Messy Hands Make Happy Hearts

Messy Hands Make Happy Hearts Making messes so hearts are happy. Sensory Play pop-ups. Homeschool mom. Based in St. John's, Newfoundland. The mom guilt was eating me alive.

Inspired by the change Sensory Play has made in our lives, I'm a work-from-home mom to a toddler on a Sensory Play Exploration Mission. My son struggled with too much screen time and the negative effects that had on him. I was lost not knowing how to change that because screens are just so *convenient*, especially when I was flat-out with work and just couldn't take time out to play with him. I felt like I was failing at everything - work, mom-ing, wife-ing, and life-ing. I took my son to a music and sensory play small local business collaboration at a local Montessori-based school and that's when everything changed for us. I saw how my son lit up and got so excited to be there. It's now the only thing I can get him out the door for without a fight ha! We've just been full-steam ahead ever since! (Much to my husband's dismay - hello, ADHD-infused chaos!)

This page is the result of that experience and wanting to share our journey so others can experience the joy and benefits of sensory play too. I'll never claim to be an expert - in fact, in this very moment, I'm very much just learning. So, let's learn together and get those hands dirty so our hearts can get happy! My hope for this page is to share ideas, share resources, share links for products, and educate. Eventually, I hope to have some affiliate links for cute and useful products, some group pre-orders of unique and beautiful sensory/Montessori products, and get a blog launched that shares valuable, educational content. Thank you for being here! I'm excited to share this journey with you!

06/30/2026

Congrats to Elizabeth Furey for winning this bouquet! 🎉 Shoot us a message :)
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👀 Find the gnomes! 👀

It's that time again! Find 3 gnomes to enter to ✨️WIN✨️ a premium, locally-grown bouquet made with freshly-picked anemones and ranunculus.

🌸TO WIN:

When you find ALL THREE, post "Found them!" in the comments and, for EXTRA ENTRIES, tag friends and share the post to your feed, stories, and groups. I can't always see who shares, so if you do, just reply to yourself with a screenshot!

💐 Like and follow this page (on FB & IG)!

⚠️ Make sure you comment on the ORIGINAL post! ⚠️

I'll post "CONTEST CLOSED" at the top of this post when I do the draw -- possibly by the end of day today because these flowers are ready NOW! 😁

HAPPY HUNTING! 😊

*Local entries only. Flowers are located in East End St. John's, Newfoundland. Delivery to surrounding areas possible, please contact for info.

🌸🏵🌸
Do you have someone special in your life who could use a little "I love you" or "Thinking of you"? Need a pick-me-up for yourself?

We are accepting orders for bouquets and flower bunches, florists choice. Each bouquet is unique and locally grown with fresh-cut flowers. Flowers will last a week if cared for properly.

PM me today to order! I have a LIMITED quantity of beautiful blooms ready to go!

06/18/2026

We've been busy! We got some chicks and now they need names! Help save them from the names my son would give them 😅

05/26/2026
Another one added to the shop! (Link in comments!)These take a surprising amount of time to make...the amount of shiftin...
05/26/2026

Another one added to the shop! (Link in comments!)

These take a surprising amount of time to make...the amount of shifting around of elements alone to get that imaginary "perfect" amount of whitespace between each item 🤏😅

I'm going to add a few other non-Bible activity sheets as well 😊

I made an Etsy shop to keep me on the brink of insanity 😅Check out my first (and currently only 🫠) listing and give my s...
05/22/2026

I made an Etsy shop to keep me on the brink of insanity 😅

Check out my first (and currently only 🫠) listing and give my shop some love 😊 I've also got a shop-wide sale on to celebrate opening, if you'd like to take advantage!

I've got a few more themes in the making. Any requests while I'm at it?

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/growinwonder

(IG: LINK IN BIO)

👩‍🏫 I've been teaching my son how to read -- starting with the alphabet (obvs 🤪). I don't know about your kids, but, ful...
02/13/2026

👩‍🏫 I've been teaching my son how to read -- starting with the alphabet (obvs 🤪). I don't know about your kids, but, full disclosure:

❌ My son does NOT like learning the alphabet.

📖 And, since it was my number 1 goal this year to teach him to read because he loves books (and there's no limit on what you can learn when you can read!), we were at a bit of an impasse.

So, in a moment of desperation, I took a chance on the app Reading. com because ads kept popping up in my feed for it (...probably because they sensed my despair), and in the past week we've learned 5 new letters and their sounds and...drum roll please...he's read his first words!! Amazing what you can do with just 5 letters!

I'm literally over the moon 🚀🌙😅

🏃‍♂️ We're still butting heads a little (little boy energy that doesn't favour sitting still and focusing, and overstimulated mom energy holding a 4-month-old👶), but I'm very pleased with the investment (it's pretty low cost, especially for the amount of pressure it's relieved from us!)

I haven't had a lot of time to put into intentional sensory play setups for my son as I had hoped, but I've been attempting some somewhat casual crafts ✂ when baby allows.

And so, this idea was born. 💡

I will share our crafts as we go (well, probably with a bit of a lag, if we're honest), along with some book suggestions (either of books we've read or want to read that match the "theme")

Reading. com starts it's alphabet-learning journey at the letter "Mm", so here's a craft we will be doing and some books we've read!

Check out the comments for links to my Pinterest board for crafty inspo and a link to the reading app to give it a try!

For a sensory experience involving taste, make [M]uffins together!

Just sharing some of our favourite books of late!What are some of YOUR book recs? We're always on the hunt for a solid s...
01/05/2026

Just sharing some of our favourite books of late!

What are some of YOUR book recs? We're always on the hunt for a solid storyline and beautiful illustrations! Comment below!

As homeschoolers, we're always looking for learning objectives in whatever we do. What could we say we learned from this...
01/05/2026

As homeschoolers, we're always looking for learning objectives in whatever we do.

What could we say we learned from this? 😅

🎃FREE Halloween activity sheets for your little trick-or-treaters today!🎃I had more plans for these, but with the arriva...
10/31/2025

🎃FREE Halloween activity sheets for your little trick-or-treaters today!🎃

I had more plans for these, but with the arrival of our newest member, I haven't had the time or energy to put it together, so instead I'm offering these for FREE!

Print from saved images from FB or join our group on Facebook to download the printable PDFs for better quality (I will add more as I make more for other occasions)! Let me know in the comments if you use the sheets and what you think of them! :)

Downloadable, printable PDF: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BQdovdfR8/

7 Fun Activity Sheets:

1. Trick-or-Treat Scavenger Hunt: Take with you trick-or-treating to add to the fun and intrigue!
2. Halloween Candy Sensory Identification: A fun way to slow down and be mindful of their treats.
3. Line tracing: practice pen control and letter identification.
4. Scissor practice: practice following lines and master scissor holding.
5-7. Colouring sheets.

Happy trick-or-treating, everyone! Let me know how it goes!

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St. John's
St. John's, NL

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