DIY Smell & Shake Discovery Bottles for Babies & Kids

I made these DIY Scented Sensory Bottles when Dimples was younger, they were a definite hit. He still has the Coffee Bean one and it still smells so good. I decided to do a new and improved batch of scented discovery bottles for Miss Cherub.

Dimples was a great helper, he came up with some ideas while he made these for his baby sister.
First we gather our materials, we tried to stick to a theme of a colour. Because these are scented the materials need to be able to hold and soak up the essence and essential oil.

• Dimples designed a Eucalyptus one using, blue and white pom-poms, some blue knitted wool daisies, some blue pipe cleaners and some metal bells. We added eucalyptus oil in. It smells and sounds great.
• The Lavender one had some real lavender flowers in it, lavender incense oil dyed rice from our Lavender Zen Rice garden & a little butterfly.
• The Rocking Rosemary had fresh rosemary from our backyard and some dried herb rosemary from our spice rack. Simple!
• The Christmas one had Peppermint scented red & green Rice from our Christmas Rice Sensory Tub, some sequins and a plastic candy cane.
• We still have the plastic Dinosaur in coffee beans &
• The old Lavender one that had silk purple flowers and lavender rice.  

All you need to make these are some old baby Bottles, stocking, a hot glue gun and your materials.
Take the teat out of your bottle so your left with a hole, put all your materials in the discovery bottle and the essence or essential oil, and hot glue gun a piece of stocking tight over the lid, then hot glue gun a circle over this and screw your lid on tight. Done!

They smell so sweet.

Miss Cherub loves sniffing them, shaking them and transferring them from hand to hand listening to the sounds they make.

Dimples plays I-spy with me and while he had a cold the past week he slept with his eucalyptus one by his pillow.

The Christmas themed one looks so festive at this time of year and has been placed up with the Christmas ornaments.

These are a really handy DIY toy that uses all the sense; smell, shake & listen to them, rattle & bang them around, look and see what you can spot. Considering the coffee bean one still smells years later I think this set will be rotated around frequently with the Christmas one getting packed away with our Christmas decorations until next year.

Learning concepts:

Colour coordination

Learning with the senses;

Defining between different scents

Listening to different sounds

Search & find, I-spy games

Baby grasp, transferring between hands.

Happy Adventures :)

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Halloween Discovery Bottle

This is an easy fun DIY activity in preparation of Halloween. To get in the spirit we put this discovery bottle together in just 10 minutes and Dimples enjoyed exploring it all afternoon.

Using an empty Pom juice bottle we added-

• Glucose syrup
• Halloween Sequins
• Eye Ball buttons
• Orange Glitter
• Black and red buttons
• Small plastic spiders
• Star sequins

We played I SPY, and named things starting by letter such as Spider, Star, Bat, button, Pumpkin, Eye, Orange, Black, White, Red, Slime & Glitter.  Dimples enjoyed helping make this one because of its funky shape and the messy time we had getting the glucose syrup in. These are so easy and simple, the best thing is though, anyone can make them out of recycleable materials and things you find laying around in your art/craft supplies, or even every day materials. Just remember to glue the lid shut!

6 months - 18 months:
Discovery bottles are great for developing observation skills, predictability and thinking skills.  For young children they are great for gross motor, grasping, passing from hand to hand, twisting, turning, shaking, they aide in the development of focused concentration. High contrast colours should be used for younger children to develop their sight perception, depth and visual focus. They are great for sight and sound sensory development and when used with more than one child can help in sharing, interacting and swapping.

 

18 Months- 4 years:
With older children they can be more detailed and used as  I Spy bottles to introduce letters, numbers,  themes and some science lessons such as separation, depth, gravity, density, sinking and floating. Again it helps with predictability, cause and effect cognition's, observation skills, focused attention and thinking skills.

They can be used for experiments such as sink or float, separation using water and oil, gravity with non liquid ones or like you seen here the Halloween one explore concepts of density and depth. Themes can be taught also, like the use of this Halloween theme. With non contrast similar colours and softer colours older children need to pay attention to objects presence.
If you want to make it more interesting for younger children, enrol their skills and help. Get them to choose what they want to add in to the bottle, how many and get them to help measure and pour anything in via a large funnel as I did with Dimples. This one is his favourite because he made it.

