Homemade Rocket Ship

We were tricked by the weather again.  Were you?  It was warm and then it snowed, but I am hoping somewhere, someone is enjoying the sun and will be able to use this fun, easy homemade rocket ship.  My kids have enjoyed them for years and were a little sad when I pulled out all the goods only to see it was too cold outside.

You will need:

• water
• Alka-seltzer tablets
• 35mm film canister
• rocket ship clip art

It is really important to have the correct type of film canister.  The crucial part is having an inner seal.  Next time you are at a store with a photo counter ask them if they have any left over.  Costco or Sams Club usually have an abundance and collect them for recycling.  They won't have any problem giving you some since they will either throw them away or recycle them.  I came home with 25 canisters to use for my daughter's preschool class.
Next, find a rocket ship sized down to about the height of the canister.  I found several cute ones by searching "rocket ship clip art" on Google Image.  Its fun to let your kids decorate and color their own rocket.  This part builds anticipation for the launch.  Attach the rocket to the canister with tape.  Remember the bottom of the rocket is the lid of the canister.
This is definitely an outside activity.  When you find your launching site outside, drop one Alka-Seltzer tablet into each canister.
Fill the canister about half full of water.  Immediately, the Alka-Seltzer will begin to react and bubble.
Quickly, snap the lid into place.  Give the canister a little shake.  Set the rocket on the ground, lid down.  Run away.  Warn your little ones to stay away once the rocket is set.  The party would be ruined if someone got whacked in the face.
3,2,1 Blast off!  Within seconds the pressure inside the canister starts to build until the lid pops and the rocket "launches" into the air.  Oooos and ahhhs come next.  Retrieve the rocket and lid to use again.  One Alka-Seltzer tablet may have 3-4 uses before it runs out of gas.

At least an hour of amusement will come of these little rockets.  This would be easy to take to the park, beach or camping trip.  I hope you and your kids enjoy them as much as we do!

Sensory Matching Game

We are wishing daily that spring will come.  After last weeks big snow fall and a daughter almost in tears over it, we decided we needed to come up with a new game to play at home.  This sensory matching game is easy to make with items from your closet.

You will need:

• 4 card stock cut into four equal pieces (16 squares total)
• household items that fall into the following categories: rough [sandpaper, scouring pad], smooth [aluminum foil, paper, ribbon], hard [wood, metal, pasta] and soft [cotton balls, fabric, pipe cleaners] -- use your imagination.
• glue, scissors and a marker
• blindfold

Write hard, smooth, rough or soft on the back of each card.  Each category gets 4 cards.
On the front side glue on the corresponding item, making two identical cards.  For example, I used cotton balls for soft.  On two cards I wrote soft on the back and glued cotton balls on the front.  Once you have made all your cards lay them out with the item facing up.  For a younger child use fewer cards per game.

Blindfold the child playing.  Instruct her to feel all the cards and select two that are the same.   Set those aside until all the cards are matched up.  Next have your child look at all the matches she made and sort them into the appropriate categories.  Checking the back to verify the answer. 

A fun game for yet another day indoors.

Christmas Around the World

As a young girl, I loved to hear Christmas traditions from my heritage; my father is from Mexico, my mother is Dutch, my grandfather is Indonesian, my great grandmother is Japanese.  Each country holds different traditions or celebrations during the Christmas season.  Learning about them helped me feel a special bond with my heritage and with people around the world.  Even if you don't have close relatives from other countries in the world, children love to learn about the world they live in. 

This Christmas gather your kids to look at a globe or map of the world.  Have each child choose a country they are interested in and learn about their traditions.  You may even find a new tradition to add to your own.  Click here or here for a list of countries and their respective Christmas traditions, celebrations or activities. 

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Storynory

A couple of years ago my husband secretly signed up to participate in a research project to make some extra money to purchase me my own iPod.  A surprise indeed!  I love my iPod.  Now I don't know how I ever survived without it.  Its essential to a days cleaning, to combat errand boredom, to enlighten my mind and perk up my mood.  I'll have to admit that most of my playlists are made with my children in mind with the likes of Old McDonald, Disney Princesses, and the Tarzan soundtrack.  I love to provide this music for my kids, but I don't always love to listen to it day in and day out.  Here is a wonderful solution...audio stories.

Storynory is a free podcast you can sign up for on iTunes.  Each week the podcast is updated with a new story ranging from fairy tales to classics to adapted histories.  I love that my kids (myself included because I enjoy listening too!)  are listening to the Brother's Grimm, Aesop, and  Hans Christian Anderson to name a few.  Sometimes a poem is read or Greek mythology.  

