Day 158: Homemade Bubbles (success).

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I count these as a success, although I still haven't found homemade bubbles that rival the "blowing power" of store-bought bubbles.  My kids seemed to like this previous recipe a little better than this one today.  Anyone else have a recipe for me to try??

Ingredients:

6 cups water
2 cups Dawn dishwashing liquid
3/4 cup light corn syrup

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large container.  Shake everything up and let sit for a few hours. Pour into empty bubbles containers to use with bubble wands.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 157: Strawberry & Banana Popsicles (success).

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I recently decided to invest in a ZOKU Quick Pop Maker, as my kids love Popsicles and I was hoping to sneak healthier ingredients into their favorite treat. Since this was our first time trying the Quick Pop Maker, we didn't combine the strawberry and banana flavors into one pop, as this took an additional step with the machine.  We made strawberry ones and banana ones separately, and the kids loved both.  I personally thought there was a bit too much lemon juice in both, particularly the banana flavor, but as you can see, my banana-loving child wasn't fazed!

Strawberry Popsicle Ingredients:
6 ounces hulled, quartered strawberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons sugar

Combine ingredients in a mini food processor (I used my Magic Bullet machine) until smooth.  Freeze mixture in Popsicle molds for a few hours (or 7-9 minutes with the Zoku Quick Pop Maker!).

Banana Popsicle Ingredients:
6 ounces (about ¾ cup) mashed ripe bananas (this was two small bananas for me)
2 tablespoons milk
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine using the method described above -- puree, freeze & enjoy!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 156: Pom-Poms as Erasers (success).

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My kids love to use dry erase markers and this pin looked like a quick way for them to easily erase their work if they made a mistake.  This was easy and worked -- simply hot-glue gun a pom-pom on the bottom of a dry erase marker.

The only negative was that my son kept losing the marker cap (since he usually sticks it on the bottom of the marker while in use), but he was occupied for quite awhile with drawing and erasing, so I count that as a success!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 146: Organizing Lego Instruction Books (success).

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My son is just getting into Legos, which means that although we only have a few sets, I'm stepping on tiny Legos everywhere in the house!  I will be looking into Lego storage solutions at some point, but for now, I wanted to try organizing the instruction booklets; the books are already getting torn and ripped from use, and are just thrown in the box with all the Lego pieces.

I took the staples out of the middle of the instruction books and put each page in a plastic page protector before placing in a binder.  My husband thought this was over-kill (he suggested putting the entire booklet in one page protector, as it took A TON of protectors to do the three little sets we have!), but I've already noticed my son is more willing to take apart and re-build his current Legos now that the instructions are easier for him to flip through and see.

For now, this is the system we're using -- I may have to adapt it when he gets more sets with longer instructions!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 139: Scratch-Off Chore Card (fail).

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I am so bummed this didn't work out!  I had such high hopes that my kids would love to do their chores (ha!) with this scratch-off chore card, but it was not worth the effort / frustration to make the cards and then was super messy while the kids were scratching off the paint.

Materials:
* tempera paint (darker colors are better)
* dishwashing soap
* chore card template
* paint brushes
* craft punch (or scissors)
* contact paper

Instructions:
Add a little soap to your paint and mix together.  Use the paint / soap combination to paint onto the contact paper.  Let dry and repeat again; do several coats so you can't see through the paint.  

While the paint is drying, print out chore cards with the template above, or create your own.

When the paint is fully dry, use a craft punch to cut circles from the painted contact paper.  This step was disastrous for me -- my contact paper kept getting stuck in my craft punch and paint flecks were everywhere.

Peel off the back of the contact paper and adhere one painted circle on top of each chore.  As you can see, peeling off the back resulted in even more flaking of the paint.  Plus, even with 3 coats of paint, the chores could be seen through the painted contact paper on my daughter's pink chore card.

Give each child his/her own chore card and a shiny coin, and start cleaning -- or not.  My son figured out that the cleanest way to see the chore was to peel off the painted contact paper.

