Dinosaur Play Dough, Coloring, and Resin Animals

Today we did a fun and simple Pink Dinosaur setup using some goodies from some of our favorite shops:

• Dinosaur coloring cards

• Dinosaur resin pieces

• Dinosaur stamp cutters

• Pink oat playdoh

Halloween Pumpkin Patch

The Benefits of Dramatic Play for Toddlers: Creating a Festive Pumpkin Patch Experience

Are you looking for an engaging and educational activity to captivate your toddler's imagination? Look no further than our pumpkin patch themed dramatic play kit! This immersive experience is not only fun for little ones but also offers a multitude of developmental benefits. In this blog post, we'll explore the advantages of dramatic play and delve into the delightful Flisat play table decor, showcasing a vibrant awning, banner, flag, rows of sunflowers, cut-out pumpkins, and a build-a-scarecrow activity. Additionally, we'll share three sensory play bins suitable for different age groups (0-1.5, 1.5-2.5, and 2.5+) and discuss our middle age group's favorite sensory bin filler - granola, which not only adds texture but also doubles as a tasty snack. Lastly, we'll unveil how my daughter adored this activity, pretending to scoop and sell granola at her very own pumpkin patch. Let's dive in!

The Benefits of Dramatic Play for Toddlers

Dramatic play, also known as pretend play or imaginative play, is a crucial aspect of a child's development. It allows toddlers to explore the world around them, express their thoughts and emotions, develop social and cognitive skills, and enhance their creativity. Engaging in imaginative play helps promote:
1. Language and Communication Skills: Through role-playing, children learn to use words to express their thoughts, communicate with others, and practice conversational skills.
2. Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking: When children engage in dramatic play, they encounter various scenarios that require problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking. They learn to adapt and make choices while developing their cognitive skills.
3. Social and Emotional Development: Dramatic play encourages children to interact with their peers, promoting cooperation, empathy, and understanding. It allows them to explore different roles, perspectives, and emotions, developing their sense of self.

Captivating Flisat Play Table Decor

Our pumpkin patch dramatic play kit features a stunning Flisat play table decor arrangement that will transport your toddler to a magical fall wonderland. With an awning, banner, flag, rows of sunflowers, cut-out pumpkins, and a build-a-scarecrow activity, this setup sets the stage for an immersive and authentic pumpkin patch experience. The vibrant colors and charming design elements will ignite your child's imagination and bring the pumpkin patch to life in your very own home.

Sensory Play Bins for Different Age Groups

1. Ages 0-1.5: For our youngest pumpkin patch enthusiasts, we recommend a sensory play bin filled with soft fabric squares of different textures. This tactile experience enhances sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.
2. Ages 1.5-2.5: Toddlers in this age group will delight in a sensory play bin filled with colorful play dough, small plastic pumpkins, and natural materials like leaves and twigs. This sensory bin encourages imaginative play, sensory exploration, and fine motor skill development.
3. Ages 2.5+: For older toddlers, a sensory play bin filled with dried corn kernels, mini plastic shovels, artificial sunflowers, and small containers promotes sensory exploration, fine motor skills, and imaginative play.

The Perfect Sensory Bin Filler: Granola

In our pumpkin patch themed dramatic play kit, we've introduced a sensory bin filler that not only adds texture but is also a delicious snack - granola! This wholesome choice appeals to the senses, providing a unique tactile experience while allowing children to satisfy their hunger during the activity. As they scoop and sell granola at their pumpkin patch, toddlers develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, numerical awareness, and entrepreneurial spirit.

My Daughter's Love for the Pumpkin Patch Activity

Watching my daughter engage with the pumpkin patch themed dramatic play kit was an absolute joy. She loved pretending to scoop and sell granola at her very own pumpkin patch, donning a smile that radiated her excitement. Her little hands skillfully picked pumpkins while sifting through the sensory delight of the granola-filled bin. It was a truly unforgettable experience that not only entertained her but also contributed to her development in numerous ways.
In conclusion, our pumpkin patch themed dramatic play kit offers a fantastic opportunity for toddlers to engage in imaginative play, fostering their language, cognitive, social, and emotional development. The vibrant Flisat play table decor, combined with the various sensory play bins suitable for different age groups, creates an immersive and educational experience. And the inclusion of granola as a sensory bin filler adds an element of taste and texture to the activity. So, why wait? Unleash your child's imagination and let them embark on a whimsical journey

Today we played pretend Pumpkin Patch and we had an absolute blast making up all of the things that we did at the real pumpkin patch this year. We used our Flisat table and filled the sensory tub full of granola and buried some pumpkins underneath to dig them out. We pretended to buy slices of pumpkin pie and eat them. And we of course built our own scarecrow and our own jack-o-lanterns with the printable kit.

