Dyed Pasta: Multi-Purpose Entertainment!

Who knew a couple of boxes of pasta and some food coloring could provide my kids with multiple fun and learning activities enjoyed over a couple of days' time?! One of my son's home school lessons this week showed how to dye pasta and make beads to string. We dug out several kinds of noodles and prepared several cups of colorful beads. But the necklaces were just a start...we have actually used these noodles for three more activities so far. And happily, it took a whole 10 minutes of prep with things I already had on hand!

First, for the dye job. Materials needed:

• dry pasta in various shapes
• vinegar OR rubbing alcohol (the vinegar smell will linger, but may be preferable option if you fear a noodle "taste-test")
• small plastic ziploc bags
• food coloring
• paper towels on trays
  

Put a cup of dry pasta in a ziploc. Add 1 TBSP of the vinegar OR rubbing alcohol and several drops of food coloring to the bag. Close it up and gently smoosh it around to color all the pasta.

Empty it on paper towels to dry. Best to leave it overnight.

I only had food coloring gel around, and a couple of the colors didn't dye the pasta so well by this method. So I actually mixed the gel with the rubbing alcohol and a cup of water in a bowl and we let the noodles sit in it for 7-8 minutes until the color "took." Not too long or the noodles would get mushy. That worked much better for us.

Noodle Fun #1: Beading!

String the beads on plastic elastic cord for necklaces or bracelets. Love the bright colors!

Noodle Fun #2: Sorting!

Using the sorting idea from this post, I gave my 2-year-old a muffin tin and several colors of pasta mixed together in a bowl. I showed him how to sort the colors in separate tins.

He LOVED it and sorted over and over for an hour-and-a-half! My 4-year-old thought it was super fun and did it several times too...first by color, then by shape.

Noodle Fun #3: Math Manipulative!

Use the pasta to make patterns. I laid out a pattern of various colors/shapes on a paper, and then asked my daughter to copy it. I hadn't tried this before with her, and she really liked the activity. She even made a complicated pattern for ME to copy! Noodles=learning fun for everyone.
 

Noodle Fun #4: Easter craft!

I drew an Egg shape on colored paper, added some craft glue, and then had the kids decorate their Easter eggs. They loved their pretty eggs.

Gotta love when you can make several new and exciting activities for FREE with a few supplies from the pantry!

Defend yourself! Create-A-Shield.

Around here, we have spent the past few days playing with foam swords that I picked up (yes, impulse purchase!) at Target in the dollar bins.  The intense indoor action has been just the energy release the kids (especially boys) have needed.

I expected the swords to break; they were $1 and we've invested in foam swords before. They last about an hour.  
Last night I decided to wrap them in colorful Duck^® Tape to help make them last a little longer.  I am in love with all the duct tape options out there! It is fun and my mind is spinning with all the things I can wrap and make with these tapes.

I also realized that by wrapping them with tape, I was turning our harmless foam swords into respectable weapons.  So, this morning I decided we needed to create shields to even the playing field.

Although a pillow and belt make an excellent shield, I had some extra mat board that was perfect for the job. Of course any cardboard or old boxes would also work.  First, I drew a simple design on the board and cut it out.  Then I divided it into sections for my daughter to decorate. We did a quick search for some shield decoration ideas by looking at pictures online.  My daughter colored hers with crayons and I did a few lines in duck tape for my little guy's shield.

  

For the handles on the back, I simply used an extra piece of mat board for the arm holder and cut a circular loop from an old yogurt container (I have 6 million of them in my pantry) for the small handle.  I wrapped them in duck tape for extra reinforcement and we were ready for battle.  It isn't very pretty, but it is strong!

At this point we ran out of the lovely blue and white tape and had to resort to my husband's plain black gorilla glue tape--it was super thick and I hope he doesn't mind that we borrowed it!

Once our shields were decorated and strengthened with even more tape, we were ready for battle!  This project was a success.  We combined artistic fun and creativity to make a useful toy of protection!  I am sure these shields will last as long as the swords, and if/when they are demolished, I'm sure the kids will be thrilled to make a new shield!

Photo Fun: Make Your Own DIFFERENT PICTURE Game!

I've mentioned before that my kids spend many hours pouring over Where's Waldo and Seek and Find books.

Last week, as I was looking at some books, and some of the junky areas throughout our home, I realized it might be fun to set up the tripod and create a few Different Pictures from our own home!  This is a fun project that can be as simple, or as complex as you want to make it.  For our purposes today, I kept it simple. 

I set up the tripod in several areas of the house where there was plenty of messy detail and added an object here and there.  I chose to photograph the kitchen counter, a pile of laundry, a bookshelf, and a few things in the toy room.  If you don't have a tripod, you can still make it work but it will be difficult to take a photo in the same location without altering positions.

