When I noticed them opening and closing boxes and bottles past some weeks, I created a bottle and lid matching activity for them.
I had a few empty containers in the kitchen drawer. The carton of half-and-half that I'm feeding them these days was emptied just a few days back. I drank the (blue) bottle of coconut water and had kept the bottle aside for crushing and putting into the recycle bin (as I do with most of the recyclable plastic). When I felt like I had a few bottles and matching lids, I felt it was good enough to begin with, and I can leave space for more bottles to be added later as I collect later. Would have been nice to have 15-20 of the lid matching puzzle for them but we started with 8 of these first.
For the base I carefully opened up the empty box of cereals, using a hot glue gun I glued the bottoms of the containers and bottles onto the base. And that was it! Talk about an easy DIY activity idea for toddlers that an adult can make!
I gave this bottle top matching activity a few days back and so far they have been playing with it on their own every once in a while throughout the day. I have demonstrated to them that it's not just about matching the lids, but also about them turning the lid to close the bottle, and opening it counterclockwise. When they're done playing, I fold the box and store it away.
Making this simple activity for them has totally been worth the time!