The stories are read by Natasha who is now a household name my girls talk about as if they are friends.  Natasha Gostwick is a very talented, very animated and clear-spoken story teller with a fun British accent.  I would say that most stories are appropriate for ages 5 and older, but with a little bit of explanation my 3 year old enjoys them too.  We listen to them on the way to school, the park and the store.  We especially love them on long car rides (perfect for those of you traveling by car this Christmas).   Our favorite Christmas fairy tale is The Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brother's Grimm.

If you haven't discovered Storynory yet, go discover it today.  From the iTunes homepage click podcasts then kids & family then Storynory or simply search Storynory.  To make your own selections go directly to Storynory website and check out the wide variety.

Go enjoy a great story!

Edible play dough

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching some kids.  We were playing with play dough, a favorite pass time of my little ones.  When the neighbor kids watched in disgust as my 18 month old licked her play dough, the thought occurred to me that maybe I should try some of the edible play dough recipes.  I began my search.  There are lots out there, but none of them looked very appetizing...to me anyway.  I didn't really want to waste my ingredients on a not-so-good recipe. How would I know which one was worth the effort?  

Then last week the same neighbor kids came over.  They convinced me to try several of the recipes and figure out which ones were the best, with their help of course.   Here are our top two picks: the classic peanut butter play dough and the chocolate play dough.  We were looking for two things, ease of molding without sticking to your hands or tools and taste.  Both of these are yummy and fun to mold.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, using your hands.  Dough should feel soft and pliable. 

The kids loved this one mostly because it tasted so good.  mmmm....s w e e t n e s s!  It was easy to shape and not sticky at all.  

Chocolate Play Dough

8 oz. semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup light corn syrup

Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (a double boiler).  Stir the chocolate with a spoon until smooth, then stir in the corn syrup.  The chocolate will stiffen almost immediately but stir until completely combined.  Transfer the chocolate to a sturdy plastic bag and refrigerate until firm; the consistency will be that of play dough.

Another use of this recipe which I love is shaping the dough into a rope or braid that can be used as the outside edge on top of a cake or around the base.

One mistake we made with this one is we didn't wait for it to cool long enough.  Even though the dough felt cool, it was still too soft.  It left a residue on our hands.  You really need to wait until it is firm yet pliable, maybe an hour or more.  The chocolate play dough was nice for molding because it kept its shape.  This was my personal favorite.  mmmm....c h o c o l a t e!

We added a few other edible items for decorating.  The kids had a great time and my 18 month old didn't get dirty looks for licking her play dough.  Who says you can't play with your food and eat your toys?!

Here is one more to try out for your Halloween Party coming up. 

Pumpkin Play Dough

5 1/2 cups flour

2 cups salt

8 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup oil

1 container (1 and 1/12 ounces) pumpkin pie spice **dry spice only**

orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)

4 cups water

Mix all ingredients together.  Cook and stir over medium heat until lumps disappear.  Knead dough on floured surface until smooth (not sticky). 

Happy Halloween!

Autumn Leaves

Beautiful colors are filling the scenery and I love it!  Here is an easy science project bound to captivate the curious child and adult, but hurry, time is short.

What you need:

leaves

small jars & lids (foil or plastic wrap work fine)

rubbing alcohol

paper coffee filters (I recommend white)

shallow pan

hot tap water

tape & pen

First, collect leaves.  Tear or chop the leaves into very small pieces and put them into small jars.  Add enough rubbing alcohol to each jar to cover the leaves.  Using a plastic knife or spoon, carefully chop and grind the leaves in the alcohol.

Cover the jars very loosely with lids, plastic wrap or foil.   Place the jars carefully into a shallow tray containing 1 inch of hot tap water.  Keep the jars in the water for at least a half-hour, longer if needed, until the alcohol has become colored (the darker the better).  Twirl each jar gently about every five minutes.  Replace the hot water if it cools off.

Cut a long thin strip of coffee filter paper for each of the jars and label it.  Remove the jars from the water and uncover.  Place a strip of filter paper into each jar so that one end is in the alcohol.  Bend the other end over the top of the jar and secure it with tape.

The alcohol will travel up the paper, bringing the colors with it.  After 30-90 minutes (or longer), the colors will travel different distances up the paper as the alcohol evaporates.  You should be able to see different shades of green, and possibly some yellow, orange or red, depending on the type of leaf.

