paint bag writing/story map/ SPARKLERS

Took a couple of ideas from the Lets Explore website today.
First was the paint bag writing which was designed more for Jared but the girls absolutely loved it too. I acutally extended this activity to be a colour recognition and colour mixing experiment so it had everything going for it!
In Jareds bag we put blue and yellow paint and sealed the end with masking tape (avoids any surprise explosions!)
He wasnt keen to start with but once he realised he wasnt going to get messy he was very happily "drawing" with cotton buds. We mooshed all his paint until it made a new colour, GREEN! That too was pretty exciting :)

HE even used his hands to smooth the paint flat again.

Amahli was happy with just red paint in hers but kept trying to pull the tape of the ends :) Once she realised that wasnt going to happen, she too was happy to chew on one end of the cotton bud and draw with the other.


Jumeirah wanted red and white in her bag and we talked about what colour that would make.. actually I had her stumped for a bit! WE also put pink glitter paint in hers as well. Then sealed it, mooshed it and made PINK!
She kept coming back to this through the day to draw more pictures in her paint bag.

At rest time today, I did something just for her and me. (also from Lets Explore)
We read a story of her choice and then did the story map: talked about the characters, where the story took place, what her favourite part was. I really loved doing this as all three of my kids are book worms but this really gave us a chance to talk about what we'd read. She drew with pencils which was a bit hard to see but still turned out really well. Its a bit hard to see, but its the disco fish story. top drawing is of the fish, middle is of the strobe lights, bottom is the streamers. not the best story to pick but she enjoyed it anyway

And tonight, we and Sparklers. There is something deeply hypnotic about these fire sticks.. I remember cracker night and how we loved watching dad try to light them then bolt back to the house before they shot into the sky. For some reason, sparklers seemed to be breeding in my top drawer and were found on monday night and so I had promised that we would light some tonight. Jared wasnt keen, kept telling me "NO mum FIRE!" which I guess he had a good point seeing as I am teaching them NOT to touch hot things... but Jumeirah loved it.




Especially when daddy through it into the air....naughty daddy :)

foamies/ real life drawings/ great wall climbing

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero. ~Marc Brown


I have admitted defeat with messy craft and Jared :) He just isnt into messy, painty craft unless Jumeirah is around. So I am trying to plan some different activities for him that are fun and challenging and something that can be just for him whilst Amahli is asleep and Jumeirah is at preschool.
We started the day building the worlds biggest Thomas track ( ok so maybe not the worlds biggest but it was pretty huge and it took us ages) in the loungeroom. We talked about the colours of the engines, counted how many pieces of track we used. We then worked together to change all the batteries in the engines. It was fun and engaging and he loved it :)
He was then happy to sit and do a sticking activity. Foam stickers are thick and easy to use for little fingers ( it does need help with taking the backing off but they are easier to as they dont tend fold over and stick to themselves as normal stickers do) and also very cheap ( I get mine off ebay). This made for a great counting activity.









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When Amahli woke up she and Jared were more than happy to totally destroy the track we had spent ages doing. A knock on the door distracted me and I left them to it. 5 minutes later I returned to this scene:

The old mattress that was replaced this week had been propped against the window as we didnt have blinds. As the blinds went in today, the mattress was propped against the bed. It made for a fantastic slide :)




Jumeirah was a bit wild when she returned from preschool so I sent her outside for some hill rolling and trampolining. When she was suitably worn out I gave her some pencils and encouraged her to draw. She went into the kitchen and got her camel money box and set herself up on the outside table for some "real life" pictures. Se did pretty well too!
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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

Anagrams

I love activities that increase a childs sense of worth. Jumeirah and I were talking and making up new words ( fantacular and specialiosis to name couple) that described her. So I suggested we do an Anagram of her name :)

We wrote down the page the letters in her name ( yes there are a lot!) and I asked her to think of a word that began with each letter.

"Jumpy!" she started which describes her completely. This child jumped before she walked, I kid you not! She is an incredibly bouncy child who would rather skip and hop than walk in the shops, is permanently attached to her trampoline and also loves to test bed springs :) Maybe there are springs in her blood, maybe THATS why her hair is so curly :)

We got stuck on "U" so we had to google words beginning with "U" and came up with "useful" .
"Its perfect for me cos I am so useful!"
And away we went, finding the most perfect words to describe this beautiful little person, who is just a few months will be leaving me and the everydayness to join the ranks of "big school". YIKES.
And as we worked our way through the letters, I loved watching her face light up as I helped to work out these words. "Marvellous, Excellent, Interesting, Rainbow girl" She was just beaming as I spelt them out and she wrote them. Most of them she worked out herself, I really only had to help with a few, but it was such a lovely time for both of us. Me, to encourage and cement that each word was exactly her, and Her, to realise what a wonderfully whole little package she is :)
"Amazing, Happy!" and we'd finished a lovely little Anagram all about Jumeirah.
"lets do a Jared one tomorrow!"
And we will. And I am going to frame her anagram so she will always remember just how great she is :)

threading/shades of purple/Slime/ hill fun

busy busy BUSY day...

With all thats been going on the last few weeks, and with Daddy at home, crafty stuff has taken a bit of a back burner. Which has been nice except that this morning we had to get back into it. And boy did we do that!

With Tim off to work, I had three little ducks who wanted something to do. " fun, painty, different" ( why different I ask?? I love the old stuff!) and so we began...

Jumeirah was happy to start with some threading. The best thing about moving house is all the boxes you have at the end! Provides lots of lovely thick caradboard. Instead of the typical stitching today, I taught her to back stitch which she did really well. We sticky taped the end of the wool to help it pass through the holes easier.




We then moved onto painting at Jareds request. Today was a free painting but we experimented with different shades, talking about how colours change when adding white to them, making them lighter.
We also tried to name as many different colours of purple we could think of: indigo, purple, lilac, mauve.... Jared used his paint brush as a frog jumping on the page, complete with sound effects :) Jumeirahs painting of "the wind"

Jareds "Frog jumping" painting


I then tried something I have wanted to do with them for AGES. I knew I had to tread carefully as this is a really messy activity :) Its called Slime and its made out of Lux Flakes ( found in Coles). It was a bit of trial and error as I couldnt remember the recipe completely but it made for a bit of science discovery as well.

To start we used: ( WARNING THIS ONE DOESNT WORK VERY WELL:) )
3 cups of water
2 cups of lux flakes
And so we began to beat the daylights out of this stuff... the whisk, forks, and finally I pull out the big guns and use my new electric beater. None of these really gave the desired "slime" effect, just lots of froth ( which made for awesome "cuppucinos").

And so we tried again, figuring that maybe it wasnt disolving and we needed the water to be hot. This time we used boiling water.
3 cups boiling water
2.5 cups lux flakes


Yup thats the way to do it :)

No one was keen to go for this one (of course), but I had a ball squeezing this gunk through my hands. Jumeirah didnt want to use her hands but she had a wonderful time making cuppucinos, then using all sorts of pouring and spooning things to transfer the first mixture into various bowls.

And, with only a little bit of encouragement, she had a go at playing in the gloopy slime :) This stuff is really fun ! I tinted the second lot so we can see what happens to the two mixures when left overnight.



( Jared left us after he saw me start using my hands and headed to the not-so-messy playdough).

And the last thing we did today was to try out the slope of our new grass hill. Jumeirah and Jared have been trying out rolling balls down it and rolling the trucks down it, but today Jumeirah got game and tried sitting on the truck to go down it :) SO MUCH MORE FUN!


Even Amahli had a go thanks to Daddy :)