File Folder Freakout

We are going on a trip soon (I still can't believe that my nephew is getting married!). I wanted a way to bring plenty of entertainment for our children for the plane and car rides without having to bring TONS of books and/or gluing them to a screen. In the past, we have brought a bathroom bag with small books, stickers, pens, and markers inside it. It has worked well, but what we could fit inside never really held their interest for very long. So, I took to the internet to get ideas for ways to go about this in a new way. I saw that someone used a binder to hold different travel games. I couldn't get to the full post (link was broken) to see what they included in it, but I thought a binder was a good idea. I started searching for ideas and came across file folder games. Educational and fun (hopefully) games that can be made reusable with some laminating paper and velcro strips. Below you can find just a sample of the games I have included in our binders.

Five Senses game 

Match the Heart game

In this game you place the animal in its habitat: Forest, Farm, Pond (not shown), or Ocean (not shown)

Mazes and connect-the-dot games, laminated for repeated use.

"Frozen" sequencing game

Simple Patterns

Classic games, again, laminated for repeated use

Color Sorting

Money Practice

Categorization

Dinosaur Math

Rhyming

Troll Math

More "Frozen" games

Oh, how I thought this was a perfect idea -- one contained binder (OK, two of them, one per child), with many games, most reusable, that are travel-friendly.  Just throw in some dry erase markers (I even found some with erasers attached to the cap so I didn't need to bring any sort of wipe), a few books and crayons and we have entertainment to last. And did I mention that most of these games are free to print online?! But, that's the problem. I now have two, very thick binders to transport and deal with on our trip -- or have to try to cut out some of the games (most that I have spent precious time carefully cutting and laminating, not to mention that I have already cut out games I wanted to include). I'm not sure I am any better off for our trip. Yes, the kids will (should be...) entertained, but it isn't looking like it is going to be any less weight/space taken up if I bring these as-is.

Stained Glass Kite

While S was napping today, A and I made a "stained glass kite." I saw the idea posted on Google + from Make and Takes. I followed their link which had step-by-step instructions. We pretty much followed it to a "T."

Rainbow Wreath

I had been wanting to make a new Spring wreath for awhile. I wanted to make something that the kids could help with, was made from things we already had on hand, and that was colorful for Spring. A couple ideas had come to mind, but none that really grabbed me. I did see some that I really loved (and still do), but they weren't ones easily made with the girls' help. Then I came across this post from the Nurture Store blog. It was just the idea we needed for our wreath! S did the red, yellow, and blue handprints, and A did the orange, green, and violet handprints.

I put the paint on the lids to glad-ware containers.

The girls each had a side of the paper to do their handprints. 

I used hot glue to attach the handprints to a cardboard circle. Then, I sprayed it with an acrylic sealer. It wouldn't normally have done this, but since we hung it outside I thought (hoped?) that it would help it last longer. It is after all still paper. 

The completed wreath on our door. I explained to the girls that it is paper, and that paper isn't really meant for outdoors. Our porch does have an overhang to keep it mostly dry, but it isn't completely blocked from the elements. We decided to still take a chance. We are about five days out now, including some days with wind and rain, and it is still looking good! Hopefully it will last awhile!

A "Dinomite" Valentine's Day

I came across this list at one of my favorite blogs I follow, Fun At Home With Kids. A creative, candy-free list of Valentine's ideas. I showed the list to A, and she chose to do the dinosaur and volcano one (I was excited myself to do that one, too). A is in two classes at school, so this meant 2x the number of valentine's required. This meant we needed to start early - I am SO glad that I did! All of the cutting and printing and volcano-mix making didn't seem too bad spread over a few weeks. 

Our supplies and printouts. 

Storming army of dinosaurs.

A pouch of volcano mix. 

Heart-Shaped Crayons

I saw this great list of candy-free Valentine's cards for kids on a blog that I follow on Google+. Within this list was an idea to make your own heart-shaped crayons. While we did not choose to do this for our Valentine's this year, I still really wanted to make them - what a great way to repurpose the broken crayons we have everywhere! After a trip to the local hobby store to buy a heart-shaped silicone mold we were able to try it out. S and I collected our broken crayons, peeled off any remaining labels, and then I cut them into smaller pieces. We distributed them between each heart of the mold. We put them in the oven at 200 degrees for five minutes (which was the lower temp setting and time that the person who's post I link to used). For our oven, we ended up doing another 10 minutes or so. I increased in 5-minute increments. You definitely need to watch closely - it goes from not quite melted to liquid in a flash. After letting them cool, we peeled them out of the pan and voila - we had heart crayons!

Before we put into the oven.

Our finished project. 

 

Heart Sun Catcher

S and I did a really simple, yet fun craft the other day - we made tissue paper sun catchers! I saw various posts around of how to make these (from snowmen to circles to other shapes).

We simply took clear contact paper, cut into the shape of a heart, peeled off the backing, and then applied small pieces of tissue paper to the sticky side until covered.

Ta-da!

I asked her to hold it up for the camera. It cracks me up every time - she literally holds it up. :-)

Her one lil' eye peeking through.

I used a hole punch to put some ribbon through so that we could hang them up in the window.

Starry Night Craft and Liquid Watercolors

I have seen a lot of blog posts about liquid watercolors, and I have been meaning to try them. I finally got around to buying some. I decided to try out the Starry Night craft project that I saw at artfulparent.com.

Supplies:
- liquid watercolors (we used blue and turquoise initially, then added in some yellow, green, and pink)
- star stickers
- salt (we used table salt and kosher salt)
- watercolor paper
- paintbrushes

First, we put the star stickers on our watercolor paper (I cut a full sheet into quarters). 

Next, we painted our paper. This is where you want to be sure your stickers are firmly on the paper before you start painting. If they aren't they will curl, and you will get paint underneath the sticker. 

Then, you add salt to your paintings and set aside to dry. As you can see, we did many paintings - some with and without stickers. The girls had a blast (and so did I)!

Once they are completely dry, you remove the stickers. In the cases where our stickers curled, we decided to leave our stickers on. Here are our completed works of art!