Crafting by not a very crafty mum - disco box

Ahh... cardboard boxes. Where would I be without you?

The Finns stick their baby in a box, so I did too.

Saw this idea ages ago, but was mainly inspired by the children's centres in Oxford. They had home made light sensory toys at their stay and play sessions. It's such a shame many of these sessions have now gone due to funding cuts. They were amazing sources of support and inspiration.

This took a few minutes to set up and both my boys like it!

First step, is to poke holes in your box. I've been reading a book about bringing up boys and it inspired me to let Little E loose with some scissors! He likes demolition, so I thought this would be great for him.

Watching Little E stab at the box was tough for me. Instinctively I just want to keep telling him to be careful, but instead we chatted before about being safe with scissors and I let him go. My book said how much boys value being trusted and I wanted to show him I trusted him.

And we both survived intact. He loved making all the holes and he was a lot more careful than I thought he would be.

Then I stuck our LED fairy lights in the top.

Little E had wandered off, but when he came back he said "wow!". He stuck his head in the box and played around with the light settings. "I want it fast, mummy!" I also put my head in to make sure the lights weren't too bright. Little E was so proud when I told him we'd made it for Little A and gleeful when I showed him photos of him inside.

Little E won't let me turn the lights off now! Good thing Little A is enjoying it!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - rainbow sensory bottle

I enjoyed my first glitter sensory bottle, or "disco slime" as one friend described it.

I have a large collection of buttons. I saw a "rainbow button" bottle idea. Seemed a great idea to use up some of my buttons.

I had lots of fun sorting the colours out. If you have an inclined child, I'm sure they'd enjoy searching for the colours.

I also had some rainbow beads from a broken necklace and some blue glitter.

I used baby oil the last time. It didn't mix with the water at all, which wasn't the effect I was looking for. This time I tried glycerin, which was suggested by several  Pinterest posts.

I didn't know how much to add, so I tried a little at a time. The more glycerin in the water, the more turbulent things were, so I used the whole bottle and would have liked more. However, I was still pleased with the result. The glitter swirls around beautifully, but I wish the buttons floated more. They make a delicious clicking sound as they fall, which I didn't expect.

Little E spotted these in the bathroom and sat mesmerised for several minutes, which was amazing for him. He liked the buttons best.

I'm still experimenting different methods of making sensory bottles, so I'm planning at least two more.