One of my son’s earliest favorite ”toy” was the sensory bottles I made for him. The fun thing about sensory bottles is that you can use anything to make them. For babies you can use plastic baby food containers, mini water bottles or plastic spice containers. For younger children you don‘t want to make them too heavy. They typically also enjoy colors or objects that make noise. The biggest thing to remember is to hot glue (or whatever your preference on permanent glue) the lid shut so that the child cannot empty the bottle and choke on the items.
As children get older you can use thick water bottles or other plastic containers. Once again remember to glue those lids shut. For toddlers you can make bottles with different liquids in them or nature objects that give some weight and are fun to shake. The sensory bottles can match with the changing seasons (leaves for Fall, water and glitter to look like snow for Winter, sticks and rice to create a rain stick for Spring, or for Summer an ”I spy” bottle with different summer objects hidden in rice). The next sensory bottles I plan to make are going to be different Fall objects in spice containers so that my son can smell the different scents. What sensory bottles have you tried or are wanting to try?
