Sensory Fabric Box

Another one of my favourite sensory toys for Sylvie is her Sensory Fabric Box.  I also got this idea from our baby sensory class, but I recently found it blogged about at another one of my favourite sites the Imagination Tree.  I even used a similar tissue box.

I chose this type of tissue box since it doesn't look like the standard tissue boxes that we have around the house.  I loved the idea of Sylvie exploring different texture and colours and learning about taking things out of the box and putting them back in, but I didn't really want her to do the same thing with our real tissue boxes. 


Basically, you take an empty tissue box (I removed a bit of plastic that usually holds the tissues in) and fill it with squares of different types of fabrics.  Different colours, textures and transparencies are ideal. 

Samples of the fabrics, lots of colours and shine here. 
Sylvie REALLY wanted these fabrics as I lay them out for the photo

I think Sylvie is a little young for this sensory toy as of now, but she still enjoys pulling all the fabric out (great for developing fine motor skills) and touching it.  Eventually she'll learn how to put it back in too.  Won't that be fun!

I don't recommend taking a baby fabric shopping with you, especially at the only fabric store available to me locally - Fabricland.  The aisles are narrow and you have to carry around huge bolts of fabrics and wait in line over and over again to get it cut.  I lucked out and a friend of mine picked up a bunch of fabric for her son (while he was at home) and gave me leftovers.  I tried to go with Sylvie and found it my own personal h_ll on earth.  I got so hot carrying around Sylvie (in the carrier) and all the fabric. I never thought I'd be one of those moms to give things up once baby came along, but my experience at Fabricland with Sylvie made me not want to go back - ever.  It was just a big pain and it annoys me that the place isn't more baby/ child friendly.  haha rant over.


PS.  As with other sensory toys, not all materials in this toy are baby-safe.  Please supervise your baby while using this toy.

PPS.  I didn't finish the pieces of fabric in any way.  I just left the edges raw.  This does mean that they will fray, and occassionally I go in and clean them up, cutting away long tangly strings.  You could choose to finish the edges, but it hasn't been a problem for us yet, so I haven't.