Over the last couple of months I do seem to have got a bit hooked on reading blogs and consequently have come across a lot of ideas. One that I have been wanting to try for a while is home made paints. On the great Internet you can find methods to make all forms of homemade paints, but the one I chose to try out this time was bath paints! The bathroom is such a great place for getting messy as it is really self cleaning - well it is in my house as the boys seem to think the idea of a bath is to redistribute the water everywhere else other than the bath!
This is so simple its seems silly writing it, but here you go -
1) You mix shaving foam and food colouring to get your paints -
I was very limited by my supply of food colouring!
2) You paint -
The flower is mine!
Inevitably this turned into a body painting session, which the boys loved!
(snowman)
So easy to clean up - just shower off, this was just as much fun for the boys as painting it on in there first place I think.
My next blog will be more about conkers!
Today on the agenda we had experiments. This was something we were all looking forward to. We usually stick to two old favourites - Elephants Toothpaste and the volcano. However I thought that I would try out some others this afternoon as well!
Tea bag rocket
I tried this out before doing it with the boys to make sure it worked, and it was quite good. You basically empty a tea bag and light it - it floats up into the sky. I got this from Kids Activities Blog.
We tried this about 7 times and of course it did not work any of the times - I have no idea why!
We set it up
and lit it then...
nothing! So onto the next...
Exploding rocket
The boys saw this on television so were desperate to give it a go. You fill a small container with water and drop in an alka-seltzer tablet then put the lid back on.
Supposedly the lid pops off - we waited....
and waited....
Nothing happened more than a slow slide upwards - nothing dramatic and the boys were very disappointed!
So onto the next...
Lava Lamp
We were all getting frustrated by this point so I was really hoping this would work! You fill a jar 1/3 full of water with some food colouring then fill it up with oil.
You then drop an alka-seltzer in and its brilliant you get bubbles of coloured water in the oil.
This was quite fun and the boys did enjoy it - I have kept the jar and every now and then we pop an alka-seltzer in to watch it again!
Onto the next..
Volcano
Then we moved onto the volcano - the boys won't let me do experiments without this one - They love it! you put vinegar in a container and then add baking soda - it explodes! We do have a plastic volcano from a past kit with a tiny hole in the top so it squirts out...
And finally...
Elephant's Toothpaste
This is my favourite! You put 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide (at least 9%) into a small necked bottle with some food colouring (we used green) a dash of washing up liquid and we used peppermint flavour for authenticity! Then you mix a spoon of dry yeast with warm water and pour the mix into the bottle.
The foam then oozes out and becomes really warm - great fun!
Nothing like a bit of science!
Thanks for reading....
Today's activities were play dough and table tennis, well I left the later to Robin, but I was very keen on the first as it is one of my favourite things to do.
WARNING - there are a lot of photos as I am loving the iOS 7 camera on my phone!
Recipe
Making play dough is so easy and satisfying. This is a magic recipe that is even more exciting.
you need:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup baking soda
3/4 cup salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 cups water
food colouring
(no cream of tartar in pic!)
You put all the ingredients into a saucepan and then stir over a medium heat. Eventually it all starts to come together into a big ball of dough. You then need to put it on a board and kneed it - it is VERY hot so not for children to touch straight away.
The boys will play with play dough for ages. They love making spaghetti:
Today they also to make cupcakes which looked great!
We then decided to see how magic the cup cakes were and we injected them with vinegar. Due to the magic ingredient of baking soda the cupcakes all fizzed. The boys loved it, especially flattening them out and seeing little eruptions happen as the vinegar reacts to the dough.
You cannot use the play dough again as it is all wet!
If you substitute the baking soda for more flour, this mix keeps for ages in an air tight container.
Table tennis
Not sure what to say about this - they played table tennis!
The boys got very excited and have already picked out the next activity and are very excited as its one of their (and mine!) favourites - "Experiments"! So watch this space!
Not just painting
Olly got to choose from the activity bowl today as Thomas is ill so lying on the sofa! He picked out "painting" - his first reaction was that it was a boring activity. Neither boy is very interested in "just painting" so we made it a bit more fun.
Firstly Olly wanted to do "Big Painting" with his feet, so we went outside and had a go -
It was quite fun, but very messy and over very quickly!
