Did you know you can make your own carbonated water without dry ice? It's so easy. All you have to do is mix water, juice, or any other drink, and add equal portions of baking soda and citric acid. We mixed it with Tang a few months ago and it was tasty. It changes the flavor of the water a wee bit, so you don't want to add too much. Experiment until you find a good consistency. Apparently this is how everybody did it back in the 50's. It's a lost art, I guess.
In this video we mixed 1/2 teaspoon of each to the cylinder. We got the idea from Steven Spangler's
Big Bag Of Science.
About a year ago I created a PVC Pipe Activity for the kids, which has become a favorite toy. Recently we purchased a small pool for our kids to play in and we invented a new use for the pipes. Hey, they are actually made for transporting water, so we gave them a chance to do their job. To connect the pipes to our hose, I had to go back to Home Depot and purchase two adapters. One was an adapter for the hose to 1/2" pipe, and the other was an adapter from threaded pipe to smooth pipe. My siblings came over and we had a blast, but I forgot to take pictures and we had a hard time getting the sprinkler to work because there were too many loose ends. I went back to the store and bought eight end-caps and invited my siblings back so I could blog about it, haha.
The other thing that I did is to take my husband's drill and go to town on a few of the pieces.
I did a straight line on this one...
While I had the drill out, I also took a five-gallon bucket and recreated a game we played at Camp Hunt when I worked at a Boy Scout camp. I drilled several holes into the bucket. Then have several smaller buckets and you try to fill the bucket up as a team. Some dump water in, and others block the holes with their fingers and toes. Filling the bucket is nigh impossible, but it's fun to try. The smaller buckets had holes drilled into them too, so they are a fun thing to play with on their own. When we are done, we store all of the water toys in the big bucket.
I had many grand plans for celebrating Easter, and Easter came and went. Sure, the kids got to go to an egg hunt, and most importantly we had a great Sunday at church and at home, talking about the true meaning of Easter. But the Easter Bunny missed our house somehow, and in this context, I told my sister, "I'm a bad mom". My little brother, missing the conversation, said, "It's okay, Tamsyn, at least you're a good sister!" Haha, somehow that didn't help much, but his heart was pure.
There was one activity that we followed through on, and that was boiling and decorating eggs. We simply colored them with crayons, reducing the risk of messes, and eliminating the possibility of having to eat dyed eggs. I hate it when the dye goes through the shell! My husband decorated the cutest ones, including Humpty Dumpty.
This morning I decided that I am going to follow through and do the other activities that I had planned on doing anyway. The children will still love it- and they don't understand the calender well enough to know or care that I'm late anyway. Happy spring! Here is my idea bag: (titles are links)
Sugar String Easter Eggs
I need a good excuse to pop all of the balloons that are still floating around from Helen's birthday, and this is perfect!
Easter Candles
I have egg shells waiting for this project, although I hesitate to have candles around my little ones. I may or may not do this one.
Wheatgrass Easter Baskets
I tried to make these with the kids last year, but we used wheat that had been stored with an oxygen absorber, and they didn't sprout very well. I was excited to try again this year, but we are going to plant a garden this week instead.
So my point is, well I procrastinated. Life happens, and it's okay. Better late than never!
When we recently visited my in-laws for the weekend, they had a special surprise for my children. Three large cardboard boxes from the local appliance store! Each one was cut differently to make a play house, and the children loved it. We lay down a painting tarp for a make-shift carpet. On this side you can see the circle window and the front door. Note the hole for a door-nob.
Here is one of the natural windows for better lighting...
...but the pop-out windows were the kids favorite.
With proper parental supervision, the natural skylight was our baby's favorite feature.
And from the family archives, a year ago when we were moving, we got several boxes to pack our things in and immediately taped them into large empty boxes. The children spent hours playing with them, making forts, tunnels, and towers. Before they got too annoying, they were filled with household goods and packed away, much to the dismay of our then-two-year-old.
People often joke that the best part about expensive Christmas presents are the boxes that they come in. There may be some truth in that. The children will wear it out before you tire of it, it's free if you are willing to do a little treasure hunting, and there are so many possibilities with a little imagination.
We were recently inspired by a local creative snowmen artist to get out there and make a snowman after our recent blizzard. Although we are not as creative as the man in the article, it was fun to come up with something for our snowman to do- read the newspaper. Here's the challenge: No more bored snowmen! Make them earn their keep. :o)
My husband has been making straw snakes with the kids lately. The straws are neon colored, and they came from the dollar store. He folded the straws on one end, and then pushed it in as far as he could into the open end of the next straw.
