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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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' 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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Working out at Home with Kids

We have been doing this for a long time~ me getting a short workout at home, and the kids doing their exercises.  You can see my mat crosswise just below where I am standing to take the photos.

I wanted to illustrate what it looks like to have three yoga mats for us in the edges of my bedroom.  I have found that giving each person their own space works great.

You see that my younger son has a tiny kettlebell (I think it's 8 lbs.) and really light dumbbells that I bought for this purpose at Target (I bought him 2 pounders when he was really little and in looking here, I see he took what used to be my older son's 5 pounders)  My older son uses my smallest kettlebell and smallest weights (16 lb. kettlebell and 10 lb. hand weights).

When they were really small, the little one used to jump in the doorway jumper and my older one would do exercises.


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DIY Kids' Work Bench - Woodworking

We needed a workbench for the kids that was at their height and sturdy and actually made for working.  Check out this article on the power of the woodworking bench for little kids.

We actually put this bench together a few years ago out of some scraps of pressure treated wood on top and on the sides but then last summer added the cross supports on the bottom (front and back) and painted it.  The cross supports make the legs much more sturdy.

The kids use this bench for hammering nails into and drilling screws in and out of. They spend countless hours hammering in and pulling out, and drilling in and drilling out.

 The bench usually also has a clamp-on vice at one end so the kids can make things with other pieces of wood.  That cooler, surprisingly, gets a lot of action by the kids so it has stayed there as well.

Here is a good large DIY workbench tutorial from Ana White you can make smaller if you'd like something more specific.  Her stuff is great.

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Helping Induce Sleep in Kids with an Epsom Salt & Lavender Bath (Shhhh....)

Just doing the dishes, Mom...

One of the many uses of Epsom Salt is to relax the body and increase magnesium, which helps induce sleep.  Another sleep-inducer is lavender essential oil, and a few drops in the bath does the trick.

But how to get the kids to take a salt bath to help them sleep?

We have found that NOT TELLING THEM WHY seems to do the trick.  They constantly love to bring toys into the bath, and playing with salt in the bath is as good a toy as any.  I often will give them a measuring cup filled with epsom salt and let them practice dissolving it and playing with it for the duration of their bath.

As for the lavender oil, we just drop it in (or let them do it).

Maybe this helps them fall asleep earlier... It's such a challenge to adjust to the days getting longer and falling asleep when it's light out!


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DIY Kids Target Practice

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Kids' Art: Popsicle Stick Snowflakes/ Stars

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Kids Fall Art Idea: Acorn/ Cork Art

Our neighbor showed us the acorn hearts she and her kids made and they looked so great, the kids wanted to come right home and make the same!

So we collected acorns on the walk home, then cut some cardboard.  You see one child wanted a heart and the other wanted an acorn shape.

When we laid them out, we didn't have enough acorns to fill in the whole thing.  So we supplemented with the cork collection.

To make the art pieces, we poured glue all over the cardboard, and then spread it out.

Then the kids laid in their acorns and corks.

I love how they each chose to lay their acorns and cork, and how the pieces look.  

Fall decorations!

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Essential Oils "Lice Away," "Focus Blend," and "Cootie Spray" by Nurse Freckles

This is information written by Nurse Freckles HERE. I am re-posting so I don't forget the recipes!!

Lice Stay Away Spray: I am sure at some point we have all received that letter that a child in school or day care has lice and you instantly start itching, my legs are tingling right now thinking about it! AHHHHHHHHH

    

• 5oz GLASS bottle (I recycle my empty oil bottles) with spray top
• Fill with water
• Add 5 drops each of the following Essential Oils (buy the best quality here)-Lavender-Rosemary-Melaleuca-Peppermint-Eucalyptus
• Shake and use every morning before school!

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Focus Blend:

Focus for any child at any age is important; we want those little sponges to soak up as much as they can while they are at school.  You can make a very simple mixture in a roller bottle to help them wake up and keep them focused while at school and after school for homework.

 

• 5oz or 10oz Glass Roller Bottle (you can also find them on Amazon)
• 10 drops of Wild Orange Essential Oil
• 10 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil
• Top off with Fractionated Coconut Oil
• Shake and Roll the mixture on their feet, back of necks and/or wrists.

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Cootie Spray:

Every time I send my kids to school or child care they almost always come home with a runny nose at some point.  Playing with other kids who sneeze and cough all over each other, putting random toys in their mouth that every other kid in the place has been sucking on already OR my kids favorite pass time picking their noses, any way you slice it, it is a cesspool of germs that they are carrying right back into our house! So for everyone’s health this is a really easy and non toxic hand sanitizer to make!

  

• In a 5oz Glass bottle (again I reuse my old essential oil bottles) with a spray top fill halfway with water
• Add 25 Drops of OnGuard Essential Oil and 10 drops of LemonEssential Oil
• Add 2 tsp of Fractionated Coconut Oil or Vitamin E oil
• Top off with Witch Hazel
• Shake and Use!

Good luck out there my peeps fighting the good fight from cooties and lice!

If you are looking to read about the differences in grades of essential oils go here, and safety here.

Disclaimer: This product does not intend to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent  any diseases.

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Kids' Book Review: It's So Amazing!

This book, It's So Amazing, is so amazing!

It says the book is for ages seven and older, and has sister books for younger and older kids.  I read it to my older son when I was pregnant beginning when he was just under two and a half years old.  My younger son is now three years and three months old, and he is interested and engaged in the book (which is not the case for every book, as it was for my older son at this age).  I chose this book instead of the book for younger kids because I wanted more detail to answer their questions.  I also use the drawings as a jumping point for me to explain things, rather than reading all of the words.

