Fun

Toilet Paper Run…or is it a Drop?

2010

You may be looking at this picture thinking, “What is that? And why do those kids look so happy about it?” I have seen this invention at many places like a children’s science museum or at a family member’s house. Usually the others are made out of piping and plastic, but my friend created one of these on her fridge out of toilet paper rolls a couple of weeks ago and my son thought it was so cool that we had to do it, too. It’s simple, affordable, fun and gets their puzzle brains going!

Just some of the basic supplies that almost every mother has lying around.

What You Need:

Toilet paper/paper towel tubes
Crayons (optional)
Magnets
An object to slide down the tubes
Paper (optional)
Glue (optional)
Scissors
A light box or cup for object to land in (optional)

*See the additional fun section below

Directions:

The best part of this is that you get to make it your own. Sit your children down and decorate the paper tubes. You can have them color on a sheet of paper and then glue that on the tubes for added color.

Use the scissors to cut one or two tubes open lengthwise. It’s even better if you cut about half inch of the cardboard out. The idea is to have an open tube for the rolling device to drop in.

Next, glue or tape tubes to magnets. I only had alphabet magnets, so I taped the tubes on. I will be buying the magnet strips and replacing the current magnets. The tape on the magnets made it a bit to fragile for the kids to move it around on their own.

Arrange on fridge so that one tube leads to another. Get creative with the arrangement.

We also added a empty box with an open top to the bottom of the arrangement to catch what we dropped through the tubes.

Find a round object and start testing out what you have created.

We tried a bouncy ball at first.

It was a bit too heavy and way to bouncy. I racked my brain for something else that we had that was round and light and discovered these in the pantry…

It worked perfectly and it was a nice little snack!

My friend used mini jaw breakers and my son loved that, too, of course. What kid does not like sugar? Let me know how this works for you…

Additional Fun:

Try different shaped items like M&M’s or beans, etc. to see what happens
Try different weights
Try rearranging and exploring how far apart you can get the tubes without dropping the item

ENJOY!!!

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun, Paper Crafts, Toilet Paper Tube Craft, Winter Projects Tagged With: Fun

Pepper Chase

2010

3 Comments

This is a fun little experiment involving pepper, sugar, water and soap. It quick and easy to put together and is fascinating for all ages!

What you need:

Pie plate or large bowl
Water
Bar of soap
Pepper*
Sugar*

*See the “What Not To Do” secion

Directions:

Fill a pie plate with water.

Shake pepper on the water.

Dip a piece of wet soap in it. Make sure everyone is watching before you dip the soap in. It happens fast…

The pepper will run away from the soap.

Next, shake some sugar in to the clear area of the water and the pepper will come back. In my opinion, this is as dramatic of a reaction when it happens.

Other Variations:

Try it in individual size bowls. The affect is not as dramatic, but my kids had fun playing with their own water.
Try different types of soap. Liquid soap causes quite a quick/dramatic reaction, but it is difficult to redo the experiment without changing the water first.

What Not To Do:

I tried cutting a couple of pieces of soap from a large bar. Since it was small, it was harder for the kids to hold on to when wet and the reaction did not occur as quickly or noticeably.
Put the sugar and pepper in smaller and separate bowls if they do not already have their own shaker. My sugar is in a large container and while I was helping my son, my daughter put her soapy hands in it and now we have soapy sugar. I learned my lesson!

Just seeing the pepper scoot away so quickly was fun for my kiddos. I hope you, too, will have some fun with this!

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun, Science Fun Tagged With: Fun

Amazing Invisible Ink

2010

Rice Play

2010

1 Comment

Rice play is a different version of water play or playing in a sandbox. It’s great for any age. Even I find it calming to play with! It is a good activity for those times when you are stuck inside and not as messy (for me) as water play. I don’t know about anybody else, but when my kids play with the water it is all over the place!

Here is what you need:

Floor covering (sheet, blanket, plastic table cloth, etc.) – something to catch the rice when it falls out of the bucket, so you can clean it up easier.
Container of some sort (plastic tub, box with plastic lining, etc). I used a 34 qt container, because that is all I had.
5 to 10 lbs of long grain rice. (The long grain is easier to clean up)
Play cups, spoons, and a couple handfuls of any small random toys
A container or bag to store it in after you are done to save for another day.

