One-Ingredient Sensory Sand!

It’s no secret I love sensory play. If you are new to this blog, welcome, I’m Katie, and I’m obsessed with hands-on, dirty, sensory play. Given the fact that babies love to put everything in their mouths, I’m always looking for ways to make our sensory play edible. Additionally, we are were a gluten-free household, so not only did our one-ingredient sensory sand need to be safe for ingesting, but it also needed to be gentle on my daughter’s belly. Phew!

When I stumble across a product that I love, and that my kiddos will love to eat, and that I can ALSO use for sensory play, I get excited. Needless to say, when I found the Lil’ Beanies in the baby aisle in Target while desperately searching for anything to keep my littles sitting in the cart for 5 more minutes (c’mon, it’s not just me) I was thrilled. We opened that bad boy as soon as we paid, the kiddos had a snack, and we saved the rest for a little sensory play at home.

Enter, the one-ingredient sensory sand.

It’s super simple…and yes…one-ingredient.

To make:

Put Gerber Lil’ Beanies in a blender or food processor.

Pulse until sand-like consistency is achieved.

Pour onto a tray, or in a plastic bin.

Add sand toys, gold coins for treasure hunt, etc.

*If you don’t have a blender or a food processor, place them in a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin, kids LOVE to help with this!

My 13 month old just adored the fun sensory sand, he wants to be involved in everything that his older siblings are doing, so edible is definitely key for him. My older ones (3 and 5) practiced writing in the ‘sand’ and went on a treasure hunt, uncovering plastic coins with a paintbrush.

The possibilities are endless. And hey..just because it’s crushed up doesn’t mean it has to get thrown away and wasted. I made sure the kids had clean hands when they started playing, and we poured some of the leftover crushed up snack on our chicken for dinner.

After all, it was quite the experience at the dinner table to serve chicken with sand on it!