Bucket Therapy! Part 2-Sensory Integration

So I just love this bucket! I think I'm going to write a book called Bucket Therapy...haha....seriously though there are so many cool things you can do with a big bucket like this! I have been working on coloring rice for Zoya to play with. It is more fun than just plain white rice:) Here is some blue rice I made and the typical way to play with rice using a cookie sheet.  (Note: I have a hard time not freaking out about rice being everywhere because every time we play with rice no matter how careful we are I find rice all around for weeks and weeks but I'm slowly overcoming my aversion to it and just sucking it up). Sorry about the pictures....our camera broke and we had to send it away to get fixed so this is a really bad camera that only works every third shot! She loved using the car in the rice and I thought it was good work for finger isolation.

But that way is so messy and really she is only using her hands to feel the rice. So I looked at the big purple bucket and thought I could put the rice in there and let her reach into it to play with it, but then I thought why not put her in the bucket WITH the rice! I started her with her pants and shoes on and her shirt off to ease her into it. Zoya has demonstrated some tactile defensiveness, but not so much that it interferes with anything on a daily basis.  She wasn't sure what to think at first but once I started taking her hands and putting them in the rice she seemed okay. She didn't like me pouring the rice over her bare back though! She didn't protest much, she just didn't look too thrilled. So to ease her into it, I had her touch the rice and play with it for a few seconds, then I would spin her, which she loves. This really helped her tolerate playing with the rice better! After about 10 minutes in the rice bucket I took off her shoes and socks and she would not put her feet in the rice. Once I spun her around again she had no problem putting her feet in...too funny. She refused to stand in it at first but after some more spins she was standing bare-foot in the rice with no problems! I think the proprioceptive input of the spinning helped her tolerate the rice better. After another 10 minutes I took her pants off and she had just her diaper on and was actually enjoying it! After about 30 minutes in the bucket I had to pry her out with Daddy's help making sure rice didn't fly everywhere! Let me just say, a little more rice got in the diaper than I anticipated! I didn't think ahead on that one ;)

Step 1: Put baby in the bucket and pour rice on her :)

I think Zoya is praying here: "Dear God please get me out of this awful situation I'm in!"

Eeeww, eeewww, eewwww, I can't believe they're making me do this!

Maybe it's not so bad?

Hi Mom, am I done yet?

Wait, this might be fun!

OK, I might be having fun but I am NOT putting my feet in this stuff!

Oooo that feels kinda neat!

Scoop, scoop, scoop...(Have I really been playing for 15 minutes already?)

I love this stuff!

Make sure you have a good clean up committee:)

And if you're interested in making pretty rice.....I used neon food coloring and vinegar. I'm sure there are measurements to use, but I just eyeballed it.  I used a large Tupperware container and poured some vinegar in, then whatever color I was using.  I let it soak infor five minutes and then drained the extra liquid.  I let it dry on wax paper.  In the end I ended up mixing all the colored rice together and it looks like ice cream sprinkles!