cotton bud painting/ butter making

Everyday, Amahli wants to be more involved in what Jared and Jumeirah are doing. She follows them around, squeals and yells for their attention and now that shes walking, shes is never far behind them. She is also coimpletely taken with bouncing on the trampoline.
THis morning I thought I would put out a painting activity that would be perfect for her but that the others would enjoy too :)

Cotton Bud painting

really simple, low messy but great fun!

I use a tray with kitchen sponges in it, so that there is no excess liquid to spill. Using food colouring makes it really bright colours. Put a cotton bud in each colour and away they go!

Amahli is still at the "lets paint ourselves" phase but she really enjoyed doing it.

This is why I use food colouring :)

Jared..hmmmm jared... was not into this today and was totally happy watering the garden ( what will I do next year without my little crafty girl??)
Jumeirah got right into this today and did HEAPS of them. All of them were dot paintings and looked great. The Starfish

After this, I got out an activity I did at preschool with Jumeirahs class this year which they loved, Making butter from cream.

Seeing as I had an almost full container of thickened cream and nothing to eat it with I thought this would be a good time to do this great little science experiment.
(food used for teaching purposes contain no calories)

What you need:
Cream ( thickened cream works quickest, DONT NOT USE LIGHT CREAM. It doesnt work at all!)
a jar or container that seals well

How to do it:

Find a container or jar with a very sealable lid. ( we had to change containers early on this activity cos the cream kept raining on me)
Fill the jar about half way with cream
Put lid on very securely :)
SHAKE IT BABY SHAKE IT!!

This does take a fair bit of shaking, but soon you will see the cream changing from very runny cream, to thick cream, to watery butter like substance to BUTTER!! throughout the shaking, toward the end, I open the jar and tip out the butter milk ( the liquid that has seperated from the butter) and keep shaking till its a big blob.
Use butter on biscuits or fresh bread... YUM

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

THIS IS THE BEST BUTTER YOU WILL HAVE EVER TASTED and dangerously moreish.
But as I said earlier, Foods used for teaching purposes contain no calories :)
Its also really fun!

check out that fast shaking action!!

you can see that we have only just begun... having a glass jar means you can see it changing

its getting there! you can see the buttermilk here as well

oh yum yum yum