Beach Day Sensory Bin

How are you feeling about summer this week? Are you ready for all things fall or want summer to linger a little longer? I’m definitely a summer girl to my core. As in, I can’t think of a recent time that I found it too hot outside. As in, lounging by a pool in Vegas in July felt just right when I was there several years ago and I recall that feeling of warmth often when I’m cold.

This season in our life as a family of 5 doesn’t include a ton of trips to the beach. I don’t feel confident in taking all of the kids by myself for safety reasons and Ryan works some weekends. So we could go, and no one would have fun, or we stay home and set up this beach day sensory bin instead. In this activity, we brought the beach to our house, only in miniature!

Here’s what you need

• Sensory bin. By now you can tell I love these things. I find the kids also love the different textures and pretend play that goes along with them.

• Cereal. We used stale O shaped cereal, but you could use what you have available in your house.

• Seashells. You might recognize these from our Beach Themed Seashell Transfer Activity. I like to use materials more than once if I am going to organize and store them in our house.

• Figurines/people. We love this set and this set of community helpers. I like Little People for these messy activities because they are super easy to clean and don’t have holes for water or sand to sneak into. This princess set is also a favorite recently.

• Digging toys are a bonus here. We like this front-end loader. Again, I’m looking for something easy to clean, so no motor or batteries.

• We added scoops/spoons/measuring cups for fun.

Set up

2 minutes

1. Blend your cereal to make sand. I’ve tried just crushing with my hands, but haven’t found much success. I’m officially advising you to not waste your time with an attempt at crushing with your hands, feet, or rolling pin. Just get out the blender.

2. Put all supplies in the bin and go to the “beach”!

Clean up

1-5 minutes

1. Take out toys and dump cereal sand. We did this outside, but a towel or sheet on the floor or even doing this in a bathtub/shower could work. I also have figured out that it’s sometimes worth a mess that is easy to vacuum or otherwise clean if the kids stay entertained longer. This cereal sand vacuums up well on my floors, so make a judgment call for yourself and your tolerance for mess.

2. Clean toys and utensils. All the spoons and scoops head into the dishwasher. The people, seashells, and truck get washed in the sink. We actually followed this sensory bin with the Beach Themed Seashell Transfer Activity to help clean the shells!

3. Rinse sensory bin. If our bins were much larger, they would be too difficult to clean in our sink. We use them a lot, so it’s a must for me that they are easy to clean.

This was a fun way to make an easy-to-clean mess. My kids LOVE making a mess! As I’m guessing most kids do. We buried our people and shells, had our people visit the beach and play in the sand, and used our construction vehicle to carry the shells and people.

The kids somehow convinced me to add water to this beach scene and that ended in them making “oatmeal”. That is something I love about child-led play. You really never know where it will end up and it’s fascinating to watch how their imaginations come alive.

I sometimes have to push myself to get out messy materials because it’s easy for me to say no. Don’t get me wrong- I absolutely say no when I don’t have the capacity or time to clean up a mess. But I found myself saying no to messy things out of habit or fear that it would take a long time to clean up. And usually, the mess wasn’t all that bad in the end.

For me in this season, I can handle tossing a dirty towel or two in the washing machine and doing a pass with the vacuum. A few months ago, when I had a new baby, I could really only manage water messes that would eventually dry on their own. Allowing myself the grace to be flexible has been freeing for me as a person who has very high (sometimes impossible) standards for myself. I often feel the need to do it all, so stepping back or leaning out is new and often uncomfortable.

Some days I have a huge capacity for mess and am able to keep up on snacks and meals while keeping the house clean and I feel like I have superpowers! Other days, I’m behind for every meal and snack, I have to pick between keeping the house clean, spending time with the kids, or preserving my sanity, and my patience runs low. Both days are ok. I’m not doing anything wrong on those harder days. Harder days just happen!

My kids are also not missing out if I can’t muster up the willpower to do a messy activity this week (or month). They are loved, so I’m giving myself an A+ for parenting. I’m giving you an A+ as well. A+ if you decide to do this activity AND an A+ if you decide to pass on this activity!

I truly hope you take some time to recognize all you do for the people in your life, children or others. Find some rest and enjoyment in your day today to take care of yourself. You have earned that by simply being alive. There are no special requirements to earn rest and peace. This is something I’m working on personally and struggle with, but it feels so obvious when I tell you.

Should we make it a mantra?

“I deserve rest because I am human.”

“I deserve rest because I am human.”

Ok, speech over. I think I inadvertently convinced myself I should head to the beach to relax! Comment below what you take to your pretend beach if you set up this activity. I love to see the creativity. Until next time…

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