Tutorial: Cool It Jar

Four and Five.  Yeesh.  Tempers abound around here - especially as the Chaos Twins have fully transitioned out of napping.  And I can say, when their tempers go, my temper goes, and it's a big ugly mess sometimes. 

I made something this morning that has *already* been a little life saver for me.  

The "Cool It" Jar.

You see, timeouts stopped working.  They'd use the timeouts to continue fighting with us. 

Us:  "alright, time out is over."
Chaos Twin: "NO ITS NOT!  I'm NOT LEAVING TIME OUT!"
Us  sigh

 The process is simple now.  We talked about how when our tempers are short or we are being brats, that it means our brains are all swirled and need settled, just like the glitter in the jar.  Whenever someone is acting out or needs a moment to chill before saying or doing something unacceptable, we grab the jar and give it a good shake and just watch it settle.  We take a few deep breaths and remind ourselves that our mind is calming down now too.  Beauty part?  It takes a while for the glitter to settle, about the time of our timeouts in fact.  And they will even give it a shake and watch it again sometimes.

WORKS GREAT!  The Twins love it, and I have even caught myself giving it a shake at crucial moments.

Now for the tutorial

Materials:

• a jar of some kind.  I STRONGLY suggest a plastic one.  (we used the Costco sized tub of Nutella here)
• warm water
• Elmer's Glitter Glue (we used blue Elmers "Galactic Glitter with Space Debris)
• glitter of your choice (we used fine holographic and white chunky)
• food coloring
• e6000 adhesive 

Directions:

1. clean your jar and fill 2/3 full with warm water.
2. add a few globs (TBSP size about) of the glue).  allow it to sit for a minute or so.  Screw on the lid and shake it really well.  
3. If you want the water a brighter color, now's the time to add your food coloring.  1 drop does it usually!
4.  Allow any foam on the top to settle and carefully add more water.
5.  Sprinkle in more glitter.  Don't go crazy here, but a good amount.
6. Allow the water to cool.  Glue on the lid.  Allow to dry.
7. Watch your little ones become calm!  AWESOME!

We are making a couple more of these as gifts for our preschool teachers.  LittleMiss actually suggested it!  I plan to cut a circle of scrapbook paper to decorate the top and perhaps add a ribbon around the rim.  If you don't have the glitter glue around, you could try a glob of clear corn syrup or glycerin.  The basic idea is that you want to make the water thicker to slow the glitter down.  :)

Think it'll work for your kids/grandkids?  Let me know if you make one, I'd love to hear!

ps- this certainly isn't the most original idea out there.  my cousin posted something like it on facebook and i ran with the idea using what we had on hand.  :)