Pop Paper Prints

The girls and I made pop paper prints during "P" week a few weeks ago. They weren't interested in this activity at first (it was at the end of a long day), but once they saw me painting and having fun, they joined in.

First, we painted a piece of pop paper. Then we pressed a piece of white cardstock on the painted pop paper.




Here are the finished prints.

Magnetic Pipe Cleaner Discovery Bottle

E(2) and I made a magnetic pipe cleaner discovery bottle during "P" week! To make this discovery bottle, I cut pipe cleaners into small pieces and put them in a clean and dry plastic bottle. It doesn't get much simpler than that!


The girls love moving the pipe cleaner pieces around using their magic magnetic wand!


This is another one of those activities that is all over Pinterest...so, I'm not going to link to a specific site for the idea.

Our Starry Night Jar

After seeing glitter jars all over Pinterest for the past few weeks, I decided to make one of our own. (Most of the jars are called "time-out jars" or "calm down jars") I knew I didn't want ours to be a time-out jar because I didn't want any punitive connotations, so when O requested blue food coloring and blue glitter, I decided that we'd call it our "Starry Night Jar" (since we love Van Gogh's Starry Night painting).

To make the jar, we filled it with warm water. We added blue glitter and blue glitter glue. The glue creates a swirling effect when you shake the jar, and I added a little extra clear glue (school glue, but it's clear,not white) to make it swirl a little longer. I didn't measure anything...just eyeballed it.

Once when E(2) was extremely tired and fussy, I sat with her on the kitchen floor and grabbed the jar and shook it. We both stared at it and talked about how the glitter (stars) was slowly drifting to the bottom. I was happily amazed when she immediately calmed down and stared at the jar for a minute or so. I'm planning to put together a peace basket, and this will be an important component of it.

Playing with Putty

E(2) went on a treasure hunt for pennies and a marble in our therapy putty during "P" week! She had fun, but the putty is pretty firm, so it wasn't easy. O(5) was SO excited when she saw the putty because this has always been one of her favorite activities!

Color Mixing Water Balloon Bath

The girls had a great time taking a bath with water balloons this week!

First, I put a few drops of yellow food coloring in 2 yellow balloons and filled them with water. I put a few drops of blue food coloring into 2 blue balloons and filled them with water.

The girls had fun playing with the water balloons in the bath!

Then they popped the blue water balloons and loved their blue bath water!

Next, they popped the yellow balloons to make green water!

What a fun color mixing activity! Thanks to Amber B. for this great idea!

Turkey Felt Board

Sorry for the week of no posts! I had several posts saved in draft and set to post each day while we were out of town, but, obviously, that didn't work! We are back from a wonderful week in the Bahamas! It was great, but we are glad to be home!

The girls have had fun playing with the turkey felt board (that I made a couple of years ago). They look at the pictures and copy the designs, and they create their own designs.

Polishing Pennies

Polishing pennies was another perfect "P" activity for "P" week! We haven't polished pennies since O(5) was E's age (2), so it was time! O and I enjoyed looking at the pictures of her polishing the pennies before we began this activity.

First, E poured a half cup of white vinegar into a bowl. Then, she poured in 1 tablespoon of salt. She and O took turns stirring the mixture, and then they dropped in the pennies.

We made the mistake of leaving the pennies and other coins in the vinegar and salt solution for too long, and they turned green! Oops!

Mirror Polishing Work

Since O(5) LOVES the polishing works at school, I decided to set a few of them up at home for her and E(2) to do. E LOVES this work! She polished the mirror at least 15 times in a row when I first introduced the work to her!
First, spray the mirror with water.

Then, dry it with a little cloth. (we used tiny flannel wipes leftover from the girls' diaper days)

She also really loves to spray herself in the face with the water!

Science Thursday...Fun with Baking Soda and Vinegar

Both girls LOVE doing science experiments, so I'm trying to make sure we do AT LEAST one science experiment per week. We started out with something simple and FUN! (this idea came from Pinterest...surprise, surprise!)

I filled a baking pan with baking soda and gave the girls 3 glasses with colored vinegar. I also gave them a spray bottle with colored vinegar, a couple of glasses, and a couple of pippettes. Then the fun began!



They pretended to make make baking soda and vinegar milkshakes...yum!







They loved this activity so much, and they would have played with it for hours if we hadn't run out of baking soda. This is definitely one of those "why didn't I think of that???" activities (since making baking soda and vinegar volcanoes is one of our regular activities!).