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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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.