From Trash to Tot Toy

Little Lady has a love/hate relationship with shape sorters. She loves the satisfaction of dropping the shapes and she really loves emptying the sorter out.  However, she hates that the shapes only fit in specific holes and that her chubby little hands have trouble lining them up correctly. It broke my heart to watch her get so frustrated so I decided make her a slightly simpler version of the toy.

Since I think it will only be a couple months before she's ready to master shape sorters I didn't want to spend any money and thus scavenged the house for supplies. 

10 milk caps, number stickers, scissors, x-acto knife, foam brush,
2 sheets of card stock, mod podge, and a small oatmeal container

I any didn't take pictures of myself putting the toy together but it was simple and only took about 10 minutes

1. use x-acto to cut a hole slightly larger than milk cap in lid of oatmeal container
2. place card stock over oatmeal container, mark the excess, and trim to fit
3. paint layer of mod podge on oatmeal container and on back of card stock
4. press cardstock smooth around oatmeal container
5. paint protective coat of mod podge over card stock
6. if desired place numeral stickers on milk caps

finished

She loves her new toy. It's the perfect size and seems to be just the right level of difficultly. She still has to work her fine motor muscles to maneuver the caps into the slot but doesn't get nearly as discouraged.  When she does get a little confused her brothers or I only have to demonstrate the technique for her once and then she insists on working independently again. She usually fills and empties the container several times before taking a break.  

happy little lady = happy mommy