Throughout the spring months, my oldest daughter kept begging me to put a sandbox in our backyard. I could easily think of a half dozen reasons why it would be a bad idea to put one in our yard. However, I love giving my kids things that they desire and sandboxes are great for several reasons (they provide a safe place for kids to play in the dirt, they spark creativity, they allow kids to use fine motor skills, etc.), so I really wanted to be able to give my kids something akin to a sandbox.
It occurred to me that a sensory table could be somewhat like a sandbox. I looked at these, but I couldn’t find one that met our needs. I found a few examples online of DIY ones, but these were all too small for my needs (I wanted one that was large enough for at least three kids to utilize it at the same time). I finally decided to build one using two long storage tubs (those designed to slide under beds) and PVC pipe. I shared the idea with my father. He is a much more competent and creative builder than I am, so he took the idea and ran with it.
The result is a large, three-compartment sensory table on wheels. My initial plan was to write out step-by-step instructions so you could create one of these for your family. However, because of my dad’s design abilities, the final product is not as simple as I had envisioned. Thus, this post is more inspirational than instructional.
The image below contains my dad’s original plan. The final product differs a little from this.
It is basically a frame (52″ long x 36″ wide) with supports suspended beneath it (these hold the weight of the tubs). The tubs are under bed storage bins (34 7/8″ x 16 5/8″ x 6 1/8″) with lids. The upper frame stands on six legs, which are connected to one another to provide stability. The legs have castors on them so I can roll the sensory table in and out of our garage.
My girls love playing with this! My youngest is still a baby, so she just watches right now, but my oldest child (nearly 5 years old) and my middle child (3 years old) have so much fun being creative and getting messy as they play in the sensory table.
So far we’ve used fake snow, sand, water, and moldable sand in it.
My girls are so grateful that Mebop (their name for grandpa) built them this amazing table! They’ve spent hours playing at it. If you are able to build something similar for your kids, then I hope they love it, too!
What DIY items have you completed recently? I’d love to hear about your projects.
Shared at the following:
Farm Fresh Tuesdays, Encouraging Hearts and Home, Busy Monday, Over the Moon, and Tuesdays with a Twist.
Wow, that is impressive! What a great idea, and how cool that he put it together for them. Sensory bins are fun. Our library has toddler storytime events twice a week that we typically go to, and as part of it the kids have time to play in the activity room-and Peter is always so excited to run over to the sensory bins to see what exciting surprises the librarian has put in there that particular day! (the cloud dough, shaving cream, and dyed garbanzo beans have all been huge hits among the kids)
I haven’t done anything too dramatic lately, but the other day did try out some homemade “face paint” (since Peter loves to color himself with markers, I figured having a dedicated nontoxic “paint” could be good). I think I need to try a different recipe, because it smeared a lot and didn’t hold well on his skin-and unfortunately after painting he playfully flung himself down on our rug, which now has a lovely blue streak haha! But it was a lot of fun to do that with him anyway 🙂
It’s so nice! I’m glad I get to show it off.
You are brave to try the face paint, AnneMarie. The blue streak will make an interesting conversation piece!
Great project, love it. Pinned
Thanks, Anita!
Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too!
Thanks, Marilyn!