Cotton Ball Races

It’s Day 21 of our 31 Days of Indoor Fun for Toddlers and our Cotton Ball Races activity was one that my 6-year old enjoyed far more than my toddler. With 31 activities, there are bound to be some that are just total flops for individual kids. I’m still including it, though, because I feel like it is a great fine motor activity to develop the small muscles in a child’s hands.

This was another serendipitous activity, as I was putting away the squeeze bottle that I washed after our Fizzing Snowflakes activity. I squeezed it in my face and noticed a pretty substantial puff of air. I remembered seeing Cotton Ball Races over at Meaningful Mama and decided a squeeze bottle might work in place of a nasal aspirator!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Squeeze Bottles

Cotton Balls

Painter’s Tape

1. Mark your starting and finish lines with painter’s tape.

2. Show your child how to squeeze the bottle to make the cotton ball move. Little Sister couldn’t quite get the concept that she was supposed to squeeze the bottle instead of moving it with its tip. :)

Little Brother, on the other hand, thought this activity was super fun and immediately jumped in!

Eventually I gave Little Sister a straw and had her blow through the end of it to make the cotton ball move. She was able to move it more easily this way…but she didn’t enjoy being on her tummy to do it. Oh well…we’ll try it again another time!