I don’t know about you, but I always find it hard coming up with play ideas for our humble coloured sensory scarf. And with lockdown seeming to ease off just as we head into the summer holidays, we're all running out of ideas FAST. With Joey, who recently turned 2, we’ve done the whole hiding things under it, hiding our faces from him and the classic peekaboo... so it feels like the scarf is a little boring or repetitive. To put it bluntly... it's not one of the sensory toys we reach for most now.
When we had a play the other day with Daddy, Joey showed us that even though WE may get bored of those games, kiddies certainly do not! In fact this was one of the first times we’ve played with Joey and he was asking for ‘Joey’s turn’ or ‘Mummy’s turn’ etc. He absolutely loved playing peekaboo with us and his new little brother. He kept shouting ‘fun!’ Which we’ve learnt means we have to keep going, otherwise it’s tantrum time 😅
It’s been amazing to see how Joey plays with toys now versus when he was Zack’s age (11 weeks old), and before we could only do that with photos and videos. But now we’ve got Zack playing alongside Joey it’s absolutely brilliant. And Joey gets to join in!
So whilst Joey uses the scarf to do his own game of peekaboo with us, Zack relies on us doing it for him, and we decided to brush the scarf over his face whilst he lay on our knees. We found that he really enjoyed that but I’m assuming some babies won’t. His reaction was much like his reaction when water gets poured over his head in the bath - a look of bemusement and a smile to tell us to do it again!
Some ideas to try with your sensory scarf:
Sing along to 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' with the scarf balled up in your hand and touching each body part of your little one - get bigger ones to do this themselves!
Hide other toys underneath scarves and reveal the items once your baby seems interested. For bigger ones, ask them to say what they think is underneath.
Thread the scarf through holes in an item such as an OBall, or a simple cardboard box and encourage your baby to reach out for it. When they are older, try getting them to thread the scarf through themselves.
If you have multiple scarves, combine them and move them from side to side in front of your baby to the beat of a song. For older ones, ask them to hold one in each hand and move them to the beat of the song (The Grand Old Duke of York is a great song for this!)
Lauren, Joey & Zack x