The coolest thing about the finished product is that the kids can blow bubbles with them in the bathtub, but they can't drink water with them.
Simple, yes, but lots of fun!
My mother must said these words a thousand times. I was a bookworm, and I spent much of my youth practicing as well. Granted, there were many hours spent in trees, hiking, and in playgrounds, and whenever I was outside I loved it. It just wasn't second nature to me to say to myself, "You haven't been outside today".
It still isn't, and my children suffer for it. Recently I stumbled upon this forum post about the Charlotte Mason method. It is important to have nature WALKS and not just nature talks. I realized that my children could gain much from this, and so I sent out an e-mail to our local homeschooling group and asked if there were other parents interested in doing nature walks for toddlers/preschoolers. There were! Now it is officially on our schedule to go outside, and it has been wonderful. Yes, it is sad that I have to schedule it, but at least we're going. I am glad that I was able to recognize this weakness of mine and to find a solution for it.
Yesterday we went to the Stokes Nature Center. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.
Dress them up warm!
What about the baby? I think he survived.
When we got to the nature center, they had a bird feeder and the children loved seeing these native birds from the window:
The next time your children spill wheat all over the floor and you don't want to eat it or waste it, try making your own search and find toy like we did.Although my little children like to look for individual items, this is more of a novelty item that our guests like to play with. We made extra and gave them away as gifts. There are 20 items.Some, like the nail and the penny, are really hard to find! Here is what we used:
1.toothpick
2.pawn
3.glow-in-the-dark star
4.push pin
5.a slice of straw
6.macaroni noodle
7.die (singular dice)
8.ladybug pendant
9.clear glass pebble
10.metal from a clothes pin (this one throws everybody off!)
I am the oldest of 11 and for Christmas my younger brothers completed a sewing project that they got from Washington Online, which they gave to my son for Christmas. My children have had a lot of fun with this toy. It has reinforced color and sorting. We have talked about big and small, and sorted the dinosaurs by size as well as by color. I wanted to highlight this project today and tell my brothers, good job! My siblings have had a lot of fun with the K-12 curriculum this year. Editors note: My youngest sister helped too. Thank you!
Recently I took my children to the playground and noticed that the kid table had built-in pictures and the ABC's, designed for crayon rubbings. Placing the blank sheet of paper over the pictures and rubbing a crayon on its side is the perfect activity for this environment.
Before the weather becomes to cold, I am going to take my children on a walk and let them gather nature items for the activity. The only real requirement for a good rubbing is that the items be relatively flat. A rock is usually not a good candidate, but leaves in all of their varieties are perfect. As a gradeschooler, I remember a special activity my mother guided us through, where we took a field book, identified 5 different trees, and then did crayon rubbings of their respective leaves.
There are also plenty of things that you can find around the house and in your community that will make great rubbings. Here are some ideas to get you started:
By creating beautiful school boxes, a local homeschooling family shares how they have helped their children keep their school books together. They learned that their children needed portable storage to match the migrating habits of their children throughout the day. Perfect solution!
Step 1: Locate a cardboard box that will fit the needs of the child. For the youngest, a cereal box was just right, but the older children had to do a bit more searching. These were made from shipping boxes.
Step 2: Trim off the top of the box to fit your needs. These boxes are just short enough to allow the children to see which 11" book they need. If desired, you can also trim one side of the box a bit lower than the other sides to increase visibility when the kids are digging for their books. If they plan on moving it around a lot, this could make the books fall out easier, so assess how the box will be used during this step.
Step 3: Design and paint! What are the children interested in? What is the function of the box? What colors would be appropriate? The boxes showcased here were painted with spray paint and tempera paints.
Step 4: Decorate! (optional). There are countless ways to do this. The children who made these boxes drew simple cartoons (some of them traced), cut them out and glued them to the box. They cut out paper and created mosaics, using different textures of paper to create interest. The sky is the limit! I am thinking I should make a couple of toy boxes and decorate it with pictures cut out of magazines reflecting the kind of toys that we will place in them. It will be fantastic if I get around to it…
I found another idea for making school boxes, which is more geared towards organizing paper work, but using similar ideas.
One of Peter's favorite Christmas presents was Moon Sand. Sand exploration is especially good for toddlers because, in addition to the sensory and creativity experience, it helps them develop finger dexterity. I loved the idea in a Montessori-related book, I Can Do It! I Can Do It! of putting sand in a large container like a cat-litter box, or in our case, a large Tupperware. This makes clean-up a breeze, because I just put the lid on it and we're done.
