Calming Activity - Bottle Buddies

One of the suggestions our O.T. made for Conner, was to make a bottle buddy as a calming activity. It's the same idea as a lava lamp - watching the gloops, plus being able to move them himself, should help him transition into quiet activity. For Conner it works amazingly well, and had I not seen it with my own eyes, I may not have believed that this works for him.

Mary had been pushing him harder one afternoon, to the point that he was crashing hard on everything in the room and was moving too fast; on the verge of losing control. Mary pointed out the bottle she had made, and he immediately lost interest in running and crashing, laid down on the floor, captivated by the sparkles in the bottle. I watched his body relax as he went into a state of total calm that sustained right through the 10 minute chat that Mary and I had regarding the session.

I've seen several variations, and if you google it, I suggest using wave bottles as search terms. I don't use mine in the home, but as a buddy in the car. Both children now have one that they decorated themselves and leave in the van. Instead of poking and prodding each other, they fidget with their bottle buddies. They do need reminders, and we do make sure to get excited about what they see inside their bottles. My husband and I noted an immediate change in our longer rides; there is alot less fighting or discontent. For us, that's a great improvement; it had become a chore just to drive to the store because of the fighting. The problems in the back seat felt out of our control because nothing we had been doing seemed to have a lasting effect.

The bottles are also great for heavy work activities, like bowling: Have the child set up the pins, knock them down, and then reset them up. We have been doing this outside with a soccer ball.

So, click the link above for your own ideas, and I've listed my own recipe/variation. I think the most important thing here was to make sure the kids were involved on every step - so that they feel the pride and ownership in their own bottle buddies.

Using empty water bottles (different sizes), I filled each with:
1/4 white corn syrup
1/4 baby oil (or olive oil)
1/2 water (leave some room at the top for displacement from beads etc)

added: sparkles, beads, shiny things -- I bought little packages from the dollar store and laid it all out for the kids to choose. I also added food coloring - but I controlled this as a couple drops goes a LONG way!

When everything is done - I lined the cap with silicone and screwed it back onto the bottle. Voila! Spill proof! So far prying fingers haven't tried to take the cap off - but I do watch closely.