Sensory bins are a great, screen-free way to entertain children. They involve different objects of different textures for children to explore and create different play scenes. Some involve playdough, but if that’s not what you want, you can ditch the playdough and do something else. You can buy them or make them yourself. Here a few DIY videos to get you started. I love the idea of doing themed sensory bins, like construction vehicles or farm animals or babies or bugs, etc.

I want to make some of these for my grandsons, and when I do, I will definitely set up some boundaries. as these are huge potential mess-makers! They definitely won’t be available at any and all times. I might just leave out most of the little pieces and focus on play dough and figurines from amazon, Dollar Tree, or Hobby Lobby, and do play dough kits, not sensory kits. The sensory kits are starting to give me sensory overload, just thinking about them, LOL. These look perfect for putting in a Spark Station/Closet, and only getting out at special times, such as when you are homeschooling/having structured family learning time, and helping older siblings with schoolwork, or reading aloud time. You can read about the Spark Station/Closet here or here.