Sensory Board

Last week my wife came to me with an idea she found on Pinterest. She told me how she found this great idea for our 9 month old boy that is both a toy and a learning tool. It's called a Sensory Board. The version we made is a sensory board and busy board combined. 

After a few minutes of listening to her talk about the things we will attach to this thing, I was hooked. See, I love tools, I love locks, and metal clasps, and leather, and rope. All these things would be great for a little boy to experiment with and play around with in a safe environment as he grows and learns. 

 I'll give you a short run down of what we put on our sensory board and how we attached it to the wall. We purchased a 24" by 48" plywood sheet from Home Depot. While we were there we purchased some of these items and added some stuff we had around the house. Our total cost was somewhere around $50.

combination lock

car reflectors 

caribiners

plastic house numbers 

home made zipper with pull

metal wheel caster

velcro with reverse flag

fire hose coupling

cabinet handle

cabinet knob

rope

metal door clasp

rubber tire tread

camping mirror

plastic funnel

wiffle golf balls

We also glued some rubber and canvas fire hose as well as a piece of leather to the board. The great part about sensory boards are you can decide for yourself which cool little knick knacks to include. Just make sure the rope and chain aren't long enough to cause any strangling hazards:-)

Once we attached all the items to the board (after careful planning to make sure it'd all fit right) we screwed the board to the wall using large wood screws and PVC spacers to keep the board away from the wall. 

We did this project over the space of two nights and have probably 3-4hrs in it total. It's a cheap toy that we can't wait to have our little boy play and learn with as he grows.