spaghetti in the sensory tub…oh so fun! first, i must share that i *love* the sensory tub. like really, really, really love sensory tub activities. we have a permanent tub set up in our house that i change out periodically and i’m always trying to think of the latest and greatest ooey, gooey, colorful, or messy something to put in the tub. somehow, cooked spaghetti never occurred to me. but this was a great activity! for our tub, i just use an empty, plastic storage bin. it’s the perfect size, easy to clean, and cheap!

for “M’s Restaurant” i laid out a few supplies for him to use. sauce {red paint}, meatballs {marbles}, cheese {baby powder}, and a container of parsley {because for some reason i seem to have a bizarre stockpile of dried parsley}. i was surprised at the slow progression of the activity. i thought M would literally jump right in, but he started slowly with a fork and a little paint then moved up to the pasta spoon {I seriously just had to google the name of that thing!}, and then to nobody’s surprise…he jumped right in. he said it was cold and felt funny and he played in there for a while. our play was cut a little short when baby N woke up from her nap and wanted to hop in the tub with M. had i been thinking ahead i would have had a little area set up for her, too, with pasta to explore. next time, for sure! clean up was easy. i dumped the contents of the tub and cleaned it with soapy water. M has asked several times to do “the restaurant” again!

rebecca’s crew put us to shame this week…wow! go rebecca GO! the full-on restaurant was an amazing idea, and before you read further, let me let you in on a little secret…shhhhhhhh, listen close. if you attempt this project, do it like rebecca’s crew and not like mine! i liken my boys to what i think wild animals on crack might be like {for reals!} towards the end of this project you’ll see what i mean!

we played with no sauce for a bit just to get a feel for it, twirling the noodles, scooping the noodles, eating the noodles {which was pretty gross after playing with them for awhile…eventually, i had to establish a *no eating the noodles* rule}…even sweet pea gave it a go! you know i couldn’t resist a *patch adams* sort of a moment and plopped her right down in amongst the noodles; we can go ahead and check that one off her bucket list, ha! she was intrigued and of course the noodles went right to her mouth for further exploration!

the spaghetti lost it’s luster in record time, so that’s when we busted out the *sauce*…outside of course! bless all you patient parents who do projects like these indoors {*cough*rebecca*cough} 🙂 this is where we start going crazy…it was all i could do to keep the noodles in and around the bin…thank goodness we were outside because we had paint. every. where. days later i was finding paint in new places, yikes! clean up for us included the hose and THEN the bath! a fun project, but EXTREMELY messy if your kids are anything like my boys {read : wild/energetic/over-zealous} just giving you a fair warning! 😀

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thanks for playing! you know the drill…leave your link in your comment below so WE can check out your project PLAY! we love to see you spreading the joy!

ciao!

stacey * rebecca

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