Teach It Tuesday- Discovery Bottles

One of my favorite things to do is "teach" Jameson. Even though he is only 6 months old, there are so many ways to exercise his little brain. When I started looking around on Pinterest for ideas, I decided to make my own discovery bottles. 

Discovery bottles help with the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as children shake, toss and turn the bottles to observe the result. They give children the opportunity to explore little exciting items through a bottle that they would otherwise not be able to play with because of them being choking hazards. As Jameson grows, we will be able to do more things with these bottles other than just sitting on the ground and moving them around. I think it will be fun to play with them with a black light and table light when he is a few years older. 

Here are instructions on how you can make your own set replicating mine. Of course you can make your own, just use your imagination and the possibilities are endless.

These are the 6 that I created:

1. Multicolor small star beads/ shades of blue holographic shades of blue sequins/ water- This bottle is designed for noise, color, and movement discovery.
   
2. 1/4 of a bottle of vegetable oil (or you can use baby oil) and 3/4 of a bottle of blue water (water with a few drops of blue food dye)- This bottle is designed to introduce the concept of seperation of liquids.
   
3.  Small jingle bells/ Metallic twist ties- This bottle was designed just to spark visual interest.
   
4. Glitter, neon iridescent pom poms/ multicolor, multisized buttons- This bottle is designed to introduce early math concepts and encourage visual stimulation.
   
5. 3/4 bottle of green water (water with a few drops of green food dye) / 3 drop of dish soap- This bottle is designed for shaking and creating bubbles and froth.
   
6. Water/ A lot of extra fine silver glitter/ red, "diamond shaped" crystals (found in the Walmart floral section)- This bottle is designed for discovery of noise, beautiful movement and disbursement.
   

After you fill them with your "ingredients", you should seal them with a hot glue gun and if you are a worry wort like me you can add some duct tape around the lid as well.

I hope seeing these discovery bottles has helped spark some ideas of your own. If you make a set of bottles I would love to see them! Take a picture and leave it in the comments. These are sure to be a hit in any house with curious children. 

 

xoxo Kelly