Mitten match

Simple felt mittens with a simple design on them (all different) make for a great activity.  I cut them out of felt and hot glued the designs on them.  Daphne has fun matching them up.  We are also working on sequences.

Rice ornaments

We got wooden shaped ornaments awhile back for 50 cents each.  The little metal tray is glue (so glad we got it for a penny a bottle before school started!).  She used a paint brush and painted glue on the ornaments.  Then she took rice from the bowls and sprinkled it on the ornaments.  Before I knew it she was mixing the rice all together and dumping it in the tray.  After the initial glue dried I then took them and painted over everything with a lot of glue.  I don't have hodge podge because it's so expensive.  I plan on making some when I get some containers to put it in.  Once the coating of glue dries I'll post a picture of the finished products!

Colored Rice! You can do it!

I googled a lot of different way to color rice trying to find an easy and quick way.  I was surprised to find a recipe that was what I needed (and worked with rice and pasta).  I used about 1 1/2-2 cups of rice per bag, two teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, and 10 drops of liquid food coloring.  The red was kinda pink but all of the colors were a softer color.  To make them more bold use extra food coloring.  I used the walmart brand food coloring so it came with red, blue, yellow and green.  To make orange I used 3 drops of red and 7 of yellow and to make purple I used 4 drops of blue and 6 of red.  With that said, I came to the conclusion I did things a bit backwards.  So let me tell you how I should have done it so you won't make the same mistake!

Steps:
1.  Get your supplies ready: food coloring, rice (I used regular long grain rice that was cheap), rubbing alcohol, teaspoon, measuring cup, zip lock bag (I used quart size).
2.  Place the 2 tsp of rubbing alcohol in each bag.
3.  Place drops of food coloring into each bag.
4.  Mix food coloring and alcohol together.
5.  Add rice.
6.  Seal the bag and shake/mix until it's all mixed well.
7.  In a well ventilated place lay rice out to dry.  (used aluminum foil but you can use cookie trays or anything else you want to...wax paper, etc)
8.  Once dry (I did it before bed and put it up in the morning) place it in your chosen containers.  I use canning jars but zip lock bags work too.

I did six colors and didn't ventilate what I did...my husband and I almost got high off the fumes.  So PLEASE make sure it's well ventilated!!!

The next day...we made ornaments as Christmas presents!  Once my phone is charged enough to post the pictures, I will show everyone how we did it.

Getting creative with random things

The other day Daphne found a game of pick up sticks.  Other than stab thing with the sticks I didn't know what to tell her to do with them so I made a game.  I took a cardboard basket I got from Target for $1 and used a nail to poke holes in it.  It became a favorite game instantly.  After having it a week or so she started using the sticks to count.  As she put one in a hole she counted, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Once she got to five she ran through the numbers all the way to 12.  This is a significant thing for her.  This is the first time she has initiated counting on her own and gone to 12 without help AND it's the first time she has associated counting objects and using numbers by herself.  Since there are different colored sticks we also use this as a color game.  Sometimes I let her lead play and sometimes I suggest things.  Can you find all of the yellow sticks?  How many red sticks do you see?

 

This was another impromptu game I made.  A styrofoam sphere, pipe cleaners, and straws.  I cut the sphere in half with a knife and cut the pipe cleaners in half as well.  Then I folded the pipe cleaners in half and twisted them together tightly.  Then I carefully pushed/twisted them into the styrofoam.  Afterwards I cut some straws up so she could thread them on the pipe cleaners.  I have to straighten them up sometimes but over all, this is another fun game she enjoys quite a bit as well.

Sand time

My computer is playing tricks on me so the pictures are backwards.  We started off with glue, paint brushes, black paint and sand.  (After the epsom salt ordeal I ran out for sand yesterday.)  We painted with the glue then sprinkled sand on it.  I thought it turned out neat but Daphne had another idea.  She wanted to play in the sand.  Okay.  I got out her cookie sheet and let her go to town.  She was having a blast and would have kept on playing but she started sling sand everywhere.  Maybe we can try it again soon.  With the sand we could draw shapes, letters, numbers and just be silly.  She also brought out a spoon and measuring cups.  It really was a lot of fun!

Ornament time!

