365: Appreciate a Dragon Day

January 16 is Appreciate a Dragon Day. We decided to appreciate it by making a dragon play tray and talking about dragons.

In an earlier post, I showed some of this cycle's toys, and one of items that I didn't talk too much about was our play tray. I searched for weeks for the Kmart Play Tray, a popular Australian sensory tool, with no luck. I finally landed on a less shallow but equal in diameter tray from Amazon. We use it to play every day. In the upcoming weeks, I will show different ways that we play with the play tray!

In today's play tray, I used a bed of oats. They were a different texture for Jude than what he is used to. I will be trying a variety of textures to keep the play trays interesting. I put in some of his magnets to spell out the word dragon. I finished it off by putting in a golden dragon toy.

Like a good little sensory-loving baby, Jude immediately went in almost face first to explore the tray as soon as I set him down. He grabbed right at the dragon and then used his other hand to sift through the oats. It wasn't long before he was taking handfuls of oats and dumping them all over his lap and the floor. He started making piles and rubbing his hand down to crush the piles. He had so much fun that I didn't have time to be stressed about the mess.

We talked about dragons while he played. We spelled the word. I roared at Jude, and he did his best to roar back. While he play, I told him of every dragon story I could think of on the spot. Mostly, we just chatted. I love talking to Jude. He's a pretty good listener, and when I speak to him, it's just strengthening his vocabulary. It was a very productive holiday, and we are both excited to use more play trays in the future! 

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365: Appreciate a Dragon Day