Our Treasure Table

Our girls are collectors, and they always bring home pocketfuls of rocks, leaves, seeds, shells, etc when we go on walks.  I remembered that I had these old printing boxes in the garage, so we got them out to use as a treasure table.  E(2) especially loves arranging and re-arranging things on the treasure table!



The printer's box is sitting on a low table, so it is at the perfect height for both of the girls.

Gel Drawing Board

I made this gel drawing board for E(2) before our last vacation.  I thought it would be the perfect activity for our plane trip.  Luckily, I realized before we left on our trip that this was a terrible idea since our plane was small and unpressurized, and therefore the gel bag would explode!  Phew....glad we didn't have to learn that the hard way :)

Anyway, the gel drawing board is lots of fun and super simple to make.  It's actually the only thing that I've ever made that Elliott has really, really liked!  His brother also had fun drawing with it.  The girls like it, too, but not nearly as much as the adults in our family!

To make the gel drawing board, I filled a gallon sized ziploc bag with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter.  I cut a foam core board the same size as the ziploc bag.  I taped the bag to the foam core board using zebra print duct tape.





I put a piece of clear contact on the back, so that it would work as a dry erase board.





This is a great activity for the car, and I'm planning to make some smaller ones in different colors for the girls to use in the car.  Fun stuff!

Our Peace Basket

The girls (especially O) love our peace basket.  It sits on the floor behind a chair (O chose the location), and they enjoy going back there for some peaceful moments.

When I put together the peace basket, my goal was to include items that would reach a variety of their senses.  So, we have a whelk shell for the girls to hold up to their ears to hear the ocean (they have to be very still and quiet to hear the sounds of the "waves"), a finger labyrinth to trace, a cinnamon stick to smell, a book to read (When I Make Silence by Jennifer Howard), and our Starry Night Bottle to shake and then watch the "stars" settle to the bottom.



I decided to remake our Starry Night Jar after E(2) was shaking it and slammed it into her face (she was ok).  I decided that a plastic bottle may hit with a little less force when shaking than a glass jar!  Also, I LOVE the round Christmas Coke bottles.  (I also love Coke...it's an addiction that I'm trying to break...I haven't had one in more than a week!) So, before Christmas, I bought many round Coke bottles to use for various Discovery bottles.  The round bottle works perfectly for our Starry Night bottle.  I just poured the contents from the jar into the bottle and added extra water to fill it up.

I know that most people glue the tops of their discovery bottles so that the kids don't open them with disastrous consequences, but I've never done this.  So far (going on 4 years), the girls have never opened a bottle.  I like to have the option of pouring out the contents and using the bottles for something else, which is why I don't glue them.

Painting Like Georgia O'Keeffe

The children at O(5)'s Montessori School study a different artist each month, and at the end of the month I go in and do an art project with them based on that artist. The artist of the month for November was Georgia O'Keeffe. O's teacher read several books about Georgia O'Keeffe with the children, and theyworked with the Georgia O'Keeffe art cards from Montessori Print Shop.

On our art day, we taped watercolor paper to the table for each child and provided them with a live flower in a tiny vase (each child chose his or her flower), a set of watercolor paints, and a cup of water. The kids got right to work!



Before the children started painting, I told them to study their flowers. They looked at the centers of the flowers, studied the texure, noticed the colors, and noticed that the shapes of the petals repeated. I told them to paint the flower BIG and to try to make the petals reach the edge of their papers. 





Here is a link to the lesson plan that I followed.

Both of our girls LOVE painting with watercolors, and I'm so excited the new liquid watercolor set they received for Christmas.  We may be painting like Georgia O'Keeffe at home, too!

Blue/Yellow Color Mixing Discovery Bottle

I was so excited to see this color mixing discovery bottle since color mixing is an activity that we spend a lot of time on.



To make this discovery bottle, I filled the bottom one third of the bottle with water colored with blue food coloring. Then I heated cooking oil and mixed in yellow powdered tempera paint. I stirred and stirred to try to get the paint to dissolve. It eventually dissolved enough, and I spooned it into the bottle. (I did this slowly because I was try to avoid putting any undissolved powder into the bottle). I'm not completely happy with the bottle because the yellow oil clings to the sides and makes the blue a little cloudy, but I've worked on it for several days, and I think this is as good as it's going to get.




The liquid turns a nice shade of green after shaking it vigorously. Then it immediately starts to separate into yellow and blue again.