Last night we did a craft to try and stay quiet while Daddy rested.  (He started this round of sinus infection that caused Daphne's ear infection.)  After looking on the PAHM website (love her!!!) I thought it would be fun to make ornaments out of epsom salts that we colored.  We had a blast!  She added glitter and the salts and went wild.  However, we had a little complication at the end and woke up Daddy.  While cleaning up she rubbed her eyes and got epsom salts in he eye.  15-20 min of flushing her eyes with water in the bath tub was rough on all three of us.  Her yelling stop didn't stop us.  Poison Control was nice enough to call back and check up on her after 30 min.  The very nice lady (who didn't blame me in the least little bit even though I was positive she was going to call CPS on us...she didn't...lol) determined that it was a minor irritation and that we didn't have to take Daphne to the ER or the eye doctor the next day.  That's nice to know.  But, for the time being, I think we will stick to colored sand and colored rice.

Unexpected ocean trip

She is feeling a ton better now!  She woke up running...literally.  She would play for awhile then rest and repeat.  After nap time she started demanding a trip to the beach.  Well, we are land locked unless we drive a state or two away (not going to happen).  There is a lake about 1 1/2 hours away that has sand but it's too cold to go there plus with an ear infection I'm not okay with her going out to play in the wind and water.  This was our alternative.  I have yet to get a hold of sand unfortunately.  (I refuse to pay for it when you can get it outside on the ground.)  Instead I used pea gravel.  So we have the gravel, some plastic fish, some rocks, and some water.  She was excited for her little beach.  (I can't wait to get some sand to show her how to make sand castles!)  Before I knew it she had raided her kitchen and gotten a pot out to cook a fish, a tea pot and tea cup to serve the water in, and was having a blast.  Before she played in her ocean we pulled up pictures on the computer to see what a real ocean looked like.  In the near future I plan on printing off an ocean scene and laminating it to put on the bottom so she can play with a real ocean environment.  I also want to get some fish tank stuff like sea weed and coral to put in it.  I've seen them at the $ tree!

Just hanging around

I would LOVE to tell you Daphne and I have been coming up with some amazing ideas of things to do...or that I've found some neat things to try with her on pintrest or other craft/activity sites, but I haven't.  I have a sick little girl so we have been hanging around a lot.  I'm hoping once her antibiotics kick in she'll be up to playing and creating again.  Let's hope it's soon because I miss my energetic little monkey.

Sometimes, I fully admit, when on pintrest (or other similar websites) I feel like a bad mom.  Let's face it, there are tons of women (and men) on there who claim they grow their own veggies and fruit, they grow their own cows for the butcher, raise chickens for eggs that they harvest every day.  Then they make their own soap, can tons of food, do amazing crafts and activities with their children, keep an immaculate house...all while being dolled up with make up, hair fixed perfectly, a size 4/6 in a cute dress...and in high hills.  Are they all super women and I'm just lazy?  Some weeks I do good to keep my family in clean clothes, fed, and in a half way decent house.  My very good friend said she's healthy and can't do half of that stuff.  She thinks those women have maids, nannies, and other help they don't mention...or they strongly over exaggerate what they are really doing.  Which makes me wonder...why do we feel the need to make ourselves feel less adequate because we can't do what someone else does?  So you can't afford the 2k swing set for the back yard or the water table...who cares!  (You care the most...but your kids aren't as concerned as you are.)  Let go of the notion that you have to do things the same way everyone else does.  You know what your children need...love them and give them what they need.  They will be more thankful in the end that you loved them and cared for them more than the swing set...they can swing at a friend's house or the park.  Every day doesn't have to be filled with something amazing.  Yesterday at the doctor's office we colored on the exam table paper.  We drew numbers, shapes, and letters.  I even drew a drum.  Yep, we used crayons as the drum sticks.  If you need to keep your kids contained at the doc's office coloring on the paper is a great way.  Don't worry about if they will get mad at you for coloring the paper...they tear it off after each patient and throw it away.

Volcano experiment...so 1999!

Let's have some fun shall we?  It's time to use an oldie but goodie in a new way!  Things I used?  Baking soda, vinegar, a balloon, an empty water bottle, a funnel and a bowl.  I put about 3-4 TBSP of vinegar in the water bottle and then filled the balloon about half way up with baking soda (the funnel worked great for this).  Then I took the balloon (very very carefully) and placed it over the lip of the water bottle.    Make sure to not spill any of the baking soda in the bottle.  We then sat on the floor, put the bottle in a bowl, and I let Daphne shake the baking soda into the water bottle.

