Sensory Tub - Rice & Animals

We tried our first sensory tub last week. I figured that since we live in Vietnam, why not use the local staple food and play with rice. Little Bean had a blast.


This activity packed nicely into a tub with a lid. Easy to pack away and bring out again as needed. Great for days when I want a ready-made activity at short notice.

 Little Bean had fun just unpacking the box and exploring the items. I included some small squeaky animal toys, a large baby spoon, a Vietnamese style soup spoon, a small plastic bowl, a cup, a jug and one of his stacking cups.

He watched as I hid the animals in the rice, then it was his job to find them. We did this a few times until he lost interest.

Then I pushed the cups and bowl into the rice so that they wouldn't fall over. I showed him how to pick up rice with his hand and sprinkle it into the cups, which he copied. Then I showed him how to scoop rice with the spoons into the cups and let him try it. Mostly, he just wanted to scoop it on to the floor. He also did some pouring from the cup into the tub.






This activity kept him amused for around 20 - 25 minutes. I learnt that if you do an activity like this, don't put pants with cuffs on your baby. If you didn't notice that the cuffs were full of rice, I imagine you'd get it everywhere. Luckily I noticed as we leaving the bathroom.



Doing this first sensory tub activity has strengthened my resolve to make a sensory tub table. I'll buy a cheap wooden table and cut a hole out of the middle that I can slot the tub into. It was a little hard on my back doing this activity on the floor and at times it was difficult for Little Bean to balance and maneuver around. I think it would be much easier for him to do whilst standing at a table. Then we'd also have the surrounding table top to use during the activity as well.

What we're doing this week

This post is a little late going up. We got Little Bean some beautiful new wooden toys last week. They are made by Win Win Toys, a Vietnamese company. I want to buy 90% of their toy catalogue.

This pull-along crocodile wriggles along with a caterpillar-like movement and makes a clacking noise. However, it doesn't work on the wooden floor in Little Bean's bedroom. The wheels can't get enough traction. It works on his playmat and on the carpet in my room though. He likes to just carry it around and chew on the string and bead.



Little Bean loves music so it was a no-brainer to start his musical instrument collection with this rainbow coloured xylophone. It was a fast favourite and he quickly learnt that it sounds cool when you run the stick across the keys instead of just hitting them.

I loved this ball-run toy and couldn't wait for him to want to play with it. After only showing him twice how to put the balls on the top ramp, he has it sussed and played happily for ages. He has since found alternative uses for the balls.

He has lost some interest in stacking his bowls and cups this week. Instead, he has been using them with the balls from his ball-run toy. He puts the balls in them, tips them from one bowl to another and covers the balls with them.

He's still loving his sensory balls. He's really gotten the hang of kicking the big red ball around now. I was also going to pack his inflatable roller toy away as he hasn't shown much interest in it for a week or so, when he suddenly started playing with it again. It has bell filled balls inside and he loves the sound. He's lays on top of it and rolls over it to the floor on the other side. He's also been kicking it around. Kicking really seems to be a big thing for him at the moment.









He's been wanting to carry his basket of wooden blocks around one-handed. It didn't work with the shallow basket and they kept spilling out. I got him a new deep basket with handles and he's been carrying them everywhere.

His discovery basket contents haven't changed. I realised that in the photo of it, there's a small round wire sieve I didn't mention last week. This was part of an old discovery basket that he found laying around and put in there himself. He loves the feel of the wire mesh.


I didn't change as many things this week as I originally planned. Instead, his natural curiosity found new ways to use old things. Next week, his sound sensory bottles will be taken out as he's currently showing minimal interest in them. I think I'll replace them with visual sensory bottles.

What we're doing this week

Now that we've nearly finished Little Bean's bedroom, I've set up some Montessori inspired activities for him along the window ledge shelf. He's free to play with any of the activities at any time. He also has some toys on his play mat. You can see his Montessori inspired bedroom here.

He's going through a phase where he's obsessed with stacking things and putting things in and out of containers. With this in mind, I went shopping and bought some plastic bowls of various sizes that he can stack inside each other. I also got some baby food storage jars that stack on top on each other. He's loving them. He's also really got the hang of his Fisher Price stacking rings toy this week.

I put a mix of natural and coloured wooden blocks in a basket for him. He spends a lot of time just putting them in and out of the basket. He quickly got the hang of stacking the blocks, knocking them down and eagerly doing it all over again.

As a sensory activity, I made up six plastic bottles with contents that make a wide range of sounds when shaken. I used cut up drinking straws, rice, split mung beans, kidney beans, chickpeas and Little Bean's favourite, some small bells. He's been shaking up a storm. I'll make some visual sensory bottles next.

He also has some fabric books which include a range of fabrics, crinkly pages and squeekers. He loves his Noisy Little Blue Train book. He can press a button that makes train sound effects. We got his soft toy lion out of storage too. He lost interest in it so we packed it away for a while. The time away has made it interesting again. Like his fabric books, it features a range of different fabrics, crinkly plastic and squeekers, as well as some chew toys, which a teething Little Bean love right now.

On his play mat, we have a discovery basket that will usually be themed. This week it has some sensory toys: his lion, a rattle, a rubber sensory ball and a small soft velvet ball. He's teething at the moment so there's a teething toy. He loves playing peek-a-boo games using blankets, towels and clothing, so there is a muslin wrap in there too. He loves me flinging it up in the air and letting it land on him and cover him up. 

The plan is to change several, or perhaps all, of the toys and activities weekly, depending on his interest level and ability. I have some great sensory activities planned which I will share with you as they happen. I'm excited about starting some art projects with him soon.