Spaghetti Art

We apparently like pasta this week. Seriously though get a little creative and the fun goes on and on. 

 This is what was waiting for my son when he woke up from his nap this afternoon. I cooked a little bit of spaghetti and taped a piece of paper to the floor and let him go to town. After the spaghetti was done I rinsed it to cool it off, then mixed a little bit of olive oil in so it wouldn't stick together, then dried it with a paper towel quickly.

 He was quite intrigued at the beginning. He started just dragging the pieces across the paper and then he started holding them up over the paper and dropping them down and going "Splat! Hahahaha!". Too funny :)

 One end got a little more attention than the other. He started taking big clumps of the spaghetti, dropping it in the paint, then dropping it down onto the paper.

 And the end result was a very happy boy. :) We will definitely be doing this one again. Maybe I'll add a few different types of pasta next time.

Dying Pasta

Dyed pasta is something I like to always have on hand. It's great for sorting and counting and stringing. And it's so easy my 3 year can do it. ;) 

 We take a gallon sized storage bag and put about 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol in it (I made 4 different colors out of a 1lb box. If you are using more pasta you may need more). Add between 10 and 20 drops of food coloring, depending on how dark you want the pasta. We almost always have close to 20 since Kadin is in charge of it. Zip the bag up and shake to mix the color in. Add the pasta to the bag and then double bag it. It always seems to find a way to leak when I do this even though there's no reason it should be. Let it sit for a couple hours. The longer it sits, the more vibrant the colors will be. Try to flip the bag over about every 30 minutes (I forget and it's usually about an hour between flipping and it comes out fine).

Spread the pasta out on newspaper and let it dry overnight.

 This is one box of pasta.

Then it's time to play! :)

He kept making "monsters" for me. :)

Bath Time and Sensory Balloons

Sensory balloons are a favorite at our house. They come out quite a bit. One of the reasons he likes them so much is they're constantly changing. You can put just about anything inside and make them whatever size you want. Tonight we used very cold water (dyed all different colors), epsom salt (also dyed), water beads*, bells and an ice cube. He's never played with them in the tub before though.

*Please be careful if you use the water beads. Make sure none of them get down the drain. They can cause some issues. ;)

The balloons filled and ready to go.

He played with the balloons for awhile before he even got into the tub. Guessing what was inside, making music with them, squishing them. He was so excited when he realized he could take them in his tub. 

And then the cutting started...He is so funny when the balloons pop. This is a great sensory activity, but it's also good color recognition and anticipation. I do trust him to be able to use scissors without hurting himself so if you try this please make sure that your child can do this safely or cut them for them.

Crazy boy :)

More Ice and Light

My son and his buddy had a great time with the ice. I gave the cups of hot water dyed with food coloring, straws, medicine droppers, funnels and regular hot water.

They both started with the medicine droppers. They chose different colors and squirted the ice and liked seeing the steam and the different colors as they collected on top of the ice. 

The medicine droppers didn't last long. They wanted the ice to melt faster so they started dumping the cups of water on it. B realized she was out of purple water so she started using the medicine dropper again to get it back into her cup.

Kadin really enjoyed blowing bubbles in the water. Although I think he may have been drinking some too, because he kept saying yummy! ;) 

Christmas Presents

We started working on Christmas presents every once in awhile. I enjoy (and he does too) having Kadin make presents for people as opposed to just buying everything. He has a lot of fun doing it and picking what he wants to make for different people. I think it teaches him more about giving then just taking him to the store.

Today we worked on crayons for his birthday party and for his cousins for Christmas. Ridiculously easy and a great way to reuse all those broken crayon pieces. We went through his crayons and found all the ones that had broken or the tips were broken off and he helped me chop them up into smaller pieces.

 Then he put them in heart tray and we cooked them at 230° for 15 minutes and let them cool.

 This is what they look like out of the oven.

 All ready for the goody bags. 

 Next we worked on some candles. It's an idea I've had floating around in my head and figured we may as well try it. We brought some sand home from the beach one night just for these. 

We started with a container filled with damp sand. We used another container to make the hole. And then heated the wax. We used soy beans, but there are other kinds that would work. Just make sure they don't have to be poured into a glass container as some do. You can heat them in the microwave, but my microwave decided to kill itself half way through so we used a double-boiler type thing. (Meaning I let my small container of soy beans float around in a pot of water until it was melted. Don't laugh it worked lol.)

Let it cool completely. Time will depend on the size, but small ones do not take long. And remove it carefully from the sand. Brush off any excess sand and trim the wick. Super easy project. This was the first one we did and it came out great!

Playing with Ice

Kadin has really liked sensory activities recently. So I've been trying to do some seasonal activities with him. And winter has been a pretty easy one to do so far. This time we used ice. 

This is what we started with. I froze a bin about half full of water. I gave him a cup; that had hot water in it; a medicine dropper and a spray bottle, that also had hot water in it and added a few drops of food coloring to it. He went and got a sheep, a cow and Buzz so they could ice skate. 

Kadin what are they doing? Ice skating. Why are they laying down? Mommy, they're not good at ice skating. Too cute.

Mommy, it's raining on Buzz!

Spraying the toxic (green) "rain" on his toys and the ice.

He started to notice the bubbles that formed underneath as the ice melted, so he went and got a spoon so he could pop them. So fun to watch his mind work and figure out how to do different things. 

He had me turn on the black light and added his water beads to the mix.

The now green ice is back in the freezer so he can play more with it today. He said he wants different colors to make it pretty. :)