Remove the strips of paper, let them dry and then tape them to a piece of plain paper.

**The only changes I would make is to use white paper coffee filters.  Mine were brown which masked some of the colors.  The effect will be stronger with white.  Also, if you are using leaves that have already changed colors, experiment times will be longer.

I got this project from Science Made Simple, a great site with many easy science projects for all ages.  Click here for a simple explanation on how and why leaves change colors.  I used this information to teach my young girls about leaves changing colors as we were preparing this science experiment.   There is nothing like teaching and learning with a hands-on experience!

Shake and Eat: Ice cream in a bag

This really should be a post for summer time, but I couldn't help myself; it was uncharacteristically warm today in the northern mid-west.  I'm having a hard time letting go of summer and have been a little anxious about my first mid-west winter.  Let's not talk about that,though.  The truth is I truly appreciated the warmth today, so we celebrated.  If you know our family, you know we always celebrate with ice cream.  

Here is a fun little recipe for ice cream made in a bag all in about 10 minutes.

You will need:

ice cubes

1/2 cup kosher salt

1 cup half-and-half

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 resealable sandwich bags

1 gallon-size resealable freezer bag

dish towel

1. Fill the gallon-size bag half full with ice.  Add kosher salt.

2. In one sandwich bag, mix half-and-half, sugar and vanilla (we also put in a few drops of food coloring for fun).  Seal tightly and put in second sandwich bag and seal to prevent any leaking.

3. Place the small bag inside the large bag.  Seal the large bag tightly so it won't leak.

4. To protect your hands from the cold, wrap the dish towel around the outside of the large bag.  Shake vigorously for about 5-7 minutes or until the half-and-half mixture turns into ice cream. 

Note: shaking is the fun part.  We turned up the music (Gypsy Kings to be specific) and took turns shaking and dancing around the room.

5. Carefully spoon ice cream into a dish avoiding the salt. 

mmmm, tasty!

The Grateful Door

For many of you, school has started and routines have changed.  Life is a little more chaotic and a little more exciting.  This fall we begin our second year of this new addition to our morning routine: the grateful door.  

Here is how it started.  We have moved to two different states in one year.  With each move there have been a few more tears around the house.  I finally decided we needed  a little cheering up.  I made the "I am grateful for..." sign, laminated it, and put adhesive magnets on the back.  I like to put it on the door we exit in the morning.  Right now it is on the door leading to the garage, but it can easily go on the fridge, near your child's bed, or in the family room.  

Each morning when my girls are ready and eager to go ("come on, mom" and I'm still pulling myself together with last minute gathering; keys, diaper bag, snacks, lists, all lights off etc.) I give them a little slip of paper with a pen and tell them to draw a picture of something they are grateful for or that make them really happy.  They draw the picture and tape it under the sign.  This buys me a few extra uninterrupted minutes.  For months we look at and laugh about what was drawn.  It becomes a conversation piece as we are all heading out the door.

the latest drawing of my oldest daughter

It has been so fun to see what come from their little minds and what is important to them.  Most of all it helps them see the many good things we have in life even if we did just leave all their friends behind.

To mix things up a bit you can make signs for favorite things, story telling, dreams and goals.  You get the idea.  Use what fits your family and what will get your kids excited and thinking.   Another note, my 3 year old daughter loves her pictures, but I can never make out what they are.  Solution: I make sure to ask her what it is and label it appropriately.  That way it is never forgotten or mistaken for something else.  That would be a tragedy. 

Coconut Fun

I remember as a child, pleading with my mom on grocery trips to "Please, please, please buy a coconut!" I was sure it would be something absolutely awesome. I had seen palm trees in pictures. They were tropical, beautiful and exotic. I was SURE that one of those coconuts must be absolutely delicious. Plus, I had tried a Mounds Bar, so I knew it would be.

Of course, after listening to me beg week after week, my mom finally relented, with the promise: "you think this will taste good, but you are not going to like it." She was right. As usual.

Years later, it was my turn in the grocery store. My 6-year-old perks up at the sight of a funny looking coconut in the produce section, "Oh, mom, mom! Can we get one of these?!?"

"Um, you really want one of those?"

"Yeah, yeah, these things grow on palm trees, mom!"

I relented. It is hereditary. But, on the trip home I decided that this little coconut could be a teaching opportunity, not just a bad purchase decision. And so it was.

image via wikipedia

Technically, the coconut you purchase at the grocery store is the "seed" of the coconut tree. The husk has been removed, and it is fully mature. The coconut (husk and all) is a part of the drupe family which makes it a fruit. So, essentially you are eating the seed (endosperm) of the coconut fruit when you crack the shell (pit) open.