Getting the hang of scratching off the paint -- which involved lots of paint chip clean-up afterwards and a frustrated 4 year old (and Mom)!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 138: Marble Run Water Play (fail -- although fun).

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This looked so fun, but ended up not working out so well -- we moved the water table inside on a rainy day (with a tarp / towels underneath) and built up the marble run to sit inside the water table.  

Although my daughter played with it for a long time, my son quickly tired of the marbles not moving along as well in water as they normally do without water.  It may have also had something to do with the water table not being completely even (my engineer husband tried to fix it), but the marbles consistently got stuck halfway down the run due to water resistance.

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 133: Bubble Docking Station (success).

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This is genius -- a docking station for bubble bottles!  The kiddos loved it -- and better yet, we didn't waste tons o' bubbles on this hot day of outside playing!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Organizing Cookie Cutters on a Paper Towel Holder.

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My kids and I seem to use the same handful of cookie cutters again and again, so I loved the idea of organizing one the select few cutters we use all the time away from the big box we have shoved deep in the pantry!  The one problem is that we now have nowhere to put our paper towels :)  Guess it's time to invest in another paper towel holder!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Water Balloon Basketball.

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We've had a streak of hot days, and the kids loved this water balloon basketball idea.  They would have done this for hours had I been willing to fill up water balloons all day!

The set-up.

Shoot & score!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 117: Straw Bubble Wand (success).

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This worked great!  Using a few items I already had at home, I made a bubble wand that my kids thought was better than the store-bought ones!

Materials:
Tape
7 straws (taped together)
Bubbles (we already had Super Miracle Bubbles, but you could make some at home)

Dip in bubble solution and start creating awesome bubbles!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 116: Jello Shaved Ice (success).

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My kids loved helping me make this, and could barely contain their excitement for the 4+ hours it took to solidify before eating :)

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
2 cups Sprite or 7-Up
1 (4-ounce serving) package of Jello, any flavor

Instructions:
In an 8x8 glass pan, whisk the Jello package contents into the boiling water until dissolved.  Carefully stir in the soda (having a cute boy in charge of whisking is optional).

Freeze for at least 4 hours (I would suggest longer -- our batch was like shaved ice at the top and jello at the bottom after 4 hours, but after 6, was like shaved ice throughout).  Use an ice cream scoop to shave the ice.  Serve immediately.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: "Lift and Peek" Teaching Clock.

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My son is suddenly super interested in telling time, but is getting so frustrated when I try to teach him about the minute hand -- he just does not get it.  I made this clock today, and he was starting to catch on.  It was cute to see his little mind at work!  This was super easy to make using two paper plates, a Sharpie pen, one brad, two small pieces of paper, and some double-sided tape (to stick the two plates together in the center).

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 113: Reuse DVD Case into Mini White Board (success).

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I recently did a DVD re-organization that involved placing all of our DVDs into sleeves for compact storage, which left me with tons of old DVD cases.  This turned out to be a cute idea for the kids -- and would be handy on long car trips for entertainment!

Materials:
Old DVD case
Piece of card stock
Dry-erase markers
A glove (or sock)

Instructions:
I simply measured and cut to size a solid-color piece of card stock, slipped it into an old DVD case, let the kids color with dry-erase markers to their hearts' content, and then showed them how to simply erase with the glove and start over.  The glove fits perfectly inside the DVD case for storage, although I'm on the hunt for smaller dry-erase markers that will also fit easily inside the case.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 110: Bunny Handprint Art (success).

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Happy Easter!  In honor of the day, we tried a hand-print bunny craft.  I'm a sucker for crafts with my kids hands or feet on them :)

Materials needed:
Washable paint
Paintbrush
Markers
Paper

Instructions:
Spread white paint over kids' hands, except for the thumb.  Stamp their hand on a colored piece of paper (attempting to have them do the Star Trek "Vulcan salute").  Let it dry and paint the ears, nose and eyes.

First attempt -- we didn't use enough pressure when we "stamped" her hand on the paper:

Second attempt:

 Done!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Liquid Laundry Detergent Container into Bubble Refill Dispenser.

