How to make butter with one plastic box

This is a simple, interesting and educational activity which also gets rid of excessive energy. I had never imagined that making butter would be so easy. B and I talked about food groups and where food comes from while we made it. Then we ate rye bread and fresh butter when we had finished. It was possibly the best butter I have ever tasted, and all we needed was a secure box!

I had the idea on a morning when my lovely little three year old was running from wall to wall in our apartment, clearly with a lot of energy to expend. I thought dancing around with a box would give him a goal. Then he had the idea to run with it, then we threw it a little, swung it on a scarf, and then he got bored and I was left to shake as I finished my coffee.

Closed Box

How to do it:
1. Find a box with a very very secure lid.
2. Pour in cream making sure there is enough room for it to slosh around. Ours was half full.
3. Shake the box until the butter forms.
4. Eat within 3 days, unless you wash all the butter milk out with lots of water. See link below.

Fresh Butter in Buttermilk

I think he didn't believe me when I said we were going to make butter out of cream. After he lost interest it was starting to get a little boring but then, all of a sudden, there was the butter floating around in the middle of the box. I was as excited as him as we opened the lid for a look and tasted it. It really was wonderful butter and we're going to be making it ourselves more often from now on. We also used the buttermilk in a cake the next day.


There is some useful information on this health food site about making butter. The direction are for making butter in a blender. There are also clear instructions for getting all the butter milk out so it lasts longer. We eat butter everyday and this homemade batch was so good it was eaten up in a couple of days.

Bananas and Knives

Some of the simplest activities involve food. It takes only a minute, or less, to put something in front of a child wanting to ‘help’ and you’re free for a few minutes at least, and if you’re really lucky you’ll get a whole half an hour to yourself.

Our favourite for a long time was a banana and a butter knife. He really enjoyed honing a skill he saw us doing daily. It works with anything soft enough to provide easy cutting for little hands. An over ripe kiwi provides lots of fun even without a knife. Tomatoes are great fun for exploring fingers.

Yes, there will be a little mess, but nothing a damp cloth can’t sort out in less than 10 seconds. You can wash clothes, utensils and hands easily too. Your child will probably eat most of the fresh healthy food so it won‘t go to waste. All in all a very worthwhile activity for your child to play and learn.

And sometimes he can't wait even to take the skin off!

Breaded Rabbit

I enjoy looking for new activities for us to do. There are so many creative ideas and fun activities. Recently we found our own - at the dinner table.

We were eating salad and bread. B held up a half eaten slice of bread.

"Rabbit" he said "Hopping rabbit". And he hopped it around the table, let it eat some lettuce and have a nap. Then he took a big bite from it!

Throughout the meal he made a swimming turtle, slithering snake and little pig. We talked about how they moved and ate. It made dinner very lively.

So although I love finding new activities to try out, it is even more enjoyable to watch B create his own games. We had a long conversation with lots of new words, ate lots and lots of healthy food and gave his imagination a little work out. Never say don't play with your food!