Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 35

By

 

  1. Start a nature journal with Rainy Day Mum
  2. Take the Challenge and Discover Challenge and build a bridge with Inspiration Laboratories
  3. Use your blocks to learn letters with Crystal’s Tiny Treasures
  4. Build and create with curves with The Artful Parent and Teach Preschool
  5. Make a simple counting book with Creative Family Fun
  6. Play in a pretend play vet office with Mess for Less
  7. Make and play with paper helicopters with Babble Dabble Do
  8. Play in a carrot garden sensory bin with Mama Miss
  9. Make a recycled bug house and go on a bug hunt with Housing a Forest
  10. Paint your driveway with squeezie sidewalk chalk with No Time for Flashcards

How are you going to play this weekend?

Recycled Robots

By

I’m very pleased to introduce some blogging friends of mine to you. Over the next couple of months they will be visiting here to share some fun ideas. First up is Asia who writes the fabulous blog Fun At Home with Kids. It’s a new blog that’s already full of great ideas. I know you’ll want to pop on over after you see these fun recycled robots!

We’ve been saving the colored caps from X’s food pouches, and I’ve been trying to think of ways to use them because they’re so nice and bright.I’ve seen these tin can robots a few times online, and when I went to Lowe’s to pick up safety goggles and a hammer for S for her plaster excavation, I was surprised to find how inexpensive nuts, bolts, and washers were!

For just a few dollars I was able to get a variety of robot hardware.  Next up, I bought some round magnets.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

A few washed tin cans later, S and I were in business!We grabbed some googly eyes (Dollar Store!) and pipe cleaners from our stash in the Art Room, my hot glue gun, and a hammer and nail.

I wanted the robots to have crazy hair and I’m always looking for ways to use pipe cleaners (we have an astronomical number of pipe cleaners we’ve accumulated through gifts from relatives) so it seemed like a perfect fit!

I used the hammer and nail to poke holes to fit some brightly colored pipe cleaner hair.

Some of the bottle caps were metal, so S could just use a magnet between them and the can, as she could with the nuts, bolts, and washers.For the plastic caps, we needed to use glue (we talked about why the magnet wouldn’t work on plastic).  I also made some magnetic googly eyes by gluing on magnets.

They were so cute and fun, I had to join in!  Here is S posing with a crazy face next to my robot creation.  :)We discovered that the magnets were strong enough to hold on to the metal centers of pipecleaners, so we could make mustaches and smiles!

All four of these guys were S’s creations.  The only help I offered was zig-zagging some of the pipecleaner hair.

S was so proud that she thought to use just plain magnets for eyes.  I love that this guy has a cute little smirk – and a bright blue mustache!

The next day we made even crazier eyes by sandwiching a bolt between the can and the bottle cap eyes.

So many robot parts to choose from!

Putting the finishing touches on her robot’s hair.

The robot bodies and parts are all in a plastic storage container (with a locking lid for X’s safety) and S can use them as a sort of busy box whenever she’d like.

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

I am a SAHM mom to two young kids: X (an infant) and S (a preschooler). Before becoming a full-time mom, I was a science teacher and ran my own tutoring business. As a former science teacher, I know how important it is for kids to be able to explore and ask questions about the world around them. I also place a high value on creativity and being able to “think outside the box”. For that reason, I strive to engage my children in open-ended play that encourages exploration and fosters their creativity. I try to choose activities that aren’t cost prohibitive, so that anyone could do them at home with their children.

 
Follow Asia here:

Messy Fun with Goop!

By

Goop, also called oobleck, was a new experience for us.

It was inexpensive, easy to make, very mess, and a whole lot of fun!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed:
Corn starch
Water
Plastic bin

We set up on the kitchen floor; you really don’t want to do this in a carpeted area.

I found an empty plastic bin and dumped a whole box of cornstarch in it. I let the girls feel the cornstarch to see how soft it was.

Then we started adding our water.

Mix it up as you’re adding water. We just used our hands for mixing.

Add the water until it’s a soft liquid, about the consistency of honey.

Now it’s time for fun.

Squish it quickly with your hands; it feels solid and crumbly.

Run your hands slowly through it; now it feels liquid.

Grab a handful and squish it like a ball. Now, open your hands and watch it flow slowly out.

Goop is an interesting mixture that is both a solid and a liquid.

After playing for awhile, we added a bunch of old kitchen tools from our sandbox. We had whisks, scoops, and measuring spoons.

Try whisking quickly. It’s hard to do!

They loved the sensory experience and spent a lot of time pouring it on their arms.

The goop did make a massive mess. But, it does clean up easily. I was able to sweep it off my kitchen floor once it had dried. Also, it came off their clothes with a simple washing.

The Science Behind Goop

The mixture of cornstarch and water is a suspension.

The two substances combine, but will eventually separate again. Another example of a suspension is muddy water.

The viscosity, or thickness and resistance of flow, of this mixture reacts to force. So, when you quickly grab a handful, the cornstarch particles temporarily trap the water particles. When you release, the mixture turns to liquid again.

You can read this post at Steve Spangler Science about cornstarch science for a more detailed explanation.

Have you ever made goop? It’s a fun science and sensory experience.

Outdoor Shape Hunt

By

We’ve been having a lot of outdoor shape fun lately (at least when the weather has been nice enough to enjoy).

In addition to some fun games of Shape Hopscotch, we also went on a shape scavenger hunt.

I didn’t write up a list or come up with clues, although you certainly can if you would like.

Instead, I challenged the girls to find as many shapes as they could around our yard.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I

They looked around aimlessly at first. Then, I got them started.

I pointed at our bricks. “What shape are they?” It clicked and they were off!

They found squares in our windows and outdoor lights.

Our chain length fence has hundreds of diamonds, too many to count.

We found a rock shaped as a triangle and more circles than I even imagined.

We found shapes in everything!

I think the game could have gone on for a long time… except for the lure of their bicycles.

There are endless ways to have a shape scavenger hunt.

  • Set up challenges. Find 3 squares, 5 circles, 2 triangles, etc.
  • Find three-dimensional shapes: spheres, cubes, pyramids, etc.
  • Bring a notebook and sketch each of the different shapes you find.
  • For younger kids, you can concentrate on just one shape. Have them find as many circles as they can.
  • Use cameras to capture pictures of the shapes like we did in this post.

Have you ever gone on a shape scavenger hunt? How did you play?

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 34

By

  1. Make recycled Earth Day glyphs with Sweet Tea Classroom
  2. Play with monster slime with Frugal Fun for Boys
  3. Make magnet and tin can sculptures with My Nearest and Dearest
  4. Go on a spy game scavenger hunt with Hands On: As We Grow
  5. Have a tropical fruit taste test with Creative Family Fun
  6. Explore texture by putting seeds in your play dough with Teach Preschool
  7. Make a textured runway for baby to crawl over with KZ and Me
  8. Make & play with a salt dough fossil puzzle with Royal Baloo
  9. Do the math dance with Carrots are Orange
  10. Set up a pretend play ice cream shop with Learning 4 Kids
How are you going to play this weekend?