Our Peace Basket

The girls (especially O) love our peace basket.  It sits on the floor behind a chair (O chose the location), and they enjoy going back there for some peaceful moments.

When I put together the peace basket, my goal was to include items that would reach a variety of their senses.  So, we have a whelk shell for the girls to hold up to their ears to hear the ocean (they have to be very still and quiet to hear the sounds of the "waves"), a finger labyrinth to trace, a cinnamon stick to smell, a book to read (When I Make Silence by Jennifer Howard), and our Starry Night Bottle to shake and then watch the "stars" settle to the bottom.



I decided to remake our Starry Night Jar after E(2) was shaking it and slammed it into her face (she was ok).  I decided that a plastic bottle may hit with a little less force when shaking than a glass jar!  Also, I LOVE the round Christmas Coke bottles.  (I also love Coke...it's an addiction that I'm trying to break...I haven't had one in more than a week!) So, before Christmas, I bought many round Coke bottles to use for various Discovery bottles.  The round bottle works perfectly for our Starry Night bottle.  I just poured the contents from the jar into the bottle and added extra water to fill it up.

I know that most people glue the tops of their discovery bottles so that the kids don't open them with disastrous consequences, but I've never done this.  So far (going on 4 years), the girls have never opened a bottle.  I like to have the option of pouring out the contents and using the bottles for something else, which is why I don't glue them.