Bottle Caps

 

Time to clean out those over-stuffed bathroom drawers?

You know.  All those random bottles and jars of half finished creams, gels, hotel sundries, general goops?

Throw them out?  NEVER.

They are the best practical life tool. 

Some hot water and soap will do the trick.

The Goal: 

Visual Matching & Hand eye coordination

Wrist motion in twisting and tightening

The Set Up:
1)  2 Containers of any sort
2)  Lots of random jars with lids

The Presentation:
1)  Ask the child to bring the tray
2)  Remove the 2 containers
3)  Start emptying the jars & bottles into the tray in a line (see right)
4)  Do the same with the lids
5)  Pick a jar up, then hover over the lids until fining a match
6)  Hold jar firmly in one hand, clearly set the lid straight ontop
7)  Turn & tighten the jar, continue until all jars are matched
8)  Reverse everything and place lid & jars back into the containers
9)  Invite the child to try

Zozie was quite excited when he saw this tray.

Some jars still have some fragrance in them so he would sniff around at times.  When we took the video clip (below), daddy was cooking breakfast and making smoothies next to us, so Zo was quite distracted by all the commotion.  Not the best time for using a new tool.  Also, he's now 3 and "testing" rules quite abit.  You'll see him deliberately putting the caps in the wrong bucket and the jars in the other, then looking up at me to see what my response will be.  I usually just smile slightly, acknowledging his little "joke", then he switches the objects back. The match & twist coordination is coming along nicely, except when the groove is off at times. 

At first, the fear of him getting into everything took over me.  But miraculously, this exercise gave him an outlet for that toddler-need to unscrew every top they see!  So the reverse actually happened.  He's not asking me to help him open everything.  Now he just does his own toothpaste after shower, squeezes on the toothbrush, then does the routine solo.  It's as if he's had his fill twisting and screwing, it's not fresh anymore, it's just a new skill his has and he uses it only when needed.  

Ahhhh....so NICE.

If you have some random jars & bottles laying around...(we all do).

Give this one a try!