I’m all about thinking frugally when coming up with toys and activities for my little one for several reasons. Obviously to save money, but also because often times we create these elaborate activities for our baby and then they couldn’t care less about the toy or activity. That or they spend one or two minutes and move on to the next thing. Why spend lots of money on something when you could find something at the dollar store that may or may not keep their attention? Also, having lots of ways to play with one item increases the likelihood of them finding something interesting, extends your dollar a bit further, and gives the added benefit of developing their creative and critical thinking skills.
Why Sponges?
Sponges are fun and can take many shapes and forms. The variety of textures, colors, shapes, density offers boundless opportunities for sensory play. Sensory play is so important for brain development. Basically, when children are allowed to explore their surroundings with all of their senses they can make more sense of their world and more synapses are created and connected in their brain. For example, if you have never felt anything wet before and someone said, “Touch this it’s wet” you may not make that connection in your brain and you wouldn’t know how to approach that scenario. If you have many experiences with things that are wet you may begin to connect the dots in your brain. You may still have questions, but at least you have a starting point and something to connect back to. If you want to read more about the importance of sensory play, read my post “What’s the Deal with Sensory Play?”
Here are 10 Ways You can Use Sponges in Your Play
1. With Water
Let’s start with an obvious one, water. Sponges and water go hand in hand. Try mixing it up though and add color to the water or make the water bubbly. Demonstrate different ways to use the sponge as you narrate what you are doing (ie. “Look, I’m going to get the sponge really wet. Now I’m going to hold it up high and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Look how the water is falling. Reminds me of rain…”). It’s also fun to have a variety of types of sponges in the water. Some may hold water better than the others. You can even add in scientific terms like “absorb” or “dense.”
2. With Cars
Adding cars with sponges can create opportunities for pretend play. They might build roads, tunnels, parking spots, garages, etc. for their cars. You may also want to do a car wash. Typically, children won’t build actual things and use props with their play until they are about 3 years old. Doesn’t mean you can’t play with cars and sponges when they are younger though. Your role will look different. You may be doing more modeling and narrating while they explore the items themselves when they are younger than 3. Watch to see what they are doing before you intervene and don’t force them to play a certain way.
3. With Animals
As with cars, adding animals to sponges can create opportunities for pretend play. You can now build beds, dens, nests, caves, and other animal homes with the sponges. You may also want to give the animals a bath so add them to some soapy water.
4. Create a Crawl/Walk Path
This activity is best for babies starting to crawl until they are walking toddlers. Finding a variety of sponges can make for some fun sensory experiences. Tape them to the floor and encourage your baby to crawl over them or next to them while feeling them. Your little one will likely stop to get a better feel and this can help them with balance and their motor skills.
5. Build Towers
One of my current favorite games with my 7 month old is how tall can I build this tower until she knocks it over. We do this with foam blocks, wooden blocks, and, hey, we can even do it with sponges. You can build with wet or dry sponges. Your toddler or preschooler might enjoy building the towers themselves, or may even come up with more complicated structures.
6. Help Clean
It’s never too young to get them started, am I right? This is another conventional use for the sponge, but can be very fun for babies, toddlers, and young children. Young children love to help out. You can “clean” just about anything. Maybe it’s time to clean their bikes and other outside toys…get the sponges out! Maybe they want to help clean the dishes…get the sponges out! Maybe the walls in the playroom need a little scrub…you get the idea. They don’t have to do a perfect job and you will probably have to do the real cleaning, but allowing the opportunity for them to help empowers them to feel like a contributing member of the family and teaches responsibility.
7. Make Puzzles
Cut your sponges into simple shapes and make them into puzzles. You can make more complex shapes depending on the developmental level of your child. You can also cut them into Tanagrams to build with.
8. Paint with Edible Paint or Colored Water
Use the shapes you cut when making your sponge puzzles and then dip them into edible paint. An alternative to edible paint is non-toxic tempera or colored water. We used water with food coloring. When we painted with sponges I made sure to tape the paper down and I showed Miss 9 months how to stamp the paper with the sponge. Best part was when she inevitably put the sponge in her mouth, it was completely taste safe. You can stamp them onto paper or simply let the activity be a sensory process art experience.
9. Stick them to the window
Ok, I originally saw this idea from @Play_at_home_mummy on Instagram and ran to the dollar store to buy some sponges. While at the dollar store, I found some foam numbers and thought they might work like sponges on the window. Sure enough they did. My 7 month old loved grabbing the foam numbers and putting them directly into her mouth. This kept her busy long enough for me to empty the dishwasher. These are also really fun at bath time.
10. Dry/Wet Sensory Play
Mix up the wet sponge play by adding a few dry ones in the mix. Talking about the difference is a great way to create those neural pathways for a better understanding of the words and concepts of “wet” and “dry.” My 7 month old definitely prefered the wet ones though.
The beauty of having multiple ideas in your “toolbox” is that not every child is the same or is engaged with the same experiences. Also, developmental levels can affect a child’s engagement level. Try an activity one day with no interest at all and the next week they can play for hours…ok, let’s be real for at least several minutes. Plus, babies and young children have about a millisecond attention span so you may even decide to do all of these activities on the same day.
Try them out and tell me what was your little one’s favorite activity? Add your ideas in the comments below.
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