Dear Reader;
One of my toddlers has really been making me feel like pulling my hair out lately! Everything she gets her hands on, if it crumbles, she crumbles it. Bread. Crackers. Noodles. Her sister’s slow-rising squishy toys. It has been such a struggle.
And then, in a rare moment of enlightenment, it hit me! She needs some sensory input. You’d think with a quote unquote neurodivergent preschooler, I’d get that by now. And I’m constantly left in awe at how new a concept sensory seeking is when it is suddenly so prevalent in my own family. I look back on my own habits, and quirks and I realize I have my own sensory needs, but without parenting my kids, I’d never have recognized them in myself. Really, who doesn’t just need to compulsively do something sometime?
So I broke out the sand dough. It’s perfect for “crumbling.” and squishing. And running it through little fingers. I have had this sand dough for a while and honestly if I had to choose between sand dough and playdough, I choose sand dough, hands down. First, it’s way easier to clean up compared to playdough. Plus, from a sensory input, I think you cover a broader spectrum of textures and muscle movements. it squishes but it also crumbles.
Whenever I buy sand dough, I always either buy the tan (not colored?), pink/red, purple, or blue dough so that when it mixes together it’s still purple. Because I know it’s gonna get mixed in. And that way I can keep it all in one big tub. Our sand dough has some cosmic moon and star confetti in it too! Because when my preschooler dumped it in, I was not in the mood to pull it out, lol. We have quite a few different sets of toys for the dough, but if you don’t have any, I recommend getting a scoop, a slicer and a little bucket. A cookie scoop, a dough slicer, and your smallest measuring cup will work just fine. A knife will work for a slicer but it isn’t nearly as satisfying.
I had packed all the sand and playdough up and stuffed it in the top of my closet because I was so sick of the chaos spread far and wide. This time, I gave each kid a metal cake pan in hopes that it’d help corral the mess and I was pretty happy with that choice! I put all our toys in the middle of the table and kids could use any toy that was not in their siblings’ pan. If a kid was still playing with their toy, it was safe as long as they kept it in the pan. I was surprised at how well it worked.
I was really glad I listened to my intuition and pulled the sand dough back out. I gave my crumbly-loving toddler a few crackers with lunch, just to test the theory, and she ate them instead of playing with them! I don’t know if it’ll really stick, but it was definitely an improvement! And if we go back to crumbling, I can pull out the sand dough again!
