A few weeks ago, we had to bring our daughter to the emergency room. She had what was called nursemaids elbow, a common toddler injury, which is basically a dislocated elbow. With a quick movement the doctor snapped Mai’s elbow back in place & within seconds, she was back to her happy, smiley, mischievous self. I was relieved. It is a nerve wracking couple of hours.
While we were there, a very nice nurse brought us a cylinder like toy, filled with sand and different assorted shapes and objects. She gave this to Mai to play with as we waited for her x-rays. The toy worked in distracting our little miss from her injuries. I thought this was a wonderful idea, but in all the stress and anxiety of the situation, it was quickly forgotten, until yesterday when I saw a pin for a treasure hunt game.
This reminded me of the cylinder and all of its’ random objects. I thought this should be easy enough to recreate and would have to be more fun to play with, without a big ouchie.
What you will need…
An old soda bottle 20 oz or 32 will do
rice or sand
food coloring
assorted plastic toys small enough to fit into a bottle top
I originally made this with a 2 liter bottle, but found that it was too heavy for Mai to play with, so we transferred it to a 20 oz bottle. This worked much better for her little hands.
Directions:
Peel the soda label of the bottle. Clean the bottle & let it dry thoroughly
Pour rice & food coloring into a ziplock bag & shake
Pour rice onto paper plate to dry
Insert mini toys into bottle. I went with assorted insects, bugs, butterflies and reptiles. I bought these at the Dollar Store.
Use a funnel & fill the bottle 3/4 of the way with rice.
Seal top using super glue.
Shake the bottle to mix up the toys
Let your toddler shake & play & point out all of the objects
With all the left over rice we had, we also made a sensory box.
The verdict: She loved the bottles. She was shaking it up and pointing to birds and butterflies and laughing. The sensory boxes are always a hit in our house. It was a fun day for Mai. It was a messy day for mommy.
Drop cloths, mommy..drop cloths. Some one hand me a broom.
5 comments
This is such an interesting DIY project. Thanks for sharing this, inspiration comes from the small things that live puts us through.
Hugs,
Rally
Thank you very much. Stop by again.
what a sleepy cuteness on the pics!:)
Olya from TLV Birdie Blog
http://www.tlvbirdie.com
Thank you.