Kids' Projects: Science and Kitchen Supplies - Volcanoes

Baking soda and vinegar are cheap and entertaining.  

I prefer for them to experiment with these outside.  

Try having them put one then the other, then switch which goes in first.

Or how about re-using the materials~ then what happens?

Or have the kids experiment with quantities of each.  Does this make a difference?

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Kids' Art Idea: Feather Chick

This was made with some feathers from the chicken coop as the chick's body, ivy stems as the legs, cut up ivy as the feet and eyes, grass at the head, and a screw as the beak.  We started by drawing a circle for the body, as well as a neck and head.  Fun!

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Sculpey Oven Bake Clay

The oven bake sculpey clay we got has been a major hit.  The boys knew just what to do with it.

It took a minute for them to figure out how to knead it (in small amounts to soften it), but they were off and running from there.

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Kids' Flower Arranging

We made four bouquets this weekend from the garden for a party.  My two sons each made one, and I made one.  We also made one that was all mint with one rose.

The boys, my older son in particular, enjoyed measuring the length of the flower stems in relation to the jar and each other, and deciding where to put the flowers in relation to each other.  

We also added some ribbon to the top of each jar.

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Kids' Woodworking Area Set Up

I have talked about the woodworking bench we made for the kids to use before, but wanted to show it in its full context.  This area is the side of our house, just outside the garage.  All of the saws, drills, and other tools are stored inside the garage.

Out here, we put an old shelving unit like this one (or here is a smaller one).  It used to be in the garage and was no longer needed there.  But moving it outside has been perfect to allow us a space to organize wood and scraps.  Plywood is on top, 2x4s have a shelf, 1x4s have a space, and so on.  Wood is just grouped by type. Miscellaneous materials like clear plastic are stored behind.  Latches, clasps and wheels are stored int he garage. 

There is a step ladder nearby for the kids to peruse and choose their wood that is too high.  We also keep folding saw horses in the area.  You see an old 5 gallon paint/ spackle bucket that the kids can use as a seat.  

Having this organization system allows us to use the same materials over and over again for different projects, and to be able to tidy up the area without getting rid of all the fun.

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Magical Kids' Garden with a Yellow Brick Road

We have been so happy with this area of the front garden.  The yellow brick road we made leads to a little playhouse where the neighborhood kids (and mine) spend a lot of time playing.  The grown-ups have a bench right there.  The floor is wood chips, and I have eaten many a delicious wood chip pizza and drank many a wood chip coffee.

We have talked about our front yard transformation before, but I wanted you to see it a few years later.  This area was grass when we moved in, with some big non-fruiting mulberries, and red lava rocks.  The first thing we did was to get rid of the trees and lava rocks, and sheet mulch the area. We got the wood chips from a local tree service and spread them ourselves. 

To make the yellow brick road, we painted one side of bricks in yellow, then varnished them.  Then we laid them in.  The play house was easy to put together, and I have since water sealed it.  We leave a set of kids' pots and pans out there, and they cook with wood chips and rocks.  The mail box is our old mail box cut down in height and dug in.  

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Chalkboard Paint: Kids' Bedroom Wall

My older son has been really enjoying writing on his huge chalkboard at school and was delighted to hear that they make paint that can turn a wall into a chalkboard.  Figuring we could paint over it if it was a disaster, we taped up a space and went for it.

He actually did most of it~ I guided the corners and the spacing.  The lines are double because we also did a glow in the dark border but we never leave the light on in there long enough to charge it up.

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One Sheet Plywood Boat into Kids' Airplane

 As you recall, we made the one sheet plywood boat this summer.  We had a lot of fun with it in the swimming pool, then ran into a couple of problems.

One problem with the boat was that it was a little hard to see over the keel and be careful of fellow swimmers. Another problem with the boat was the window.  Though extremely cool (as an add-on feature), it let in water.  So we took it off and then attached and sealed it with silicon caulk (I used a disposable latex glove this time- that stuff is HARD to get off your hands!).

The boat was working great until the two issues collided to form problem number three.  There were too many swimmers one hot Indian Summer afternoon in the pool.  So we took the boat out and Little Brother started to climb on and in and around it.  Then he stepped on the window and it popped right out.

So it went back to dry dock.

And there it sat.

Until Big Brother had an Idea.  He wanted to make an airplane.  I spent my usual two days trying to get him to explain and plan his idea and he spent that time trying to get us to Home Depot and drawing a blueprint.