I took my first picture, then went in and added or removed objects.  It was fun trying to make some obvious changes, and other more discreet changes.  For example, in the kitchen I replaced a pop-tart box, opened the coffee pot, rolled down the paper-towel, flipped the banana tree, etc.  Depending on the age and observation abilities of your kids, you could add more difficult changes in your second picture.

I uploaded the pictures and put them in a collage format so that my kids could view them side by side.  If you don't want to mess with that, simply print 2 photos and let the kids view them next to each other.  Since I printed them on paper, I just let them circle the changes they observed and had them keep a tally on the side.  My big guy has been working on keeping tallies at school and they have been counting things all over the house lately. 

They had a great time observing all the differences and were especially thrilled when they caught something small that they didn't notice at first glance.  I was thinking that if you wanted to save computer paper and ink (or if you just have a lot of time on your hands!) you might even order some inexpensive prints and put your photos into a little book as a gift or for your kids to do in the car.  Another option is if you have any type of tablet, simply save the photos and let your kids make observations from the digital photos or on the computer itself.

This was a successful observation activity that the kids enjoyed and asked to do again!

Beanbags, Games, and January Blahs.

I believe the mid-January funk has hit our house. New toys are not-so-new anymore, bad weather is keeping the kids cooped up, and Mommy just can't handle one more round of Candyland...!

So the other night after dinner dishes were done and while the kids changed into pj's, I invented a little beanbag toss game for an hour of family fun before bed. It was super easy and not all that creative, but it was NEW and my kids loved it!

I took 4 metal cake pans, the 4 mini-beanbags from our Hopscotch game, and had my son make 4 papers with point values of 10, 25, 50, and 100. We arranged the pans on the floor with the different point papers inside, and then set a couple of lines to stand and throw the beanbags. (Try rolled up socks if you don't have beanbags).

Our new art easel made a perfect scoreboard--and my 4-year-old loved the number printing practice. It was great that our 2-year-old could play too (he chose to stand directly beside the cake pans and drop the beanbags in), and the game was excellent practice for him in taking turns.

After a couple of rounds, the kids changed up the cake pan arrangement.

And the next day they came up with the twist of Mystery points by placing the papers UNDER the pans, only to be revealed after the 4 beanbags were thrown. You can imagine this new level of excitement!

They kept changing things up and played repeatedly for 3 days. It's always amazing how old things can become new again--we would love to hear what little game or competition you come up with using what you already have around!

Painted Hopscotch Mat

We originally had the opportunity to guest-post this project at Living Life Intentionally last month. Posting it here in case you missed it!


Are cold, rainy, or snowy days keeping your children from running off pent-up energy outside?? Bring an outdoors game inside with a Hopscotch Mat!  I taught my kids to play hopscotch in our driveway this summer. They loved it...and of couse, I was then cajoled into hopping through many a game with them. An indoor version takes a little time to prepare initially, but then it can be rolled out in a couple of seconds for instant fun. 

Supplies needed:

• 2 1/2 yds canvas
• acrylic craft paints in several colors
• stiff 1/2" paintbrush
• a large bowl or pan--square, rectangle or circle
• pencil
• measuring tape
• puffy paint (opt)
• sewing machine OR hot glue gun
• 4 fabric scraps and dried beans (for Beanbags) OR 4 Rocks

The canvas I bought at Walmart was 60" wide, so I bought 2 1/2 yards and cut it lengthwise to make 2 mats--one for my daughter and one for a gift.

To finish the raw edges, fold them under 1/4", then fold under again and stitch all around. If you don't sew, you could hot glue them under.

For the hopscotch squares, I decided it would take forever to tape them off in order to paint straight lines. Instead, I had this rounded-square bowl in my cupboard that would work perfectly. You could use a square pyrex dish, a rectangle dish, or a large round mixing bowl. Even a combination of shapes would make a fun design! You probably want your bowl to be approx. 10-12 inches diameter.

Measure your bowl and then determine the center of your canvas width. Make some pencil dots to mark the center and give yourself some guides for the squares. At first, I tried painting the rim of the bowl and stamping it on the canvas...but it was too thin a line and hard to hold the slippery bowl.

So then I just traced it with a pencil and painted over the pencil lines with a fat paintbrush. Much easier!

I painted the lines (with a stiff brush) as evenly as I could, knowing they would not be perfect without tape guides. Afterwards, I went back over the lines with my brush fairly dry and feathered out the edges to look like chalk dust.

Now, for the numbers. You could print out your own fun numeral font at home on cardstock to make stencils, but I opted to save time and buy a $4 set of stencils at Walmart. I love these 4" whimsical numerals.

Measure the placement if you want to be precise--I'm more of an "eyeball-it" kind of girl. Holding the stencil with one hand, I dabbed the paint inside (not too thick!) and carefully peeled the cardboard away.

Then I touched up any rough spots and filled in the gaps.

Only one thing more needed for the game: Beanbags...or rocks.


