Katrina and her two daughters live in North Wales in the United Kingdom. She made these great alphabet milk bottle tops with her kids and is now telling us all how she did it…

How did you do it?

First, you need to save all your milk bottle tops! My tip is to ask family and friends to save them too, to get quicker!
I used 52 as I doubled up on the alphabet for the double letter words.
I printed the letters and cut them out to stick on the milk bottle tops – 1 letter per cap (or you could put 2 letters per cap when working with phonics – i.e Sh, Ch, Ee, Ow, etc,)

I used sellotape so the paper was protected Ideally Mod Podge or sticky back plastic would work better – however, I had neither in the house, but sellotape is doing the job.

In our house, we use the Alphabet Milk Bottle Tops to help my 5-year-old with her spellings and use them to help her with her phonics.

Any tips?

I suggest printing or writing the letters on paper and then sticking them to the milk bottle tops as I found marker pen wiped off and didn’t stand out very well.
Also if you have it in mod podge or sticky back plastic use this to cover the lids – if not, sellotape is working just fine.

What’s your next project idea?

Seeing as the Alphabet Milk Bottle Tops have kept my daughter entertained, our next task after saving enough lids is to make Numbers and mathematical symbols to help with maths tasks.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your family…

My name is Katrina and I’m a single parent to 2 daughters Mollie aged 8 and Maisie aged 5. We live in North Wales.

How are you finding being housebound with kids so far?

We as a family are coping a lot better than I thought we would. I cried on the day the schools closed as I was worried about the uncertainty. I was also worried about how I would cope with being cooped up at home constantly with the children, as we live in a 2 bedroom apartment with limited outdoor space. My daughters are also very involved with out of school activities so we are normally only home to sleep!

Any tips to help people when they are housebound with kids?

For us, I found routine has kept us all sane. As I mentioned we normally have a busy weekly schedule and we all know the weekly routine. So, while we have been housebound we have kept schooling to 9-3 Monday – Friday, keeping to the same break times as they would be in school. (We did stop for the Easter holidays).

Has the Housebound with Kids community helped you?

The community has helped me by giving me lots of ideas with the various activities people are posting. This is helping me keep my children interested in schooling at home.