Calming Glitter Jars

So by now I'm sure many of my mommy friends have seen the "calming glitter jars" all over Pinterest and Facebook. I was intrigued by them because we've been going through some pretty epic tantrums and while timeouts work, everyone is pretty riled up afterwords from all the crying (ok...me mostly). I wanted to try this idea during timeouts to see if we could cut back on the dramatics during and after timeouts. I knew before I started googling that I did not want to use mason jars because I could already envision glass shards and glitter coating my walls, floors, etc.  I read 100s (no exaggeration) of blogs, tutorials, and sites all claiming to have the best way to make calming glitter jars out of water bottles.  Each of these "best recipes" would be followed by dozens of commentators stating it didn't work for them for x, y, z reason. I settled on this version http://spoonful.com/crafts/calming-glitter-bottle and it worked perfectly the first time around! This version doesn't specify the actual kind of water bottle used but I will tell you after buying Aquafina, Smart Water, and a couple different generics that the 16.9oz Smart Water was the best. The plastic of this bottle was sturdier and once I peeled and cleaned off the label goo the bottle was crystal clear. I got all my other supplies on Amazon and Alex and I did the two bottles in under 10 minutes!

Sooooo the result? I have to say our first go with them had me thanking all that was holy because Emma (of course she would be the first in timeout) was mesmerized, quiet during time out, then got up and kissed me after. Uhhhh what? It's a fluke I tell myself, the novelty will wear out. However, so far these little glitter bottles seem to be working wonders for us. In our house, once they're sent to timeout I place the shaken up bottle on the table in front of them and they sit and watch all the glitter fall to the bottom. When all the glitter is at the bottom (a couple minutes) they let me know and that's the end of timeout. No one is worked up after timeouts anymore and I can get things done during timeouts instead of standing guard to make sure they aren't flinging themselves off the chair or banging their head against the wall (oh the joys of toddlerhood). So now I join the ranks of calming glitter jar believers :-)

Tantrums seem to be prevalent first thing in the morning around here...