Fun Activity - Water Bombs!!!

My kids and I embarked upon a journey of great fun this afternoon. I came across a website that had a neat craft idea for some fun outdoor water toys. You can find the directions here. My girls and I descended upon the dollar store to gather supplies for our endeavor. I was amazed, all of the supplies were in one place, and cheap too! The supplies needed to make these consist of sponges, drawer liner, a couple of Sham-Wows (yes, these amazing absorbant cloths are now at the dollar store, LOL), and some zip ties. It was a relatively easy craft to do with my kids. They helped me cut the pieces and arrange them, and then I tightened and fastened the zip ties for them.

As we finished this little project, neighbor children had gotten word about what we were making (my children may or may not have occasionally poked their head out the door waving a finished water bomb to show their friends). By the time we finished making them, the neighborhood children had gathered in our front yard to play with our new toys. I got out a few buckets filled with water, and the fun began. You all are lucky, I barely got a picture of a few of these babies before the children started their water wars! They all kept saying how neat they were, and they were eventually transported to the neighbor's pool as the water play shifted to another yard. Yeah, I would say that this little project today was a winner :-)

Great Crochet Resource

As I pursue my crocheting adventures, I continue to come across many great web resources. I happened upon this little gem of a website, and I already know that it will be one that I frequent quite often. It contains some really neat stitch patterns (FREE!!!), as well as motifs, that will help me as I try to design my own crocheted items. I am somewhat of a dreamy crocheter most days, LOL, as I see visions of what I want to crochet, but can never quite find the right pattern, or have no idea how to sit down and figure it out. This website I found will definitely be helpful in my needlework endeavors, and once I finish my current crochet project, I fully intend to get to work using the information from this website. Now that I have given great fanfare to the website, I shall reveal it to you :)

www.mypicot.com

Free Math Website - Preschool through 8th Grade

Just thought I would share a cool math website. It is free, and has interactive games and practice exercises for mathematical concepts ranging from preschool age through 8th grade. We will be utilizing this resource with our children, it looks to be promising as a supplement for strengthening their math skills! Membership is also available via this site for a fee.

http://www.ixl.com/

Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments Craft Project

Yesterday, the kids and I started the process of making some Christmas ornaments out of a homemade salt dough. It was really simple, I mixed up the dough, then we rolled the dough out with a rolling pin and used cookie cutters to cut out different shapes. You do have to bake these ornaments, but before I put them in the oven, I used a skewer to poke a hole in the top of each ornament, so that we can use some ribbon, yarn, or string to be able to hang them. We will be keeping some of these for our own Christmas tree, but will also give a few for gifts. I got the recipe for the salt dough from http://www.divinedinnerparty.com/christmas-ornament-dough.html .

Salt Dough Recipe

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups water

Mix ingredients together well and knead dough until well blended. If too sticky, add additional flour a little bit at a time until the right consistency is met. If too dry, add additional water in small amounts until desired consistency is achieved. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters, place shaped dough on a foil lined cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool, then paint.

I was going to buy some special paint to decorate the ornaments with, but the article at the above posted link suggested nail polish as a nice, decorative paint. Since I had plenty of nail polish around, we decided to try that out. I must say that it adds a nice touch to the ornaments, and the shine is lovely!

Overall, this was a great activity to do with the kids, and they loved it!

Washable Finger Paint Recipe

We tried a new finger paint recipe today. What makes it even better is that it is washable! I got the recipe over at http://www.kinderinfo.com/finger-paint-recipe-washable/ . The kids are having loads of fun!

Washable Finger Paint

2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 cups water
1/4 cup dishwashing soap
Food coloring

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and water. Stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil, continue stirring until mixture is a smooth gel. Add dishwashing soap. Separate mixture into several small containers. Add desired food coloring to each container. Let cool, then paint!

As a side note, I used a small whisk to stir the mixture while it was cooking. This helps prevent clumping so you get a smooth consistency for your finger paint.

Oatmeal Playdough Recipe

Today, my kids and I tried a new playdough recipe. They are busy creating with their little hands as we speak! This oatmeal playdough recipe has a different texture than regular playdough, so it offers the children a different sensory and creative experience. I found the recipe at http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/oatmeal-playdough-recipe/ , and I made a few minor adjustments to it to ease some of the stickiness. It is rather sticky as the original recipe is written, so I added some cornmeal and some extra flour until the dough was the perfect consistency. The above posted website also has many other kinds of playdough recipes to try out, if you are interested.

Oatmeal Playdough

1 cup of flour

2 cups of oats

Food coloring

1 cup of water

Cornmeal

Extra flour

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Mix desired food coloring with the cup of water. Slowly add the water/food coloring mixture to the dry ingredients, mix together well. Knead the dough by hand to continue to mix (will be sticky), then add cornmeal and extra flour a little bit at a time. Continue to knead and add cornmeal and flour until dough is a good consistency for play.

P.S. The picture is a birthday cake, made with the oatmeal playdough, by my 5 year old.

Peanut Butter Playdough

We like to play with playdough around our house from time to time. A fun twist to playing with playdough is playing with edible playdough. The kids have alot of fun with this activity, and it tastes pretty good too!

Peanut Butter Playdough

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup dry powdered milk
2 tbsp. honey

Mix ingredients together until it forms a plyable dough.