Sensory Bowl for Babies

I have seen so many great ideas for sensory bins which of course I am going to do, but Baby O is still a little too young since they usually contain small parts.  Lately she has been really studying items - how they feel, look and yes, taste.  Because of this curiosity I decided that I wanted to make a baby friendly sensory bin.  While at Target I looked through the dollar bin for items with various textures and shapes.  I noticed after a few items that I kept grabbing pink so I decided to make everything in this bin have at least some pink.  I usually try not to make things gender specific, but I guess one all pink thing is ok.  Anyway, I ended up getting a bowl from the dollar bin as well.  When I got home I took the tags off of everything and took any safety precautions needed for any items.  Everything in the bowl looked so cute and I was excited to let Baby O try it out.

In her sensory bowl I included a foam drink cozie (did I spell that correctly?), flower loufa, bumpy squishy ball, microfiber towel, long cotton polka dot fabric ribbon, slinky (the ends are clipped down so no worries about being poked), plastic/rubber necklace, compact flower mirror which I kept open, curled ribbon attachment for presents (I took the tags used to attach it off and then put masking tape over the staple).

 I later added a few of the balls from Baby O's ball pit.  They were red not pink, but close enough.  The balls allow for even more opportunities to learn and explore.  She can put all the balls (we can take more from the ball pit if needed) into the bowl.  Baby O can also put 1-2 balls in the cozie and then dump them out.

While playing with the items I realized that Baby O can beat on the upside down bowl like a drum.  She also put the bowl on her head like a hat.  I was actually surprised at how much Baby O seemed to like her sensory bowl and the items in it.  She played for quite some time and we got it out a few times during the evening.

Everything in Baby O's sensory is either items from the dollar bin at Target or things that we already had at home.  So for $10 we have multiple items that she can explore and occupy her attention for some time.  As I find other items I will add to her sensory bowl and eventually make it a bin for all of the additional items.  I would definitely recommend creating something like this if you have a baby.  It is fun and educational for them, plus all of the items can grow with them to be used separately.