DIY: Sensory Texture Boards

It's no joke how much you can spend on toys and educational items for your child - special needs or not. So, I am out on the hunt for do-it-yourself projects that are easy, provide great educational input for my boys, and don't rely too much on my pocketbook.

Texture boards are a great place to start. With a few inexpensive supplies (most of which you probably already have lying around the house), you can make a fun and sensory-happy toy.

After a trip to a dollar store and scrounging around the house, I came up with the items I needed. One tool I used that isn't pictured above is my handy-dandy, wonderful hot glue gun. After the kids went to bed, I laid out all the supplies and enjoyed catching up on some of my favorite TV programs as I compiled the boards.

I simply divided a small, wooden cutting board into four parts. Then, after cutting and gluing my choice of tactile-fabulous objects, I added a ribbon border around each section. I also glued strips of magnets to the back of each board so I could put them on the refrigerator (while the magnets came with adhesive backing I chose to reinforce them with tacky glue to make sure they stayed firmly in place).

Ta-da! The boys (my best critics) love the results. They can't keep their hands off of them.

The first board features sand paper, felt covered with contact paper (for a slightly squishy soft/smooth surface - I originally wanted to do aluminum foil for a shiny, smooth surface but realized that Wesley had unrolled my foil earlier in the week and it was all wrinkled), sponges, and dried macaroni.

The second board has the shaggy part of a dusting glove, a green scrub sponge, shelf liner (the kind that is rubber-like... not sure what it is called), and a cluster of little glitter pom-poms.