To ask for your best toddler sensory buys?

[ClingyClingy]

I have a lovely 2.5 year old DS who loves all the usual things little boys often do-diggers, tractors, dinosaurs etc

He has lots of toys and is great at imaginative play.

I'm not very good at messy play with him or putting together things for him to play with that are more 'sensory'

I keep seeing these big trays, balls and tools for children to play with that are more 'sensory' and wondered if people might recommend toys, activities, that their toddlers enjoy playing with. I currently have very little!

I'm building an Amazon order!

Thanks

Kool sand. Great for diggers and Dino excavations, it's reusable kinetic sand I.e. it behaves like wet sand but is not wet.

Thanks so much for your recommendation! This may sound stupid but how do you play with this? Does it all stay together or do you need a big container or something for toddler to sit and play with it in?

The ones I have had come with either a fold out box or a blow up tray. It needs a tray of some kind basically.

I normally put a sheet under both tray and toddler so all the spilled sand can easily be dumped back in the box afterwards.

Ooblek is another good one, especially for burying dinosaurs, google it. You make it at home with cornflour and water.

Luckily it wipes off easily as my kitchen normally looks like someone has been spinning round and round with a wet white paintbrush by the time they are done with it.

Foil emergency blanket for a couple of pound on Amazon, sometimes in with camping stuff in the pound shop. It's crinkly, shiny and every child I've seen with one has loved it.

Tuff tray
Or a smaller one

Things to go in it:
Pom poms
Dry food - rice, pasta, lentils
Bubbles
Play dough
Kinetic sand
Paint
Styrofoam packaging pellets

Tools:
Yoghurt pots
/ small containers
Plastic scoops or spoons
These
Kitchen stuff - plastic cutlery, wooden spoon, colander, bowls, pans

We've used all of the above. There's lots of nice looking ideas on Instagram but they usually look a lot of effort to set up. I have the smaller tray and it's really useful for lots of messy/craft play. Fits under the sofa too.

I also ended up getting a handheld shark vacuum for the spillage 😅

Any kind of plastic container (I use a plastic tray) and a huge bag of birdseed. Hours of fun in the garden with dinos or diggers etc, but if it spills in the garden it just feeds the birds 👍 plus it's cheap!