Mayonnaise jar and ketchup bottle fun!

Don't throw away your next empty jar of mayonnaise or your ketchup bottle--yes, they can be recycled, but before they hit the recycle bin, let's put them to use! Now, I can't take credit for the first one, but I am going to share with you. My friend brought an empty ketchup bottle to the park sandbox and turned it into a sand toy! Instantly all the kids were drawn to it and everyone wanted a turn to play with it. That small hole on the top keeps toddlers' attention because it's so small and requires a bit of patience to get enough sand inside to fill up the bottle! Kids can use their little hands to fill it up or use a shovel or cup. You can add more fun to it and use a funnel to fill it up, too. Plus, it's great for developing motor skills since they can also practice turning the cap to tighten it. The best fun comes when they can slowly dump out the sand, mimicking the slow ketchup that used to occupy that space.

My son Josh, like many kids, loves to play with water. Water will occupy his attention for hours. No joke. In the midst of creating new water toys for him, I stumbled on an empty mayonnaise jar (the plastic kind and the glass kind, though now I just use the plastic one) and let him use that to fill up with water. I gathered small cups with holes in the bottom (you know that kind, the bath toy cups that stack up and have various holes in the bottom) and placed them in the rim of the jar, so they rested nicely. Then when he adds water, the water comes out in 1-3 streams (kind of like a funnel-effect) to fill up the jar! Since the jar is clear, he also enjoys watching the water dribble or stream in!

I also began using his old baby sippie cups as sand toys and water toys instead of tossing them in the recycle bin. Hey, if he can get another round of use out of them, why not?