The moon sand is a fun product because it is mold-able, isn't sticky, and won't dry out, but really any sand would be just fine. I have seen play sand at the hardware store too. To make it mold-able, just spray it with water until you get the consistency that you want, and let them have at it. Things like muffin tins, ice cube trays, and plastic dishes can be added to the collection.
Dry sand has its own possibilities, as it can be sifted and poured. Dry sand is also fun to draw in with fingers.
Other fun ideas for sand would include
Burying toy dinosaurs and digging them out with brushes
The objective of the PVC pipe activity is to build free-standing structures in any way the children choose. What a fun way to build spatial reasoning skills!
For Christmas, one of the books I got was I can do it! I can do it! and ever since then I have wanted to do this activity. The total cost for the materials, including the bag to put them in and some marbles from the toy store, was less than $15.
Construction
I purchased two 10-foot 1/2" pipes because with the fittings, it was the cheapest way to do this project. One of the fun things to do with the finished product is to roll marbles though your structures, and most marbles would not fit in this size. We went to the toy store and bought 12mm marbles and they fit, but the 17mm did not. So in retrospect, I would perhaps recommend the 3/4", but I am not at all sorry we got the smaller size because it was cheaper, and we do have marbles that our kids can play with.I went through the tedious job of measuring and marking the pipes with a pencil before I cut them, but when I asked my husband how to turn the hacksaw on, his assistance proved who is the handyman in the house. He measured the size for the pipes and put a up a wood block. Then we cut the desired number of pipes against the wood block and had pvc pieces that were exactly the same size.
With our two 10-foot pieces, we cut
Twelve 8" pieces
Twelve 4" pieces
Six 12" pieces
We had a few pieces left over which we simply added to our collection. At the store I had one of their handymen cut the 10' pieces in half so the pieces would fit. If you don't have a hacksaw, or some other method of cutting the pipes, you might ask the store people to cut it for you. At our Home Depot, the first two cuts are free, and then they charge a minimal fee for more cuts. This could be worth it for you. I should sand the edges, but I probably won't get to it any time soon.
You will also want to purchase connecting fittings. I bought 4 end caps, 10 elbows, 10 tees, and I need to go back and buy some crosses. I also purchased a bag to store the pvc pipe activity in.
For more construction tips, watch this dad's pvc pipe activity for marbles. His is on a much larger scale than mine. I chose this link because I liked the man's perspective on construction.
Procedure
The PVC pipe activity can de used and expanded to the hearts content. There are countless ways of using the pipes in solo or group settings. For younger children, let them free play with the pieces. For older children, you can give them challenges like seeing who can build the tallest structure with the same number of pieces, or who can build the most stable structure. PVC pipe is such a wonderful basic building material, and this was more economical for us than buying marble chutes. Some of the toys they have been used for are
a hand-gun (the first use my boy found!)
a shower
claves (rhythm sticks, my 1-year-old's favorite use)
a hammer
a horn (my husband is the best at this)
a bread dart gun (the other use my husband found)
The PVC pipes are a fun toy for the whole family, and were a great investment of $15. Just remember that the structures are not strong enough for climbing!
Making flower crowns was a fun activity that took very little time to make and really made the bearers of the crowns beam with pride.
I recently had the opportunity to host a couple of young ladies at our home and as I pondered what I could do with them, I looked out the window and saw our beautiful tulips. There were so many, and while they are certainly lovely for those who pass by our home, I also knew that they could also be better served in the hair of the young children in my care.Because there was a certain young man to participate in the event, I told the children that flower crowns have a rich history for boys and for girls, both for weddings, and as a symbol of royalty. The girls were princesses and Peter was a prince. Helen just played with a tulip, and I'm afraid she ended up eating it while I wasn't watching. After some research, I discovered that they are edible, so I didn't worry too much about it...
Making the flower crowns
I have read several different times how to make floral garlands, but when I tried to do it with the tulips, the stems broke and so much for that. I improvised with pipe cleaner (what a wonderful resource to have on hand!) and tape and was surprised at how easy it was to create a make-shift crown that was more sturdy than a regular floral wreath would have been. I taped around the sharp ends of the pipes so it wouldn't poke the children, and reinforced the stems with the wire. Each wreath took about 30 seconds to construct, the children spent more time picking out their flowers. It was really fun! Next time I'm going to put those dandelions to use...
