Under construction

I love finding new fun things for my kids to do. I love cheap new and fun things even more. Pink and Green Mama is one of my favorite bloggers for finding these creative things that I can do with my kids and some things that can help develop their imagination on their own. Most recently I came across her idea for a construction sensory box. She had several other sensory boxes that seemed either a bit girlier (she does have two girls) or a bit messier than I was looking for. But the construction one seemed right up my alley.

So after work I headed to the Dollar Tree to find the rocks she mentioned in her post. After about 10 minutes of searching I found them in a set of bins that also held decorative pieces of glass and marbles used for decorating. I picked up six bags and headed to Target for a tub. I would have loved to bought a large flat tub, but I knew filling it with rocks would have been quite pricy so I settled for a smaller tub that was just barely big enough for both boys to get their hands in at once.





After one afternoon I'm thinking that even if a larger tub would have been a lot more expensive it might have saved my sanity. The boys loved the box and had a hard time sharing the small space. Maybe two small tubs would work just as well and still be a little less expensive. Or, maybe my kids could just learn to share. Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. Anyway, when they tired of playing construction guys they didn't give up on the tubs. They just switched gears. They used their new Toy Story 3 buckets (another Dollar Tree find) to unload the construction site and build new ones on their work bench and the porch floor. Sure, it got a little messy, but the rocks are big enough that clean-up was still a cinch. In all, not a bad toy for $10 ($6 for the rocks and $4 for the Rubbermaid).