Making Robots

I have obviously deviated from the 365 thing because as hard as I try I just can not post as much as I would like, and with another new baby on the way my time just gets more and more crunched. So I will continue posting activities of what we have done, just don't expect one every single day.

Today I had some left over cardboard boxes. Big ones, small ones, and some pizza boxes. I also had some left-over paint from Christmas decorations (home made ones that I meant to post but never got around to it.)

So, the boys used these said boxes and painted, and decorated them and then poked holes in the faces so that they could put them over their heads like robots. It's actually really cute.

I didn't like the paint all over my dining room floor, but that is what we bought laminate for in the first place.

I am learning to let go, and just let them explore, regardless of how messy it can be.

Day 11 - Fun with Glue

Okay moms, this was a tough one for me. Glue. Sticky, messy, slimy glue. But I thought, what the hey, he is going to have to learn about it sometime. Might as well jump in.So first things first, we must all learn from my mistakes...put newspaper down on the kitchen table BEFORE you give them the glue.

I went to the dollar store and picked up a whole bunch of supplies, and this is the best time to do it! Even Michael's has plenty of back to school sales, and that's great even when your child is not going to school yet.

I got some multi coloured popsicle sticks, some googly eyes, and some colourful feathers. I also got some great construction paper, and of course....glue.

I basically just let them at it. They glued, and pasted, and glued some more.

They made monsters on paper and popscicle sticks, and birds of all sorts. They really enjoyed the freedom of allowing the creative juices to flow. (and I really enjoyed to facilitate.)

When it was all said and done, we had some beautiful creations, and K got a real kick out of pulling dried glue off his hands.

Day 10 - Ice Sculpting

What fun you can have with Ice on a hot summer day!

We took 3 freezable plastic icecubes and placed them with a plastic SCUBA diver and froze them in a bucket of water.

The next day after they had all frozen together, we gave our son a butter knife and he used it as an ice-pick to dislodge the ice

cubes.

The SCUBA diver was a little harder to get out. But after trying to melt the ice in the sun, throwing it as a block on the concrete,(allowing the pieces to break off) and adding sand to wear it down, the SCUBA diver came out at last.

My kids worked on this activity for over an hour. The only advice I have to moms wanting to do this with their kids is to get some goggles to protect the eyes!!

On Summer Hiatus

Now it would seem that this a a dead blog, but I promise you dear readers, it is not. I like to include a picture of the daily activity that we attend to and before this moment it was getting increasingly harder to publish the pictures. My computer would not read them and my camera would not send them.

Enter my new computer and new camera.

Let the posting begin!

Day 9 - Water Play

Who needs a water table? Certainly not us! We got this idea from Granny, as she said that Daddy used to spend all of his time at the kitchen sink. (so that's why her house is always spotless! ;P )


We filled up one side of the sink with Yellow food colouring and the other with Red. I made sure that K had plenty of Bubbles.


The great thing about water play is that they are learning without you really having to explain much. Buoyancy, absorption. what happens when something gets too full (it lands on mommy's floor), using funnels. K spent a good hour playing with the water.


While K preferred to use cups and cup measures to play with the water in the sink.............







R was much more interested in using the modern conveniences of life.

Day 8 - Playdough!

There is no other activity that can keep kids entertained than playdough...well maybe fingerpainting. I bought this great playdough kit from Mellissa and Doug and K and R can both spend hours reshaping and molding the dough to their liking.

The great thing about play dough is that the possiblities are endless. You can choose a theme, like animals and both try to make as many animals that you can think of, or plants, or cars! You can also make different make-believe animals and mix the play dough *gasp ;P

Another way to play with the play dough is to use different utensils to see how each item interacts with the playdough. A spoon, a fork, or even a meat tenderizer are all great around the house items to explore.

And because you can never get enough play dough, here is an easy non-toxic recipe to make your own. You can also use different things such as scents, colours and textures to make it that much more fun!

Recipe for Play Dough.

* 1 cup of flour * 1/2 cup of salt
* 1 cup of water * 1 tsp. oil
* 2 tsp cream of tartar
* food colouring

Mix together all ingredients and cook for 3 mins over low heat.
Stir Well, and store in a plastic container once cooled.

Get Creative!

Day 7 - Dirty Monster

K came up with this idea all by himself. It's called the "Dirty Monster".
Basically we took recyclable garbage and created a body, arms, legs, eyes, and hair.
It's fun to let the kids have a go with scissors. (as long as there is adult supervision)
K loved to cut all of the shapes and unstick the stickers.
We used foamies for eyes, a Playdoh container for the body, and corrugated cardboard for the hair.