Twist on Watercolors

Kaden and I went through a bin of markers and took out all the ones that were dried out.  I couldn't let those go to waste so we used this pin to turn them into liquid watercolors.  Mr. Picasso's art room I didn't have as many markers to put in the water so the colors weren't too bright the first day. They worked even better the next day.  Or two of my sons used the markers themselves after they had soaked a bit and got some vibrant colors that way too.  I think just soaking the markers for a few minutes or putting a drop of vinegar on the tip as another pin suggested would revive a lot of dry markers. 

My kids are really loving drawing and painting.  I'm loving how simple it is to make them happy and creative. :)

 I think these two are using the revived markers too.

 These two are done using the liquid water color and paintbrushes only.

This last one is using the revived wet markers- a three headed dragon by my 5 year old.

Fun Memorial Day weekend

We went on a little walk in the mountains behind our house.  Not exactly a pin though I'm sure it's included in many of the summer bucket lists. :) It is so awesome to live close to such a great resource for hiking. Because my husband is currently on a night work schedule we went later in the day than we should have and the boys got worn out quickly.  It was nice that we were so close to home that it didn't really matter.  It was a fun short walk.  K did a New Mexico unit at the end of school where he learned about plants and animals of New Mexico.  He was excited to see lots of Yucca on the trail.  He insisted on taking a picture of one.

A's reaction to the scenery was to say, "Those rocks look like poop!" and then a few moments later,"Wow! They look like really cool poop!"

I tried to get all three boys to look at the camera and smile at once....

 You can see that worked really well...

 Probably the best two photos of the day..

And lastly our view facing the city and the view facing the mountain.  Love it!

For Memorial day dinner we decided to start the grilling tradition.  We are still new to grilling but it went well.  I'm excited to eat the leftovers today.  I used this recipe by my favorite recipe guru Mel's Kitchen Cafe: Chipotle Chicken Skewers and Lime Cilantro dipping sauce .  It will be going from my recipes pin board to my recipes we liked pin board immediately. 

I am thankful for those who have served and continued to serve our country through military service.  I am thankful they are willing and able to protect our freedom.  I am thankful for the day off yesterday to remember and honor them.  We live near an air force base right now and the importance of giving our military families respect is even more obvious to us currently.  They make great sacrifices on our behalf.  Thank you! I hope that I can respect and support you more than these few words and those that were said on facebook yesterday. You are appreciated and your sacrifices do not go unnoticed.

Jellyfish in a bottle pin

Here's the resource: Bhoomplay's blog

So I thought the Jellyfish in a bottle looked pretty magical.  In reality it was a lot more work than I thought it would be and I'm not sure we were successful.  I need to experiment more with it to make it better.  Neither of my older boys, 7 and 5, are very comfortable with scissors.  My youngest, almost 3, isn't either but he thinks he is.  So my oldest two were crying for my help while the youngest was crying that I was helping too much.  It really turned into a craft I should have just made for them instead of had them help me.  I could have had them read about Jellyfish or draw jellyfish while I made the bottles so that we could have had together time but they and I might not have been so frustrated.  Or maybe I should have involved them more in the process to fix the problems we were having. 

Problems:
I think our jelly fish were a little big for the containers at first. 
I missed the part about an air bubble in the head so I need to see if that helps fix things.
It just turned out kind of blah and I expected it to look more magical. 

Initially it just looked like a mess of plastic at the top of the bottle.  It moved when we tipped it but it just looked like a mess of plastic. So I cut off tentacles and tried to cut some skinnier to fix it and it sort of worked.  I think if I were to do it again I would  put the head in the top of the bottle and then cut the tentacles that were hanging down from there.  I think that would have spread the plastic out into a better pattern for the kids to see where to cut.  I think you need to tie a string around the neck a second time after you fill it with water.  This second string can be tied tighter since you have already filled it with water. Other than that I think just go for thin tentacles.  I was kind of lazy about this especially as I was trying to get my kids to cut themselves.

Here's our project.  I used to Dion's Ranch dressing bottles and one Simply Cranberry Drink for our bottles. I used a clear office trash bag for the jellyfish.

 What I gave the kids to cut.

 The finished product...

So to sum up  I would do this with older kids who are more familiar with scissors or just make the project myself while they watched or did other jellyfish activities; I would make the head a little bigger and the tentacles skinnier; I need to put an air bubble in; I would trouble shoot with the kids' ideas too; I would tie two strings around the head.  Maybe I will do some trouble shooting after the kids are in bed and see how it looks in the morning...

Pin for today

I thought I had it pinned and then I couldn't find it.  We actually didn't do this really but it inspired me for today. We painted with watercolors and then drew in details with ink.

Bloesom kids watercolor craft

I guess I should have taken photos of the process too,  First day right. :)  I just set out paper, paint and tubs of water.  Kaden and Asher did two paintings each.  Silas did one. I helped Asher and Silas with their ink.

 Kaden's above and Asher's below

A little later Kaden found step by step drawing instructions in the back of a book he got from the library.  He followed the instructions really well! 

 Kaden following the instructions in his book.

 Asher doing his own thing.

 Ricky and his robot!

Yay for art time on the first day of summer!

Chore Chart- Morning Routine

We will start with the morning routine and then add routines from there.  They each have 6 things that they need to do to be ready in the morning.  When school starts again we will add having their backpack and shoes ready too.
The routine-
Get dressed
Put Pjs and underwear away properly (drawer or hamper)
Eat breakfast and drink milk in your bowl
Put dishes in sink
Brush teeth
Say a personal prayer

I saw this idea on pinterest for a sequencing learning activity and decided to turn it into a chore chart.
http://handsonbibleteacher.blogspot.com/2012/04/paint-paddles-turned-bible-facts-review.html

Each of my boys has their own envelope with each of their daily routines in it.  I have only finished making the morning routine so far but I think it will be good to introduce the routines one at a time.  
Next we will do the evening routine. I'm not sure how to make the daily/afternoon routine work exactly so there will be some experimenting with that.  I may just stick with the two routines and leave the daytime more flexible and changing. It will need to take a different form I think. I think I need to get some 3x5 frames to keep track of each boys' weekly progress with their routine charts. Those will hang next to the bin with the envelopes. Anyway... here's a photo to show you what I made. :)

 

Heart and Treasure

So this summer is the last before my second child starts all day kindergarten. Time is running away from me and my kids are growing up too fast. We only have one trip planned so this will be the summer of us.  My treasure is my kids so I want to focus on doing two things this summer: playing with them and teaching them how to clean up after themselves. I think those two goals go together pretty well. 

We will start on Thursday of this week since that is the first official day of summer break.  I am in the process of making chore charts for each of the kids. I want us to get into a morning routine, afternoon routine, and an evening routine by the time school starts again in August.  I want us to get up and get dressed each day so that we can be ready for fun at a moments notice.  But I think I will plan one wake up and watch a movie in our pajamas day into each week too.  Gotta keep it real and downtime is real and necessary.  Despite putting routines in place there will be plenty of free play time each day too.  I don't plan on scheduling every moment of every day.  I just want a loose structure so that cleaning gets done and so that we have a general plan for fun most days.  I will post the chore charts as soon as I finish them. :) Hopefully tomorrow.

For activities I hope to do a pin a day with my kids.  I have tons of kid activities pinned that I have never tried!  I want to work on alphabet and number recognition with my soon to be kindergartner and my soon to be second grader needs to work on his math facts.  My youngest will benefit from these activities too.  He gets to be potty trained this summer!  I'll post my resources as we go.