Hello again! I didn't mean to be gone so long, but I did get my in-home child care licensed in the meantime!! Fun projects have all been put on hold, but here is one we managed to squeeze in a while ago: snap painting, from the irresistible ideas for play based learning blog.
Hope you all had a great summer and I look forward to sharing more of our activities with you.
I loved this post at The Artful Parent and couldn't wait to try it with my kids. Asher and I made the one in the photo above and he enjoyed it so much! I am sure we will do it again, especially since the flowers are putting off moisture under the contact paper (we didn't dry the flowers first); I expect mold any day now.
Here is the one that Esme' did all by herself. We put it in the dining room, which is a sunny and bright way of adding a bit of privacy to the room!
I have been wanting to make the egg paint from the small things blog since I first saw it a few months ago. We had enough extra eggs to make a go of it yesterday, and I am so glad that we did. I didn't feel too bad about using the pastels either, because: a) nobody uses them and b) I got them for 50 cents at a yard sale. The kids both thoroughly enjoyed making the paint- from beginning to finish. It was actually one of our most successful projects in terms of child involvement and joy.
The colors were rich and vivid and the texture of the paint made for interesting paintings. Even I was drawn to playing with it! Below is a photo of my painting and below that is one of Esme's. Both kids did several paintings yesterday and then woke up this morning wanting to do more!
There are so many ways to use Legos!! I was so impressed to look over one day and see what Esme' had created. I kind of want to ask her to spell "Where We Are" so I can use it for my banner. Stay tuned on that....
I first saw the idea for painting with cotton balls and Q-tips over at The Artful Parent. We have tried it before, but I don't think I have shared it with you all. The kids came straight to the table when they saw what was on it, and they were focused for quite a while with this project (they each did at least two full paintings). We will surely do this again!
I love this painting of Asher's!! I love that I can see the marks and remember how his little hands looked when he was using the materials.
Happy painting!
We got a new computer (a Mac Mini!) with our tax return!! I am astonished with how fast photos download. I am so delighted that I decided to share a bunch of photos from our Easter preparation and celebration, even though the holiday has come and gone.
Several weeks ago, we planted wheatberries in our Easter baskets to grow our own Easter grass. I bought two cups of berries, soaked them overnight, and then the kids put them on top of some organic potting soil in plastic lined baskets.
They started growing after two days.
The finished baskets on Easter morning! I am pretty sure that the Easter bunny got the personalized wooden eggs and the wooden bunnies from Etsy.
We tried two new kinds of egg dying this year. My favorite of the two was to wrap rubberbands around the egg for stripes.
Esme' made these two by herself (I put the rubberbands on).
We also made some eggs by dying them and then drawing on top of them with watercolor pencils. I wasn't as thrilled with this process and neither were the kids, but some of the eggs turned out cute. The ones with the names, the bunny and the flower were done in this way.
For our Easter craft, the kids set to immediately eating their eggs and we saved all of the beautifully colored shells to do this project.
And, our decorations for the day. I made sure to buy perennials, so that we can put them in the ground and enjoy them next year.
Happy late Easter everyone!
Here is another great upcycling craft! I found a link through the Crafty Crow to this blog that is in Russian. The photos made the project fairly self explanatory. I did most of the cutting, since the egg cartons are quite tough to cut through and then the kids had a blast painting them. I painted some too! We cut our wreath base out of an old Cheerios box and we all painted it green together. I like how colorful the origianl one is, but we decided to stick with the colors that we can see in our yard right now. Yellow daffodils and purple and white peonies (I think that's what they are).
Esme' discovered something fun all on her own the other day: wet sidewalk chalk makes pretty designs on bricks. I am sure it has been done before and that she was tapping into universal childhood wisdom, but I was really impressed. I honestly don't think I would have thought to offer this as a project. I was a little sad to see that the rain had washed the designs away the next day, but reusable surfaces are always welcome!! The kids will have have fun with this over and over.
Esme' has recently taken to simple pen drawings and I am loving them! I don't think a child's drawing can get any better than this Stacking Turtle one above. Where did she come up with this?!
Here she is happily at work.
Not too long ago, I picked up an empty journal at a yard sale. I knew she would love to fill the pages and boy was I right. Almost immediately she sat down and started drawing simple smily faces. After an hour or two she handed the journal to me and said it could be mine. I slowly turned the pages, immersing myself in each whimsical little drawing. I started to giggle as each page presented a face more complex and silly than the last. By the time I got to the 30th page of faces, I was laughing out loud. Here is the ultimate (in my opinion) of those face drawings. Too bad I don't have the time to share each page with you. I know you'd giggle like I did.
Unfortunately, she took the journal back from me. I was really hoping to write my thoughts alongside those awesome drawings. The silver lining is that she has drawn more in it. Perhaps I can convince her to fill it completely and then gift it to me for Mother's Day?!
I just had to share Esme's drawing of Rudolph, with a little mouse (of course!) in the corner. I think the drawing is fantastic and it has the refrigerator space for the next few weeks at least!
And now here is our gingerbread house. It took us three days to make. We made the dough on day one and refrigerated it overnight. On day two we rolled the dough, cut the pieces and baked them. Yesterday we got to decorate our house, which was obviously the most beloved part of the process.
We are all very pleased with our little house; however, it is almost impossible to eat!!! I offered a piece to a friend and when Esme' went to tear off a small piece for her, a whole roof section came off! I think I made the pieces too thick AND cooked them too long! All in all, though, this was a very satisfying project that encouraged creativity and patience.
Happy Holidays everyone! See you in a couple of weeks.
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