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I just mixed up a new batch of homemade bubble solution and poured it into this liquid laundry detergent container.  My kids can't wait until tomorrow (when the bubble solution settles enough to create awesome bubbles) to help themselves to more bubbles whenever they are running low!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 107: Homemade Bubble Solution (success).

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I think I've found our new homemade bubble recipe -- it's easy to make, uses only three ingredients, smells delicious, and didn't frustrate my kids when they were using it since they were easily able to create lots of bubbles using this solution.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1/2 cup liquid dish soap (I may experiment with different varieties to see if the bubbles differ)
1/8 cup corn syrup

Pour the ingredients into a large container and shake well.  Allow the bubbles to settle for a few minutes before using.  This is what my solution looked like before allowing it to settle:

Play!

I found that we could blow the largest bubbles when I let the solution sit for a day before using. That's mostly a reminder for me to make this beforehand!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 104: Gigantic Homemade Bubbles (fail).

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It's felt like summer around here the last few days, and evidently, that means I only attempt pins involving bubbles :)  I'm still on the hunt for an amazing bubble recipe for my kids, as this one didn't do the trick.

Ingredients:
6 cups water
1/2 cup blue Dawn dishwashing detergent
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin

Instructions:
Dissolve the cornstarch in the water, stirring well.  Gently stir in the remaining ingredients.  Allow mixture to sit at least an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent the cornstarch from settling to the bottom.

Our cornstarch never dissolved, despite frequent stirrings, and eventually became a hard mass on the bottom of the bowl.  When my 4 and 2 year old attempted making bubbles after a few hours, they weren't very successful and got frustrated.

And because of the cornstarch, my deck looked like this until I scrubbed it down with soap and water...

As a comparison, this is the amount of bubbles my son could create using the "super miracle bubbles" solution purchased at Fred Meyer.  I am on the hunt for a homemade concoction that works this well!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 103: Bouncing Bubbles (success).

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I didn't have distilled drinking water, but this pin still worked for me using bottled water instead!

Ingredients:
1 cup (distilled) drinking water
1 tablespoon dish soap
1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin

Materials:
Bubble wand
Clean glove (to keep bubble from popping)

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 24 hours.  Then, carefully blow a bubble to catch / bounce with your gloved hand.  

The one thing I found is that I could really only catch a few bubbles per glove before this pin stopped working -- once the glove got a little wet, the bubble no longer was able to be caught or bounced; it would immediately pop.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 97: Kool-Aid Easter Egg Dye (success).

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After discovering the way to make perfect hard-boiled eggs, we were ready to dye some Easter eggs using Kool-Aid!  This pin worked great, and my kitchen smelled so good while we were doing it -- as a child raised in the 80's, there was a lot of Kool-Aid consumed in my past.  The scent definitely brought back some sentimental memories for me!  

It was so quick and easy for my 4 year old to do this himself without staining his hands / clothing, and each packet only cost 20 cents!  I had only picked up 2 Kool-Aid packets, but before Easter comes, we'll be doing this again with many more colors and the rest of our family members!

Ingredients:
1. Fill a coffee cup or bowl with enough water to cover an egg placed in the water.  We had enough here to fit 2-3 eggs in at a time.

2. Add a single Kool-Aid packet to the water.  Stir until crystals are completely dissolved.
3. Add a hard-boiled egg, and leave in for a few minutes for a deeper color.
4. Remove egg and allow to dry.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 80: Plastic Easter Egg Learning Activities (success).

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During my 40 Bags in 40 Days cleanse, I came across loads of plastic Easter eggs that are just collecting dust in our house.  

My son rarely likes doing anything educational with me unless I can disguise the learning really well, and this evidently fit the bill.  He was all over the two activities I chose -- a number match and an upper-and-lowercase matching activity (both explained on the above link).  The only thing I changed in both activities was mixing up the colors of the top and bottom parts to each egg; I didn't want him guessing the correct answer by matching colors instead of actually looking at the numbers or letters on the eggs!

I'll be trying more of these when we get a little closer to learning word families or other pre-reading strategies.

Verdict: SUCCESS!