Easter Sensory in the Tub

Today we took another "down day". Vada was still feeling ill and had a temperature of over a hundred, off and on, so I decided to make the best of our morning. Yesterday we watched a lot of television and just laid around. It's what we do around these parts when one of us is ill. It's what I end up doing when Vada is sick and wants to cuddle with me. So, instead of laying around again today and watching endless amounts of Sesame Street and Caillou (not that there is anything wrong with either show), I decided to put Vada into the tub, which always seems to make her feel good and make a learning environment out of the tub!

I always like turning our tub into a "sensory bin" and this time I decided to use Squishy Baff. This is the second time I used it but today was the first time that I actually looked up what it actually was, only after the fact of sticking Vada into it. Let me just first say this, Vada was fine afterwards. She really ended up having a blast playing in this gooey stuff and it was great for sensory play! Sometimes, I swear not knowing is better than knowing, but if your interested here is a blog post that I also ran across that quickly sums up what Squishy Baff is made of. In my opinion  I would have to say that you have to make your own conclusions. If I would have known before hand what this product truly was, I may not have used it. Now however, Im not so concerned. Vada has very sensitive skin and had no reactions. The age suggestion is five plus and Vada is three but I think that in general, you just don't leave your child or children unattended in the bath tub and your good to go!

Justin was home so I had him help me get the bath ready. Since he is rarely home during school time he hung around for this activity and even put V into the goopy mess. She wasn't so sure of it!

She even signed "help".

And then "all done".

Finally she sat down. 

Justin compared the texture or the consistency to applesauce. I thought that it was thicker than that but couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was comparable to. (Have you even taken your children swimming in their diaper (Im talking about disposables)? Or maybe their diaper just got too wet and jelly like pieces kind of came out of the diaper? That is what this stuff is! And that is exactly what I was thinking!)

I had small and medium plastic Easter eggs that I had filled early in the morning and put them in the tub with Vada, along with a bowl for her to put her findings in.

The eggs were filled with small things. Fine motor, pincer things and necklaces because every girl needs some jewelry!

And here I am, being the good mom that I am and not knowing what I am doing... or better yet, not knowing what it is that I am rubbing into my daughters body parts! 

Squishy Baff in her hands.

and on her arms...

in her arm pits...

and SHE. LOVED. IT!

Squishy Baff comes with a powder mixture that dissolves the gel back into a liquid and it works wonderfully. My husband was a little nervous but it was fine in the end and he even agreed!

After the Squishy Baff bath, Vada needed to take a real bath! So I rinsed out the tub and added some fresh clean water and some bubbles to go along and we continued to plan and learn. 

Vada's Grandparents gave these bath "stickers to Vada as a gift awhile ago and we use them often for play but also for counting! Ive posted about this activity before, several months ago but I actually got this idea from another awesome Mom blogger!

Vada is really getting interested in writing, mimicking others and their actions and doing things on. her. own. 

Its fun to watch her today. As her mom and teacher and knowing that she does have a unique way of learning -one that is quiet and almost hidden right now, when I get glimpses of what she is learning I cant even begin to put what I am feeling into words but its like, everything that I am doing, all of the hard work and time spent, well, it's all reaffirmed! It is working! She is learning and together we are doing this!