As you can see, it's just the bottom half of a 2 liter bottle with a little 'lid' that I made from cardboard. I cut four slots in it, of two different sizes. I had originally intended to buy lollipop sticks to use for this, but as I decided to do it today, our trusty buttons came out again!
(There aren't any pictures of Isabelle actually playing with it, as I was in the shower at the time - not somewhere I traditionally take a camera...)
While shampooing my hair, I watched Isabelle lift the buttons out of the box and spend time slotting them into the four different slots. Some of the bigger buttons didn't fit into the small slots, so as well as practicing her hand/eye coordination, she was exploring the concepts of big and small.
She actually pulled a few of the little buttons out and told me "Mummy, tiny button"....but then again she pulled a big one out and said the same! We are still working on that...
One thing I am really pleased with is that for these first 5 activities, I have bought nothing 'special' at all. The only materials we have used are things we already had at home. Not only does that type of reusing appeal to my environmentally conscious side, it's also pretty amazing to see so clearly that kids really don't care how much a toy costs, or what the latest 'thing' is - they are just as happy to play with a mash of stuff from the recycling box!
As I said, we didn't have lots of time today, as we went out this morning to meet some of our friends, and their little people, who we haven't seen in weeks because of work. We met at Starbucks and after the mummies enjoying some coffee and buns, we took them to a great (free!) discovery play area. They toddled about while we chatted and righted many wrongs!
Afterwards, Isabelle and I traveled up to see my granny, before managing to get home for an hour or two with daddy. During dinner, Isabelle demanded "Outside, mummy, bubbles!" as she wanted to play with our day 3 bubble snake. It was nice to hear that she is taking in some of our fun and activities and enjoying them so much that she wants to play with them again. If we get nothing else from these 50 days....at least I got that!