Discovery Bottles

This fall T and I did a baby sign language class (hosted at my house) with an awesome group of moms and babies. One day as the babies were chillin' I had out the discovery bottles I made when O was little. The babies LOVED them, and so did the moms. With their encouragement, I set up a make and take for some discovery bottles, and everyone had a blast.

We made 4 different bottles:

- Winter: sparkle pompoms (in winter colors), mini pine cones (potpourri), jingle bells (various sizes)

- Ocean: 3-5 undersea creatures, 5 shells. Fill bottle with blue colored water. 

Options: glitter, mineral oil (visual wave action), drop of dish soap (breaks up the oil and adds some suds)

- Magnetic: color chips, colored paperclips, washers (various sizes). Fill bottle with mineral oil. Using a magnetic, children can move the items around in the bottle. But even without a magnet, the bottle is pretty.

- I-spy: 8-11 small items. Any small items can be used. We used lacing letters (to spell out child's name), small animal counters, small vehicle counters, small porcupine balls, marbles, feathers, crayons, dice, etc. Fill the bottle with colored rice. You want enough to cover the objects, but still enough room for things to shift around. 

Option: Use printable shrink film to print a picture of your child, cut, shrink and add to the bottle (Pay attention to the shrink directions for how to size the picture. Also it will darken as it shrinks, so print it lighter than you usually would.) 

Option 2: As you gather items, lay them out on a white sheet of paper. Take a picture of them before adding them to the bottle. Use the photo to make a key card of all the things to search for in the bottle.

Be sure to seal the lids of the bottles with hot glue or superglue if you don't want to run the risk of a clever toddler opening them.

Here are the bottles I use. (Yes, I could save bottles, but I like these because the opening is big enough to get items inside and the sides are flat so the objects can be seen. Also I am anal and want all the bottles to be the same.)

Colored Rice:

1 c rice

1 tbsp vinegar

20-40 drops food color (20 drops for intense colors/gel food coloring, 40 drops for lighter colors/regular food coloring)

Put all ingredients in a sealable container (I used gallon sized storage bags).

Seal and shake until well combined.

Leave in container to finish absorbing and drying (the rice will continue to absorb the color as it dries).

Happy Thanksgiving

My latest projects include disguising a turkey and creating centerpieces for the preschool Thanksgiving lunch. O helped with both.

Space Turkey - why not?

Halloween: A LIGHT-UP ROBOT!

Well, its been almost a year since I posted - a new kid makes creative time hard to come by. But of course when O requested a robot costume for Halloween, I had to make it happen. After looking at lots of examples on Pinterest, I decided O would not want to wear a box all night, so I went for something made of cloth. I found this one particularly cute, so I adapted it for O.

As the son of an electrical engineer, it had to light up. It also had to have an oscilloscope and on/off buttons. I used Wunder Under to attach the felt pieces to each other and the costume base. I added cardboard inside the costume in a couple of places to give it some rigidity. And I attached El-wire to light it up.  We just happen to find a hat with a circuitry design and LED lights at our favorite box store (starts with a T).

O was sooo excited! He couldn't wait to show off his robot moves.

I couldn't leave little brother out, so he got a robot costume too.