Day 12 Recycled Crayons and Leaf Rubs

Catching up on posts! I need a 2nd computer! The kids are always on here or the minute I get on they are on my tush!! Day 12 was recycled crayon day. I am sure most have seen this on www.pinterest.com We were pretty excited about it. Carter loves any project that involves breaking things and melting things. He claims he will be trying to melt crayons with a magnifying glass and in the car this week.

RECYCLED CRAYONS:
ITEMS NEEDED:
SMALL MUFFIN TIN OR SILICONE TRAY
WORN DOWN CRAYONS WITH PAPER REMOVED!

All you do is break the crayons down and mix them up in the muffin tray! We figured out like colors looked the best but Carter liked mixing them all. Put in oven on 200 for 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them! 

Callen loved stacking the disks up in a tower also! While they were cooling we went on a walk around the block picking out leaves to rub! Back to the old days! I remember doing this! We put the leaf under the paper and rubbed the crayons all over! Here is their finished work! (some)

Box fun

Today we were really busy cleaning the garage and packing boxes and getting stuff ready for the dva. Carter took the initiative to do his own project with a box. It kept him busy all day.
He calls it his "concussion stand" lol. He played in the box, cut it added rope and came up with a box lift like the ball game guys have. He even got on the computer and printed out menus and glued them to scrap cardboard.

I must say that the projects we are doing are expanding his mind, and building his creative side. That is great! Short note as we are super busy this week! :)

Home Made Air Dry Clay! Day 10!

Hello! I am running a bit behind on entering the posts! So little time by myself! :) Carter uses clay in art class and really enjoys it. He has been begging to make it. I decided on the air dry kind thinking it would be less work! It probably was but takes a lot longer to dry! It has been 24 hours and they are still not dry! Carter made father's day presents for Mike (a worry stone and ball) a snake for himself, vitamin holders for 2 Grandpa's and a cigar ashtray for the other one! We will paint when it drys enough and repost!
We found the recipe via pinterest at http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/how-to-make-clay.html#airhardening

Air Hardening Modeling Clay

2 cups baking soda
1 cup cornstarch (cornflour)
1.5 cups cold water
(makes about 2 pounds - the recipe can be halved).

Baking soda and cornstarch make a smooth, pliable play clay that can be colored with everyday food coloring - or left white and painted once it hardens. When you have made your model, leave it to air dry - turning every 12 hours or so.
Place ingredients in a pan and stir until smooth. Set the pan over a medium heat and stir until boiling. Stir out any lumps and cook until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes.
Turn out onto a plate and cover with a damp, well-wrung kitchen towel - let cool. Dust a work surface with cornstarch and knead until pliable

 



Some Tips From our experience!

• Make early in the morning! It takes a while to cool down!
• Takes more than 24 hours to dry so do not plan on painting the next day!
• When turning every 12 hours be CAREFUL! Very fragile and cracks easy!
• Don't forget to have your kids sign the bottom before drying!

Calming Jars and Reading Time

Today was a day to catch up on rest from the last few days of fun! We implemented a mandatory reading time that I hope to continue if not daily then at least 5 days a week. Everyone picked a book and had 30 minutes of reading, writing and or resting. This was needed as both boys have issues sitting still and reading! It was nice!
We also made Calm Down jars. I mean come on, who cannot use one of these. We saw this idea on pinterest in many places and I think it is a great mediation tool to calm down your overstressed, overwhelmed, overstimulated upset child! I think I need one too!!Some call these time out jars. Really simple! 

Calm Down Jars/Time Out Jars

Things Needed:

Jar

Hot Water

Glitter

Glitter Glue

Food Coloring

Super Glue (to tighten cap after so kids do not open it!) 

Here are your instructions from www.herewearetogether.com and tips below on our experience! 

 1 tablespoon of glitter-glue with about fill with hot water leaving about 1/2 inch from top, then added  food colouring and a tiny tub of glitter.
The glue makes the water so thick and gooey that the glitter just slowly and gently swirls around, it takes 5 minutes to fall to the bottom!

These Photos are from the first set. We plan on making more with pearlized glitter, and in plastic jars. Here are some tips! 

• Pearlized glitter glue makes all the difference!
• If you want "swirls" in the colored water, make sure to use some pearlized glitter glue or pearlized paint to color the water.
• You can not substitute Elmer's glue in place of glitter glue -- it just makes the water all foggy and white and doesn't help suspend the glitter at all.
• The finer the glitter you use, the better.  
• Chunky glitter will fall much faster, but finer glitter will stay suspended for quite awhile.
• Food coloring or liquid watercolors work to color the water.  
• Leave some room on top but not as much as in the photo! Trial and Error!!! Will Post 2nd set once we get pearlized glitter glue!

