i wouldn't change my job title for anything. being a wife and mom is the BEST! emery's curiosity is my daily reward for staying home - we have the best adventures and she makes everything so much fun. yesterday wasn't any different... toddler activity: balloon sensory matching when i worked at the preschool, one of my all time favorite themes was the week devoted to the 5 senses. one of the center time activities was a matching game. I filled balloons with various things and created cards with pictures of each thing. the kids got to squish, poke, and prod and then lay the balloons on the card they thought was the right match. i know emery isn't there yet, but i keep seeing sensory balloons on pinterest and thought i'd make them again! i still have the cards, so for the sake of the post, i thought i'd fill them with what's in the pictures, even though it wont matter for her right now! all you need is a funnel {for some things}, the balloons, and various items that are different sizes and textures. feeling the rice balloon! she loved watching mommy use the funnel to fill it! things got a little messy... corn through our funnel was a no go. so we put them in ourselves. she wanted in that flour bag so bad! funneling the sand. we also did shampoo and marbles. honestly, i was surprised how much she loved these - i didn't think they would last that long, but she loved picking them up one by one and squishing them! in a few years, i'll add in the cards and i wont let her help me fill them so she wont know what's in what! i just found the pictures on google images, printed them off, traced a balloon image, and laminated them {which definitely isn't necessary, i just had access to one at the preschool and with 12 new kids every year, i needed them to last!} {marbles, corn, rice.} {flour, shampoo, sand.} love and guessing games, amber. PS - Creative Christian Mama and One Creative Mommy featured this post in their weekly linky parties! check out their blogs!