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DIY Sand Timer – Even though most children these days have cell phones and iPads and are more tech literate than a lot of adults, they can still enjoy getting their hands dirty with a new craft every now and then.  One particularly fun project that you can work on with your kids is to put together 30 minute hourglass sand timers using a few very simple materials.

So if you can convince them to put those video games down for just half an hour, you can have them help you gather the following materials and get started:

• Two empty plastic water bottles
• Scissors or a knife
• Strong masking tape
• Drill or business card hole punch
• Sand

Cut water bottles down to five inches each.

If your bottles are bigger than five inches, you can cut them down to size with your scissors or knife.  Just cut a few inches out of the middle of the bottle and attach the top and bottom portions with the tape.

Puncture a bottle cap.

You can do this using a drill or business card hole punch.  Discard the other cap.

Add sand.

Fill one of the bottles roughly three-quarters of the way with sand and twist the punctured cap on.

Tape bottles together.

Put the mouth of the empty water bottle directly on the mouth of the other one.  Use your masking tape to attach them to one another.  The more tightly you bind them, the better and more durable your sand timer will be.

Start timer!

Flip your new craft over and watch the sand flow downward into the empty bottle.  Repeat this process as many times as you like.

There is one last step, of course: get your child to stop using the timer on his or her cell phone in favor of this ancient timing method.  It should be pretty easy, right?

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