DIY Occupational Therapy & Play Room (in our Unfinished Basement)

So it is still a mess, of course, because, well, I have kids. And we moved only recently. And I'm busy. All the same, I am pretty jazzed about getting the OT room set up in our basement.  We have an unfinished basement in the house we are renting. The floors are cement and the walls are sheet-rocked.  There are 2 windows in part of basement but overall it is, well, an unfinished basement.

What an opportunity! The idea we came up with is a play room in the first portion of the main basement living area and an occupational therapy room in the second portion. There is a bathroom, laundry room, storage room, and a nice carpeted room on the lower level so we like to keep a walkway through the OT area to all that.

Sensory Bin Play: Ice Excavation & Googley-Eye Slime

We love sensory play around here! We make sensory bins every week - everyone here, from 20 months through 13 years (plus the adults!) enjoy getting messy in the name of fun.  I'll warn you that pretty much every sensory bin we do is crazy messy and requires a bit of "letting it go." :)

(I put both my boys in Curious George shirts for the day but we played with baking soda and vinegar and they got so messy they had to change. Lasted an hour. Why do I never remember to get photos of those adorable matching-clothes-moments?!)

I used Ziploc Tupperware with the twist-lock lid to make giant ice cubes for each kid.  I find these freeze well and nothing spills in the freezer in the process.  The ice comes right out of the tubs with no mess. The first time made them we tried some Styrofoam cups as well and although they stayed upright in the freezer getting them out of the cups was a HUGE mess. Pieces of the peelings were all over the place.