How to organize your sensory play in 3 easy and affordable steps

If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated a lot of sensory play materials over the years and you struggle to keep up with storing and organizing all of it. Well, I finally got the time to get it all organized and here are some of my favorite tips and tricks to keep your playroom tidy while enjoying lots of fun (and sometimes messy) sensory play. In this room, I store over 200 sensory play activities along side a multitude of other toys and books.

1. Closed storage units

Okay okay. I know Montessori moms love the open and accessible shelving units for kids to have play items accessible and visual. And of course they’re great for toy rotations. But I find they just aren’t practical. Not all of your child’s toys need to be out and available and if we’re talking aesthetics, not all of them are pretty toys. So have a mix of open and closed shelving so that toys are at the ready but also there are some drawers to tuck away items not in use. We love our Aspect Modular shelves from Crate and Barrel. You can make a custom configuration that suits your room.

2. Peg Board Organizers

The Skadis pegboard from IKEA has been a lifesaver for us. I can easily store and display small parts and accessories for sensory play. We have our resin letters from @busylittles, we have our emotions pieces from @thesensoryexperience, and our resin pieces from @busylittles all stored neatly in these little containers. Plus we have our wool balls from @wonderyearsshop and our memory games from @bannortoys. Everything is sorted yet accessible so that we can pull them out at a moments notice.

This is a great way to store the sensory fillers that you’re going to use pretty regularly. Wool balls, kinetic sand, grapat and mandala toys, buttons, washi tape, and more. We also use the mesh wire bins to hold our GoodnightFox flashcards — the sets that we pull out most are Letter Sounds, Letters, High Frequency Words, and Emotions.

• Resin Letters & Gems by Busy Littles

• Emotions pieces by The Sensory Experience

• Wool balls by The Wonder Years Shop

• Dinosaur Bones by Creating Adventures Co

• Rainbow Wooden Crayons by Oak & Co

• Rainbow Chickpeas by Curious Wren

• Alphabet Clips, Nuts & Bolts Erasers, Letter Erasers from Target Dollar Spot

• Grapat & Mandala pieces from Amazon

• Silicon Silly String from Amazon

• Acrylic Characters by GoodnightFox

• Flashcards by GoodnightFox

• Playsilks by Sarah’s Silks

• Peg Occupations Dolls by TinyMountainMovers

• Resin pieces from Little October House

3. Sterilite Storage Bins & Containers

Most of our storage is in our closet. We store by theme in our Sterilite 15qt bins and our 4qt bins. We put toys, printables, flashcards, materials / fillers in these bins by theme. And our favorite hack is using our GoodnightFox flashcards at the front of each bin so that we can remember what the theme of each bin is.

4. BULK Food STORAGE containers FOR FILLERS

These work great for larger items and then for fillers and smaller materials, we use these free containers from the bulk foods section at WholeFoods. It’s so great because they’re free and come in two sizes so that we can easily store multiple colors of rice, chick peas, and other fillers. And they work great for keeping snacks and cereal from going stale!

5. Photo Storage Bins for small parts

Creating organized, themed storage solutions for small sensory play items is a game-changer in toy organization and playroom storage. I discovered an amazing hack using clear plastic photo storage boxes for this purpose. These 4x6 boxes are perfect for keeping tiny parts together and sorted by theme, allowing for quick and easy access to specific sensory play items.

What makes these storage boxes even more incredible is how 16 of them neatly fit into a portable case. This feature is a lifesaver for on-the-go activities, as you can easily keep them in your car for spontaneous play sessions. Whether it's a long road trip or a quick visit to a friend's house, having these boxes at hand ensures endless fun without worrying about missing pieces.

You can snag these on Amazon or wait for them to go on sale at Michaels!

6. Candy Jar clear containers

I found these in the target dollar spot one day and absolutely couldn’t resist. I have so many legos and I wanted to organize them all by color and essentially turn them into decor for the room instead of loose parts to hide and shove somewhere. You can store these containers on a shelf or use command strips to fix them to the wall. You can even use them for other things like sensory fillers (I use them to store chickpeas) but you can also store fillers like sand, corn, peas, beans, foam and more!

If you have room on your walls and you’re looking for a creative storage solution, you can easily use command strips to stick these to your walls damage free while making it easy for kiddos to reach in and grab what they’re looking for. Since I have so many rainbow colored legos, it was a no brainer to use these as both decor and storage.

