Make Your Own Rainstorm

I came across this fun activity not too long ago and knew that Liam and I would have to try it out soon.  My son is obsessed with whether or not it is raining outside, so I am sure that he would love creating a rainstorm!  We decided to make two attempts since it was SO much fun the first time!  Liam was actually ready for us to do it again!  I found that the best way for the rain to actually trickle down was to get the food coloring on the edge of the vase so that it would find a way through the "clouds."  Also as the vase sat for awhile with all of the colors in it, I noticed that the longer the shaving cream was in the water the slower the food coloring trickled down later in the day.  Anyway it is a ton of fun and really easy to do!  We had absolutely no mess, except for rinsing out the vase at the end.
*This was also quite amusing for my cat watching in the background ;)


Supplies:
-Drinking glass or vase
-Food coloring
-Water
-Shaving cream


Directions:
Fill drinking glass or vase with water and then top the water completely with shaving cream (clouds).
Then add blue food coloring to the "clouds".  (This works best to concentrate the food coloring in a couple of areas as opposed to singular drops here and there depending on your food coloring, the one I have comes out really thick so we didn't need much).  You can also add to the fun by adding multiple colors.

 First Attempt

 

Supplies are all set out

Put shaving cream on top of the water

Add the blue food coloring for the rain

Watch it trickle down the vase in amusement

Pretty rain :)

Our water is now blue

Add more colors and watch how they mix together

Pose happily for a picture :)

Second Attempt

Rinse out the vase and refill with clean water

Add shaving cream on top (This time I spread it across the top of the water)

Add drops of food coloring at a couple of spots on the edges of the vase and shaving cream so it can easily break through

Now they blue is going, let's add more color!

You can more clearly see the mixture with a little less food coloring

Checking out the colors from the top view

You can see 3 different colors mixing together in here

Liam was content to just sit there and watch for quite awhile

Activities For Children: DIY Part 2

I am always looking for different fun crafts and activities that Liam and I can do together!  And last month I started a Children's DIY (Do-It-Yourself) blog.  The following weekend, Liam (my three year old son) and I chose one of the activities and made it our own!  Last month we ended up making Meditation Jars!  This was both fun and effective!  This month I want to chose at least one other activity for us to do, possibly on this long 3 weekend we have coming up or any other free time between now and the end of the month!  Here are some of our ideas!  Please submit any of your own ideas! 

Rainstorm

My son is obsessed with whether or not it is raining outside, so I am sure that he would love creating a rainstorm!  What a fun quick and easy activity!











Supplies:
-Drinking glass or vase
-Food coloring
-Water
-Shaving cream


Directions:
Fill drinking glass or vase with water and then top the water completely with shaving cream (clouds).
Then add blue food coloring to the "clouds".  (This works best to concentrate the food coloring in a couple of areas as opposed to singular drops here and there).  You can also add to the fun by adding multiple colors

Alphabet Train

Borrowed from Kiwicrate.com

I absolutely love the idea of this one!  It is both fun, time consuming, hands on, and a great learning experience! 









Supplies:
Paper
Alphabet Letters (Of you can just draw your own letters onto the paper)
Items from around the house that start with all of the letters in the alphabet!  

Directions: 
Lay out the paper in a "train" and add the letters!  Now go around and find the items that match up with the letters.

 Salt Painting

This is a great and easy way to have a fun painting time at home with not too much of a mess.  I have seen a lot of people try this and similar things out in the past and have been wanting to try it with Liam since he is totally into creating different works of art. 








Supplies:
-Construction paper/cardstock
-Paintbrush and/or medicine dropper
-Colored water (we used about a tablespoon of water with 6-7 drops of food coloring)
-Salt
-Glue
-Little bowls for colored water



Directions:
Have your child draw a picture with glue.Then sprinkle the glue with salt.  We did this on top of a piece of cardboard, but a baking sheet will work well too. Next have your child take a paintbrush or a medicine dropper and drop colored water, one drop at a time onto the salt.
Some tips: Make sure they lightly touch the salt with the brush.  It also helps to have a bowl to clean the brush in between colors...otherwise you lose the colors start blending together and you lose the vibrant colors because they become murky.

Kool-Aid Dyed Rice & Pasta

This is a great way for what many people call "Sensory Learning."  It is suggested that you get a sensory bin (any kind of plastic shallow tray or bin) and then you want to have various colored objects of all shapes and sizes and then you child can learn from these things and play with them.  Personally I think that a lot of these things can double as art supplies if you have some glue on hand, to include this project.  

Supplies:
1 Cup Rice or 1 Cup Pasta
1/2 tsp Kool-Aid
1 tsp Rubbing Alcohol
Gallon or large plastic Ziplock bags
Tin Foil
Cookie Sheet

Directions:
Gather your tools and start by standing up and opening your large freezer bag. A freezer bag (and not just a regular gallon bag) is imperative for the dying process because of it's thickness--the bag will stand up on its own and will also hold up better to leakage than a standard bag. Use one bag for each color you wish to make.
First, have your child add 1 cup of rice to each bag. Then, have him or her scoop out a 1/2 teaspoon of power out of each Kool-Aid packet. (Each Kool-Aid packet typically has 1 teaspoon of powder in it.) Pour the powder on top of the rice. For the last step, which is a mama step, add 1 teaspoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag on top of the previous two ingredients.
Seal the bag shut (because I can attest that wet Kool-Aid rice is NOT a fun experience to clean up!) and shake it up (this can be a fun part in the process for the kids to do too)! Let it sit for at least 15 minutes to saturate.
Next, pour the wet rice out onto a tray and get it as flat as it will go so that you can dry it overnight (or for at least 6-8 hours). When I dye rice or pasta, I usually make little tin foil sections in the tray to separate the colors. When it is dry, the rice will be all clumped together; separate the rice grains with your hands. (This is also a fun step for kiddo involvement too!)


* Here is our Meditation Jar Activity: Meditation Jar: Our Attempt
* The Original DIY Children's blog: DIY Kid Activities
* As an added bonus here is the DIY Orange Sugar Scrub from this weekend: Valentine's Orange Sugar Scrub