Letter and Number Monster

UPDATE: D kept on choking on the milk caps. We eventually bought those plastic numbers and letters that can go on the fridge and store them inside the wipes container. For some reason D isn’t as tempted to eat these. Maybe round things are more appealing? This is definitely one of my Pinterest Fails (or as I like to call them, Reality Checks). Other Pinterest fails include finger painting activities and almost anything made of cardboard.

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Do you drink a lot of milk (or know someone who does)? Do you like recycling? Do you want a toy that will last longer than a few months? Then this is the project for you! I got the idea from the article “Feed the Alphabet Monster,” but tweaked it a little. I’ve been collecting milk caps for months to create the alphabet letters. Man-cub D is still in the biting stage, though, so I didn’t want to put labels on the caps only to have them chewed up. So I just wrote the letters in black sharpie. For the numbers I used Gatorade caps, and they are on the inside because the ‘G’ symbol on the outside made it hard for the sharpie to stay on.

I redecorated a wipes container by tracing the outline of the wipes label and writing the name on a new piece of paper, which I then attached to the box using a laminating sheet. The font for the name was inspired by KG Wake Me Up.

 

The great thing about this toy is that it can last from 9 months – 4 years! A baby can chew on the caps, a toddler can learn to drop them into the slot, and a pre-schooler can use them to practice spelling! I’m only to letter ‘N’ right now, but I should have the full alphabet by the end of the year.