Week 23 - Water bottle bubbles and multi-color volcanoes

In honor of school ending, I decided to have some fun things for the kids to do the last day of school for my son.  He is crazy about science, so I started with the multi-color volcanoes.  What kid doesn't like to watch something "explode" and bubble over?  Found this pin which led me to the blog Preschool Powol Packets.  We omitted the "sparkle" because I didn't plan ahead and get glitter.  :)  We took the small vase, cookie sheet, and ingredients outside to test it out. 

We started with one color at a time.  The kids really enjoyed seeing the foam bubble up as the color they chose.

After a couple times of that, they decided to mix colors to see what came out.  We had some interesting shades of brown and green.  The laughed each time at how the color mixed together, and even worked together on how to use the primary colors of food coloring that I had to make different colors.  Nice teamwork! :)

After that we moved onto the water bottle bubbles.  The pin was from the blog, Projects for Preschoolers.  I have to admit that I didn't check the blog out before making this project.  I just saw the picture on the pin and went from there.  I also just used bubble solution that I had at the house.  I had them each drink the small bottle of water first.  ( I have never seen my kids so motivated to drink plain old water!).  Once finished, I used one of our little razor knives from the tool box to cut out the circle in the bottom them gave them to the kids to have fun with.  I even made one for myself.  I discovered as my kids did, that it is a little more difficult that blow bubbles through a wand, but once you figure it out, it's not bad.  The kids loved how they were able to make big bubbles!

The kids enjoyed these fun little things that helped the afternoon pass by quickly!

Week 13 - Triumphs

Well this week I tried a couple different things from pinterest.  Some things turned out great, and others I will not try again.  Live and learn!  This post with contain the success stories, and I will put the learning experiences in the next post. This will be a longer post, so hopefully you don't get bored!  :)

Starting off with one of the successes!  I was invited to a shower last weekend that was put together by my church's associate pastor and his wife for a pregnant woman in their apartment complex whose husband is serving overseas and family lives out of state.  When they heard that she was about to deliver and had not yet had a shower, they threw together a fantastic shower for her and invited everyone in our church to come by to congratulate the mom to be and "shower" her with gifts. :)  I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out the diaper trike that I had seen on pinterest!  The pin lead me to the link, Maiden D'Shade.  It gave very easy instructions to follow.  The whole thing took about maybe 30 minutes start to finish.  Very easy! 

I started with the wheels.  I didn't have rubber bands as the original blog called for, but I had some stretchy ribbon that I used instead and just pinned it.

I then connected the wheels with the first rolled receiving blanket.  Instead of using yarn to connect the blanket, I just pinned it together.  I looped the second rolled receiving blanket through the front wheel and tied it together with some coordinating tulle.  I stuck a pacifier in to serve as the head light. :)

 To finish off the trike, I folded up the last receiving blanket into a small rectangle and pinned it to the top of the "tires" to serve as the seat. 

SUPER EASY!!  I would definitely do this again!  I would try and get the rubber bands for the tires next time to hold them a little tighter and just go over them with ribbon.  That is really the only change I would make.  Totally recommend this for a quick and cute shower gift. :)

Next success:

Chalkboard paint!  This was awesome and will be a regular part of our summer entertainment.  I am guilty of not going to the blog on this one b/c the pin had the directions listed, but I wanted to list the blog anyways to give credit where credit is due.  Plus, I like to go back and visit the blogs later as they usually have lots of other great ideas!  Domestic Charm served as the inspiration for this pin!

You simply mix 1 cup of cornstarch with 1 cup of water.  I did this in a Pyrex measuring cup.  I then poured it into a large 6 opening muffin tin.  One mixture of the solution filled 3 openings in the tin, so I made two batches.  Once in the muffin tin, I added the food coloring.  We took it outside, and the kids went to town.  They loved how it went on wet, but dried to look like chalk only seconds later, especially my science-nut son!  They stayed busy for about 45 minutes painting the driveway.  I even joined in on the fun! 

I had been worried about it possibly staining their clothes, but instead of absorbing into their fabric it seemed to bead up instead (not sure if b/c of the corn starch).  It also did not stain their skin either!  Great paint!!  It washed off the driveway easily with the hose a couple days later when I was watering the plants. 

