Gettin' the Feelin' Sensation

I've been starting to have a little mama guilt that I'm not doing enough to stimulate Little MIss.  So, I thought back to my days working at the preschool and scoured Pinterest looking for ideas.  One thing I should have started months ago was sensory play.  I decided better late than never, looked around the house for what I could get started with and jumped right in.

We've had some white rice sitting around for ages and I decided that would be a great first experience.  I poured it in a pan, got some things to play with, popped her in the learning tower and set her free.  She immediately put it in her mouth.  I was telling her it wasn't for eating at the same time she tried to eat it, discovered it was hard and immediately started crying.  It was meltdown city.  I had to take her out and cuddle with her for quite a while.  It was a rookie mistake, and I knew better.

After she calmed down, she reluctantly let me put her back in the learning tower, but she wouldn't touch the rice.  She watched me play with it for a while and talk about what I was doing and how it wasn't for eating.  Finally, she decided that playing with the cups was ok, but she refused to actually touch the rice.

I was ok with that as long as she wasn't freaking out. We played for a while and then called it a day. I came back the next day with some pasta for her to try. Before I put her in the learning tower I told her it wasn't for eating, but she just looked at it and said 'all done.' She wouldn't even touch it. After watching me and a few more exposures, she's now playing with it like a champ.