After a quick bath we decided to do some leaf painting - I really enjoyed this too. We basically printed with leaves.
This is my attempt - I'm quite pleased with it!
Olly made a great effort and made and "A" for Andersen!
We then used some of our acorn collection to make some interesting little things
The end result was pretty cool - a couple of toadstools and a strawberry! (these ideas came from Twig and Toadstool)
Olly loved making these toadstools and insists on collecting all acorns and cups that we come across to make more.
So all in all the painting was really good fun and not at all boring!
Thank you for getting this far!
Autumn is Here
I love Autumn, I can't decided between Spring and Autumn, but they are both my favourite months. I love Autumn because its the start of all things new and I love the changing of colours and the crisp mornings and crunchy walks. As a family one of our favourites things about Autumn is CONKERS!
The boys obsession with conkers began when Robin used to bring them some home every day after work - not getting conkers used to be a consequence for bad behaviour!
They don't do anything with their conkers, just collect them and put them in a big pot. Collecting them is the best bit!
After school today we decided to go and fill up out pockets.
We actually found that we still had a good week or so to wait before most of the conkers were down, but we were lucky with a few. The boys favourite bit is throwing sticks at the conkers still on the tree to "help" them down!
They then bash and bash until the shiny conker pops out of its cosy warm bed - prematurely!
We also collected LOTS of acorns and tomorrow we are going to make some acorn toadstools that I found in this great blog Twig and Toadstool
Now I just need to do some research into crafts with conkers!
We have completed the Summer List so what next....
The boys love doing activities (I love doing activities with the boys!) so I have compiled another list but have cut it up and put each activity in a pot so that the boys can pull out an activity when we have time and away we go!
Today was the first day that we have had no plans after school so we began. Olly pulled out the first activity -
Making a Den
If you read my last blog about building a fort (Building a Fort) you will know that this is not my favourite activity so I was pleased to get it over and done with!
We did go for a very similar den as before with all the sofa cushions then we decided to get draw the curtains and snuggle up with torches to read some stories.
This was all going swimmingly until the dog got in and caused havoc! He totally destroyed the den and ended up sitting on top of us all!
We did manage to get back to the stories and all was well! The boys love building a den - mainly because they usually get to eat tea in it!
Looking forward to our next activities - I hope its one of my favourites next time!
School is Back
The boys have been back at school for a week now and I honestly thought I would have more time now they are back. The absolute opposite is true! The fact that I have more free time literally means I have less free time as that free time is booked up in a matter of minutes! Its taken me a week to find time to write this which is the last blog for the Bucket List.
Build a Fort
We only had a few ticks left, the first one we did was to build a fort. This was an item on the list that I had been putting off. Its silly really as its a clean activity, and relatively easy and hassle free, however I hate having cushions everywhere - its ridiculous I know, so quick to tidy up and something the children LOVE! So I gave in and we built a fort, in the living room no less! We even had a picnic tea in there in front of the TV - serious parent points awarded!
I cannot tell you how much the boys love doing this - They think its naughty to throw the cushions everywhere so its even more fun!
The finished fort - it was very comfy - I even had a little snooze! How happy are those boys?
Ice Sculptures
The last thing that we ticked off the list was making ice sculptures. This needs a bit of preparation as you need to make a bock of ice first! We did this a few weeks ago using a balloon
This is a bit more fun if you colour the water before freezing, but I forgot this time! We then put the frozen balloon in the bath and the boys get in.
We fill squirty bottles with hot water and the start melting the ice. Their favourite thing it to make holes in it and hopefully tunnels. It is cool watching the water flow through the holes and tunnels.
In the end we had a pretty work or art!
The boys then get the sculpture to play with in the bath until it has melted (not long!)
They really enjoy this and it is something I will be doing more often - you always need a frozen balloon in the freezer for a rainy day!
Completed List - Yeah!
I have decided the list has now been completed - the only things we didn't tick off were going to the driving range and making an obstacle course, both things we will do anyway.
The End? What's Next?
The boys and I have loved going through this list so it seems sad to stop. Our plan now is to make a list and put all activities in a box so that on days when we have no after school plans we can pull an activity out from the box.
I have enjoyed writing this blog (for my benefit!) so have decided that I will continue to blog about the activities we do.
Thank you so much for reading, you are welcome to continue to join us on our activity journey!
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