Montessori's Sensory Tub

Children explore and learn about the world by using their 5 senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and tasting. That is how they process new information by experiencing hands-on materials, which contribute to a child's cognitive development. 

When my little king was younger (12 mths & below), I used to come up with a "treasure box", which is basically just a box filled with random things that can be found around the house. For eg. key pouch, CD, sponge, bottles, mirror, torch light, metal case, ruler, scotch taper, toilet roll, wedding favors, remote control, spoons, comb, cassette tape.. anything that is not too small to become a choking hazard. I clean all the items first because I knew definitely my baby boy love to have a taste of all of them. All babies love to use their mouth to explore, it is another way of understanding and learning about the item. It is fine as long they are clean enough and most importantly, they must not get choke on them. Baby Reagan looks forward to this "treasure box" activity everyday. Usually I give him the box right after his bath, so he can stay still to explore the items while I cream him with his baby lotion, dress him up and comb his hair. This activity can entertain him for at least 15-20 minutes, long enough for me to take a short break. I'll always try to change the items in the box every 3-4 days, hopefully I can pick the right item that can hold his attention longer.

While I was researching on the Montessori approach, I came across a popular activity which is almost similar to my "treasure box". It is called the "sensory tub", which is a type of practical life exercise. A sensory tub is a tub that contains a wide variety of items which are not always around babies and therefore not very common for them to get to explore (eg.seashells, sand.. etc). Usually the tub is also filled with a base, like water, sand, jelly etc , and comes with tools like spoon, ladle , tongs, containers..etc for the kids to use.

Some benefits of a sensory tub

- Eye-hand coordination  (pouring, scooping etc the items with the tools or picking and transferring with their hands) 

-Math skill (explore and compare weights, measurements, quantity, sizes etc)

-Cognitive growth (sorting, comparing and grouping the items into categories. Learn about sensory attributes, cold, slippery, sticky, rough ..etc)

Today I attempted baby Reagan's first Montessori-style sensory tub. I try to gather items which consist of different textures, weights, sizes, shapes and etc. So there you can see my tub is filled with things like pebbles (smooth and rough), seashells, plastic balls, styrofoam alphabets and plastic shapes.

Once I filled it up with water, some items float and some sink to the bottom of the tub. To make it even interesting, I added ice into the water so baby Reagan can feel the low temperature of the water.

 My baby boy hesitated at first when I placed him in front of the tub, until I pulled his hand inside the tub and assured him that mummy allowed him to touch, and it's ok to play.

 He didn't use the ladle that I provided, and preferred to use his hands to pick up and explore the items one by one. His favourite ones are the pebbles and styroform alphabets which he pick up again and again even after he threw them back into the water. At first I thought he would be interested in the seashells instead.

 Each time he picked up something successfully out of the tub, he would turn around and smile.

Did Reagan enjoy this sensory tub activity? Let the picture below tells you..

 Again this activity ended pretty fast, probably less than 10 minutes. And that was because Reagan later on got too excited and started splashing the cold water over himself.

 He was drenched and because it started to drizzle outside at the same time, I was afraid that he may catch a cold and stopped the activity to get him change out of his wet shirt.

I think all babies would love the sensory tub activity, especially those who have "itchy hands" syndrome like my boy. Probably when he is older, I can teach him to sort the items that he "fish" out into different categories like "Things that float" and "Things that sink", "Soft" and "hard", "smooth" and "rough" etc. Another interesting, stimulating and inexpensive learning activity that can be done at home.