We received quite a surprise a few weeks ago when found out James had two loose teeth! I wasn't expecting this for another year or so as he just recently turned 5 years old. I suddenly realized I needed to put my tooth fairy hat on and plan out something special.
There are tons of cute tooth fairy pouches and boxes on Etsy, but I decided to make my own. I made this little pouch out of felt. It took my all of 10 minutes to do it, thanks to my handy dandy glue gun!
I modified the tooth chart provided in this post and made a booklet out of it, printing out a sheet for each tooth to be lost. James will color in which tooth he lost and write in the other information which includes the date, his age, and how the tooth came out. I thought this would make a fun keepsake.
I reached out all of you lovelies on Facebook asking what the going rate was for teeth. When I was little it was a whole quarter lol! I received a wide variety of responses - everything from $1 to a whopping $20. I think the majority of folks give $1-$2, with the first lost tooth bringing in a bit extra. Someone even had the lovely idea to give books instead of money!
Since James lost both of his teeth within 5 minutes of one another, we decided to give him two $2 bills (Bermuda has $2 bills as a part of their currency). We also included an old keepsake of my husbands - a silver dollar coin from the 1970's. He also received a letter from the tooth fairy (I used this one as a guide and altered it to fit our needs), and a little gift (some angry birds wall decals from our in-home store).
Going forward we'll give him $2 per tooth, and a collectible coin. No other gifts or letters. We just did that because it was the first loss. :)
Now... what to do with the teeth that have come out... does anyone know the best way to store these little guys? What do you do when your children lose their teeth?
There are tons of cute tooth fairy pouches and boxes on Etsy, but I decided to make my own. I made this little pouch out of felt. It took my all of 10 minutes to do it, thanks to my handy dandy glue gun!
I modified the tooth chart provided in this post and made a booklet out of it, printing out a sheet for each tooth to be lost. James will color in which tooth he lost and write in the other information which includes the date, his age, and how the tooth came out. I thought this would make a fun keepsake.I reached out all of you lovelies on Facebook asking what the going rate was for teeth. When I was little it was a whole quarter lol! I received a wide variety of responses - everything from $1 to a whopping $20. I think the majority of folks give $1-$2, with the first lost tooth bringing in a bit extra. Someone even had the lovely idea to give books instead of money!
Since James lost both of his teeth within 5 minutes of one another, we decided to give him two $2 bills (Bermuda has $2 bills as a part of their currency). We also included an old keepsake of my husbands - a silver dollar coin from the 1970's. He also received a letter from the tooth fairy (I used this one as a guide and altered it to fit our needs), and a little gift (some angry birds wall decals from our in-home store).
Going forward we'll give him $2 per tooth, and a collectible coin. No other gifts or letters. We just did that because it was the first loss. :)
Now... what to do with the teeth that have come out... does anyone know the best way to store these little guys? What do you do when your children lose their teeth?~Thank you for your comments!~
ahhh James looks so big with a hole in his grin! I wasn't expecting anything either for another year or more since Sammy got his teeth late.. But last week at the dentist they told me that his two bottom teeth were loose! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! So sweet. I really like the idea of leaving a collectible coin in addition to a small amount of real money. My husband was a coin collecter growing up- so I think he will definitely love this idea as well!
ReplyDeleteLove it...you're always so creative. It's obvious you love what you do; you're a great mommy/teacher.
ReplyDeletethis is adorable! only a few barely lose teeth in my six year old so hopefully i still have time to make one. thanks for all your interesting posts!
ReplyDeleteMy son lost his two bottom teeth 2 months before his 5th birthday. When we went to the dentist a few weeks later, they discovered his 6 year molars were coming in as well. We gave him $2 a tooth, but Grandma gave him $5 for the first tooth. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea! Thanks for sharing... My son is only 2 1/2 so we have a while but this post will be saved in one of my Pinterest folders for safe keeping until the time comes. I remember stumbling across some of my old baby teeth my mother had saved. I was a teen at the time so it wasn't a big deal but I thought it was weird because almost all of them had split in two. Not sure why but it will be interesting to see what ideas people have when "preserving" their children's baby teeth because clearly my mom did it wrong.
ReplyDeleteLove the little tooth booklet to fill out! With our first child, I saved his first few teeth but by the time we'd had six kids, the thought of keeping all those teeth was pretty ridiculous so we just toss them now. The child puts it under their pillow for the "tooth fairy" (who then disposes of the tooth). Teeth are one thing I have never regretted not keeping. Btw, we do a golden dollar for each tooth lost.
ReplyDeleteWe only saved the first tooth and put it in his keepsake container (just Google Mudpie Prince Tooth/Curl and it should come up (we have the Princess version for our daughter also). We discarded the other teeth after the first one.
ReplyDeleteMy girls teeth shattered within 24 hours of coming out of their mouths. I'm not sure you can really save them. If you find a way to preserve them, let me know, we've only lost two each so have a ton more to go.
ReplyDeleteMy mom saved ours in a tackle box/tool drawers thing with other keepsakes (4 kids so we each had a drawer.) She also had our first haircut hair in there, umbilical cord clamp, all the squicky gross stuff.
ReplyDeleteI used my lost teeth in a science fair experiment testing which drinks stained them the worst, by soaking them in different drinks for a week, then splitting them open to see how deep the color went. :)
First gift was a game and letter for his 2 teeth which were MIA. Next will be money, an Euro I think. Tooth fairy explained this in letter that she usually gives money but had a special gift for first two teeth. I wrote a letter to the tooth fairy saying he could not find his two teeth.
ReplyDeleteIn Germany there is a "Zahndose" box for the teeth. http://www.baby-markt.de/Markenhersteller/Coppenrath/Prinzessin-Lillifee/COPPENRATH-Milchzahndose-PRINZESSIN-LILLIFEE-2.html?campaign=froogle/Markenhersteller/Coppenrath/Prinzessin-Lillifee
http://www.yatego.com/kullertrulla/p,4fd9b324d51cb,4500183e1cbfb5_2,spiegelburg-30169-milchzahndose-capt-n-sharky?sid=05Y1342909874Y1ca9a660c038667cbe
What an adorable idea, I am so glad that Emily hasn't lost any yet so that I can work on putting this together for her. What a great way to remember the way each tooth fell out and the feelings she had when it happened.
ReplyDeleteHi Mari-Ann
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and your creativity is inspiring. Even though I don't have a blog I make sure to pass along links from your website to my friends in our home-school group and we all enjoy your ideas.
I saw this post and loved the idea and I wanted to ask if you wouldn't mind sharing the file you created for the teeth booklet.
Thanks so much