Originally Posted by mamamanda:
Hello everyone! I have a water table that I've been using as an outside sensory bin instead of using it for just water. So far we've used pasta shapes and toy dinosaurs hidden in uncooked pinto beans. I try to use edible items in case the 2 year old tries to eat it. He still mouths everything. I have two questions.
1. What are some edible sensory objects you use in your sensory bins? I've thought of using food coloring to dye rice, or maybe using split peas. What other things have you tried?
2. How do you manage things being spilled or dumped out of the bin? My kids love to scoop and dump which I feel like is a big part of the purpose of the sensory bin so I don't want to limit this behavior, but when they scoop from the table to fill another bucket or container we end up losing about half of the contents of the table during the course of the day. Also, the 2 year old just dumps the objects on purpose. I take away his table privileges when he does this, but every single time I turn around he's back at the table doing this again. It's getting too expensive to fill the table each morning so I have to find a way to remedy this. I could easily spend $10-$15 each week on sensory supplies b/c all of it gets lost in the grass. Plus, dh isn't thrilled about that when he mows. Any suggestions?
I have a lid for mine. So if it's open they have access. If anyone dumps, one warning and done. Same with mouthers. If you put it in, you can't play.
I've done rice and oatmeal. That's the only edible ones I've tried. I've seen chickpeas, too, but I thought that would be expensive. I just bought a big bag of rice at Costco and used half to fill the table.
If they are dumping, maybe you need to remove the buckets? I have put the lid on and closed it for the day when there was too much on purpose mess happening. I don't fill my table very full either. About an inch of sensory base and then items on top.
I don;t know if that helps or not.