Happy Adventures :)

Discover the Seasons ~ I Spy Bottles

We haven't done discovery bottles for a while so this was an easy in door activity that we did on a very windy day.  Previous discovery bottles have been made when dimples was younger for him simply to explore and shake around, so this time we did a little more of a grown up activity 'I spy Bottles'.

 

Dimples said 'why is it winter?' this morning, because the weather doesnt know what it is doing, although it is spring it does feel like winter of a morning.
We went around collecting bits and pieces that represents the seasons and discussed what happens over the course of a year as the weather changes, and why it may still feel like winter but it is actually now spring. We then went on a quick flower hunt and noticed all the new blooms and all the nice smells that Spring brings.



 

 

 

Winter: Some white dusty corn flour, snow flake sequins, thinly cut cellophane, some pearl beads, blue glitter and some pearl blue shaped bunny heads. Symbolising cold, snowy weather during winter. The picture does no justice as you cant see the pretty snow sequins, it does look just like snow with snow flakes.

 

 

Spring: we gathered some lavender, added some bright pretty coloured Pom poms, a fake daisy flower, purple, yellow and aqua coloured rice, a knitted daisy flower, some pink glitter and some green plastic petals.

 

Summer: To us Summer means the beach, so this was easy. Sand from the sand pit, some shells, a plastic sea star, and some blue sparkling jewels.

 

Autumn: In our Autumn Discovery bottle we had some gum nuts and fallen leaves in shades of yellow and red, dimples added some golden decorative stones in it and painted a few leaves in yellow and orange.

 

For older children these discovery bottles are great for I spy games. For younger children and babies they are great for shaking, twisting, switching hands and inspecting.

We did lots of I spy games: I spy games based on what is in it, for example I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S- Sand, sea shell, sea star, Summer. We did some based on colours that were in it and some based on the objects in it and we lined them all up in order. Dimples still enjoyed knocking them around and shaking them as musical maracas.

Happy Adventures

Scented Sensory Discovery Bottles

How to Make & Play with Scented Sensory Discovery Bottles.

These are awesome if I may say so my self! 
I often find myself sniffing away at one of them as Dimples plays quietly.
Lately we have been experimenting with smells, different smelling flowers and plants, making the best sensory-cinnamon-playdoh that is still smelling great and getting used.

Dimples first smelt the perfume one & stuck his nose right in, taking a huge whiff! It was quiet funny to see his face & i got it on camera too. It didn't deter him though, he kept going back for more & insisted on taking them to show family & friends to see their facial reactions.

This activity was great to do and the scent bottles are still laying around getting smelled-

What you would need to make them:  Baby bottles without the teats with screw on lids, stocking/pantyhose, your contents (coffee beans, essential oils, small objects, fake flowers, material leaves, pretend flower petals, coloured rice or what ever tickles your fancy).

Im sure you have heard of discovery bottles before?  You can use them for anything & everything, but this is the first time I have tried scented ones.
Discovery bottles are great for developing attention span and they have a relaxing quality to them!
Use your imagination -
All you need to do is have your little one get in & help, use a funnel and let them pour in the ingredients, then pop in the small objects. We all know toddlers and preschoolers love shoving small objects into things, you know...... in ears, noses, pockets, nappies, lounge cushions.  Put all your things is & a few drops of essential oil or whatever scent you are using.
Then place your stocking over the top of the bottle & screw the lid on tight. You could go one step further if you intend to leave them for free play & use a glue gun to stick the stocking & the lid on!
The scent comes up through the stocking BUT they are also great for exploration and making sound, twisting turning & shaking them around to move the objects out into sight.  Also great for igniting all your senses, and sharing them with others to see what their reaction will be.  Dimples had great fun with them.

Here's what we did;
Dinosaur Coffee Beans-
One of the favourites, I don't even drink that much coffee but the smell of coffee beans is addictive.
This simple one has coffee beans, a small toy dinosaur, and some small tufts of pretend grass that we found in Dimples toy soldier box.

Eucalyptus Snake-
Another favourite, this one has material leaves, a plastic snake, some green dyed rice, and eucalyptus oil with a drop of tea tree & lemon oil.
I think this one would be a good one to make up if Dimples got a cold. It smells great!

Lavender dragonfly-
Fake Lavender flowers & petals. I got a bunch of these at the bargain shop for $1, the leaves got used in the previous one & the petals in this one. Add some Purple dyed rice and a plastic dragonfly (of a contrasting colour) with a few drops of Lavender oil.