If you don't sew, just find 4 clean rocks and paint them different colors. For mine, I used 4 fun fabric scraps to make little beanbags. I cut 2 squares of each color to measure approx. 3 1/2" x 3 1/2". With a 1/2" seam allowance, they turned out to be 2 1/2" square. Stitch around 3 sides and the very edge and corners of the fourth side, leaving 2 inches open. Clip all the corners, then turn right side out and poke out corners.

Spoon in dried beans or rice so it is fairly full but not stuffed.

Now fold in the raw edges on the open side and stitch closed. One final thing you may want to do is add a few squiggles of Puffy Paint on the underside of the mat to keep it from slipping on a wood or tile floor.

If you're a little rusty on hopscotch rules, refresh your memory here or here.  And now your Hopscotch game is all ready for some energy-burning, indoor fun!

Short and Sweet: 5 Quick Christmas Activities!

Whether you are a fan of chaotic messes or not, the December forecasters are calling for mounds of crumpled Christmas wrapping paper, flurries of pine needles and occasional sprinkles of sprinkles. 'Tis the season for glitter and boxes and clutter. 
Embrace it and hang in there; you will have plenty of time to clean it all up in January and February when you are trapped inside your home staring at your walls.
Around here, the kids are beside themselves with energy from the combination of Christmas activities and sugar, so yesterday I tried to channel the excitement into some fun little activities for them.  Here are a few quick suggestions that will keep your little elves busy, happy, and involved in some fun this season.
Yesterday my kids came up with the idea of creating their own Christmas Party in their rooms.  Of course the party required decorations, which is where I came into play. The first thing we did was:


1. Make a decorative paper chain.
The paper chain has been around for many centuries and many holidays, but the timeless joy created by a few simple pieces of construction paper, scissors and staples (or tape) is classic.  It took me 5 minutes to cut strips of paper and staple them into this chain. This was nothing fancy, but the kids thought I was a super hero.

2. Glue and Glitter: Don't be scared of it.

You are going to be vacuuming up pine needles and dried leaves and cookie sprinkles for the next 4 weeks anyway--this is the perfect time to let the kids go ahead and break out the glitter.  If your kids are big enough to use the Elmer's to write something on paper, let them do it! Otherwise, make some signs for your Christmas Party or personalize (and glitterize!) those impersonal Christmas cards you know you will be sending out shortly.

3. Paper Snowflakes. Remember those?
We might assume that everyone knows how to make a paper snowflake, but this might be the first year for your child to experience the joys of folding, cutting and opening a wonderful paper snowflake. It's exciting and unique every time!  If you forget how to do it or want a little help, here is a great sight with some templates.  Simply print, fold and cut. 

4.  "I'm already tired of wrapping presents!"
You might be tired of wrapping presents, but it will turn into hours of fun for your kids!  My kids are planning to exchange gifts at their little party, so I simply provided them with some paper (those useless, oblong leftover scraps are the best!) some tape and scissors and let them wrap up random toys and books in their rooms. I gave my daughter an empty box to fill with little toys so it would be easier to wrap. They enjoyed the wrapping and are even more excited to let each other open the special gifts tomorrow!

5. Tripping over Amazon boxes?
Create the Polar Express!  Last week I counted 6 various boxes throughout the house that were the result of Cyber Christmas shopping. While I gathered the boxes to throw them away, I decided I might as well let the kids play in them for the rest of the day.  We didn't even decorate them, we simply lined them up and the rest is left to the imagination of your little ones.  If they have wrapped up their little presents, it might be fun to let them have a Christmas train and push their "train" filled with gifts around the house.

**More Bonus Thoughts**
If you have a Light Bright in your home, tucked away in the tallest shelf of your closet with the glitter and the Easy Bake Oven, now is the time for Light Bright to shine.  You will already be busy vacuuming up pine needles and cookie sprinkles, so you might as well be on the lookout for those tiny lights that are sure to scatter and hide across your carpet.  Pull out the green, red and white lights, and be prepared to see some smiling kids.

Finally, a word about tinsel and bows from Dollar General.  Remember, our kids are only little for a few years.  If you are willing to clean up some messes, you will reap the reward of fond childhood memories with your kids.  This year I got a packet of tinsel for $1 and it was by far one of the best dollars I have spent in a while.  The kids LOVED placing tinsel on the tree--the strands that are splotched all over our tree and the pieces that have gracefully fallen to the ground are marks that we live in a home filled with kids.  If you are unwilling to let them decorate the main tree, maybe you can let them toss some tinsel on a little tree in their room (or in the yard!) And although it is nice to carefully decorate and wrap each present and put all that Pinterest pinning to use, if you are willing to set aside a few gifts to let your kids help wrap (Grandparents, cousins, etc.) they will love being involved.  I picked up a large packet of sticker bows at Target for $1 and my kids really enjoyed removing the stickers and matching up bows with the gifts.
Enjoy making a mound of memories this season!

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” 

~Dr. Seuss