Then we walked past the boat in dry dock and a plan was formed.

First we added wheels.  One wheel on each corner.  One set swivels, and the other set doesn't (that's why they are dragging it backwards all the time).  If I would do this again, I would use larger wheels (these are 2" casters) and have them all swivel.

Then we used the leftover angle pieces from the bow side pieces and made them into a tail (yes, the angle is odd, but that's how we got it to attach and be stable).

Then came the wing, which is a 1x2 drilled into the boat in the middle.  The boys sanded the edges and decorated it.  They later added jets underneath using a dowel cut into four pieces, but it fell off fairly quickly.

We used the circular piece of plywood that had been taken out for the original boat window and attached it onto the boat using a bolt so it would spin as the steering wheel.  We made another for a co-pilot.

They attached a hook to the end, and clipped a rope from the tricycle onto the hook.

They drew a runway on the street with sidewalk chalk and were on their way.

They kept adding and modifying.  On the tail is an exhaust pipe (old juice bottle with PVC fitted in and kept in place with a steel band like you use to attach a water heater to the wall).  On the back is a sink (steel bowl which fits into another piece of plywood with a hole sized for it to sit into).  They took a little cool box (igloo like this but blue) and stocked it with cheese sticks and kept it on board.  They kept talking about pretzels.

Big Brother then changed his blueprint to match the design and got some other ideas. He wanted a top of the fuselage.

So we made a second boat, but didn't waterproof it or paint it, or add a back piece.  We also made the window larger -- to be used as a door.

Other additions have been a back window (plexiglass), and a hatch door for the window-- also of plexiglass.

The kids have made microphones out of PVC scraps.

They need someone to push from behind often, because it is a heavy load (especially with two sheets of plywood now) and the wheels are small.

Another new addition, in green below, are the parachutes.  You stand on top of the airplane, hold out the parachute, and then jump down.

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Kids Carpentry Idea: Picture Frame

We were at the candy store, I mean Home Depot, the other day.  We found a bit of wood in the hobby aisle, and thought to make a picture frame.  We found a piece of plexiglass 8x10 in the glazing aisle and we were on our way.

We came home and mitred the corners using a hand saw and the mitre box, then glued them together with wood glue and held the wood glue in place while it dried with painter's tape.

This is where our design could use some help.  We pre-drilled holes in the plexiglass so it wouldn't shatter, and screwed through the glass and frame to attach it.  You could do two sheets of plexiglass and slide a photo between.

On the back, we mounted picture mounting hardware and my son wrote his name.

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Kids' Project Idea: One Sheet Plywood Boat

We were looking for a boat that we could build ourselves and came across Gardenfork.tv and his great video.



As you can see, it takes him ten and a half minutes to make a boat.

I did not quite explain the subtleties of camera cutting to my older child (now 6), who watched this with me and decided this boat was something we could do.  We are good at rough carpentry, and not that great at finish work.  This looked like it was just up our alley.

So we made a materials list and went to Home Depot.  We managed to get help loading the sheet of plywood both into the cart and onto the car, so we were off to a strong start.

We encountered some difficulty when it took me over an hour to clean silicon caulk off my hands (I missed that part of the video where he says to wear gloves, and I am not great at caulking to start with).  But we perservered, and even set the trim.

My son noted that Gardenfork was a lot quicker at this boat building business than we were.  I then explained video cutting and time lapse and saw the light bulb go off in his head.  We let the caulk dry and called it a day.

Priming was messy business with three kids around (we babysat a neighbor kid that afternoon), and I lagged in motivation to do the final coats.  The boat sat for a week.

Then we got too annoyed at it in the driveway and did a coat one day.  Then another coat the next day.  Then we did touch up paint.  

Then the stickers my son made went on~ one said the boat name and the other two were the registration tags~ and we added hooks for the deck hands and the rope.

Then he had to design and make a rolling cart to move the boat.

And it worked to get the boat to the nearest body of water.

And it was deemed seaworthy!

The little deckhand did his job.

And it was even sturdy enough to be a stand up paddle board.

This was a fun project.  It was a bit slippery inside for me when it was my turn for a ride, but I went barefoot.  Those tub strips for babies might be a good addition.

The boat got a little scraped up on the pool edges, so we have some tires laying around and are going to make some bumpers for it.  I also need to talk him out of trying to get it to a reservoir/ lake and using it there.

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Follow Up: This has been turned into a kids' airplane.

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