Shaving Cream Play

My teacher mind collided with my mom-mind in today's activity. In my head I saw Aiden and I practicing letters and numbers using shaving cream as a fun medium. Here was what I envisioned:

I have done activities like this MANY times in my classroom, with 24 or more children, and managed to keep it under control. However, within a couple of minutes, I lost control of the situation:

I surrendered. He was having fun, and so what if no learning took place? I let it go the way he wanted, which was to "cook" some "pudding" and cover himself head to toe with shaving cream. He had fun and it kept him busy for an hour. Shaving Cream Day=success! 

Mud and Suds Day

So today was a combo of multiple activities that I wanted to do. We started off with the "exploding" soap experiment. Using only an Ivory Soap bar (has to be Ivory) and a microwave, you too can impress your children. :)

First, cut off part of the soap bar.

We used the small piece to start off with. Then, simply pop it in the microwave and hit start. Ours grew for about 1 minute and then was expanded as much as it was going to be.

We thought this was so cool, we of course had to heat up the big part of our bar. This time it grew for about 2 minutes. And boy, did it grow! 

Afterwards, Aiden got to play with it. It was actually quite dry and dusty, which was neat. 

But soon proved to be quite messy! Beware of doing this with little kids too- Aiden leaned to close and breathed in a bunch which of course made him cough and blow out, which in turn became this:

I don't have pictures of the floor, chair, wall, and everywhere else it blew! 

That was the Suds part of our day. The Mud part is relatively self explanatory. A hose, dirt, and a mom who says "go for it". What else could a kid want??

Getting ready to go out-Aiden can't believe what I said he could do! :)

The aftermath

The worst part of the day!

I don't have a dirty picture of Aiden because while I was bathing Ellie he took it upon himself to "shower" off outside. Worked for me! The fun part of the day was that he was able to use the soap pieces from our previous activity to wash up. He really liked that! 

Mental Note: Next time, I would have the baby pool up and ready for an outdoor bath time! 

Cookie Making

Nothing too exciting about this activity (just the regular old Tollhouse recipe!) except that whenever you do something with kids that they don't normally do, it takes on a more special feel. :)  I love this picture I got of my two "helpers" (I use that term VERY loosely). Aiden reached down to give her a little love tap on the head-and deposit a healthy dose of flour-right as I snapped it. Makes my heart happy!

4th of July Week Activities

Next week will be a little difficult because of the holiday and we will be spending some time away from home. However, I'm going to try and fit a few SSAs in! 


1. Ice cube paint. Freeze water and food color in ice trays. Freeze with a toothpick or popsicle stick. Go outside if it's warm and enjoy some cold painting.
2. Paint and Roll Marbles. 
3. Ice Block Excavation


Supplies Needed:
Food Coloring
Popsicle Sticks/ Toothpicks
Box
Marbles
Red, white, and blue paint
Little toys

Glow Sticks in the Bath

This was SO fun! And SO easy! The trickiest part was getting it dark enough in the bathroom since my kids take their bath before it's dark outside. I solved this by doing bath time in the guest bath (a novelty in it's self!) because it has less windows and a door I could close. It still wasn't quite as dark as we'd like, so I rigged up the shower curtain to work as a window curtain :)

I can't say enough good things about this activity. It was easy, it was cheap, it kept both my 1 and my 5 year old occupied for even longer then I would have liked! Ellie just liked looking at the lights, while Aiden made up some games of "diving" for them and trying to collect them all before he had to come up for air. It was super fun and I could see doing it in a baby pool on a really hot night outside, or in the big pool when Aiden can swim well enough to dive to the bottom. Fun, fun!!

Fort Building

Well, for today's Super Summer Activity (SSA), we decided to build a fort. It wasn't pretty, but it had multiple "rooms" and the kids loved playing in it . . .

for about 5 minutes. Then Ellie-zilla attacked and took apart all our hard work in about 10 seconds . . .

So, we went with Plan B and covered up a pop up tent we already had with sheets and called it a day!

Bubble Day!!

Today we tried our hand at different ways to play with bubbles! First, I decided to try making our own bubble solution. It was much easier then I thought it would be!

Needed:
12 cups water
1 cup light corn syrup
2 cups of dish soap

I found a great container on sale at the grocery store which was perfect for being a bubble dispenser. Aiden was able to help me with every step of the project. First, add in the 12 cups of water.

Next, stir in 1 cup of light corn syrup.

Finally, GENTLY in 2 cups of liquid dish soap.

That's it! You have bubbles!

