Baby Explorers

Baby Explorers is a program I started this summer for 0-36 month olds and their caregivers. I designed it to combine sensory activities, exploration activities, and first science experiments. I think we had a great time and I plan to continue it in 2019. To make the activities a little more intentional (and to give caregivers an idea of what to say), each station had a sign with some ideas of what to talk about during the activity. Here are some of the stations from our summer 2018 session:

My favorite! I repeat this baby pool full of spaghetti every summer because it's always a good time. I cook the spaghetti to just under done (not mushy) then separated it into gallon bags. Each bag got about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and about 10 drops of liquid watercolor paint (although food coloring would also work). After squishing the colors around I laid it out on a tray to dry slightly, then poured it right into the pool!

All this took was a basket with holes (a pasta strainer is also an option) and some random pipe cleaners. It's a fun fine motor activity and the more pipe cleaner colors you can find, the better!

Baking soda & vinegar is always a good time, but I took it up a notch by mixing the baking soda with a little bit of water and freezing it in cupcake liners. Adults loved this one too!

Play dough is always a fun sensory activity and we made this one a little special with different colors of dough and a bunch of cookie cutters. We even had enough dough left over to send some home with families!