One of the things I miss most about teaching is the craft projects. In an attempt to bring out my inner craftiness again, I decided to make Lucy a sensory board. She touches everything and rubs everything between her fingers lately, so I thought this would be a fun little activity to have on hand. I’ve seen lots of ideas for these online, and I already had most of the materials in my craft bins so I knew I could easily make one.
I went to Hobby Lobby to get the purple board. It’s thicker than poster board . . . almost like what boxes are made out of. I cut it in half when I got home, so now I have a blank one stored away to make another one sometime!
I used scissors to round off the corners and then covered the edges with duct tape. This not only makes the board look better, but helps to avoid Lucy chewing on any rough edges that might hurt her little gums.
This set up kept Lucy busy long enough for me to cut the board and get the duct tape on.
Then I took a little break to pick her up and snuggle. Crafting sure does look different these days!
Putting Lucy in front of the window bought me just enough time to plan where I wanted to put everything on the board and get about three things glued down. Then I gave up and finished it during nap time.
Lots of different textures for her to touch and explore!
I think she likes it!
Overall, I’d call it a success. She pulled the bubble wrap off fairly quickly, but everything else is still hanging on. I used a hot glue gun, but I think I’d use tacky glue or gorilla glue next time. I spent quite a few minutes removing all the little strings that come along with using hot glue.
Obviously, this is an activity that should always be done with adult supervision in case she does pull anything off. I’ve also stopped her from chewing on anything because it’s not chewing friendly!
Oh, and here’s a suggestion in case anyone out there reads this and decides to make one . . . . I saw all kinds of adorably cute textured and sparkly things at Hobby Lobby that I wanted to put on the board. However, when I rubbed them with my fingers, lots of sparkles came off. I figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to put anything on the board that might make Lucy’s tiny fingers all sparkly . . . so be careful with that.
Love this Mol! Looks like you both had fun 🙂