Home Schooling! Sensory Activities for my Little Man

Now that my little guy is a one year old I have been thinking a lot more about his education. Though I do intend to put him in preschool soon I will be supplementing his school learning with some home school learning as well. I have been excited about teaching him things since I learned I was pregnant. Because he is so young I have mostly been reading to him up until now. My approach is evolving to include a few more things now.

The Alphabet
To teach him the Alphabet I have been doing the following...

1. Reciting the alphabet and singing the alphabet song.
2. ABC day App on Blackberry
3. Dr. Seusss ABC book
4. Foam Letters ($1 at the Dollar Store) he plays with them and I tell him which ones he's playing with.
5. Flash Cards . These were also $1 at the Dollar Store. I will spread a few out on the floor and encourage him to pick out a specific letter. He has done it a few times. 

Auditory Activities

1. Piano- he smashes the keys mostly. He really likes making noise. After a while I will play a not a few times and then he will play that note. I say the note name as I play it.
2. Sing Songs- we have been doing this since he was born. At baby group, songs really seem to hold his interest.
3. Toys- most of his toys play music or make some sort of sound. 
4. Listen to different instruments online- http://www.dsokids.com/listen/instrumentlist.aspx

Visual Activities

1. Pet Store- a great place to see fish, birds, rodents, cats and sometimes dogs. The little man loves animals. He can say catee and doeee. His only other words are mama and daddy so animals seem pretty significant to him.
2. TV- unfortunately. I didn't want to be one of those TV families but we kind of are. He watches some cartoons in the morning. 
3. Toys- lots of his toys are bright and colourful. Some even light up.
4. Books- he looks at the pictures as I read them.
5. Blackberry ebooks by ickypen. These are great. I downloaded both to my playbook. If he is too excited to eat or sleep we listen to this book and he calms right down. The app reads the book so this would be an auditory activity as well.
6. Walks at the park. He gets to see lots of neat stuff outside and some horses at the stable. We often hit up the dog park to watch the dogs as well.
7. Fish, frogs and snails in a giant fish globe.

Touch 

1. Texture Sampler. I gather a bunch of objects with different textures and let him touch them all. If safe to do so he can explore the object in his mouth as babies do. I watch him very closely to make sure he doesn't eat anything he shouldn't.
2. Food- I give him different food textures to play with and squish in his hands. We have tried purees, fruit chunks, smoothie, cheerios, rice crispies, water, etc.

Smell

I haven't done much with small. I think I will try putting essential oils on cotton balls and sew them into socks as mentioned here.

Taste I don't worry about. He gets to try lots of different tastes and he puts everything into his mouth. 

I'm on the look out for other sensory activity ideas. If you have any ideas, I invite you to leave suggestions in the comments section. As I come up with or find more I will post them.