Sensory Bottles on the Cheap

This morning routine began like any other-babe woke up for work, did his whole "OMG I'm late!" freak out then ran around the house like a mad man getting ready for work. Monkey woke up right around the time he stubbed his toe on god knows what, muttering obscenities that weren't so reticent. God love him.

After daddy left for work, Monkey and I ate some yummy Kashi Cereal bars for breakfast (my new fave), and sing-songed "Baby cakes, Baby cakes, I love you" over and over...and over. But he couldn't get enough. It was on the 6th run through when I thought "ok, time for something else". So I left him with the books and his bottle and ran into the kitchen, grabbed some packaging tape, food coloring, glitter and some old soda bottles we had lying around. Who would have thought? Out of all the toys we have (and let me tell you, we have A LOT of toys-thanks to 3 sets of grandparents!) these three little bottles of colored water were the cats meow. I put packaging tape on top (to postpone leakage), but duck tape would work-especially the really cool colors they have out now.

Just an idea if you have a tot and you want to find frugal alternatives. These are fun, economical, and can be tossed without guilt.


Some other ideas to try-
Lava Bottles:
fill 1/2 container with wather & food coloring, and 1/2 baby oil. This will produce a lava lamp
effect when tilted.

Discovery Bottles:
fill bottle with small objects like small toys, dice, paperclips, rice, pasta, etc. When the bottle is rolled the objects will come to the surface for tot to discover.

Snow Globes:
fill half with water and half with corn syrup. Add glitter, beads, confetti, paper clips, etc. The corn syrup makes the glitter fall slowly and creates a facinating display.

For sealing the caps- you can either seal the tops with hot glue or if you don't have a glue gun use packaging or duck tape. I found by tightening the caps really well and putting a little tape on the top did the trick.