5 posts tagged “children's projects”
Ethan's recent study of dinosaurs at school ended with a "fiery" volcano. Today we replicated the experiment at home. Very easy. Very fun.
1. Put sand in a pan. (Or, go in the backyard!)
2. Put 1/4 cup baking soda in a can.
3. Put the can in the pan. (Or, place the can on some dirt in your backyard!)
4. Make a secret mixture. Measure one cup of water and mix in 3/4 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup dishwashing liquid.
5. Add 10 drops of red coloring.
6. Stir the secret mixture.
7. Pour it into the can and make a volcano!
(Please note that silly ole' cat in our pics. Since Christmas this cat, that Ethan dubbed "Welcome Home Kitty", enjoys hanging out in our yard. Today she got to join in on our experiment.)
What's not to love about October? I love the fall season and although I don't experience the full gamut of this gorgeous season I do love what I can get. Do you know that the first time I saw fall leaves was during college? And as a side note, the first time I saw snow was also during college. Growing up in South Florida didn't allow for much exposure to the fourth quarter of the year.
For October festivities we welcome pumpkins, spiders, bats, and candy corn- Brach's only please and preferably those cute little pumpkins. Ethan requested that he and Jack be "Super Brothers" so I am in the midst of making their costumes. This week we painted baby pumpkins and the boys made spiders complete with fangs and a web made out of pipe cleaner. Their creation is currently being displayed in our kitchen.
While the end product of our creative corner creations are fun, I must admit that the road to the said end product can be rather colorful- and I don't mean using crayons and markers! Tears and impatience are usually involved and while I try to keep my cool and cheerfully remind all parties involved, "Hey, we're suppose to be having fun here!", I often feel my blood pressure rise a bit. Case in point. During our spider adventure Jack started crying because he was scared. "Bug, Bug, Bug!!!!" He kept repeating, which I know from him seeing the real thing, means he is scared. I then put the spider away and distracted him with a tongue depressor to color in which he started crying again, "Bug, Bug, Bug!!!!" Deciphered this time that he was upset I had taken away the spider in the first place.
This has been a great week for us. Nate has been traveling quite extensively for the past month or so and while he was due to return this evening (Thursday) he actually returned Tuesday night giving us much needed family time. I love watching the boys with their daddy while their little tanks get filled to overflowing with wrestling and "guy" time.
Jack is becoming quite verbose. Today's new word is "brery" for library. One of his recent favorite expressions is saying "home",with such sweet inflection, as we pull up into the driveway. Ethan can be quite the rascal when expressing his sense of humor. I'll leave you with a few "out of the mouth of babes" stories for you:
I asked Ethan what he ate for snack at church school the other morning. His response, "Boobies!" Oh, my.
We were reading a book the other night about different animals loving something. Instead of the mouse loving cheese Ethan read to me, "Mice love boobies." Oh, dear.
Singing the hokey pokey the other day I caught Ethan with this version. "Put your phalanges in, put your phalanges out, put your phalanges in... put your mandible in, put your mandible out..."
We were first introduced to Magic Nuudle at Ethan's school last year. It really is a fun project to do at home with the kids. I have seen this product sold at Hobby Lobby as well.
It's been hit and miss with this quest for non-boxed snack foods. A sure loser- Quick Apple Bread. A sure winner- Honey Milk Balls (Ruth Yaron- Super Baby Food). There are only four ingredients and it's a no bake item as well. I believe they taste similar to the yummy middle of a Buckeye. It yields 25 balls and I store them in a container in the fridge. Before you eat let them sit out for a few minutes!
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup ground rolled oat flakes (oatmeal)
Mix all ingredients (very well) and shape into balls. It's that easy!
This morning I asked Nate what I should do with the boys today. He said to do body drawings with a roll of butcher-like paper he has in the garage- and that is what we did this morning. Jack wasn't too excited about the whole project. He was more interested in pouring the crayons out of the bag. Ethan loved having his body outlined on the paper and proceeded to color in blue legs and green hair. A few tears were involved in our arts and crafts time but overall we had fun.
Yesterday we made good ole' fashion peanut butter cookies and threw in some milk chocolate and peanut butter chips for good measure. Ethan made most of the cookies- you should see his fork technique when making the criss-cross pattern on top! He is becoming quite the little baker and big helper.
Peanut Butter Cookies
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. margarine
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla
Cream sugar and margarine. Blend in peanut butter. Add egg. Stir in rest of ingredients. Roll into 1 inch balls, dip in sugar, and place on cookie sheet. To flatten, use a fork. Bake 350 for approx. 10 min. or golden brown. Yields 40ish cookies (depends on dough consumption!)
I am trying to be more intentional and purposeful with the children's activities throughout the week. We have a good daily routine and I do love being "on the floor" with them playing but sometimes I feel like we do the same old thing and I also don't just want to fill the days up with "fluff". I am a firm believer that "fluff" days are ok but I just don't want that to become routine. We have been rather busy with fun summer activities but I am trying to be more creative in the home front and provide meaningful and engaging activities at home- thus a good reason we started Tasty Tuesdays and now a new addition... Creative Corner- an experiment of sorts!
Before I go on any further with today's experiment, I just wanted to say that I enjoy sharing our home moments with you. Many readers of Knight and Pumpkin are moms like me who perhaps are trying to come up with creative things to do with their children too- so that is one of the reasons I share these sometimes silly but always memorable "tidbits" with you! We are in this together!
Without further ado... the unveiling of today's Creative Corner...brought to you by Ethan, Jack, and their mamma....
Milk Rainbow
What you need: 2% milk, saucer, food coloring, liquid dish detergent
1. Pour enough 2% milk into a saucer to cover the bottom
2. Add 4 to 8 drops of different colors of food coloring to the milk, placing the drops on separate areas of the milk. Nothing happens yet.
3. Add 1 drop of dish detergent. Watch as the food coloring swirls and mixes. (it is actually pretty cool!)
The oily fat molecules in the milk won't combine with the watery food coloring. When the detergent is added, the oily molecules break up, and the food coloring can move and spread.
We had a fun time and even Jack seemed impressed!
