Discovery Bottles
I love including my son in making something fun and useful for his sister. This discovery bottle is a fun way of using a holiday theme and gives your infant something fun to play with too. Remember with infants all activities and projects are intended to be used only when directly supervised. Also only you know what is safe for your child, if they aren’t ready for an activity bookmark it and try it when they are.
- Gather your materials. You will need some plastic bottles with lids a hot glue gun, a shamrock bead necklace, scissors and some rainbow ribbon. I also use tape on the bottles that run the risk of making huge messes if they open. For the gel and sparkle bottle you will also need a funnel, some gold sparkles and green shower gel or shampoo( got mine for a buck at the dollar store). For the rainbow shaker bottle some pom poms in rainbow colors.
- Start by drinking the water.
- Next take off the label.
- Next cut the shamrock necklace into the bottle. This is awesome for fine motor development and takes a lot of patience. I was amazed my son was not only able to do this without help but how into it he was. They grow up so fast!
- Next add the sparkles.
- Next add the gel.
- I used hot glue to glue the top on. Then more on the outside to seal it, and wrapped it in tape. Be careful some bottles are so thin that they will melt with hot glue on contact. If you are worried consider using crazy glue. Whether you are using hot or crazy glue should be done by adults only.
- Cut a small piece of rainbow ribbon and glue it on.
- Let everything dry and cool completely .
- For the rainbow shaker Cut the necklace in.
Pop in the pom poms.
Glue the top and ribbon on as above.
- Play!
For the photos I had her in the crib so the bottle wouldn’t roll too far when I was trying to take a photo. I am not suggesting giving it to your infant for independent play, these discovery bottles are for closely supervised play only.
The rainbow one has lasted forever. 2 years later it’s still kicking!
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Letter of The Week will return after the holidays but for now holiday kids crafts, homemade gifts and books will be filling your screen! This is not an original idea as long as I have worked with kids I have made and played with these. I am actually making these for my son’s preschool but plan on making one for my daughter’s stocking, they are great toys for babies.
- Gather your materials. You will need empty water bottles with their lids, hot glue gun, glitter, oil, water, food coloring and shampoo( karo syrup or hair gel is much cheaper… I just had a ton of this shampoo on hand). You may also want a funnel.
- Start by removing the labels from the bottles.
- Next add the contents
We started with the green bottle with shampoo , glitter and green food coloring. When this one is done the glitter will slowly move through the shampoo ( or hair gel or karo syrup). We used a funnel to fill it and my son watched it slowly fill pretending it was a soft serve ice cream machine. 
- The next bottle was the yellow bubble bottle with yellow food coloring, glitter , one squirt of shampoo and filled halfway with water . When it’s done the children can make bubbles by shaking it.
- The next was the blue glitter bottle – water and glitter. When it’s done the glitter will swirl through the water.
- The final one was half oil , red food coloring, water and red glitter. This one has always been my favorite, the water and oil will resist mixing and children can make gentle waves without much effort as well.
- Hot glue the lid on, do not let even older kids do this. I have been using hot glue guns for oh 25 years and I burned myself with every bottle! I added colored tape to the outside as well. Let sit a few hours before playing with it, and test it over the sink before passing it to a child.
Remember that even with careful gluing these things break . I had an oil and sparkles one break in my kitchen when my son was a baby. The lid broke in two! Lesson is to stick to playing with them in places that are easy to clean and always supervise children with these, always!