Garlic Eye Ball-
Garlic cloves some skinned & squashed,  some still whole, a couple of white material petals, & a creepy eyeball.

Pretties in Perfume-

Using some old jewelry, rice, fake flower petals and perfume.

Easy & very smelly.

What you should do when encouraging your child to play with them is set an example by smelling them, pull some weird funny facials and have a laugh together, then teach them how to move them around to get the objects to position the way you want, twist, turn, gently rattle & shake.

You can also play by smell only. Have your child blindfolded and ask them to identify the smells, purely by smell. This is also great for labelling things and exploring them, for instance Lavender is purple, it is a flower, it is used in cleaning products and in sprays, it helps you relax and is good for sleep.  Eucalyptus, is great for when your sick to help unblock stuffy noses, it grows on trees, koalas like to eat it and so on.

Discovery bottles

Discovery bottles encourage the development of
observation skills, predictability, scientific
concepts, attention span, cause & effect, colours, sizes, and thinking skills. 

This is one of the funkiest ideas I have came across yet so we adapted them into our own play room, but I will only bring them out on special occasions.

Discovery Bottles:
*Empty bottles, plastic jars or containers.
*time
*food colouring
*bits & pieces;  Mmarbles, glitter, glycerin, shampoo, gel, water, sand, paper clips, oil, straws, shells, pipe cleaners, paper, craft pieces & what ever you find laying around that can fit in a bottle.
*glue gun & glue

Normally I let my little one in on the making of, however i thought this would be a pleasant surprise & it could be another chaotic mess if I let him join in with the mixing & the making.  So I did this one solo but it was worth it, they intrigue him & they will last...
Some times the best toys are home made ones!

I tried to vary the sizes, colours and textures. These were the first lot I did. The 2 most successful were the one at the front, oil-Jewels, straw glitter & water. The water & the oil stay separate which means the glitter most of the time sits mid way, the jewels sink but i think its an awesome concept. If i were to re-do this one i would colour the water purple or aqua so there is more contrast to the oil colour.

There is a bear in there.... with some army plants & some ripped paper. This one required a lot of twisting & turning to get the bear (or the hidden spider) to the top. it is quite tricky, i think i put a little too much paper in & the bear ends up smothered but with careful rotation, small shakes, moving & twisting in different directions he pops his head out.

My other favourite that amazes my boy, who doesn't understand magnetics yet The Multi coloured pipe cleaners & paper clips that have metal inside with the magnetic cleaner off the outside of the fish tank (that's the only magnet thing strong enough that i had handy)  It is really effective & they stick to then follow the magnet right to the top.  We practiced UP, DOWN, AROUND with the motions & of coures he liked to shake the crap out of it so it jingles & jangles then looks all messed up.
Notice to in this one I just used an old baby bottle so it is different shape, thinner than the other bottles.

Learning colours.  The red one is just marbles in shampoo with red food colour.  We have another green one with marbles in dish washing liquid & water to compare how the marbles sink & move around. the Marbles in the shampoo take longer to drop to the bottom when you turn it around then they green one does.
We have red, yellow, green, & a blue vibrant bottles to compare & learn colours with.

This one is another tricky fiddly one, a car in rice. My boy isn't too impressed, it was an older car with a missing window & a missing wheel but he tells me he needs it & wants me to get it out but then he spends so much time trying to turn it around & get all the rice out of the car.  He also told me it crashed off a bridge into the rice & broke its window :)  I love his imagination already!

The Pretty one, as my 2 yr old says....  This one was a 'what was laying about' creation. There are little beads, old cheap jewellery bits that were mismatched pairs, craft butterfly's and a cocktail umbrella. I also threw in some polymer water retaining beads (see my post on that sensory box).

Our favourites are the yellow one at the top of the page with yellow craft bunny heads & this glycerin/glitter one.  Seth particularly likes the car in rice & the rainbow magnetic peices.

Future directions.
I want to do an ocean themed one with some shells & a fish of sort sort hooked in at the lid so it hangs half way down.  I have seen some pretty cool ones for older kids with letters & words typed, cut then put inside. Another good idea is a sink & float theme. The one i did with dishwasher liquid i would next time do with not as much liquid so there is more room for the bubbles to grow as it gets shaken.
& I haven't found the right bottle yet but i want to do some smelly ones with holes in the top, scented fake flowers or something along those lines.

Happy discovering