Baking soda and vinegar create carbon dioxide.    You can color the vinegar to make it more fun but I couldn't get to the food coloring so we didn't color it.  Just make sure you rinse out all of the residue from the bottle if you want to redo the experiment.  Daphne made us do it over and over and over again.

The Start of Flat Daphne

I've decided that we need to start our own Flat Stanley (we'll call it Flat Daphne)!  I've sent emails to friends and family in an effort to find some hosts!  You can send things by mail or email if you want to do your own Flat Stanley.  I think it will be a blast!  This whole program can be completely free if you do it by email.  Why not learn about some new places around the world with your little one all while having fun!

Update:  Within a few hours of posting on my facebook page that we needed some hosts for Flat Daphne I had a Sunday School class and a pre-k class offer to host F.D., a woman I went to high school with who works at Disney offer to host F.D. at Disney for a day, a yoga teacher offer to teach F.D. some yoga, and a few stay at home moms as well.  I sent a special email to a friend who moved to South America about a year ago to do mission work hoping she will host F.D. as well as she home schools her two young boys.  You never know what opportunities your Flat Stanley might have!

Science Experiment with Colors!

My husband and I both have science degrees so it only goes to say that our daughter would be exposed to a lot of science and a lot of experiments in an effort to show her how fun science and learning can be.  In an effort to teach her with proper items I wanted test tubes, a bulb syringe, and other things to help make this an authentic science experiment.  Unfortunately, we don't have all of those things (and they can get kinda expensive).  So...we improvised.  Instead of large test tubes to hold the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) we used cheap plastic cups I got at the Dollar Tree (2 for $1).  Instead of the smaller test tubes, we used a white ice tray we had sitting around in the garage.  I was going to use the white paper cups we had for the bathroom when we brush our teeth but my husband suggested the ice tray.  (It worked quite nicely.)  Instead of the bulb syringe, we used a measuring spoon.  I thought about using food coloring but decided to go with the fizzy bath tablets we got at walmart to color the water.  They worked great.  I put two in each cup.  After wards I realized one in the red and one in the blue would have been fine.  They were too dark to see a good purple when you mixed them together.  I also put it all in a big tub on top of a plastic table cloth.  (She's sitting in my living room floor!!!)  It's a hardwood floor so I'm not as brave as you think.

 

Daphne is mixing away and having a blast.  Sometimes I guided her to get a specific color.  I wanted to make sure she mixed each one to find all of the different colors she could make.  After that, I let her experiment away.

 

Shortly after this picture she decided it was taking too long and decided to pick up each cup and dump everything into the ice tray.  Once it became a blackish brown she just dumped everything into the tub and started transferring from one cup to another. The object of this activity is over, but she's still having fun.  At first I was worried about her getting the water outside of the tub, but now I'm just not so worried about it.  Since we didn't use food coloring I'm not worried about it staining anything.  But please don't put them in something pretty or special just in the off chance it does stain.

Maze time

I had been trying to come up with a fun way to play with ping pong balls.  So....here is what happened.  We took some of our small board books and made a maze.  Then, without using her hands, she had to get the ball through the maze.  So exciting when she finally got to the end.

Oculars Mommy!

Daphne has been trying to get her hands on Daddy's binoculars since deer season started and he got them out.  Time for some fun and to help her get over Daddy's binoculars.  So we made our own.  I used card stock so she could draw on it but you can make it more sturdy by cutting up a box of empty something or another (cereal, gold fish, etc).  I also used two empty toilet paper rolls but you could use a paper towel roll and cut it to a similar size.

 

I used the rolls to measure the paper, drew the lines so Daphne knew where to color at.  She asked me to put her name on it.  Then I taped the rolls together.  Once I had cut them out, I used glue dots to attach the paper squares.

 

I spy a cute girl with binoculars!  We played I spy with her new binoculars quite a lot today. She LOVED looking for things through them!

