Stimulate Your Babies With My Christmas Sensory Board
I love sensory activities for infants and toddlers so I thought I would do a Christmas sensory board! My 1 year old has not mastered walking yet but is sitting up so I know he would just love to sit and play with a Christmas sensory board! Since I also have a 2 year old I decided to make it toddler friendly (let us just hope they both share and play with it together rather than my 2 year old carrying it off somewhere!
My latest sensory activity for infants involves Christmas decorations, lights, Santa and lots of glitter! We all love a bit of sparkle now that the festive season is here.
How I Made My Christmas Sensory Board
I decided to use old Christmas decorations and things I already had in the attic, I mean why buy more stuff when there was ample already. I only had a small piece of cardboard so I knew I had to be selective in what I was going to put on my sensory board!
A small piece of cardboard (recycled from an old toy box) works best because you can move it around to other rooms and even take it in the car with you! Yep my 2 year old Amelia loves taking everything in the car! I think she was scared of losing it.
I used a red envelope, a snowman Christmas card, baubles of various sizes and colors, cotton wool (to resemble fake snow), small Christmas present wrapped, sparkly pen for writing.
How I used my Christmas Sensory Board as One of Top Learning Toys for Toddlers
Everyone here is the thing not only is a sensory board good for stimulation it is also excellent for learning for babies and toddlers.
With regards to being one of the best baby learning toys I used this Christmas sensory idea as a way to encourage my 1 year old to sit up for a long period of time! He has a tendency to fall onto his stomach and be lazy so this has encourage him to be more upright. Like his older sister he took lots of interest in the board and it’s features. He went straight for the large bauble and tried to pull it off. He was also fascinated with the cotton wool and loved rubbing his fingers against it. One of the great sensory ideas for infants at this time of the year!
With regards to my toddler I used this the same way I use toys that promote language development! I asked me two year old what goes in the envelope. We were able to format a story of how the Christmas card needs written and put in the envelope and the fact that the postman needs to take it to the correct person. Small things like this are great for stimulating creativity and imagination in toddlers.
The other great thing is what this Christmas sensory board teaches 2 year old toddlers. Yes it gives them a clue that Christmas is about snow, presents, sending cards etc. but it also teaches them new words and opposites. I have noticed my little girl now uses descriptions in front of objects, for example she will say the tiny ball or large ball, or large blue ball. I used the items on the board to help her.
Different sized baubles – helped me teach her difference between tiny and large
Different colored baubles – helped me teach her difference between red and gold
Different textures – helped me teach her different between rough and smooth
Different shapes on board -helped me teach her cube, square, rectangular, circle.
I love Christmas sensory ideas and will be hunting down lots more suggestions on Pinterest for my 2 angels! Who knows I may even do a roundup post here featuring some of my favorites!