A Fine Motor Skills "Toy" Using Recyclables!

I'll admit it...

I am a bit obsessive about recycling and reusing.  I consistently fill up to recycle bins come garbage day, and get upset when I'm running out of room in the bins before garbage day comes.  I often pick and choose a few recyclables that can be re-purposed into something new and different with little to no extra work.  So I have plastic containers, milk caps, and other stuff in my laundry room on a dedicated shelf.

Several years ago while I was teaching, I discovered TerraCycle, and starting saving those juice pouches to send in and get upcycled (preschools go through a bunch of those!) and hated the idea of throwing out the straws.  So I just washed them really well and on the shelf they went.  How awesome is it that a big box of juice pouches leaves no waste?!

Fast forward to the other day when I was trying to come up with a simple toy for Curls to play with.  I grabbed the straws and an empty oatmeal container, and whala!!  Two minutes later I had a simple toy that worked on fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

 I just used the straw to poke a bunch of holes in the oatmeal container lid (it was thin cardboard, it didn't take too much work) and then gave the straws to Curls.  After showing him just two or three times how to put the straws into the holes to drop them in the bucket, he got the idea and eventually worked out how to do it himself!

Curls is just now 14 months old, and hasn't shown the least interest in doing anything with crayons or markers except tasting them, so this was a sneaky way to see how his skills were developing with hand-eye coordination.  It wasn't the least bit frustrating for him, and it kept him entertained for several minutes!  Any toddler mommies know how great that is!

The only thing that I'm going to do when I have a few extra minutes is paint the lid so that the holes are more obvious, but all in all a successful reuse that is educational!