At 9 months old Baby S is all about sounds and music. She loves to dance to her sisters tune. This is so much fun to watch and Big S loves to make the baby dance. She will relentlessly come up with new sounds and new music to keep the baby entertained. One such was her bead box. I walked in on them rattling the bead box – (which by the way was stuffed with beads, something that we don’t bring into our play room especially since baby loves exploring it with her mouth )- to make music and that’s when we decided -Let’s make some maracas. It would be something that Biggie can make and Smallie can enjoy.

Me : Girls – Can we make some maracas? That got her attention. More noise making stuff- clearly what we needed.

Big S loves music, it was something she could do and of course create some fine tunes and the baby can have her own musical toy ! It was a perfect thought.

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• Plastic cups
• Food coloring (Optional)
• Uncooked rice, pasta , oats and grits
• Glue
• Tape
• Permanent markers

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How we did it:

Big S and markers –  match made in craft heaven ! She got busy decorating the cups. We decided to draw on the insides of the cup , that way it keeps the babys mouth clean.

We also colored the grains and pasta, this was Big sisters’ idea so the baby will learn all the colors. What a wonderful thought ?

Once the all the decorating was done , we put all the grains and pasta we colored into the cups. I put some glue on the rim and Big S attached the other cup rim to rim( hand -eye coordination ). This gave us a snug fit before we used the tape it stick them together. We used Elmers glue, but if you feel the need to use a stronger adhesive, feel free to use hot glue or craft glue. Make sure its non-toxic as the end-user is a little person !

Give it a few minutes to dry then tape it up ! ( Use the time to clean up your work-space).

And that’s was it. We had some interesting maracas for Lil’S !

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Fine motor skills- 9 month old:

• Picking up the toy/object with forward and side reach
• Holding / Grasping the object
• Drop/Release the object- I drop it and you pick it ‘AGAIN’  game !!!!
• Transferring the toy from one hand to the other
• Rattle to make sound

Skills learnt- Preschooler

• Fine motor skills
• Learning by doing and through senses, building self-reliance
• Following simple directions
• Developing hand-eye coordination

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Big S loved the idea that she made something for her little sister and now it’s the best toy in the “Whole wide world” !

Note: As baby grows up he/she will get handsy and would very much try to pick at the tape and try to remove it. That again is great for developing fine motor skill – peeling of tape. But that’s when it is time to say bye bye to those homemade maracas.