Fun Sensory Boxes for Kids Using Rice

One of the challenges as a homeschooler is how to keep the younger ones busy when you have to sit down with your older child to do age specific activities.  My 3 year old is really great about listening (for the most part) but lets face it how long do you really expect a 3 year old to sit while you are drilling multiplication tables?To solve this I use several activities to keep my 3 and 4 year old children busy.  One of them is a tactile rice box.

It is so easy to make and the kids love it.  They absolutely look forward to it.  I only bring it out on Friday's just so they don't get tired of playing with it (also so I am not sweeping up rice everyday).  Basically I purchased small shoe box size plastic containers from Walmart.  Then I filled them with white rice.  Next I took some letters and buried them in the box.  Each box has a different set of letters.  I write the letters on the lid of the box and the challenge is to find all your letters then run to mom and tell me what sound those letters make.  After that is over the kids just use plastic spoons and other containers to dig around in the box.  This will literally entertain them for an hour.  So if you are looking for something to distract your little ones while helping them with their fine motor skills this is a perfect activity.