Directions:

Poor it all into the container and have fun! The kids usually get creative on their own, but here are a few suggestions: pretend the rice is food and put on plates, in cups, etc., sprinkle, or play hide ‘n seek. I found that I could teach phrases that I take for granted like sprinkle, pack, pour and pair them with the action. It was easier to do with rice than with other things. Supervision is needed. They seem to forget to hold the rice over the bucket without reminders.

My son working on his sprinkling technique!

I used a 34 qt container because that is all I had. A friend came over while we were playing, so I know this size works for 3 kids and will most likely work well with 4 kids at a time. I also only used a 5 lb bag of rice and it worked nice, but I think I am going to add more next time so we can actually hide stuff in it.

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun Tagged With: Fun

My Favorite Playdough

2010

1 Comment

This is my favorite playdough recipe. It is really easy to work with and best of all it doesn’t smell like salt playdough. I can not stand the smell and texture of other salt dough recipes I have worked with. I love the idea of adding a little scented oil. The first time I made it, I didn’t have any scented oil, so I used Mint Extract and that worked pretty good, too. Another time I made it, I used jello which also made it smell good, but it didn’t allow you to be as creative with the coloring.

This recipe should make enough for 1 child or equivalent to 2 “Play-doh” containers. I made a double recipe for the pictures and I let me son help with everything, but the actual cooking portion.

Needed:

1 Cup Warm Water
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Salt
4 teaspoons Vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons Cream of Tarter
Food Coloring
(Optional) Scented Oil of Choice

Other alternatives: use a small box of Jello instead of Food Coloring and Scented Oil

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a pan and stir together. (hint: I would add the water first and then everything else so the powder ingredients are not stuck to the side of the pan.) Cook on a medium heat on the stove, stirring regularly until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Keep cooking it until then, it will begin to not stick to the sides, so be patient. Once the dough is doing this, remove it from the pan and place on a hard surface.

It will be really warm, so an adult may have to do the initial kneading. This is when you will add the food coloring, if you didn’t use the Jello. I put plastic sandwich bags on the kids hands and once I worked the food coloring in a couple kneads then I let the kids do the rest. The plastic bags kept the kids hands from getting colored. Knead the color in well and then have fun! Store in an air tight container. If it gets dry at all, add a little water and knead it.

Filed Under: All Ages, Indoor fun, Kid Friendly Recipes Tagged With: Fun

Food Castles

2010

1 Comment

Playing with your food was never so fun! And if your kids are like mine, they like to play with their food! I discovered this by accident…

I left the peanut butter out after making lunch by accident and my son went to wash his hands….next thing I know there is art work being made on the counter. But I discovered they liked to spread peanut butter.

My son likes to call these “food castles” or “marshmallow castles,” whatever we happen to make it out of, since he gets to stack all his food up. It’s a great snack time activity because they will snack while they work on those fine motor skills. It seems so simple but the kids really seem to enjoy it.

What you need:

Some sort of cup for a base. I used some yogurt cups. You can also use a disposable cup and if it is too tall, just cut it down.
A disposable plate to glue the cup on
Plastic knife of popsicle stick for spreading
Glue or some sort of sticky substance. I used a hot glue gun, but I guess you could use peanut butter or something else that would hold down the cup if you didn’t have anything else available.
Some sort of substance for the food to stick to. i.e. frosting, peanut butter, yogurt, pudding frosting. I used crunchy peanut butter because I already had it on hand.
Toppings. Whatever you have will work! I used marshmallows, craisins, sprinkles, and apple bits.

UPDATE: To make this creation completely edible: use a muffin or cupcake as a base instead of a cup

Directions

To begin, it helps if you have everything ready to go before you begin and I would not put it all with in reach of the kids until you are ready for it. My kids would not leave me alone while I was trying to put everything together and glue the cup to the plate, so I let them help me! I gave each of them their own plate with an apple slice and a plastic knife to help me cut the apples.

Step 1: Glue the cup to the plate. I used a hot glue gun. You do not need much glue. I discovered that I didn’t even have to go completely around the cup (my glue gun was being stubborn!). I just had a little bit of glue on each side and it was very sturdy.

Step 2: Start spreading. I gave each child a bowl with some peanut butter in it and a plastic knife. Younger ages may require more help when it comes to the spreading. My son is almost 4 and I just had to help him by holding his hand on the knife the first few spreads and then he caught on. My daughter is 27 months and if my son wasn’t there for her to watch she would have had a hard time. So, I probably would have put all the PB on first if she was by herself and then let her decorate it.