Scent Bottles

Sweet Pea had a great time with these scent bottles.  I have forgotten where I originally saw this idea, but when I went searching for it again, I found a good description at MontessoriMom.  Essentially (E-scent-ially, hah!), you make up bottles that contain different smells.  There are two of each scent and your tot is supposed to try to match them.

I have wanted to do this for a while, but didn’t know what to use for containers.  A few days ago I found the perfect bottles at Penzey’s Spices.  I bought  6 empty spice bottles (shaker jar A).  Since the ultimate goal is to have the child be able to match scents, you only need half as many scents as bottles.  I chose 3 that I just happened to have around the house (Truffle oil, Lavender, and Vanilla) and put a few drops of each on 2 cotton balls.  I dropped each cotton ball in a bottle and then added a teaspoon of vegetable oil to each.  The spice jars are really nice because they have shaker lids to keep the cotton balls from falling out (read: being forcible removed by a curious toddler).

Sweet Pea never understood the concept of ‘pairing’ up the similar odors, but she spent at least an hour unscrewing the lids, smelling the contents and putting the lids back on.  I tried to tell her the name of each scent, but she called everything she smelled ‘truffle’.  She loved this activity so much, we did it again the next day for another 15-20 minutes.

From the Trenches: These are glass bottles, so obviously this activity needs to be super supervised.  Also, I really don’t think I’ would do this in bottles that don’t have spice jar style (shaker) caps under the lids.  I am sure that Sweet Pea would have gotten oil all over herself and my furniture without them.

Rating: 3 Stars (Easy, Fun, Independent)