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I was talking to my brother a few weeks back when he told me about this new bottle-flipping thing that his students were doing (he is the principal at a local charter school and apparently they’ve been doing this for months). I had never heard of it. I kid you not that around two hours after we talked, I heard this ‘thump…. thump…. thump…’ noise coming from right outside of our garage.

Our ten-year-old son was trying his hand at flipping a bottle.

A boy kneeling on the driveway flipping a bottle of water with text above him.
The next night, we went to a homecoming fundraiser that my brother had to attend at the school where he worked. If you look around, you would easily see 15 kids flipping bottles all at once.

So, I asked on my Facebook page and the responses were quick and in the hundreds: “MY kids are doing it!” “What? MINE, too!!!” and “IT is driving me crazy!”

Turns out they are flipping bottles everywhere & anywhere. Tonight, our kids went to a color-run charity event and my husband said that during the race (he ran it with our oldest son), he passed about 25 kids flipping bottles while watching the runners. The new craze has officially taken over.

Why?

It’s simple- it is always accessible, it is a skill you need to master & the payoff is immediate.

A boy kneeling on the driveway flipping a bottle of water with text above him.

It started in our town with Michael Senatore, but apparently, it has made itself to every other state & even other countries. Michael flipped a bottle for a talent show, when he didn’t have an idea of what to do:

Turns out it was a hit and it took over… people everywhere (even the guys of Dude Perfect) are trying their hands at it:

 

The good news- there are a lot of benefits to it:

WHY IT’S A GOOD THING: 

  •  Understanding (and teaching) the science behind it:

    water bottle flipping
  • Encourages kids to get outside.
  • Helps with fine motor skills.
  • Increases focus, attention span and patience.
  • Great way to unwind & relax.bottle-3
  • Encourage positive interaction among adolescents, because they CHEER for one another.
  • They drink more water!  (“You can flip it after you drink half.  When it lands, drink the other half”)
  • Entertain themselves
  • They try new tricks & try to think of ways to beat their own record.A young boy kneeling on a driveway flipping a bottle of water.

And of course… a few rules don’t hurt:
1. No flipping at school (I’ve heard milk cartons are being flipped)
2. You can’t dump out water just to flip the bottle.  You have to drink it.

Happy Flipping… think of  it as the new Hacky Sack 🙂  Just another way to let loose…

water bottle flipping

In the meantime, if you would like to sign up for my FREE parenting course (I’ll email the course to you) and grab this free one-on-one time calendar,just click on it & I’ll get it over to you ASAP.

A close up of a calendar on a white background.

You might also like this post about our ‘tween’ getting older… and how it seems that all of that “hard work” when they were younger is paying off…:
It’s all worth it.
all worth it

And this one is a favorite…
Will you lay with me?

Mommy, will you lay with me

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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14 Comments

  1. It all makes sense now. I teach middle school and they’ve been driving me nuts with this. Standing at the front of the room talking and thump, thump. Yes, please leave the bottle flipping OUTSIDE of the classroom.

  2. OH my dear!!! I had no idea this was happening… I guess having a four year old I won’t… How fun and entertaining though… The Dude Perfect video made my morning… I need there energy at this hour lol. Thanks Becky!

  3. My boys were bottle flipping this summer at our church and one of them flipped it up and it landed right in the bottle holder spot in the pulpit. About 20 teenaged boys suddenly erupted in cheering and nearly scared a bunch of us half to death!

  4. My 14 year old is doing this constantly. Showed my 10 year old daughter and my 8 year old son, plus the neighbors. Driving me nuts but it could be worse. 🙂 Guess now I have your post to use for science/physics/math/gym home school..haha

  5. My dad refuses to let me do it because he doesn’t like the sound and I feel left out from all the kids at school. He literally searches the house when I’m doing it just to tell me to stop. HELP!!!

  6. Bottle flipping has become an international trend that began when Michael Senatore first did it at his school talent show and ever since the bottle flipping craze has begun but, my question is why so many teachers and parents are so strongly against it? The way I see it we should all be happy that kids are doing an activity that involves more movement than just one’s thumb across the screen of a phone and one that uses logic and involves using your brain. Children are finally learning about how the centre of gravity doesn’t move if it’s at the middle in a way that interests them and motivates them to learn more about science and gravity. Another great thing about the bottle flip is that it’s one of the marks 2016 has made on history, it may sound like a long shot but think about it. For example the 80s made its mark through the rubix cube, breakdance and disco dancing which now and in the future will always remind us of the beloved 80s. So, we mustn’t let the trend die out just because we aren’t big fans of the splashing sound it makes when flipped. I’m sure many adults don’t find bottle flipping very useful or productive, instead they find it silly and immature but, look at it through a kids eyes. You’ve got nothing to do and you’re just sitting miserably and drinking water out of an old plastic bottle with nothing to do, it gives you an easily accessible activity to do and entertain yourself with or you’ve been working hard all day in school and now you finally have some time to relax yourself and forget about all that exhaustion so you skillfully flip the bottle and listen to the soothing splashes it makes before satisfyingly making a perfect landing on its base. Speaking of skillfully another astonishingly amazing thing about the beloved bottle flip is that you need a minimal amount of skill to actually achieve the goal of the activity. So, kids who feel untalented or good for nothing can often gain loads of confidence just by simply flipping a bottle over and over again. It also promotes competitivity and an urge to be the best which could really pay of in the future since the child will have an outgoingness and determination to be the best at what they do and using that urge could someday make millions. With all that said think it over once again is bottle flipping really that bad?

    1. I’m convinced that ‘we’ adults only dislike it because it is noisy and distracing. I’m a teacher and that’s the problem, it is distracting when I’m involved in instruction and to students who are working. It is fine outside or during free time. Kids love to do things that show a physical skill and that’s what it is!