Simple Calming Sensory Box for Kids

Our days are fairly busy and the transition to our bedtime routine has been a bit hectic lately so in an attempt to slow down and create a calming transition into bath and bedtime I put together this simple calming sensory box for my daughter.  It’s a great way for her to have some low-key, quiet play before bedtime.

Calming Sensory Bin: Clouds & Stars with Essential Oils

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This sensory bin was very simple to put together and is made from items we had in our craft stash, I also added a few drops of essential oils that we use after bath.

Sensory Bin Supplies:

• Cotton Balls
• Star Jewelry Links (Dollar Tree)
• Reusable Star Ice Cubes (Walmart)
• Star Beads (ours were provided to us by CraftProjectideas.com; I only used the purple, yellow, and blue but there are other colors in the package)
• Essential Oils (Some of our favorite calming scents: Lavender, Chamomile, Ylang Ylang, or Vanilla)
• Cups/Tweezers for sorting
• People/figures for imaginative play (we used the gnomes from out Nature Table)

For this bin I used a few drops of lavender oil on some cotton balls then put in the rest of the items and put it out for MB to use when we got back from our evening walk.

Along with the box I set out plastic cups for MB to sort the different types of stars into.  She’s recently mastered using the tweezers so she is very much into sorting activities where she can use them.

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She started out sorting and using the tweezers but after she had them all sorted she dumped them back in and began some imaginative play with the gnomes.  Her gnomes had quite the adventure, making “cloud caves,” “flying in the stars,” and finally going to bed in a special “cloud bed” (I seriously think Mommy needs a cloud bed!).   I didn’t get any pictures of her using this calming sensory bin because I wanted her to have time to herself to relax and mellow without me in her space taking photos and interrupting her play 😉

What do you do to help your kids unwind before bed after a busy day?

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