Childhood Obsessions: The Senses

Children often become enchanted by a certain topic, wanting to know everything about it – bears, superheroes, princesses, the list goes on and on, and it can be difficult to know where to go with these obsessions. What activities can you do? How can you help your child learn more about what interests her? I have given some general tips for supporting your child’s interests here, and in January I looked at dinosaurs. This time I will be focusing on activities you can do with your young child that revolve around the senses.

“More Water Please” by Vera Levi

Touch, taste, sound, sight, and smell are our earliest learning tools. We learn to recognize our Mama by her scent and the sound of her voice. As a baby grows, he becomes extremely interested in faces, focusing on the rich visual cues that the adult faces around him provide. Our sense of hearing lets us tap into the language of our culture, and also keeps us safe – babies know to cry loudly when they need help, and likewise will react to startling sounds and the voices of trusted adults. We learn through all of our senses, and young children are especially interested in exploring their senses – this is why toddlers put everything in their mouths, and also why preschools have sand boxes and water tables!

Sensory Tubs

Not everyone can have a sandbox in the yard, or a water table – but I bet you can scrounge up a dishpan or two, right? Okay, this one is really simple:

1. Get something that is fun to touch (birdseed, dried beans, sand, mud, shaving cream, water, etc.) and fill tub no more than halfway.
2. Cover child with art smock if needed, and let loose.

That’s it! And if you want to get really crazy: take off your child’s shoes, and let her smoosh her feet in the bucket.

Make A Texture Board

Whenever you and your child are out and about, make a point of collecting little bits of things with interesting textures (sand, leaves, tree bark, moss, aluminum foil, sandpaper, cotton balls, seed pods, etc.). As you find new objects, add them to a board (a piece of cardboard or cork board works well), and label each one with the name of the item, and a word describing how it feels. Keep the texture board where your child can touch it (that’s the whole point!), and ask your child how each texture feels. Alternatively, you can leave the textures loose on a tray or in a box.

Mystery Box

Take an old shoebox and cut a hole in one end just large enough for your child’s hand to fit through. Cover the box with wrapping paper or paint it if you like. Now, sneakily put a little object in the box and close the lid. Ask your child to reach inside and guess what it is just by feeling it – and don’t be surprised when she puts something in the box and wants to make you guess what it is!

Take A Listening Walk

Take a walk through your neighborhood, in a local nature area, or just through your own home while focusing on noticing all of the sounds you hear. You might want to bring a notebook to write down what your child says. If you want a little further inspiration, read The Listening Walk by Paul Showers before going out.

Listening Games

1. Guessing: One person closes his eyes or puts on a blindfold while the other person does something in the room that makes a noise (opening & shutting a door, jumping up & down, pulling out a chair, etc.); the blindfolded person has to guess what the other person was doing based on the sound it made.

2. Matching: Collect various small items – coins, rice, pebbles, sand, etc. – and put them in film canisters or other small, opaque containers (yogurt containers would do nicely). You’ll want to end up with a pair of canisters for each item. Your child can shake each one and match up the pairs by sound.

Record Sound Effects

Using a small tape recorder, walk around your home with your child looking for things that make noise. When you find one, record it! Some ideas to get you started: creaky doors, a telephone ring, doorbell, knock at the door, footsteps, pots & pans clanging. You can use the tape later as a listening game, and your child will probably enjoy playing it for other relatives and making them guess the sounds. If you like, you can also make up a story to record, incorporating the sound effects.

Blindfolded Walking

One person wears a blindfold while the other gives verbal directions and/or holds the person’s elbow to direct them where to go.

Taste Tests

1. Ask your child to close her eyes, or cover her eyes with a scarf. Give her small samples of foods and ask her to guess what they are
2. With eyes open, ask your child to taste samples of similar-looking foods, such as salt and sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder, or apples and pears.

Make A Scent Game

Rubber band scrap fabric to cover the tops of several small opaque containers or poke holes in the lids. Fill each one with a different item that has a distinct scent: orange peel, cinnamon sticks, cloves, garlic, ginger, etc. Let your child try to guess what’s in the jars. based on the scent.

Read A Book!

It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, and Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle, and the classic Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book) are a great start.

Have more sensory activities? Please share them in the comments!

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