I Spy Jar

When I taught primary school a few years ago,

I SPY

books were all the rage.

Sweetpea and I recently discovered them at our library and we love poring over the pages looking for all kinds of tiny treasures.

I was especially thrilled when she pointed out the first letter of her name to me recently as we were looking at page with colourful beach paraphernalia.

I have seen so many versions of this idea on the web lately, and had been itching to make one for my two.

I finally got around to it over the Easter weekend and it's been a hit eversince!

We used a large, clear plastic spaghetti jar that I bought at the plastics shop for R13.

I then collected all kinds of little treasures to put in. Because our jar was nice and big, I could also add a few larger pieces, like the yellow cat, so that ArrowBoy could easily find it by rolling the jar around on the carpet.

I took a photo of everything I was going to put in, so that Sweetpea could use it as a reference when she wanted to play with it on her own.So far she has been quite happy just exploring.

We then added a bag of rice, and our I Spy jar was ready! On the first afternoon I played with it more than the children - it is great fun searching for the smaller things hidden in the rice!

A small

banana shaped button

has proven hardest to find,

so there are squeals of delight whenever one of us spot it!

(can you spot the plastic fork?!)

Pink and Green Mama (click on the link to visit her blog) took this a step further and made a stunning rainbow rice version, while Mama Jen put an educational twist on her alphabet I Spy jar. The possibilities seem endless, so let me know what you come up with for your little ones!