Water Bottle Bubbles

Next, we tried out a few experiments of ways to use a water bottle to make bubbles. The first way to use the water bottle is to cut off the bottom of a water bottle, and blow through the neck of the bottle. 

This made big bubbles, but they didn't do very good at detaching from the bottle. So, we tried a second way of using the bottle, this time, by squeezing the bottle and pushing the air out. Once the bubble was formed, blow it gently off the bottle. This worked a little bit better, but the bottle broke down quickly. Maybe if we had a thicker bottle it would have worked better.

The last way we tried worked the best. Using a bottle, poke a hole towards the bottom of the bottle. Dip the mouth into the bubble solution, then blow through the hole. 

Aiden was a trooper through all of our experimenting, but after awhile we went back to our fan-powered bubble maker. Then we could see our home made bubbles really fly! 

Next Week's List

We took a little break today from entertaining each other and had some friends over for a playdate. But, I did get a little time to put together my list for next week. I think it worked out well to have everything bought ahead of time this week. That way, no excuses, and the ability to be flexible! Next week is packed with gymnastics camp and swim lessons, so I tried to pick evening or low-fuss activities:

1. Glow sticks in the bathtub.
2. Make cookies
3. Windsock Puppet
4. “Sea Monsters”-in lieu of Ant Farm
5. Mud Day

Supplies needed:

• Glow sticks
• red and white crepe paper
• blue and white construction paper
• Cookie supplies!

Star Eco Station

I have been wanting to do this for a really long time, and I am so glad we finally went. Star Eco Station is a children's museum that houses animals which have been saved from dangerous situations or surrendered by people who do not want them anymore. They give an hour long tour through their facility where you can see the animals, touch some of them, and find out about the different ways that humans can harm and help animals. Ellie was a little young- she really liked all the animals but was a little disruptive with her "oohing" and "ahhing" over everything. Aiden was a great age though. Not only did he enjoy the animals, but he got the message too. After looking at a display of prohibited imports of animal products (elephant tusk horns, python purses) he told me he thought the people who did that to animals should have to "go see their mommy and get on a looonnnggg timeout". I agree, Buddy. :)

 

Volcanos, Volcanos

I had not planned on doing these activities today, but my children had other ideas :) Since they were up and moving at 5:45 this morning, Aiden was already getting cabin fever by 9:00am. Thank goodness I had all the supplies to put this together! Saved us from a morning meltdown!

All the supplies you need:

• baking soda
• vinegar
• food coloring
• milk
• cups
• eye droppers

Volcano Cup

The first volcano we made was your typical baking soda and vinegar volcano, but watching it through the eyes of a 5 year old made it all the more exciting. If you have not done this, it is very easy! Just put some baking soda in a cup, and add food coloring of choice. Place the cup into a dish (for overflow).

Slowly pour in the vinegar and watch your volcano explode!

Baking Sheet Volcano

The next two activities were taken from a great blog called Preschool Alphabet. Using multiple cups, mix food coloring and vinegar together so you have an array of colors. This was a fun way to talk about color-blending without him realizing I was teaching him anything (Sneaky, sneaky)!

Next, get a baking sheet and cover it with baking soda. Using an eye dropper, make "mini-volcanoes" with the food color/vinegar mix. (Again, sneaky fine-motor skill practice)

He enjoyed this, but it really didn't take long until he was pouring the cups directly onto the baking soda. He REALLY liked that!

Milk Volcano

Our last activity was probably his favorite. Get a glass of milk and add color of your choice. Then, put it into an overflow dish, stick a straw in and blow away.  I am always yelling at Aiden to not blow bubbles in his drink. So when I told him he was SUPPOSED to blow into his drink, he thought that was the best thing ever. 

Even I was impressed at the size of his "volcano"!

A good way to remind him why we DON'T do this at dinner! But, I do have to admit, it WAS super fun! :)

Marshmallow Madness!

Today went much better! Mostly, because it involved eating marshmallows :) We did two different activities today. The first was a little marshmallow architecture, using nothing but toothpicks and marshmallows!

(Obviously AT&T Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Buster Posey, and Brian Wilson, right?!)

The next activity was making Marshmallow Poppers. I found these at an amazing blog called Come Together Kids (In fact, I stole many activities from this site!).  You will need:

• Balloons
• Plastic Cups
•  Mini Marshmallows

Click here for directions.

I found it worked best to make sure your marshmallow was right in the hole. It went the farthest this way. I also discovered that not all balloons are created equal. I cheaped out, and they were very easy to break. I'll go for the $2 bag next time :)

And of course, we had to finish off with some Smores Trail Mix (Honey Nut Cheerios, marshmallows, and chocolate chips). Fun Day!