ABC Discovery Bottle - Toddler Style!

Our Little Man is totally in love with the idea of discovery bottles recently.  Unfortunately, most of them (typically made with rice) are still just a bit beyond what he is able to handle independently.  He will get a glimpse of an object and try to shake the bottle to see it better, only to cover the object up completely.  It frustrates him pretty well!  I decided what he needs is a base material with which to fill the bottle that will allow the objects to filter to the top better.  So, I started thinking larger, denser grains or pieces and this week I played with a variety of materials as well as searching for the perfect bottle.

Here is what I came up with for Little Man's new alphabet discovery bottle...

A VOSS plastic water bottle

and 

unpopped popping corn!

The bottle is a perfect cylinder, making it much easier to see what's inside.  Yay for being able to tell what you're looking at!   And the corn is large and dense enough to settle to the bottom, allowing the items to rise to the top quickly when shaking the bottle...and there's always A LOT of shaking!   =)

The procedure is pretty straight forward but a lot of fun...And LM even got to help! 

-Clean and dry the bottle

(very important to make sure there is no moisture left!)

-Peel all the labels off the bottle

(I figured out that if you peel VERY slowly and STRAIGHT down the bottle, every bit of the adhesive will come off perfectly clean...Little Man's uncle will be very proud of my success with this!)

-Add the corn and items for searching

(Little Man seriously enjoyed this step...picture to come.)

 -Line the top with hot glue, screw the lid back on, and you're good to go!

(Wait a good hour before playing with the bottle to make sure the glue is completely cool and dry.)

Our alphabet beads

Our finished bottle

We have an out of town trip coming up, so I'm looking forward to
 taking this bottle with us to help keep LM busy in the car. 
So far, he stays focused for quite a while looking for letters
(especially when I ask him to find a specific letter!  =) 

So...a little experimentation and we have a toy that makes a lot of fun noise when shaken, fosters growth in LM's patience AND gives him the opportunity for letter identification practice! 
What more could a mom ask for?