Homemade Paint results.

A few days ago we made our own homemade finger paint. The results are in.

See those paint brushes? They weren't exactly finger-paintable. We had ONE batch out of 3 turn out finger worthy. However, all of the kids preferred to use the paint brushes.

My mother-in-law said, that is normal sometimes. To make several batches of something and then they don't "set" right. I have a different recipe I'll be trying soon. Keep your eyes open for another post to see how those turned out.

Here are some of our creations!

There are quite a few different recipes out there for homemade paints. You can find them all over pinterest, or even a simple google search. Feel free to give the recipe I did a try. Several people that have tried it had no problems! Hope everyone has a blessed day! Enjoy your children!

ICE!

With the super hot temps I was trying to find something cool and fun for the kids to do (besides play on the slip and slide). So I filled our perfect cube ice trays with water. I purchased ours at Meijer for only $1.99 they are just like these. I added food coloring to some, and glitter to others. Once they were frozen I popped them out, and stored them in the freezer and made some more. This was such a simple activity and the kids had so much fun!

When the ice started to melt (which was pretty fast in 103 degree heat) I dumped all the cubes & their melted water into a bin, added a couple drops of dish soap, and gave them some straws. We now have bubble and ice play!

I think those smiles say it all! Got ice trays? Have some ice fun with your kiddos! They are also fun to hammar.

Have fun with it! Your kiddos will have a blast!

Our New Fascination With Sensory Play

We have entered into the world of "sensory" play at our house. What is sensory play? Sensory play is currently seen as one of the key areas of play for babies and young children and a crucial part of their development. Sensory play is play that involves the use of one or more of the five senses, touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. I don't JUST have young children, however all 5 of our kiddos are really having fun! Today I'll introduce you to a fan favorite - Sensory Balloons.

I had these waiting for the kids one morning to be found as soon as they came up for breakast.

What are these? What's in them? Who's Birthday is it? Those are just a few of the questions they kept asking. I simply told them they were for them to play with. They can match them by color or by feel, or make a pattern with them.

Want to make your own? These are so simple. I got a bag of balloons for $.97 at Walmart and filled them with things I had in the house:
Rice
salt
pom poms
hair jel
water
buttons
beads

What surprised me the most was how my oldest girl responded to them. She loves them!

She pretends they are people, or airplanes, or animals, etc. When she walks into our kitchen (which is where they have been the last few days) she immediately starts looking for the balloons.

She is our child with an autistic spectrum disorder. Autism has a BROAD spectrum. While she is on the "higher functioning" end of the spectrum she still has a lot of delays, quirks, and social issues.

Given her reaction to the balloons. I have been inspired to provide our children with a lot more opportunities for sensory inspired play. Looking forward to sharing our fun with you guys!

Homemade Fingerpaints

SOOO Sorry that it's already been a week since my last post. Things have been busy this week with school, and the holiday. The kids and I have been trying out pinterest ideas this week, so starting TODAY - I'll be sharing one of those ideas with you. We'll have lots of neat tips and tricks to share next week. Today's activity was homemade fingerpaints.

You can find this on my pinterest page. You can find the original post for the fingerpaints here.

Here is what you need:
3tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2cups water

You then mix ingredients on the stove and warm until the mixture thickens. I made 3 batches.

Then when it is cool, just add your food coloring. I made primary colors first: yellow, blue, and red.

Then mixed the Blue/Red to make purple, Blue/Yellow to make green, and Red/Yellow to make Orange.

The colors are not very BRIGHT. BUT they will do the trick for the uses I need. The substance was a little "soupy" and not super thick - so I'm not really sure if I did something wrong. But I'll give it a try another time and hopefullly perfect it a little more. For now - these are perfect for the kids!