More great tips and tricks

For even more great storage solutions follow some of my favorite accounts:

• Follow Teaching by the Mountains for tips like this Maple & Lark zipper pouch organizer

• Follow The Home Edit for great tips like arranging your books by rainbow color

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Positive Parenting: How To Raise A Child Who Enjoys Chores

Five tips for getting toddlers interested in Family Contributions.

tip one:

Create a checklist. I honestly had no idea this was going to be such a game changer in our house. I always assumed that since Sofie can’t really read or write, she’d never take to a checklist, not least of all a list of “chores”. But after creating a physical list and attaching it to a clipboard with a pen, Sofia took to checking off items like they were going out of style. She got so much gratification out of checking them off that it was super simple to encourage her to do the next thing on the list. I designed this Routines Checklist one just for two year olds and you can find it in my Etsy shop!

For more great tips on how to create the best morning routine check out this Genius Mom Hacks article about Creating Effective Morning Routines.

tip two:

take time for training. This may sound super obvious, but I will admit I totally missed this step. I never really took the time to explain to Sofie how to do the steps of each task let alone why we do them, what outcome we’re expecting, and how it benefits our family. So no wonder the weekends always felt like me following Sofie around Playing while trying to get as many chores done as I could. This too is all about breaking what we know down into super easy step by step instructions.

Tip three:

visualize the outcome. It’s hard for toddlers to know what you mean when you say things like “go clean your room” if they haven’t already grasped the concept of clean. To you their room looks like a giant mess but to them it just looks like all of their toys are out and ready to play. So practicing in advance with visual cues can really help. This was big for us when it came to bed time and morning routines as well. Once we started using the Routine Cards, Sofie had a visual reference for what we were asking her to do and it made it much easier to move through the flow.

Tip four:

make them toddler sized.
I learned pretty early on that if Sofia couldn’t be involved in what we were doing, tantrums would abound. This was especially true in the kitchen — we would be cooking at the countertop and she would climb on draw handles, hang on the counter ledges, whatever she could do to see what was going on any be in the action. So this tip is all about making things accessible to tiny humans who will do whatever they can to feel big.

• Buy a kitchen helper stool: This was a game changer for us in the kitchen. Suddenly not only was Sofie able to see what we were doing but she could participate in it. She could help take the stickers off of fruit as we put away the groceries. She could pull grapes off the stems and put them in a bowl.

• Cleaning toys: Sofie was naturally drawn to the vacuum early on and would always want to help but it was so hard and awkward to try and walk around with her clinging to it. But the moment she got her own child sized cleaning set for her birthday, she was able to do all of her own cleaning tasks. From dusting shelves to sweeping up little messes and pretending to mop the kitchen, having her own set that she can easily manipulate made it much more fun for her to get involved.

• child-sized Sink: Knowing what I knew about Sofie, I had a feeling the Lovevery Playkit sink was going to be a hit. But I had no idea how much she would love it! It instantly become her favorite activity and she requests it all of the time. We used to have to distract Sofie after dinner with a dance party or coloring so that we could clean up the dishes and kitchen. But since getting her own sink, she stands right next to me washing her dishes while I was the rest. She looks forward to “doing the dishes” every night after dinner. So much so that throughout the day she’ll ask me if she can wash dishes and I’m usually the one that doesn’t want to!

Pastel rainbow marshmallow s’more casserole

Top 10 Rainbow Sensory Activities for Toddlers

Today I’m sharing my favorite of all of the rainbow sensory activities that I’ve put together for Sofie. These were so much fun to do and I’m sure your kiddo will love them too.

• rainbow Water Color Mixing

  Rainbow Cloud Doh

• Rainbow Pancakes

• Rainbow Waffles

• Rainbow Marshmallows

• Rainbow Noodles

• Rainbow Yogurt Paints

• Rainbow S’mores

• Rainbow Kinetic Sand

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Boba Bubble Team Themed Dramatic Play Setup for Kids!

🧋 Bubble Tea Party 🧋 Are you ready to unleash your child's imagination and create a magical boba shop experience right at home? Look no further than our stunning pastel colored pink, purple, and teal kit designed to transform your Flisat table into a boba lover's dream! This immersive kit includes everything you need to bring the boba shop experience to life, from an adorable awning to a delightful menu, a charming flag, a vibrant banner, a boba truck, and even tea cups - the list goes on!

At Goodnight Fox, we believe in providing your little ones with the most authentic and engaging play experiences. That's why we've gone the extra mile by including a variety of additional props - like the felt dumplings from @pockets.of.sweetness - to truly enhance the sensory aspect of this dramatic play setup. But we didn't stop there! We've also added real boba toppings such as tapioca pearls, aloe vera chunks, and almond pudding, ensuring that your child's sensory tub will be filled with a thrilling range of textures and fun.
One of the highlights of this boba bubble team themed play setup is the opportunity for your kids to become master boba tea creators. They'll be able to scoop their favorite toppings and pour the tea, experimenting with different combinations to create their own unique concoctions. This not only encourages creativity, but also promotes fine motor skills and sensory exploration.

