Becca, from Surrey, sent in this great sensory art idea. Let’s take a look at it…
What did you do?
Our quinoa sensory art came about as part of us exploring another culture. My son (2.5) and I watched videos and looked at pictures of Andean culture. We talked about the landscape compared to where we live, and the fact that the people there dress and speak differently. We also talked about similarities, like farming food and the children playing. We particularly looked at the bright colours and patterns in the traditional textiles.
I then introduced a pot of dried quinoa and showed him a picture of what it looked like cooked (we ate some together the next day). I explained that it was a traditional food for the Andean people but it is now eaten all over the world as it is a super food – a food that is very good for you.
I then brought in coloured dried quinoa and a cardboard pattern filling board that I had made for him. I put it in our tuff tray and he had great fun filling it, although he didn’t want to do block colour like in the traditional textiles, he wanted it ‘rainbow’! He really enjoyed this and has asked for it to be left out so that he could play with it again later that day.
I had to colour the quinoa with paint, which made it not taste-safe, so it had to be kept away from my 7 month old. I did try to do it with food colouring, but it just made the quinoa all stick together like tar and after 3 days it still hadn’t dried out!
I also hadn’t bargained on so much mess – those little grains get everywhere! Quinoa definitely won’t be on my go-to sensory material list, but it was a great experience for my son in terms of exploring cultural diversity.
Do you have any other projects planned?
Through July we have been playing from A to Z with a different letter theme each day. In August we are going to focus on simple, low-prep play and process art.
Tell the Housebound With Kids community a bit about yourself…
Becca, I have a two and a half year old son and a seven month old daughter. We currently live in Surrey.
@adventuresofbobbinandbunny
How are you finding being housebound so far?
We are enjoying rediscovering our love of play parks since they reopened.
Do you have any tips for other parents?
Give them a box, some stickers and crayons and they will be happier than if you presented them with half of the sophisticated play set-ups that you see on social media!
Has this website and community helped you?
Lots of new ideas and a clear sense of “we’re all in this together”.