I have to admit that I am much more impressed with this than the girls are, but they have had fun with it, too.  I'm looking forward to making more coloring mixing discovery bottles for E(2)'s science shelf!  (I'm hoping to find blue lamp oil because I think this would work much better with blue lamp oil and yellow water).

Loving the Lightbox!

The girls' grandaddy recently gave them a lightbox that he used to use for work, but no longer needs.  I was SO excited because I've been wanting to make a lightbox for almost a year.  The girls LOVE it, and we've all had lots of fun playing with it.  O(5) loves to make new creations each night while I'm cooking supper.

Here's a recent lightbox creation.




I love that there are so many different creative ways to use a lightbox, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be writing many more lightbox posts on this blog!

Bissell Power Sweeper Review

Bissell sent us a Power Sweeper to try and review.  We've had it for a couple of months, and it's great! We left out the middle section of the handle when we put it together, so it's the perfect height for the girls to use.  E(2) can even us it with one hand behind her back :)




And with a piggy bank in one hand!


The Power Sweeper turns on easily just by pressing your foot to the button on the base.  It is cordless and rechargeable. The girls use it to sweep the floor and rugs almost every day. It is easy to empty the dirt catcher. Overall, it's a great way to get kids easily involved in cleaning the house.

The Power Sweeper was sent to us to review at no cost to us. I was not paid for this review, and the opinions expressed are my own.

Fabric Scrap Paper Doll Kit

I was pretty excited to find  this Fabric Scrap Paper Doll Kit  (I added another link for the printable dolls at the bottom of this post) idea via Pinterest a couple of months before Christmas.  I put together a set for my girls and my niece.  The girls and I have had lots of fun with it so far.

I put the kit in these Christmas suitcases that I bought at Hobby Lobby after Christmas last year.  As soon as I can find a replacement suitcase, I'll switch the kit out, so that I can use this suitcase for something Christmasy next year.





Within the suitcase are several bags of scraps...fabric scraps, ribbon scraps, and yarn scraps.





 I printed the dolls on cardstock and cut them to fit in the suitcase.  I also included 2 pairs of scissors, 4 glue sticks, and a bag of buttons (for my button loving girls!).





This morning E(2) asked for "the suitcase work," and she got right to work after we opened the suitcase and bags.  She loves to cut the fabric, yarn, and paper.  She likes to place the fabric on the dolls and occasionally glues it down.  Usually, she just rearranges over and over and over again and never actually finishes a doll :)













This is the perfect kit to take when you have time to kill and space to spread out and make an easy to clean-up mess.  The girls and I had to go with Elliott to work on Saturday, so I grabbed this kit on the way out the door.   Thank goodness I did!  We were at his office for 2 and a half hours, and we worked on our dolls almost the entire time...perfectly content in our creativity!





I have to admit that I've enjoyed this kit as much as the girls have.  It's so much fun to play and create with my girls.






Evidently, she needs lips!  O(5) added thick pink yarn for her lips :)






Here is my finished doll.






E just couldn't decide what she wanted her boy to wear.






This is one of the easiest "handmade" gifts that I've ever put together!  And it's fun for all ages!  Here's another link to more printable dolls...click here.

Boxes of Fun!

I've been collecting large boxes and storing them in our garage for months for the girls and I to play in.  I envisioned us dragging them to the front yard and making some kind of giant box castle complete with lots of tape and paint.  I thought we'd leave it up for about a week and then recycle the whole thing.  However, things worked out much simpler than that!



We occasionally pull the boxes out of the garage for a few hours and play and play and play.  Then we drag them back in to save for another day.  We've had a wonderful time, but Elliott is not thrilled about his garage being cluttered with large cardboard boxes!

A Christmas Eraser Work

I handed E(2) this basket of Christmas erasers yesterday morning and said "Here, play  with these."  I expected her to play pretend with them...she loves to play with tiny animals and people, and I love to hear her talk for them.
 
So, I was surprised when I heard her talking her way through sorting them into piles of like objects.  She really enjoyed this!



 



Then she started handing them to me and was saying "This one is for you. This one is for me.  This one is for dada...."  After that she said she was making a "patterin" (pattern), and she spent a long time arranging them in their basket.



When O(5) got home from school, she immediately noticed the basket of erasers.  She also got right to work sorting them!  The only difference was that she made stacks instead of lines!



Who knew that a basket of erasers could be so much fun???