But it's not just about the play - our boba bubble team themed play setup offers a wealth of benefits for your child's development. Through open-ended dramatic play, kids can explore social skills, problem-solving, language development, and cooperation as they take on roles and interact with others in their boba shop. Moreover, this immersive play experience can help foster imagination and creativity in young minds, enabling them to think outside the box and embrace their natural curiosity.
In the age of technology and screens, our boba bubble team themed play setup provides a wonderful opportunity for children to unplug, engage in hands-on play, and let their imaginations soar. Each element of our kit has been thoughtfully crafted to ignite their senses and transport them to a world of playful exploration, all while having a blast.

So, why wait? Turn your Flisat table into a vibrant boba shop today with our remarkable pastel colored pink, purple, and teal kit. Watch as your child's eyes light up with excitement and see their creativity flourish as they embark on their boba adventure. With every scoop, pour, and sip, their imaginations will be ignited, creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Get ready to create a boba bubble team themed dramatic play setup that will enchant your child and provide endless hours of playtime fun. Order your kit today and let the boba shop magic begin!

Halloween Pumpkin Monster Muffins

I’ve been seeing so much monster rice crispies inspiration that I was dying to make some cute little monster faces. But all I had handy was a box of pumpkin muffin mix so we just decided to improvise!

5 New Fall Autumn Themed Sensory Play Ideas

Tired of the typical fall sensory bins? Need to slice it up with something simple yet fun? Check out these creative ideas for new sensory table fun that’s fit for fall. Pin this post to save all of these ideas for later!

First up we have this awesome fall themed camping setup complete with camping printables from Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com, camping adventure toys from @tenderleaftoys, and a pretend play campfire kit from @crateandkids. Sofie loves to snack and play so we paired this setup with some yummy s’mores granola which was a total hit.

Next up we have this awesome pumpkin spice coffee shop setup perfect for all the fall vibes. Plus the smell of the coffee beans really made it a hit for mom too!

This one was a super last minute invitation to play that I set up when Sofie woke up early from her nap. Because obviously #momlife we simply can’t make gorgeous setups everyday. the good news is Sofie loves to read books on my lap and tinker with small objects so this was still a great fall activity. For this setup we used the Little Acorn board book and the Pumpkin Pie board book.

This was another easy one. We took our Tender Leaf Toys Woodland animals and paired them up with our Woodland Animal Learning cards. It was so fun to watch Sofie match the animals and also make up little stories about each one.

And last but not least, this farm animal Lego setup was an absolute blast. This one was definitely messy and we ended up covered in fake mud! I used a mixture of cacao powder, water and cornstarch to make it edible but not tasty. Oatmeal and corn of course for the farm. And then paired it with Duplo Farm Animals and Farm Animal Matching Cards.

World Travel sensory play

Exploring the World Through Sensory Play: How Travel-Themed Activities Can Enhance Learning for Preschoolers

As parents and educators, we know that young children learn best through hands-on, engaging activities. Sensory play, in particular, has been proven to be an effective way for young children to explore and learn about the world around them. By incorporating a travel theme into sensory play, we can not only make learning fun, but also introduce children to different cultures and ways of life.

According to experts, sensory play can have many benefits for young children's development. It can help with language development, fine motor skills, and problem-solving abilities. Sensory play also encourages creativity and imagination, as children are able to create their own stories and scenarios using the materials provided.

One way to incorporate a travel theme into sensory play is through the use of flashcards. My World Travel themed flashcards feature images of different landmarks and cultural symbols from around the world. Children can use these flashcards to create their own pretend passports and explore different countries through imaginative play.

Another great way to explore different cultures through play is through a dramatic play kit. My Travel Agency dramatic play kit allows children to set up their own pretend travel agency and plan trips to different destinations around the world. This activity can help children learn about different modes of transportation, currency, and customs.

Incorporating a travel theme into sensory play not only makes learning fun, but it also helps children to develop an understanding and appreciation for different cultures. Research has shown that exposure to other cultures can promote tolerance and empathy in young children.

In conclusion, incorporating a travel theme into sensory play through the use of flashcards and dramatic play kits can enhance learning and development for preschoolers. By purchasing my World Travel themed flashcards and Travel Agency dramatic play kit, you can provide your child with an exciting and educational way to explore the world.