“Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.” – William Stafford
I’m a crafty girl – I love glitter and rhinestones, Mod Podge and Tacky Glue, pretty papers and ribbons…. and I have so much fun sharing my love of all things creative with the kiddo’s in my life. And, crafting with kids has helped me see new things – kids are so fascinated with new textures, shapes, sounds, and colors. That led to the creation of our Toddler Exploring Set – a super easy DIY idea, made from totally inexpensive materials. Even if you’re not usually much of a DIY’er, you can do this. So… Let’s get started! {You might remember me mentioning these Exploring Sets earlier this year in 65 Fun Fall Ideas for Kids – we love making new sets!}
“Having a two-year-old is like having a blender that you don’t have the top for.” – Jerry Seinfeld
You probably already have most of the supplies you’ll need – But one thing that you will need to get in advance is a set of empty water bottles. We used the mini ones – they’re easiest for tiny toddler hands. You’ll also need a good glue {I used Quick Dry Tacky Glue
“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” – Walt Streightiff
- Sound Bottles: In the Red bottle above, I used white beans mixed with some fun red glitter – these are nice and noisy when you shake ’em! You can also use things like rice, popcorn kernels, or jingle bells. Kids love discovering the different sounds.
- Bubble Bottles: Fill half full of water, add a little bit of dish soap, and a squirt or two of food coloring. Your little one will love seeing a plain bottle of water turn into a bubble party when they shake it up!
- Discovery Bottle: Fill a bottle half way with sand or rice, and add a few tiny toys too. Kids will learn that the toys are there even when they can’t see them – and will love learning how to find them again!
- Glow Bottle: Fill a bottle with glow in the dark stickers or glow sticks. Show your kiddo how different it looks when they crawl underneath their blanket – what a surprise!
- Silly Bottle: One of our favorites is to fill a bottle up with little Glitter Pom Poms
– these are the cutest thing, and Abby loves them! They look super cute in the bottles, and have such bright and vibrant colors!
- Snow Globe Bottles: Fill bottles with a mixture of water and glycerin, add food coloring if desired, throw in a pinch {or more, you can never have too much!} of glitter, and add some fun little toys or trees. So much fun!
- Slow-Down Bottle: Fill a bottle 2/3 full of clear corn syrup, then add sequins, or tiny toys. As they tilt the bottle, they can relax and slow down while they watch the toys sloooowly slide to the side.
- Nature Bottle: These ones are more temporary – grab a tiny branch off of an evergreen tree, some fall leaves, dandelion flowers, acorns – whatever is in season. Your little one will delight in getting to really look at these things up close – you’ll delight in knowing that they won’t EAT them while they have them up close!
Big Kid Options
- Magnet Bottle: Fill a bottle with rice or sand, and add a few metallic items, like pennies, old game pieces, etc. Then – let them use a big magnet against the outside of the bottle to ‘magically’ pull those hidden items into view!
- Guessing Bottle: Fill a bottle up with tiny pebbles – or something fun like Jelly Beans! – and have your kids guess how many are inside. Don’t glue the top on this one, since you’ll then want to dump it out, count it together, and see how close they were. Our boys love to challenge each other.
Do you have any fun ideas to add?
There are so many different variations you can use – and I’d love to hear your creative ideas! We love to make new bottles all the time, and sometimes it’s hard to keep coming up with great ideas – so I look forward to what you guys come up with. Keep it crafty!
– This is so sleek and modern – it doesn’t scream “kids!!”, so it’s right at home in any kitchen. Love the details, and the clean and stylish all-white look.
– This kids play kitchen is SO fun! Again, it’s very modern, and totally cool. I love kids toys – but I love to find things that look great, so that I can make them a part of our home’s decor, instead of just hiding them away in a playroom.
– Such a great value! 125 pieces of fun play foods and accessories, for under $20 bucks – perfect.
– This is so adorable. Abby and I have matching aprons that we use when we cook together, and love trying recipes from this book. {Did you see that one of our recipes is featured in the new 
, or the 
– both are super cool. The box that they blocks are in opens up, and flips over, to become a little ramp for the train to cruise down… And Abby thought this was the COOLEST thing ever! She says, “Chooo Chooo!” and runs to chase it after it rolls away. The bigger kids set theirs all up in a row, and had races to see who’s train could go the farthest. The moms all loved that this was a great travel set.
– and it was definitely a hit with both the kids and the moms. While lego sets can be a challenge even for some of the bigger kiddo’s, this Mega Bloks set was perfect – the older boys helped to guide the little one’s, and while they could put the whole thing together without any help from the grown up’s, it was just challenging enough to make them feel really accomplished when they finished it!
– Starts Now!!
Membership – it’s free to sign up, you don’t even have to be a mom, and you get free 2-day shipping for an entire year! {You just have to make a baby-store purchase once a month}. Another option is 
, the super cute plush dog that sings songs and plays games, and it’s one of her favorites. The boys have played with the 
before, but had never gotten to use a LeapPad – and myohmy, were they over-the-top excited to check it out!! It was definitely the most popular toy with the older boys, and they had a blast recording videos on it – and of course the videos were all just ridiculous little boy stuff, like weird dancing, wrestling matches, and gross faces. Sheesh.
– This is recommended for ages 4-9, but even Abby loves it. We like to use it at bedtime, so we can turn out the lights, snuggle up in some blankets, and check out her favorite ebooks. She just adores it. And like I mentioned, this bad boy has a built-in digital camera, video camera, and touchscreen. This post isn’t even long enough to explain to you how cool this thing is – I was seriously blown away.
– I’ve been wanting to get one of these for the kids since last Christmas – and I was delighted to see that it totally exceeded my expectations! This is also recommended for ages 4-8. All of the kids thought that this was really cool – our little Kindergartner guy gets totally involved with it. He’s learning to read, and this gives him a ton of confidence! You can change the settings to either sound out the letters, or read the words – he loves trying to read it himself, and using the reader to see if he got it right. My older little guy is 8, and is a pretty advanced reader, so this didn’t hold his attention as much. But for any kiddo who’s in the beginning to mid stages of learning to read, this is amazing.
– This is my favorite! I think that this is just so cool… The kids use the Tag reader to discover the world and bring it to life. There are SO many different levels of play and learning with this – Abby love, love, LOVES looking for the animals to touch with the reader, so she can hear the sounds they make. She giggles and claps at the tiger and jaguar – so great to watch. The kids can learn the names of the countries, find kids in the other lands to tell them info like how to say Hello, learn about foods, music, and so much more. All of the kids were completely intrigued by this. It doesn’t come with a reader – you have to get that separately. But it is an amazing addition if you have the Tag reader already!