More free fun...the library

Went to the library for story time.  Daphne always has a wonderful time and they always have really neat things to do.  Today we learned about GERMS.  (Now, the ironic thing...I started sneezing and got a runny nose right after we got home.  Hmmmm.  I'm hoping it's just allergies because I haven't taken my allergy med yet this morning and we played outside.  My internet isn't working properly right now so I'm not sure what picture is what.  Sometimes the pictures load and sometimes they don't.  Right now they are all in the blog but aren't showing up for me.  The picture with the black sink that say "Sink the Germs" was a really cute game.  The librarian made it out of a box, covered it in black paper, took some bean bags and taped different kinds of germs on them and the kids got to toss the germs in the sink.  Then we made a doctor bag out of construction paper.  The library outdid themselves...they had bandaids, cotton tipped applicators, tongue depressors, cotton balls, straws they made to look like thermometers, and gauze to put in the doctor bags the kids made.  Daphne has been playing with it all afternoon.  Unfortunately...the bag didn't hold up being made out of paper.

Guess its dress up time

Daphne decided it was time to dress up...as a cat.  I'm a firm believer in dress up clothes, masks, hats, and other things to help children use their imagination.  You never know what to expect from her.  Right now she is sitting in the floor beside a toy horse with a cat mask on, earlier she had a pink cowgirl hat on yelling "yee haw!"  This afternoon she may put on her princess dress and crown...you really never know.  The best part is you can get dress up items really cheap!  The fire department gave Daphne her fire chief hat.  We got her vest at the $ Tree.  The cat costume and tiger costume were after halloween sales I paid $1 each.  Her princess dress was a hand-me-down, but they have them at our local goodwill and at the cosignment sales we have around here that happen each season for great prices.  We keep her halloween costume out whenever she wants to dress up as a butterfly (twice as nice consignment sale for $5).  Her Dr coat I "made" her is a white dress shirt from the men's section at Goodwill.  I cut the bottom off to the length she needed and the sleeves.  Then I stitched up the back to make it fit a little better.  You can do so many things at a cheap price if you take the time to look around!

Getting ready for winter update

Above she is coloring with fall colors onto tissue paper.  Mommy helped so she would have some "solid" colored pieces.

 

She tried to use scissors.  This was her FIRST time.  She was able to make quite a few cuts, but it was hard work.  She decided tearing the tissue paper was a lot easier.  In the end she tried the scissors again, but wasn't overly fond of them.

  

This was her amazing work.  To make it easier on Mommy to keep in place I put the saran wrap on a cookie sheet and pulled it tight so there was a space between the saran wrap and the cookie sheet.  When she was done I put another piece of saran wrap on top of it, then transported it to the ironing board.  She had a lot of fun and thought it was neat that it stuck without anything.

Getting ready for Winter!

Did you know you could make your own crude version of lamination?  You can.  It's really cheap and clings to the windows.  What is it? Saran wrap.  Wait, I know what you're thinking.  DUH.  Well, how about making creations with it.  Put an iron on a low setting, put a piece of wax paper down, a piece of white copy paper (blank), a piece of saran wrap, whatever your creation is (it doesn't work with large pieces of paper, lots of glitter, etc...there has to be holes in creation to seal it in the middle), another piece of saran wrap, a piece of white copy paper (blank), and another piece of wax paper.  Once your sandwich is made, iron it briefly.  (Before you remove everything, check to make sure you've ironed it enough so your creation doesn't get messed up.)  If there is glitter on it, lay the iron down on it repeatedly, don't move the iron around like you would when ironing clothes.  If you see from my Christmas tree made of glitter, you will see what happens when you slide the iron around...the glitter spreads before it is sealed in.  Glitter doesn't seal as well and is heavy (for all intents and purposes) so I had to use tape to help it stick on it's surface...plus I tried to put it on my wooden cabinet doors that are painted white.  Also, you should know that glitter doesn't shine well in the window which is why I put it on the cabinet door.

 

You can see the snowflake I made.  It sealed up wonderfully and sticks to the microwave without assistance.

  

This was random pieces of cut up paper to see what would happen, if anything, when I over lapped them.

 

Normally I would let Daphne try this experiment herself and see how things went.  However, this one involved an iron and melting a thin layer of plastic so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't cause a fire with her beside me when we made them.  The first time I wanted to try it in a controlled environment.