A magical activity, to keep Bubu busy during meetings.
It's magic!
With the pandemic, we are trying to work from home with a toddler. The most challenging is when you have a meeting. If both partner's have a meeting at the same time then you are definitely in a fix.
I just discovered a way to keep Bubu busy during meetings, and I am loving it and so is Bubu. I should mention I do not have many meetings mostly 2 fixed one's and as and when needed quick calls or screenshare with PM/BA/engineer's on team.
So parent's with a whole day of meeting, maybe this will not work, as no toddler is going to play for hours at a stretch. However you can use this for the most important meetings as it gives you peaceful time and a productive play for your Bubu.
What is this magical activity? Its is nothing but sensory play.
Setup
We have 2 dedicated place for this activity, and they are all ready to use with 2 minute prep time.
Our activity table that also holds bins for sensory play
Quilt on the floor for water based sensory play
Materials
We have tried a lot of materials. One's that are easy to clean up are mostly what you find in your craft box like felt pieces, ribbons, paper cut in strips or big pieces, pompom balls, packing peanuts etc.
Difficult to clean up but nature-made ones are grains, pulses, popped grains. With the pandemic I do not feel like using food for play. Infact it just triggers me, always reminds of the fact that there must be people who cannot afford to eat right now. The only natural one we use is water.
Then there are toy ones like clay, kinetic sand, water beads.
Play
Just running the fingers and dropping the material from various heights with help of hands, cups, scoopers etc is going to be something this play will make the kids naturally do. It might get messy and can will call for cleanup after, but when they are in the play they are going to be engaged, concentrating on play, and enjoying. Don't restrict the mess creation in any way by giving a tiny amount or setting rules of not throwing out of the bin, etc as that's the whole point of the play else you will not get the long hour/s of independent play.
They might even combine other toys to enhance the sensory experience. If it does not come naturally to your kid how to (frankly thats not going to be the case), you can help set up the sensory bin. You can stage different setting every time like with vehicle or animals or city scape or play/kitchen utensils.
For water I give soapy or plain water in a bucket. Bubu loves to wash his cars or animals or utensils or doll and sometimes all. By the way, it's a great way to clean any sticky toys. Firstly, you don't have to do it, just sit back and watch Bubu play (+ clean) for hours.
In our case if Bubu is playing with any other material he can play for 30-60 mins but will want to interact with me and involve me in the play. Eg: Making kinetic sand food then I have to pretend eat and say it was yummy. But if he is playing in water he can be playing there uninterrupted for 60 mins and more.
I always give water for important meetings and the ones where I have to be on video share, all other times if I can go on mute occasionally then any other material is fine.
Thats the hack I am using and it's working until now. Try it for yourself and see the magic!
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