiculous moms who worries too much and tries to make Gabby achieve goals before they are necessary. I don’t really concern myself with others; I just want her to have the best life possible with a fun and memorable childhood.

One of our most recent mother/daughter projects was dying rice various colors and making a sensory box. Gabby really enjoyed getting to choose the colors herself and help make the rice. I measured the rice, poured the rice and rubbing alcohol in the Ziplocks, and then allowed Gabby to put the food coloring in each bag. She really enjoyed mixing the colors, but what else would you expect from a two year old? It’s basically making a contained mess encouraged by Mom.

My objective with this project was to have another tool in my artillery belt for teaching Gabby vocabulary I want her to learn (right now I am trying to teach her a few letters at a time). The objective was met! I threw magnetic letters from the fridge in the box of rice, a few miniature dinosaurs and sea shells in there and voila instant hours of fun with a little bit of learning!

Benefits of the Box of Rice:

Various textures keep the box interesting
Visually Appealing-Children LOVE bright colors and making messes so they want to play
Sensory Box keeps the kids busy: I do the dishes (so I can keep an eye on her) while she plays
Fine Motor skills- Your child’s little muscles improve as the search and attempt to pick up tiny objects (you could even use tweezers if they are older)
Vocabulary-Sneak 4 or 5 objects you would like them to learn the vocabulary of into the mix and make them repeat the word or simply say the word each time they pull the object/card out of the sensory box

You can make different games that are educational when playing with the box such as: matching, vocabulary building, counting, sorting, expanding sentence length..The options are truly endless!

· If you do nothing more than simply throwing rocks and other small random items in the box you are encouraging imagination and sensory integration with lots and lots of fun!

Don’t be intimidated by making the rice. If you are a super busy parent and like the idea of a sensory box but don’t want the mess of dying rice you could simply pour a bag of dry beans, rice, popcorn, or combine them (like a school for Autism I work at does) in a box and throw various object to hide in the box and you are done!

*Important note before you get started: dye stains so throw on an apron or old shirt if you have it handy (especially if the kids are helping)

Instructions:

5 cups of rice separated into 5 bags

2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol (per bag)

Food Coloring (liquid food coloring worked better than gel food coloring for us)

Empty box (an old wipe case or plastic shoe box works great)

Pans, wax paper, or foil (to let rice dry)

Directions: Separate the rice into 5 Ziplocks (one cup per bag), pour 2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol in the bag, pour in food coloring (4 or 5 drops should suffice) until you get the color you like, close the bag tightly, and shake the bag until all rice is colored. Repeat with each bag. Line pans or simply put foil on the counter. Pour each bag of rice onto a piece of foil and spread thinly so it will dry quickly. The rice should dry in about 3 hours, but I realized that it takes the rice overnight to dry well enough that it does not color your hands. Pour all rice in the container, hide fun little items and let the fun begin!