In the last few weeks, my little human is very interested in opening and closing bottle caps. Whenever he sees someone drinking water out of the bottle, he wants to grab the bottle and try to open it by himself. Usually, he has trouble opening a bottle. He can’t hold it firm enough with one hand and open it with another. Most of the time he will just hand the bottle to me and ask me to open it for him.
What fascinates him even more than opening a bottle, is closing a bottle cap. If he asked me to open a bottle for him, he would also demand to hand him a bottle and a cap so he can close it. Unfortunately, he has trouble to coordinate closing and twisting motion while he holds a bottle with his other hand. So usually he gets frustrated and then I end up holding a bottle while he is closing it.
I wanted to think of some kind of DIY activity to make practicing easier for him. Then he wouldn’t need me to hold a bottle every time. So here is what I came up with:
Setting up an “Open and close” activity
I gathered a few different water bottles and milk cartons with a cap on top. I cut every item in a way that I can glue part with a cap on top of the shoebox. On top of the shoebox, I also made holes. Around the holes, I put hot glue and then pushed the bottles through the hole. If bottles are plastic, it is a good idea to wait a few seconds for hot glue to cool a little bit. Otherwise, the hot glue will melt the bottle.
After everything was done, I wanted to cover the glue with something so it would look nicer. On one side I used pink ribbon around the bottles and on the other side white electrical tape.
Let your little one practice
When I presented this activity to my little human he was absolutely thrilled. First I let him practice his opening skills. He liked how easy it is to open a milk carton but with bottles, he still had some trouble. This twisting motion is still new to him. He always tries to twist the cap off with just one little finger but with time he will probably figure it out.
Later, I tried a different approach. I presented the same activity but all the bottles were open and their caps were placed in a bowl next to activity. His task was to close the bottles. My little human liked this version better that first. First, he tried which cap can fit on which bottle without twisting them. He also liked to drop smaller caps through a big bottle hole. Later, he even tried to twist the caps. The milk carton was the easiest to open and close so he mainly focused just on this cap.
Summary
Resources: shoe box, few empty plastic bottles or milk cartons with caps, hot glue
Focus: fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, practical life skills
How to: just let your little one open and close the bottles
Alternatives: you can glue bottles together without cutting them, then you don’t need the shoe box
A note about bottle caps: they can be easily put in mouth so use good judgement if your child is ready for them!