Sensory Bag for Baby

Sometimes it's hard to come up with sensory play for babies, but I am so excited about this project!! I saw this post for sensory bags quite awhile ago and so wanted to do it. I just couldn't quite think of a way to modify for the babe. I was afraid as is, he would for sure be able to get the plastic bags open quickly. Then I saw this post from The Mommies Made Me Do It.  Hmmm....I had my answer...duct tape!

It couldn't be easier. All I used was a ziplock bag (I used a freezer bag thinking the material might be a little sturdier than a non-freezer plastic bag), some hair gel, duct tape, and a few things to put in the bag. I found these cute little frogs at the dollar spot at target. They were perfect! At first that's all I was going to put in it but I thought why stop there! I added a few buttons, some beads, silly bands, and a couple of flat marbles. You could use pretty much anything that won't poke a hole in the bag.

Fill the bag with hair gel. I happened to find cheap hair gel that was already colored,  had I not,  I would have just added food coloring to regular hair gel. Then, throw in some fun things for baby to look at and squish around in the gel.  Squeeze out as much air as you can when you seal the bag. I ran duct tape around all the edges to reinforce it. The duct tape added a little color and made it look kinda cool too (bonus) That's it! You are good to go!

I'm pretty proud of the frogs...don't they look like they are swimming in there?
We'll call it a frog pond sensory bag :)

At first Mr. C wasn't sure what to do with it. He would just look at it and smile. (at least he thought it was pretty).  Eventually he did get to squishing it around a bit.  He especially liked it when I held the bag up so the light would shine through. I'm thinking the next time I get it out I may tape it on our sliding glass doors so he can look at it and explore that way. Believe it or not, much to my surprise, he didn't try to put this one in his mouth.

This is by no means limited to the baby set. I think it would be well suited for a lot of ages. My older son was even intrigued with how I made it, what I put in it etc. If you have a large age gap between kids like we do, sometimes its fun to get the the older ones involved in making these types of things for the younger ones. It gives the older kids a project and everyone gets to participate. (I'm a big fan of older kids with projects).

I will definitely be repeating this one as the munchkin man gets older.  I'd also like to try making this in a smaller size. I think it would be easier for him to pick up and manipulate. With the hair gel in the gallon size bag it was a bit heavy for him so he was more limited to playing with it like a mat. For that reason I think it would have been great when he was younger and needed something to hold his interest during tummy time. Wish I had thought of it then, he hated tummy time.

If you do try this one, as with anything, make sure you supervise. Little fingernails and teeth could puncture the bag.

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