Week 5 Part 1 - Making Colored Noodles and Rice

This week I decided that I wanted to be ambitious again and try out two different things.  One for the kids, and one for Valentine's gifts.  I started the week with a link that I found to make colored noodles and rice.  On the success of last week's cloud dough, I thought having some multi-colored rice buckets would be fun for the kids.  This pin on pinterest came from The Daily Buzz (http://www.thedailybuzz.com.au/2011/11/make-your-own_homemade_crayons_play-doh_chalk_fingerpaint/).  They had all kinds of great ideas for things to do with the kids.

I stopped by the store to get some rubbing alcohol, rice, and noodles.  My daughter and I found a bag that had three different kinds of noodles (shells, penne, and spirals).  I liked this b/c I can have her sort out the pasta by color then by shape.  It's two for one!  We set off home to dye our pasta. 

I was a little disappointed in myself not thinking to buy more food coloring when I discovered the only colors we had at home were yellow, red, and green.  We made due with what we had and started to mix the rubbing alcohol and food coloring (1 tsp. alcohol to how ever many drops of food coloring you want.)  I did this in a big measuring cup, so I could then just pour the rice or noodles on top of the food coloring mix up to the one cup line and stir.  It was a little harder than I anticipated to get all the mix throughout the rice and noodles and stirring took a little while.  I would let me daughter stir the first couple times, then I would take over to get it evenly distributed. 

 I did not have wax paper as the website suggested to let it dry, so I did foil instead.  We did this on the afternoon, and I let it dry overnight.  Some of the noodles were even a little tacky in the morning, so I let them sit a little longer. 

When my son got out from school, we broke out the rice and split it between two small buckets, so each kid could have their own.  They loved it once again!  I gave them some paper cups, measuring cups and spoons to play with.  They had a blast scoop, filling, and pouring the rice.  My son even put two cups together full of rice, tapped it on the side of the bucket then poured the rice out, saying he was pretending he was cracking an egg.  I loved it!!

The mess factor was bigger in the making of the rice and noodles (My daughter ended up with a stained elbow on her shirt from dipping it in red food coloring).  The mess factor from playing with the rice was minimal.  We kept it at the kitchen table, so it was easy to wipe off.  This was a great activity start to finish, and I like that I can put the rice in a plastic bag and save it for another time too!

Week 4- Part 2 - Cloud Dough

I used to be a preschool teacher before my kids were born, and I LOVED doing sensory tables in my classrooms.  We played with rice, water, sand, decaf coffee, and oatmeal, to name a few.  Since becoming a mom and and doing things in my own house, knowing I am solely responsible for cleaning it up afterwards, I resorted to cleaner things, like playdough for some sensory fun.  I came across this cloud dough on pinterest, and it peaked my inner preschool teacher interest.  I had my doubts b/c I had been sorely let down by moon dough.  The kids really didn't think it was that great, and I was not happy to be scrubbing tiny pieces of sand between the leaves on my kitchen table for weeks afterwards. That aside, I decided to go for it, and I am so glad that I did! 

This pin originated from the blog Juggling with Kids (http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2011/11/cloud-dough.html).  The recipe is very simple.  You just mix 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, and TADA!  You have cloud dough.  We pulled one of the containers off our shelf in the playroom to mix it in.  I would say plastic containers are the best for easy cleanup.  I am just going to stick ours in the dishwasher to clean it up. 

The kids helped mix the cloud dough together.  It was pretty easy.  You just need to really sift through and make sure there is no oil lurking in the corners.  It held up to its promise of being soft but very moldable.  We used cookie cutters, measuring cups, spoons, and small paper cups to play in the dough.  The kids made dough castles, dough cookies, and just dug around and played for almost an hour, when we had to stop them to get ready for dinner.  It was a success!!

The clean- up wasn't too bad.  The kids had to take showers afterwards anyways, so their clean-up was pretty easy too! :)  The only thing I might change for next time, is splitting the recipe in half and putting it into two containers, so they can each have their own, since there was a little squabbling at times over not being able to reach the dough.  Then again, this is a good exercise in sharing too!  One other change I would make is not having my daughter wear a long sleeved black shirt.  She was covered!! :)

Overall a great craft idea for the kids, and I think it might be good stress relief for adults too.  It was somewhat relaxing to mold the dough then crumble it then mold it again.  Ha!  We will definitely do this again.