Toddler Sensory Bins

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Picture this. I have a 2 week old and a 2.5 year old and it’s the night before my husband goes back to work after having our baby. What does one do on such a night as this? 

Why go to the Dollar Tree of course! 

No? Stay with me, I promise. 

I’m an avid Busy Toddler fan but had not yet taken a deep dive into sensory bins. Oooppps, let’s me back up. In the weeks prior to this, I had my husband build me this dual sensory bin table (using 28 qt clear storage bins from Target) with hooks and storage (15 qt clear bins from Target) underneath (unfortunately the plan he used no longer has an active link…but we just found free plans on Pinterest and made a few tweaks to fit what I wanted!) with the hopes and dreams of lots of outdoor sensory play. 

For Christmas the year prior, my sister in law had given me all the supplies to make a bean sensory bin with scoops, diggers, and trucks. So my vision was one side of the table to be the permanent home for the beans, and the other side to be a water table + interchangeable sensory play. 

Alright, so back to the Dollar Tree. The night before I’m about to be solo for the first time with both boys I headed to Dollar Tree and spent about $30 on any and everything sensory bin related I could find! 

I’ll detail below…but we’re talking pom poms, rocks, rice, spoons, cups, scoops, tiny animals, you name it, I got it. Plus storage containers for all of the above! 

So here we go, let’s get down to the details. 

First thing was easy – I knew I wanted to do Busy Toddlers infamous rainbow rice (check out my other blogs to see how I took this a step further and started putting my own seasonal flair into these – like my summer “Ocean Rice” Bin!). Which is basically just white rice, white vinegar (1-2 Tablespoons), and food coloring. You mix it in a bag to coat all the rice, then lay it out flat to dry. Once it’s dry you’re ready to roll! 

The rainbow rice is so fun in and of itself that I mostly just added spoons, scoops, mini cups, etc to accompany the rainbow, plus a few small things, like plastic coins, to bury in the rice! 

Next up – I went with rocks. I figured these could be fun both dry or in water! And they are a hit! Same thing here – I just pull from my “utensil bin” as far as what tools to use for the rocks, and I added some plastic animals! 

Last but not least, the Pom Poms. Ok so don’t get me wrong, these are fun as is – and even sometimes come out to play in our IKEA kids kitchen – but they are double the fun in the WATER TABLE. There’s endless possibilities with these…color sorting, using tongs for fine motor skills, scooping, dumping, adding boats to the water, etc. Seriously the fun with these is endless and it’s always a hit! Plus you can reuse them…I just take them out of the water, squeeze as much of the excess water out as possible, let them dry on a towel, and then once dry I store them away for next time! 

So yes, my Dollar Tree run was a little bit of work on the front end. But now, all these bins sit within a greater bin in our hall toy closet, and everything is organized and ready to go anytime we need to pull out a quick activity! 

I initially created these bins and this system for those early days of having a newborn and a 2.5 year old while I was by myself during the day. And trust me, it was indeed a huge win during that time frame! Something that my oldest could do independently while I sat nearby and watched or talked, while also tending to baby brother. 

But believe me when I say this fun has extended well beyond those early newborn days – we pull these out weekly! 

And as a reminder – I personally keep the beans set up as is (there’s really too many to constantly take in and out) but everything else, I rotate through that second empty bin – whether it’s with water or without! 

And then our seasonal rice (Ocean Rice here, other seasons to come!) I keep in a smaller bin and its home (during the current season) is on the IKEA kids table so that it’s always readily available and accessible! 

One rule of thumb I have in all of this? Always, always, take a browse through the Dollar Tree when nearby…you just never know what you may find! Take Spring and Summer for instance…see those clam shells up above in the Ocean Rice? Yep, those are Easter Eggs I found during the Spring and saved for my Summer bin!

And bug collecting kits…ok so I don’t personally do bugs…BUT check out this amazing line up Dollar Tree had this summer…can we say sensory bin central?!

If you don’t happen upon Dollar Tree during the summer bug collecting season…not to worry, Amazon has a pretty cool set too!

I could go on and on about my love for the Dollar Tree and sensory bins…trust me I have birthday gifts and many other seasonal bins up my sleeves, but those blogs will have to wait and this will have to do for now!

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Happy Playing!