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Beaniehats with lights in the bill

I thought that I would try to gather up some ways to build your own Sensory Room, Sensory Corner or Light Play area for less money.

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This post was originally published in 2014 but was recently updated. Remember that prices on Amazon change all the time, but they were accurate at the time this was published.

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But just as that event was over, my friend Kelly (who is a teacher) posted some really cute photos of her kids in a box. She had a big box, and she poked lights into it and her kids were having a blast. That got me to thinking. Having a fun sensory and light play area doesn’t have to be expensive. While I’m extremely grateful for the new room at the school, any parent or teacher can give a child very similar experiences for a lot less money.

Womenshats with lights in the bill

If your child is visually impaired, then work with your school district to see what you can do to qualify for grants or free items from American Printing House for the Blind. It doesn’t get any cheaper than FREE, so check there first to see if you qualify for items before spending anything. Still, even with the stuff he has at school, I like having fun things at home too.

Besthats with lights in the bill

I'm an IEP/Special Education Advocate who has attended 100s of IEP meetings. I live in Chester County, PA with my husband and two boys, one is disabled. My goal is to make your IEP process easier and help you move your IEP Team to YES. When I'm not here, I'm probably in Harrisburg or DC lobbying for systems change for our kids.

My son has both Cortical Visual Impairment and sensory issues, so light play is very beneficial to him. It benefits all kids and they love it.

Last week I went to a special thank you dinner at my son’s school. We were thanking a group because of the contributions that they had made to my son’s school. Included in that was that they built the kids a brand new sensory room. It’s amazing! Everything from paint to a new ceiling and all the fun stuff to go in it. I wanted to grab some photos but there were just too many people checking it out.

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I actually had my child with me who does not have any disabilities and he really wanted to stay and play with everything in that room. He was like “Oh man, Kevin is lucky, we don’t have that at my school!” All kids love to do light and sensory play, even if they don’t have disabilities.

Menhats with lights in the bill

Let’s get back to our sensory areas at home or in the classroom. First, you need to designate the area. It would be lovely if we had a designated area or room to do light play. I have a very small house and we use every room, every day. So I am very cognizant of families who don’t have a lot of extra space. Ideally, for light play, you want to be able to darken a room.

If I was going to splurge, I love this bed tent idea. It’s room darkening and I know my son would love to sleep in it too. But it is over $100.