Red Neck Breakfast

Last day at Nana and Poppops! We started out with making our breakfast outside in the beautiful weather! (Started that way!) There is a high fire danger currently in the Colorado mountains so we could not use the fire pit, so we got the Cajun Turkey Fryer base out, grabbed the propane and a big pan! The boys really got into it! Poppop showed them how to make it all and we had ourselves a great breakfast outside!
Then the boys got the jeeps (yes they know they are too big for this but use Callen as an excuse) got their driving course ready and had some fun racing and just being loud! We hit the lake and paddle boated and fished until the rain started coming!!!

Bath time fun is always a mess. I seem to get a bathroom full of water everyday. My 2 year old enjoys bath time and I think enjoys his alone time. We found these ideas on pinterest for sensory tubs and Nana had some different play things in the tub that are great for him.

The first is sand toys. He really enjoyed using a shovel and pail and bubbles . He experimented with different toys and really seemed to enjoy these more than he enjoys the boats and critters! I will be bringing them out at home too!

The 2nd is water balloons! Callen had great fun with these! He liked to rub them on his face. They were cold so he must of liked that. Then after dunking them, throwing them against the wall and bath time was coming to an end I poked a little hole in each one so he did not try to take them out of the bath! That was another 10 minutes of fun! He tried to squirt it in his mouth, squirt me, the dogs, and other toys. He would squeeze them and watch them get big and the water shoot out faster until they broke! GREAT FUN!!! 

Slingshots, Explosions and Puppet Shows

OH MY! Day 7 brought a ton of activities in the mountains. Some fishing, a carousel, rock stores, and some pinterest fun. SLINGSHOTS, EXPLOSIONS, and puppet shows!! They boys were excited about these ones!

We figured since we were in the mountains with lots of land the boys could try out homemade slingshots. We sent them to find their own sticks and used a rubber band. There are many ways to do this to make it more professional but we were looking for something cheap and fast. The nice thing about it was the boys were not great at it they could only hit things within 5 feet so we did not have any accidents! They used pine cones and pebbles to let loose!









BIG EXPLOSIONS!!! CAN YOU GUESS WHAT WE EXPLODED?

Soap! This was another super easy project! We tried to keep them easy in the mountains as we had so much other stuff to do!! This is ivory bar soap. Put it in the microwave and it blows up to a huge sculpture! Make sure you place it on a plate or wax paper!! We put it in for 2 minutes and watched it go! Very neat! and Not Messy! It looks like it is but that mass of soap is really a big chunk. You can reuse in the tub! Or let it snow on your kids in the tubs. It flakes! 

You must use Ivory! The soap that floats! They are the only one who infuse air into their soap enabling it to enlarge and expand like this! Next time we are thinking of adding food coloring to see what that looks like!! Even Poppop had fun with this one!!! 

At the Carousel of Happiness there is a spot for kids to give their own puppet shows. I thought this would be fun! The boys were not so great at it! They just made the puppets fight....boys...

Great fun in the mountains!!! We also went to the rock store and let the boys pick some rocks out, they really liked the magnetic ones. 

Mountain Fun! Day 6

Sorry for the delay! We were in the mountains visiting Nana and Poppop so did not have time to let you know what pins we did! We had a fun-filled 3 days with tons of outdoor activities! When we get there they love to run around like crazy so we did a NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT!
This was great for a few reasons...

1. While we were unpacking the car, lugging suitcases in, and getting situated the boys stayed out of our hair!
2. The boys are always super excited when they get there, this gives them time to run, see their cousin, and have some outdoor fun without me looking over them! (They stay on the property)
3. I got to have a cup of uninterrupted coffee!!!!!!! WHOOOOEEEEE

I had made this early in the morning so I needed that extra cup! They kept the boys busy for about an hour! Then they got bored and moved onto building lephrachaun houses. I forgot to take a picture of theirs as I got busy with my 2 year old! So all in all a fun Hunt we also did one in the car. Its an hour drive but for a 9 year old, 7 year old and 2 year old boy that is a long drive! It got to the point I told them that if they asked one more time "are we there yet??" They would have to sit on the steps at Nana's for 5 minutes.  They stopped.