February Sensory Bin

Here is our February sensory bin. It is Valentine's Day themed with winter leftovers. Our January sensory bin wasn't quite as fun as I imagined it being, so I changed the cotton balls out for white beans. My original intention was to keep the same basics and add in some Valentine's Day colors and shapes, but I didn't go with that plan. Actually, I was forced to use only what I had on hand because we are actually snowed in (my husband is digging us out as I type).

I started with three pounds of great northern beans. I put the white plastic doves and silver bells from January's bin back in. Then I added red plastic jewels, pink and purple pom poms, red feathers, red and white pony beads, heart shaped erasers, and red yarn bows.

The "scoops" are the tools my boys use the most with these bins. Our scoops for this month our two clean laundry detergent caps, a red baby bottle cap, and a pink popsicle mold bottom. I can almost guarantee that the baby bottle cap and popsicle bottom will be what they fight over. Why buy new scoops when they prefer these random odds and ends?

January Sensory Bin

Here is our Sensory Bin for January. I guess I didn't make it to Dollar Tree soon enough (apparently winter doesn't come after Christmas in the marketing world) because I couldn't find anything I was wanting to put in this winter themed sensory bin. I was hoping to find some snowflakes or mittens or winter animals, but I didn't. Most of the items in this bin were random craft supplies I already had on hand.

This sensory bin includes:

Cotton balls

Fake snow sprinkles

A little tinsel

Bells

Blue pom poms

Curls of blue ribbon

Blue striped drinking straws cut to various lengths

White plastic doves

I started the bin with cotton balls, added the various blue and silver items, and topped it all off with a little tinsel and fake snow. However, if you plan to use this type of tinsel or fake snow, I would recommend putting it in before you put in all the little items.

The boys liked these little white doves, but I don't think they realized there were so many in there because they got lost in the white cotton balls. I don't really think of doves as winter animals, but they were white and as I said, I couldn't find anything else.

I was afraid that I was going to regret putting the tinsel and fake snow in the bin, but it didn't make very much of a mess. I was also careful to put just a little of each in, so maybe that helped to minimize the mess. Or maybe I am just not as bothered by messes as I used to be.

Christmas 2010 In Review

We did several things for Christmas that I wanted to share, but because of reasons beyond my control, December did not go as planned. However, we determined to make the best of it, and what we hadn't finished before Christmas we just enjoyed after the date!

We started two traditions this year that I think are keepers. First, we did a Christmas countdown during the month of December.

Each gingerbread man's gift had a Bible verse about the birth of Jesus and a song to sing. Our boys absolutely loved doing this every night, and I was surprised at how much I liked it too. (In the nature of keeping things real, I may note that we had to do several at a time some days because we didn't get to them every day, and when Christmas came we hadn't finished it.)

Our second tradition we started this year was a birthday party for Jesus. We had pizza and cake and gave birthday gifts to Jesus. We decided to choose his birthday gifts from the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. My oldest son chose to give a week's worth of milk for a child and a Jesus Loves Me Stuffed Lamb for a child in crisis. As a family we gave some other gifts also. These gifts and our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes were also our gifts to our family members -- we gave these gifts in honor of them instead of buying them something they didn't really need or want anyway.

During December they boys played in a Christmas themed sensory tub.

The tub included white beans, green split peas, red beads, bells, toy blocks, red jewels, and green pom poms (which my son had already scooped out before I took the picture).

We also made chocolate dipping spoons for hot chocolate. I originally planned to do the spoons with snowmen as I saw here, but since we didn't get them started until after Christmas we went with easy sprinkles and crushed candy canes.

We used plastic spoons for the ones we gave as gifts, but just grabbed the lesser used spoons from our drawer for treats for ourselves.

The Christmas season came and went fast this year, and now it is time to move on to other things. Does it seem to you that December lasted longer when we were the kids?