This is a great book because it talks about how boys and girls are different, and what our body parts are called, and how they change throughout our lives.  I think it is important to give kids the words for the things they notice and are curious about and to normalize them.

It also discusses love and sex, and what eggs and sperm are, and what happens as and after they meet.  The kids love the real-size images of a fetus and fetus to-be.  The page with the actual birth description has nice images for explaining how a baby comes out of a mommy.  It even touches on the different gestation periods of different mammals, multiple births, adoptions, preemies, and "not-nice" touches.

Both boys, 3 and 6, are interested in this book.  The younger one thinks it is interesting that boys won't have babies inside them, and that they will always have a penis, and never a vagina.  The placenta, umbilical cord, and birth process are also interesting.  He wanted to see his baby pictures after reading it, then his brother's, then mine and his daddy's.

My older son likes the differences between the gestation periods of different animals, and loves the page with the fetus (and fetus to-be) at different stages and sizes.  Both enjoy learning that they will hit puberty someday, and seeing how their bodies will change.

This is an excellent staple for a young child's library.  It has given us a great framework for many discussions and helps the boys understand human bodies a little better.

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Preschooler Book Recommendations

The fishermen and the turtle - lovely story set in Aztec time with beautiful illustrations

The ox cart man - another timeless tale, nice word repetition

Dick and jane: we play outside - many stories inside a larger book. This one has grown with us- we started by not saying the works- just telling the story, and my older son is now learning to read and I say the words now but the preschooler still likes the story

My first Spanish number book - another one where you can read the words or not- and they can "read" it to themselves as well.  Good introduction to number concepts.

The lion and the mouse by jerry pinkney - no words- only beautiful illustrations for a fable worth telling

Diggers and Dump Trucks

Ships and boats

The king the mice and the cheese - one of my favorites from childhood my children also love. 

Click clack moo - nice word rhythm and a funny story. imaginative and cute.

Caps for Sale - another I loved as a child my children also like.  can stand for an enthusiastic reader.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - imaginative within a familiar context.

Blueberries for Sal 

The Little Lamb - real photos instead of drawings.

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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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Kids' Art Idea: Flag-Making

   It's almost red-white-and-blue time!  

This was a self-directed activity for my almost 6-year old, but it adds another use for old cloth diapers (though this is a single-use activity).

 

He took a little flag we had as a model, and cut a piece of muslin cloth (aka cloth diaper) to size.  Then he decorated it with fabric markers.

Then he asked for some help and I ironed it flat and ironed the edges under, then --he is totally capable of sewing with my machine but asked me to do it-- I sewed a zig-zag around the edges.

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Old Mailbox into Kids Playhouse Mailbox

We just got a new mailbox and thought it might be fun to let the kids have the old one for their playhouse (it is white, on the left in the photo).  To give it to them, we cut it down using the circular saw (I had to turn the post a few times to get through it).  Then we dug a hole and stuck it in.  I am debating if we will cement it in or not.  It is a bit wobbly in the ground, as I just patted the ground in around it.


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Cozy Coupe Making a Return to Home Depot

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DIY Kids Workbench

Here is our finished product!

No, I didn't choose the colors or do a lot of the painting.

But... we love it! It is sturdy and the boys can pound and screw into it, or on it, or even sit on it.

But how did we make it?

I found some scrap wood and cut sides to be even lengths with my circular saw and screwed them into the top (we did this step ages ago but the finished product wasn't all that sturdy).  

Then we cut scrap 1x4 to be side bracing (you can see the first scraps are darker, pressure treated wood and the 1x4s are lighter wood) and screwed four pieces in.

Then my younger assistant chose the paint and went at it.

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DIY Bamboo (PVC) Flute (Bansuri)

I know this is at an odd angle, but it's a scan from 1998 and it was my instructor in Nepal. Manoj Singh. He is (was?) an amazing player of the classical bamboo flute, which is called the bansuri in Nepali.  

My older son recently went on a field trip to the local middle school and was treated to a band concert.  His takeaway?  It was loud.  And the Tuba was awesome.

So I, of course, had to pull out my bansuri, which I studied with Manoj nearly 20 years ago (yikes).   The boys loved it! And I could still make music on it.

They wanted to touch it.  They wanted to play it.  They wanted to fondle it.  

I had to say no.  Where do you buy a genuine bansuri, after all?

So we made them PVC flutes.  And we made them for two of the neighbor girls, too.

I chose lengths of 1/2" PVC from our scrap pile.  The we took a drill bit and screwed a hole for blowing, then left a big gap, then made 3 holes, then a small gap, then made 3 more holes.  Then we took a cork and narrowed it with a utility knife until it fit into the hole on the mouthpiece end, and stuffed it in, then cut it flat with a kitchen knife.  The the boys took them outside to paint and decorate them.

They work!  For troubleshooting, we made a wider mouth hole. 

They make music!

So cooL!

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Activity Idea: Home Depot Kids' Workshop (Free!)

Home Depot runs free workshops the first Saturday of every month for kids.  We highly recommend them.

They are really mellow, and they have a little table in the back (by the bathrooms, how convenient) with an employee who has kits, paint, hammers, aprons, and glue for the kids.

The kids sit at the makeshift table (or on the tarp next to it if it's busy) and hammer and glue, then paint and put stickers on.  And the kits are fun, like a sailboat or race car.

They weren't too out of reach for Little Brother, and were fun for Big Brother also (ages 2.5 and 5.5).

Can you guess who made which car?

p.s. They ask that you register in advance so they know how many kits to bring (here).

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