A sensory adventure with SentoSphere art and learning kits

This is going to come as a shock to anyone who knows how close my daughter and I are, but a few months ago I found it hard to bond with my sweet little girl. We spent most of the day together but sometimes it felt like we were so similar that we were constantly at odds. With the start of school and the addition of ballet and playdates there was a lot of hurry up and clean up and eat up and we’ve got to go, but not a whole lot of time to just sit and talk and enjoy each other. I realized I had to do something fast or this school year was going to be pretty awful for both of us, but I wasn’t sure what. It was then that I tried crafts and I realized that was going to be our saving grace. Crafting gave us a time to slow down, to relax, and for some reason, it made my girl open up. Crafting time told her she had my undivided attention – and she was going to make the most of it.

For that reason I am constantly on the lookout for crafts that we can do together, and I’ve found the perfect company to help me keep us both happy and connected. SentoSphere started in France creating high quality artistic and educational games, kits and toys but are now selling most of their lines in the States. Sure, we still do coloring books and doodling on some days, but other days we want something with a real wow factor, and that’s when we turn to SentoSphere.

The first line we checked out was the Aquarellum series of paints and canvases that is a cross between oil and water colors. They paint on like water colors and can be diluted and swirled together, but they are liquid not solid, so they are much easier to mix and make your own personalized colors with the tiny included dropper. If the color is too vibrant you can simply add water, or if it’s not quite the right shade, you can add paint drops until it is perfect. My daughter is crazy about science and art, so this was definitely her speed. She loved mixing the 5 included colors to create a rainbow of colors to paint with, and I loved that it was one of our less messy art projects to date since mixing was as simple as adding drops in the included palette. The brush that came with it was actually really nice and perfect for all the little details in the Aquarellum Junior canvases. But, what’s really great for young kids is that, like true art, you really can’t “mess up”. The portions of the canvas that should remain white cannot be painted on, so it can make anyone look like an amazing artist. Of course, if you do happen to be an artist, you can show off by adding all sorts of detail in the paintable parts.
Obviously, I’ve got a little artist on my hands.
Our next project was something I had been looking forward to for quite some time: the SentoSphere My Perfume Maker kit. We got the whole family involved in this project and had a great time mixing, shaking and trying our creations. My Perfume Maker contains 8 natural essences or fragrances that can help you to create more than 100 different “eau de toilettes”. The kit comes with guides and suggested fragrance mixes, but what I really love about this kit is that you can mix anything you'd like and come up with your own signature scents.

My daughter came up with the idea to create special perfumes for all her friends and she's really excited about giving them each something handmade during the last week of school that they can use all summer long when they are apart. She's been working hard modifying the scent "recipes" by varying the number of drops she uses in each creation and testing them over and over until she's completely satisfied.
I love that I don't have to worry about her creating a real dud, because starting over is as easy as rinsing out the bottle and trying again. Each perfume only uses drops of each fragrance, so I don't worry about her wasting anything. I can let her mix to her heart's content and get as creative as she wants. Since the best part of these kits is experimenting and trying new things, I love that we all can get involved and try our hand at making something amazing together.

SentoSphere carries more than just paint and perfume kits – they also have games, educational toys, and truly unique art kits that you won't find anywhere else. Check out their full US product line and tell me your favorite SentoSphere products.