A coconut makes a great seed discussion. It is a seed of mega-proportions. My kids were quite impressed to find out that if we planted the full coconut (husk and all) in soil, it would indeed become a coconut palm.

You can watch this YouTube video to teach you a little bit about the coconut, and to see one way to open it. Note: he is using the back of a knife, not the sharp edge.

To open mine, I opted to use the directions found here. I would definitely drain the coconut first before opening it by puncturing the "mouth." If you read the directions, you will be able to easily locate the "mouth" of the coconut. I used a small screwdriver to do this, and it was actually quite easy. I would definitely sample the coconut water. If it is a mature coconut, the water will not be so great -it is supposedly only tasty when the coconut is young- but still an experience, albeit slightly unpleasant. I used a hammer to open the coconut (once again using the above directions) and found it not quite so easy. I am sure our neighbors downstairs assumed we were starting some sort of home improvement project during our coconut cracking session, because it took quite a few whacks.

Prying the coconut meat off of your cracked coconut shell is no easy task. Some people bake the uncracked coconut in the oven at 325 for 30 minutes, and claim this allows the meat to detach from the shell easier. If you do this you need to pierce the eyes of the coconut before baking, and make sure you let the coconut cool down before hammering away.

When you have successfully pried all of the coconut meat off, there are all sorts of things you can do with it, which is good- because chances are your kids will not gobble up the raw sampling they receive. Here are some yummy ideas:


Homemade Coconut Milk

Coconut Custard Pie

Fresh Coconut Cake

Coconut-Cashew Basmati Rice


The next time we are in Hawaii I am going to make a point of sampling the coconut water of a fresh coconut, which is supposedly delicious. I am hoping to find this guy around to help me remove the husk.

I Felt like a hearty breakfast

I was inspired by this Egg by Haba to construct a felt version of an egg for my own kids to "crack" out of a stray plastic Easter egg, and add to their play-food collection. My daughters and I had such a good time creating the first egg, that we got a little carried away and decided to construct a full-on "breakfast-in-bed." Inexpensive and fun craft to do with kids. We hand-stitched all of these on Saturday and Sunday (with my daughters taking turns on my lap being the seamstress). Most of them are finished with a simple kid-friendly "whip-stitch." You could use a sewing machine and save A LOT of time, but it was really fun to include my 4 and 6-year-old in on the action, and they are so proud of their new sewing "talent."

I was feeling so excited about this felt craft idea, and then I read a post on Design Mom yesterday which made me feel quite un-original, but inspired at the same time. It turns out that there is a whole world of felt-food crafts to be made:). Felt food crafts are inexpensive (I found felt in China Town for about 4$ a yard) and in my opinion, more fun to play with than their plastic peers. Here is how I made each of these:

Pancakes:

• Use a CD to trace pancake circles on your fabric. I used 3 pieces of stacked felt for each pancake and then sewed them all together to make the pancake thick.
  

Eggs:

• Trace your Egg outline on white felt, and cut out two pieces of felt to match this pattern. On one of the pieces, sew the "yolk"(two pieces of yellow felt) on. Then, sew the bottom piece of the "white" on to the egg.
  

Bacon:

• Trace out your desired shape, and cut out 2 matching pairs. Like the Eggs above, you want to sew the white strips on to the top, before you sew the bacon bottom on to hide the stitching.
  

Butter:

• Used 4 pieces of felt cut into matching squares to get the desired thickness on this.

Syrup:

• Easiest of them all, I just used one piece of felt for this, and cut it out in the shape of a syrup puddle.

This was a lot of fun. The next time we have another slow-paced weekend, we will be trying to tackle some dessert ideas!

-Theresa

If you haven't entered the Boon give-away, read the following post!

You do know what it's like......

I laughed so hard at this ad because it reminded me of last summer when the Fresh Direct (Grocery Delivery) guy showed up at my door, and I had 25 barrettes in my hair, courtesy of my (then) 3-year-old hairdresser. And that was after I had madly scrambled to pull 15 out before opening the door. Thanks for the clip Julie.

Speaking of "surprises," I hope you all have an exciting April Fool's Day. My creativity was lacking this morning, so I ended up dying my children's milk (on their cereal) blue for breakfast. They loved it (and actually ate more cereal than normal:) but I am looking for a good tradition to start in years to come. Any ideas?