Christmas Discovery Bottles for Baby Tummy Time
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If you have been around on the blog for a while, then you know I am an advocate for tummy time, not just with babies, but with all kids. Now that I have my little 5 month old son, finding some engaging tummy time activities has been fun for me. I saw these Christmas sensory bottle ideas for toddlers and decided to turn it into a Christmas discovery bottle for baby tummy time.
Items for Christmas Discovery Bottles
- Sand art bottles (I found these in the sand art isle at Hobby Lobby, but I have had a hard time finding them, so I grabbed all 4)
- Various Christmas items (I used real cranberries, glitter pinecones, small red bells, and faux snow)
Fill your bottles with each item and then place them on the floor and let your baby explore and “discover” them.
One tip with the real cranberries, you will want to change them out after a couple days since they will start to ferment inside the bottles.
Ben is almost 5 months old and holding his head up nicely during tummy time for 5-10 minutes at a time. He is also starting to hold objects with his hands and bring them to his mouth, so I made sure I was close by the entire time he was looking at these.
Ellie also enjoyed holding these and showing them to Ben while he was on the floor. This makes for some great sibling tummy time too.
Looking back, the floor was very busy with our alphabet rug underneath. I would probably put our white activity mat down over it to take away some of that visual distraction so he could focus on the bottles more. He still enjoyed them though, especially with his sister showing him.
One of my blogging friends Nicole, over at The Kavanaugh Report did something similar with her older toddler and also did a fun matching game with them. Great ideas for older toddlers in her post.
Want more Christmas activity ideas? Check out my Holly Jolly Christmas board.
Heather Greutman, COTA
Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.