Super Easy Piggy Bank

Hello everyone! I hope all of you up north are finding ways to keep warm while all of that cold and snow continues to come your way. Down in FL, we cool down significantly, but it's nothing compared to some of the subzero temps I've been hearing about. Still, the constant change in weather from warm and humid, to cold and dry in just a matter of days (sometimes hours) means colds are everywhere. I'm currently dealing with my 3rd cold in a row in 3 months. The last two left me with pink eye so I'm PRAYING I avoid it this time around. Lots and lots of hand washing! Good news is, Josiah's cold is not much more than a runny nose, and he should be getting antibodies from me when he nurses. Gotta love breast milk! Seriously, this child has been sick only a handful of times in his almost 2-years and they have never been bad!

Ok ok, enough about boogers and breast milk. I'm here tonight to share with you a super simple little creation that is sure to keep your littles busy for at LEAST 5 whole minutes! It's especially fun for closer-to-one-year-olds, more than closer-to-two-year-olds, as I'm now discovering.

All you need is a container. It can be any container with a lid and a slit cut into it. I happened to have LOTS of baby wipe containers around, Huggies (affiliate link) work better since the opening is more of a slit and it is made of a soft plastic/rubber. You will also need "coins." They can be bottle caps, lids, anything really. During one of my walks through the Dollar Tree, I found some oversized coins (pennies) in the party favors section. They were perfect!

When I first introduced this to Josiah, I had a quiet busy baby for almost 20 minutes. He had to work pretty hard to get the coin aligned just right with the slot, otherwise it wouldn't fit inside. This has been a "calm down" toy for quite a while. I'd pull it out when I needed him to sit still beside me while I  worked on other things around the house.

Now Josiah and Lily each have one and about 15 coins between them. It isn't AS engaging for them like it used to be now that they have pretty much mastered how it works. So instead, it's become an instrument! When dropping the money into the container loses it's charm, the kids shake the container and love the sounds it makes. One coin sounds very different than 15 or more coins.

This toy also encourages counting and sorting as well! I'll often hear Josiah mumbling his numbers while doing this. He doesn't know them as well as he knows his ABC's but he does know 2 and 7 ("feven") pretty well :). One day, I went to clean up after him playing with this and noticed only silver coins on the table. I opened the box and saw only brown ones inside. This was something he did all on his own too as he never really pays attention to me when I try to show him how to sort anything. I sent the pic below to his dad who may or may not be slightly OCD himself, in a good way of course!

All in all, I say this was a win. It did it's job of helping with some fine motor skills for Josiah, and now that the kids turned them into shakers, it makes me even happier that this "baby toy" still serves a purpose!

If you're looking for a toy like this with all the "bells and whistles," the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn: Learning Piggy Bank (affiliate link) has great reviews and is super adorable!!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission if you purchase through them. Thanks for your support!!

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God Bless and Keep warm!