Sticky Paint

Biggs had fun playing with some homemade paint, "sticky paint". It's corn syrup and food coloring (or liquid watercolors) mixed together. Our paintings came out really pretty, when they are completely dry they still look wet giving it a nice glossy look! It also works for a fun textured painting as well. It's pretty sticky so Biggs had the most fun using his fingers and hands because the brush is a little hard to work with.

Biggs wanted his hands cleaned off but still wanted to paint so I put some wax paper over the paint and he could draw and push the paint all around.

 We used a popsicle stick to drip the paint and when it dried it still had all the droplets raised for a nice texture-ized 3d painting!

The picture doesn't do this one justice but it is so pretty and shiny this one is definitely getting hung up! Good job Biggs! 

Ice Age

Okay, so today I think I had more fun than Biggs! I made a huge ice block with dinosaurs, shells, rocks, plants, snakes, spiders and lizards all frozen in layers and we had to dig them out. Biggs learned a new word "excavate" and we got to pretend to be animal rescuers! This adventure took some planning and about three days of freezing due to the different layers but it was totally worth the wait.  I can't wait to do this again with different animals, maybe sea creatures. Biggs was so cute he kept saying, "don't worry dinosaurs we're coming!" and every time he got something out he cheered for himself. It was pretty satisfying getting them all out and we stayed cool while practicing our patience. I think we were outside for about an hour trying to save every last thing from the ice. Once we were done we brought in all of our treasures and sorted and counted everything, fun and educational!

Here it is out of the bowl I had added some food coloring that's why it looks all green and murky!

Up until this point we had only found rocks and shells, we were excited to save this little guy.

After some team work we finally got him!

He got bored with the other side so we flipped it over and there were so many new things to explore.

Biggs decided he wanted to put the block in his water table, it was a good change.

Here he is showing off his muscles.

All of our hard work sorted and counted and ready for another frozen adventure!

Window Stickers

Last night we attempted to make some window stickers. I have been seeing them all over the internet and thought we'd give it a try. I bought some glue at the dollar store and mixed some food coloring in and we got started!

It was super fun and we put some in cookie cutters to make shapes and then we freestyled our own. Unfortunately this morning the few that were dry were super stuck to the wax paper I had them on and couldn't get them off without ripping the paper and having it stick to the glue :-( We were sad but then I said "Biggs, never give up!" lol so I got out some plastic sheets I had and we made new ones this morning!

 While we were waiting for our experiment Biggs went outside to do some cleaning!

 I set up a little clothesline for him and gave him some old baby clothes and dish towels and put him to work! He also brought out one of his pots and some of his play dishes to wash! 

This kid bugs me everyday to play outside but I hate it cause it's so darn hot, so I set all this up for him and after about 20 minutes he climbs in the dog door and says it's too hot outside and leaves me out there! The nerve! Anyway it gave us a chance to check out our new stickers.

That was the secret, the plastic, because when a few dried I got them off easy peasy and stuck em to the window! We are still waiting for the cookie cutter ones to dry they will probably take another day. Hopefully they turn out. I see so many of these things on other blogs or on pinterest and sometimes they don't give all the information and so everything is a learning process for me and for biggs. 

H is for Hair!

Today we had fun creating our letter "H"! A friend of mine had given me some craft stuff when she was cleaning out her classroom and one of the things was a bag of doll hair, today we found a use for it! The texture was interesting it was super curly, bouncy, and strectchy. Biggs loved it!

Naughty or Nice

So most of you who know us know that Biggs is one of the sweetest and kindest little boys EVER! However he can turn into a little booger pretty quick and lately he has had the attitude of a 12 year old! I know, right now you are saying, "biggs? never!" but honestly he can backtalk like a hormonal teenager and whine like a toddler at the same time and that combo makes me want to scream so.... today was just one of those days and I thought: timeout just isn't cuttin it all the time.  He is getting older and mentally he is smart enough to handle some harsher consequences so I made a naughty or nice chart.

I never said I was an artist!  

I just made some simple stickers of some things that are important to him so that he knows what they are without being able to read. The whole point is to make him responsible for keeping his privileges and when he loses them he has to physically move his little smiley face and put a sad face. I'm hoping this makes a bigger impact than me just telling him "you lost stories, you have to go to bed early, etc..." Hopefully when he has a visual reminder all day that he has lost something his attitude will get better. Every morning he will switch out the sad faces with smiley faces and have a new chance to keep his privileges. Positive reinforcement! With a growing personality we are bound to have bad days and with this I hope that we can minimize them! I used sticky velcro and put it up on a wall where he can reach.

Nice = Happy

Naughty = Sad

I said be happy 

and now be sad! I love it!

If you want to make one it's pretty simple: cookie sheet or something magnetic, clear contact paper, velcro (some way to hang it up) and magnets (you could pick a nice color and a naughty color) I made mine with flat glass marbles, marker, mod podge, glitter, and magnets.

Who's ready for Halloween?

Biggs has a love for halloween like no other, he talks about it all year and his favorite movie is "Nightmare before Christmas". Anything spooky he's for it!  So when we went to the craft store yesterday and he saw all the halloween stuff he couldn't help but pick some stuff out. He grabbed some spooky cookie cutters which is perfect for a craft I've been wanting to try. Today we made some spooky sun catchers/decorations. I found some pony beads at the dollar store a few weeks ago and have been holding on to them just for this craft. We are super excited how they turned out!

So pick a shape and throw in some beads! Stick it in the oven at 400 for 15-20 mins. Wait about five minutes and pop them out of the cookie cutters. It's that easy unless.....

you get all crazy like I did with the pumpkin it took a while and some patience.

There you have it! Some really cute decorations, we taped these to the window but if you have a drill/dremel you can put holes in and tie together to make a hanging sun catcher, you can glue magnets on, make necklaces, glue to a wreath etc etc... possibilities are endless!

Rich was making fun of us because we are making halloween stuff in August but get used to it cause it's our favorite time of year and I anticipate a lot more in the following weeks/months! Enjoy.

*Just a warning: this is melting plastic so it doesn't smell that great and isn't good to breathe in, however it doesn't last long and as long as you are in a well ventilated area it shouldn't be a problem. If you are still concerned then use a toaster oven outside. Also if you didn't notice from the pictures I covered the cookie sheet with foil and I didn't use the "cutter" side of the cookie cutters, just in case it left any residue I can still use my cookie cutters for food. Thanks.

Letters "F" & "G"

We have been somewhat busy so we haven't gotten into any really hefty crafts, waiting till next week when we have more time. But we always make room for school time! Today was the letter f and letter g, our letter wall is getting pretty full, can't wait till it's finished to finally sing the abc's all the way thru, lol!

Sweet, slimy sunday!

A few weeks ago Biggs made some green slime and it turned out awesome! He has recently seen Ghost Busters 1&2 and he wanted to make some pink slime like the movie; so today that was part of our mission, the other part was to make some delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Putting the chocolate chips in...

dumping em out making sure I drop a few

so I can EAT THEM!!!

What? Oh I have chocolate on my face! 

So Biggs wanted to add some pink and orange glitter to our slime and the texture didn't come out as great as our green slime but it sure was loads of fun!

To make the slime: 

4 Tbsp Borax

1 and 1/3 warm water

1 Cup White glue

 A few drops Food color/kool aid or half a tsp

1 cup of water

Mix borax and warm water till borax dissolves set to the side.

Mix the water color and glue together then pour into the borax mixture, do not mix just kind of roll it in your hands 4-5 times then pull it out and knead it!  It's super fun!

And we end it all with a fresh baked cookie!

Wow nice face Biggs!