A half full (or half empty, depending on your point of view) bottle of water.
You are going to do a post on the fun of a half empty water bottle?
Okay, please don't stop reading. I know that sounds mundane, boring, silly, and even obvious.
Here's my story. After an unsuccessful morning nap for my youngest, we traveled to the nearest grocery store for some much needed sustenance. On the way home I was trying my best (without endangering anyone on the road) to keep my toddler awake to preserve the afternoon nap. In a last ditch effort, my daughter passed her my half full water bottle. Her eyes lit up, she squealed happily, and proceeded to shakity-shake-shake that bottle all the way home....fully awake. *insert happy dance here*
So once the girls were down for their naps, I promptly dug through our recycle bin to find any worthy container, and started filling and gluing tops on.
Here are some ideas of what to fill them with:
- water
- colored water (water and food coloring)
- make a mini ocean in a bottle
- water and glitter
- oil and water
- sand
- rice
- sand/rice with small objects, like plastic insects, marbles, dice, part of a crayon, a puff ball, whatever... (leave a little space at the top so when they shake it and rotate it, they can find the objects in the jar/bottle).
- coins
- beans
This is awesome! I did this yesterday with my 15 month old DD in the kitchen. I filled three small soda bottles halfway(rice in one, dried beans, and colored water/oil). She played with them for a full half an hour, and probably would have longer if it wasn't time for lunch! I have never seen her concentrate so hard. She lined them up, rearranged them a million times, shook them.. I even gave her 3 Mason jar rings and she used those to "ring" the bottles and they made cool noises hitting the kitchen floor. I put the items in her special kitchen cabinet and she played with them 2 more times that day! Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea! We filled an old coke bottle with leftover popcorn kernels that didn't pop when my daughter was about 8 months old. She LOVED it. It was one of her favorite toys for a while. It was loud....but I think that's why she liked it so much! :)
ReplyDeleteI discovered this with my son when he was about 13 months old. I used an empty, plastic spice container (a Mrs. Dash one that screws on tightly), though, and took off the wrapper. It is a smaller size and would probably fit better for the car wallets! He still shakes it and carries it around with him sometimes at 22-months.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of spice containers, I have started letting him play with empty ones without water in them. He loves opening and closing them. His favorite part, though, is that he can still smell the spices that used to be in them. Of course, he shoves them under my nose for frequent sniffs, but that doesn't really bother me. So far, he has garlic and cinnamon and I'll be adding to his collection as my other spices run out. I always let him smell spices when I am cooking, too. He likes vanilla best.
My older two did great with this as babies...
ReplyDeleteBut my tenacious little McKenna just wants to drink the water inside, so it doesn't work for her unless the bottle is empty.