HOW TO TEACH KIDS PATIENCE USING SENSORY PLAY AND ACTIVITY PACKS
Sensory play is a fantastic tool that combines learning and playing, allowing our little ones to explore through all of their seven senses. And since play is one of the best ways kids learn, why not aim to teach through sensory experiences as much as we can?
Not only is this a successful method of teaching, it’s also extremely beneficial for children’s development. It aids in things like language development, creativity and connection, motor skills, and TONS more!
Arguably, the best part about sensory play is that you can use it to help teach important life skills and behaviors, like how to teach your child to clean up after themselves!
But the skill we’re focused on teaching today is patience. It can be important to show your little ones this early on! That’s why I’m dedicating this post to teaching kids patience using sensory play and Mothercould activity packs.
How To Teach Kids Patience Using Sensory Play and Activity Packs
Download activity packs on the Mothercould resource.
Activity packs are a great way to practice patience with your little ones. On the Mothercould in your Pocket resource, I have plenty of fun and exciting activity packs that will entertain and teach kids!
This is a successful way to teach patience because each pack shows kids that in order to move on to the next activity, the one prior has to be completed whether it’s something like a word-search, a maze, or even just a coloring sheet!
Air Dry Clay DIY
Air dry clay is a great activity when you want to teach children the importance of patience and you get some fun new keepsakes, too!
All you’ll need for this is some corn starch, white glue, white vinegar, baby oil, lotion, and food coloring. Add all of these ingredients into a bowl, blending the mixture until it has that not-too-sticky, not-too-hard consistency, Knead the mixture until it has structure, and that’s it!
The act of kneading, rolling, and shaping the dough isn’t just great at showing kids to take their time with the activity, but it’s also beneficial for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The most important aspect of this activity is waiting for each creation to dry, which is a lesson of patience within itself!
Colorful Rice Letter Find Activity
Sensory bin fillers are incredible tools when you’re looking for activities that have the added benefit of teaching patience. Since they’re typically filled with things that involve searching and sorting, this creates the opportunity for slow and mindful play.
This colorful rice letter find activity can help kids focus on skills like patience and self-regulation. By finding different letters in the rice and working on letter sequence and placement, you’re showing kids that yes, activities can take time, but it’s all worth it for the end result!
Cutting Practice Rainbow Activity
Before you throw away those paper party plates, check out this activity! If it seems super simple and easy to create… that’s because it is!
All you’ll need is paper plates, yarn, a hole puncher, and some scissors. Punch holes on the edge of the paper plate, cut off a large piece of yarn, fold it in half, and repeat the process until you have one for each hole. Thread the yarn through to make a knot, securing the yarn to the plate.
Hand over a pair of scissors to your little one, and let them practice away at cutting the yarn! (With your supervision, of course). This is a great activity for practicing fine motor skills, and teaching them the importance of slow and patient play.
Sticker Twist Match Cups
If you’re like me and you find stickers in the most random places around the house, fear not. Let’s have fun with an activity that will put those stickers to actual use! Not only does this activity teach patience, it’s a great way to introduce toddlers to the concept of under/over/in/out.
All you need are 3 materials: clear recycled plastic cups, stickers, and scissors. Cut your stickers in half, and paste the bottom half towards the bottom of the cup. Place a cup on top with, and align the other half of the sticker on the cup to match the bottom cut perfectly. Repeat the process alongside the cup.
Now, your toddlers have a fun and easy way to match the right tops and bottoms to their favorite characters! It’s an easily achievable challenge that requires both concentration and patience.
Frozen Sea Rescue Mission
This will always be one of my favorite sensory activities, because it’s so simple but just as developmentally beneficial.
Using a glass or plastic container, throw in a few plastic toys! I used ocean-themed toys to create that oceanic scene, but feel free to add in whatever you have. Next, fill the container with water and add in a couple drops of blue food coloring. After you’ve left your concoction in the freezer until it’s fully frozen, pull it out and remove the ice from the tray, placing it into a bigger container.
Now, have your kids use a salt and warm water mixture with a dropper to melt the ice and “rescue” the toys! Since it will take a bit of time for the ice to melt, it shows them that they need to maintain patience and perseverance throughout the activity!
Science Experiment With Fizzy Blocks
When I think of a simple activity that can help teach kids patience, I automatically think of these fizzy blocks. It’s an activity that you can spend TONS of time on by getting each block to fizz over and over again!
Grab a bowl and mix together baking soda and gelatin. In a separate bowl, fill it up with water and add a few drops of food coloring and pour it into the baking soda picture. Separate the mixture evenly into an ice cube tray, and freeze them overnight.
Once you pull them out, just remove the cubes from the tray and pour vinegar on top to watch them fizz away! Having your kids use a dropper for the vinegar can help them with fine motor skills. Overall, you have an activity that provides a slow, captivating process!
Fine Motor Tubes DIY
I’m a huge fan of DIY activities because they’re cheap, practical, and super useful! These fine motor tubes are the perfect example of this, because all you need are paper towel rolls, q-tips or toothpicks, and paint if you’d like!
First and foremost, choose a theme and paint the paper towel roll accordingly. For some easy examples, you could do a ray of sunshine, a happy monster, or even a rainbow! Next, make small holes to fit the toothpicks/q-tips. Now, just have your little one insert the picks into the holes!
This is an activity that demands patience, as they’ll be working on things like precision and coordination. Super fun, super quick, super easy!
Life Skills Egg Carton
I don’t just call this the life skills carton for fun, my daughter actually learned how to tie her shoes using this activity! And all it takes is turning an egg carton into a multi-purpose tool.
To best understand how to put this activity together, I highly recommend visiting the link to watch the video! There’s a few more steps and required materials in this activity than some of the others, but it’s well worth it.
Patience is one of the many things this activity teaches it’s enveloped into every little mini activity this multi-purpose tool has to offer! From zipping, to buttoning, to twisting, to sorting it does it ALL!
Color Building Bath
If you’re trying to teach your kids patience and the importance of bath time at the same time… first off, my thoughts are with you. Second off, I have an easy solution to this! Color building baths can show your little ones the importance of both.
All you’ll need is a half-filled bath, and a few drops of food coloring into a squirt bottle filled with water. Shake the bottles well, and hand them over to your little ones! They’ll have tons of fun waiting and watching the bath colors magically swirl into different shades.
And technically, this activity cleans itself up–it’s a win all around!
Word Family DIY
When you’re teaching your kids how to read, it’s easy for them to become overwhelmed. But if we know one thing as parents, it’s that the ability to read is the ultimate test of patience!
That’s why this word family DIY is great for reading, writing, spelling, and teaching patience throughout the process. Grab some recycled paper towel rolls, and write “at”, “is”, and “ad” on the roll. Cut a square window out, while also making cuts for the craft stick to fit in! Write letters going down the craft stick, and insert it through the slots to make new words.
It’s a great way to teach your kids that learning how to read and write takes time, but having patience throughout the process is what makes it that much easier!
Which of these activities are you going to use to teach your kids patience?
Using sensory activities to teach your kiddos important life skills is the way to go! These activities are so fun that your little ones won’t even realize that they’re learning. Plus, when you have planned activities laid out, you won’t go into play time empty handed–it takes a huge amount of stress off of your back!
For plenty more sensory activities, tips and tricks on teaching kids, and even lots of play recipes, download Mothercould in your Pocket! And for more helpful hacks and fun sensory experience ideas, visit the Mothercould blog.