itsthesemplelife

🪩 New Year Sensory Bin 🪩

Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s already 2026. The last year flew by and a lot has happened.

✨ Cups, mini disco balls, tables, & bins
✨ Scoop, spoons, & tweezers
✨ Rice

The boys enjoyed burying the disco balls in the rice with this bin. It’s always fun to see them play together and enjoy sensory play.

One of my goals for this account in 2026 is to share more of our activities, daily life, and homeschool! Here’s to hoping I can keep up with it 😂

P. S In case you missed it… I had a baby in 2025! He’s 8 weeks old now and his big brothers adore him 🤍

🔴 Holiday Sensory Bin 🔴

With Christmas right around the corner I decided to do a simple sensory bin for the boys today. I did a similar one in the past (scroll my feed to find it). The filler is simple; water and cranberries.

✨Cranberries
✨Cups
✨Measuring cups
✨Scoop
✨Table/bins
✨ Water

The boys love playing with water so I had to set this one up in the kitchen. They of course made a mess. 😂

It’s so fun to watch them both play with sensory bins together!

What holiday themed bins have you put together recently? Tag me in your posts comments so I can see!

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✏️ Homeschool Classes ✏️

As many of you know my husband and I decided to homeschool our boys. We love to offer them as many opportunities as we can and gives us just that! (Ad)

✨Live classes
✨Recorded lessons
✨84+ Class options (depending on program selection)

The options and flexibility of are endless! Currently only my big kid is taking classes but they offer classes for PreK-12. While we only use it for extras; many families use them as a full time curriculum.

Liam is currently loving the fine motor skills class (one of the lessons pictured above.) He also takes a supplemental math and reading class each week!

What classes would your kiddo be interested in? Let mw know in the comments below! 👇🏼

🎃 Fall Sensory Bin 🍂

I can’t believe it’s the end of October already! I decided to squeeze in one last fall themed sensory bin for my boys before mentally switching to Christmas. 🤣

✨Pasta
✨Cup
✨Bowls (thrifted)
✨Scoop
✨Table/bins, tweezers, & spoon

The boys are loving their new sensory table. I had to order a new one because our Filsat table finally broke after being heavily used (and abused) for 5(ish) years. They’re happy to have setups become regular again!

It’s so fun to watch them both play with sensory bins together. No matter how old my big kid gets, he still loves a simple setup.

What fall themed bins have you put together recently? Tag me in your post’s comments so I can see!

🎲 Gameschooling 🎲

Have you heard of gameschooling? It’s another fantastic way to homeschool your children through play!

✨Uno
✨Hiss
✨Lemonade Shake Up
✨Monza
✨Sun Swamp
✨My First Castle Panic
✨ Shore Seekers

My boys love playing board games and we have grown quite the collection (only a few games pictured here) and I’m excited to share them all with you!

I’ll be posting about some board games in a mini series based on age/subject they teach.

Using board games allows for kids to play and have fun while still learning important skills such as math, reading, science, and more. My boys don’t even know they’re doing school!

Have you ever tried game schooling? Let me know in the comment below 👇🏼

❄️ Snow Transfer ❄️

This week we’re doing a snow theme for our homeschool so I pulled together a simple sensory bin that both of my kiddos would enjoy!

✨Printable cover
✨Pom poms & tongs
✨Cups
✨Table & bins

My boys loved this activity (especially my little one) they loved filling up the cups with the pom poms and using the tongs to put them into the hole of the cover.

This activity was perfect for fine motor skills, transferring skill, and pouring skill.

What are your kids learning about this week? Let me know in the comment below 👇🏼

🥾 1000 Hours Outside: Week 2 🥾

We didn’t do as well last week for the challenge as I wanted. It’s cold in NY so we tried our best to get out as much as possible but my kiddos were not feeling it. Here a recap of some of the ways we played outside this week:

✨First big snowstorm of the year so we played in our yard and introduced the kiddos to sleds
✨Went to our first day of forest school
✨Went to a local playground
✨Took the kids sledding
✨Played outside with grandma
✨Took a walk at the path at our town hall
✨Went for a hike

Total hours: 8h, 7m

What’s the weather like where you live? Are you getting outside? Let me know in the comment👇🏼

🥾 1000 Hours Outside: Week 1 🥾

This year we have a family goal of completing the challenge. It’s cold in NY so we tried our best to get out as much as possible. Here a recap off some of the ways we played outside this week:

✨Went for walks in our neighborhood
✨Played in our yard
✨Went to a local playground
✨Visited the zoo
✨Went for a short hike and played at a playground at a local park
✨Did homeschool art class outside

Total hours: 11h, 23m

Are you joining in on this challenge? Tell me how you racked up hours this week in the comments below 👇🏼

🎄 Christmas School Recap 🎄

I know that it’s January and Christmas is over but I wanted to share the things that we did this year for Christmas school to give you ideas for next year.

✨Decorated Christmas cookies
✨Decorated gingerbread houses (tip: if you don’t plan to eat them, just hot glue them together!)
✨Saw Christmas lights
✨Watercolored ornaments
✨Went to our town’s tree lighting ceremony (this included a fun and free hay ride!)
✨Went on a Christmas train ride
✨Built forts
✨Christmas pom pom ice rescue
✨Watched Christmas movies
✨Christmas themed worksheets
✨Read a ton of Christmas themed books
✨Shepard on the search
✨Prayer advent calendar
✨Christmas themed shelf work
✨Played board games
✨Went to Christmas story time at the library

I’m sure that I missed some of the activities that we did. We tried to spend a lot of family time together and focus on the reason for this season.

What did you do this past Christmas season? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments 👇🏼

🔴🟢⚪️ Pom Pom Ice Rescue 🔴🟢⚪️

We’re in the middle of Christmas school for our homeschooling and my kiddos needed a fun activity to do this morning that would keep them busy.

✨Pom poms
✨Hammers & pitchers
✨Bin

My boys had a lot of fun with this one. They enjoyed hammering away at the ice. Eventually they did decide it was too hard so we had to pivot.

We started with the hammers, moved to using different tools that we found around the house, I broke up the ice into smaller pieces, and then decided to go with warm water to free the pom poms.

This activity turned into a fun science experiment where we learned how to melt ice with warm water and this was the highlight of the activity for them.

Are you doing Christmas school this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below 👇🏼

🚒 Fire Safety 🚒

Last week we were learning about fire safety in our homeschool so I put together a fun fire themed sensory bin for the boys to play with! 🔥

✨Rice (DIY)
✨Insert
✨Tweezers & scoops
✨Table & bins

The boys dug into this bin immediately and I wasn’t able to get a setup shot. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They had fun scooping rice and transferring the pom poms into the holes of the insert. I took dry erase markers and drew the flames around each hole on the back side of the insert so they wouldn’t smudge as the boys played with it.

We ended out unit by visiting our local fire station!

Do you create themed sensory bins to go with whatever your child is learning? Let me know in the comments below 👇🏼

We’re really working on limited screen time over here so mama set up a fun fall leaves sensory bin for the boys as a morning activity! 🍁

✨Lentils, leaves, bowl, & measuring spoons
✨Wooden scoop
✨Pitcher (linked in my highlights under fav products)
✨Wooden leaf bowl (thrifted)
✨Table & bins

The kiddos had fun scooping and playing with the leaves. My youngest also incorporated listening to his while playing! (Link in my bio for 10% off).

I put a thick plastic table cloth under the table to help catch the lentils so I can more easily scoop them back into the bin. It’s working for the most part… as long as the baby doesn’t chuck them! 😂