If you emptied my pockets (or my son’s) right now, you’d probably find a mix of ordinary things and very important “treasures”.
A perfectly smooth stone from the park.
A tiny stick that is definitely a magic wand.
A piece of blue yarn discovered on the pavement and somehow too special to leave behind.
My son is a collector of tiny wonders, and somehow they always make their way home with us.
Our house is full of these little finds. They end up everywhere — on bookshelves, windowsills, and often tucked next to the books we read over and over again.
For a long time, I kept these things separate in my mind. Books were for sitting quietly together. Pocket treasures were for outside adventures.
But somewhere along the way I realised something: my child doesn’t just want to hear a story. He wants to step inside it.
Two Kinds of Storytime
In our house, storytime now happens in two very different ways.
The first is the classic bedtime version. Cozy, calm, and quiet. We talk about the characters, the big feelings in the story, and what might happen next. It’s our way of winding down and connecting before sleep.
But then there’s the other version.
I call it messy storytime.
This is the energetic one. We read the book first, then immediately bring the story to life with a tray of “stuff”.
Letting the Child Lead
The best part of messy storytime is that once the book is closed, the story belongs to my child.
I’m not directing anything. I’m just the person who puts out the tray.
Maybe he’ll carefully sort every bean. Maybe the dinosaurs will stomp around for twenty minutes. Maybe the trucks will spend a long time moving the same pile of “rubble” from one corner to the other. Most likely, someone will end up in jail.
Whatever happens, it’s completely child-led.
And somehow, that’s where the magic happens. The story stops being something we read and becomes something my son can touch, move, and change with his own hands.
In a way, it’s his own little experiment: testing what happens when dinosaurs stomp, trucks dump, or lentils become dinosaur food.
A Very Simple Way to Try This
You really don’t need anything fancy to do this at home.
When my child was younger, we read Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site endlessly. To bring the story to life, I would simply pour some dried black beans or pasta shapes into a tray and add a few toy trucks. Sometimes we would also use sand, other times - different types of cereals.
But the beans made the most satisfying clink when they tipped out of the trucks.
To keep the house from becoming a construction site itself, we used a small tray with one simple rule: all messy play stays inside the tray. Did he always follow that rule? NO. But it definitely helped.
He would immediately take charge, deciding which truck moved the rubble and where everything needed to go.
Another favourite was Gigantosaurus. For that one, I’d fill the tray with green split peas or lentils (or green slime if I felt adventurous!) to make a “jungle floor”, then add plastic dinosaurs and a few of those pocket treasures (stones from the park make excellent volcanoes). Or paper cups, or empty boxes. Whatever you have available.
After reading about the dinosaurs stomping around, he’d take over. Sometimes the dinosaurs buried themselves. Sometimes they “ate” the peas. Sometimes he just loved the crunchy sound of lentils under their feet. And again, eventually, some of them ended up in jail!
A Few More Story + Sensory Ideas
Once you start doing this, you’ll realise you can bring almost any story to life with simple materials you already have at home.
Ocean stories
Fill a tray with blue-dyed rice or pasta and add shells, scoops, and small sea animals. Kids can dig, pour, and “swim” their creatures through the waves.
Animal adventures
After reading any story about animals, create different textures to explore — a bowl of water for the river, crinkled paper for grass, a tray of flour or sand for snow. Add toy animals, and there you go!
Garden stories
Use soil, dried lentils, or brown rice with toy insects, leaves, and small spoons. Children love pretending to dig, plant, and discover what’s hiding underneath.
Space stories
Black beans or dark rice make a perfect “space”. Add a few foil stars, small rockets, or marbles for planets and let children explore the galaxy.
None of these setups need to be perfect. In fact, the simpler they are, the more room there is for imagination.
Embracing the (Contained) Mess
I’ve learned to accept that a few lentils or beans will always escape the tray. There will always be some play dough on the floor, and you will find kinetic sand in the places it is not supposed to be. But the tray creates a boundary, which means the mess stays manageable and I can relax while my boy explores.
Watching your child realise they can actually enter the world of a story — and add their own sticks and stones to it — is worth sweeping up a few stray beans.
Reading doesn’t always have to be quiet.
Sometimes it’s loud.
Sometimes it’s crunchy.
Sometimes it’s a little messy.
And those are often the times we remember the most.
Sometimes all it takes is a story, a tray, and a handful of lentils.
Have you tried this with your family? Share your favourite story + sensory combo in the comments below!
P.S. If you'd rather leave the lentil-sweeping to me, come join us for our next Sensory Stories session in the studio!
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