Safe, Edible Slime

Having a 2 year old who likes to taste an array of weird and gross things, I really appreciate sensory play recipes that are safe to ingest.  Though I don’t recommend letting your little one chow down on this slime (plus it doesn’t exactly taste wonderful) if they were to try a sample, it won’t hurt them.

This slime is just so fun to play with.  It’s gooey, slimy, shiny, squishy, stretchy, wiggly, bouncy and it doesn’t stick to your hands so the mess is limited (bonus!)  And, you only need 2 ingredients!

What you’ll need:

1 tbsp Metamucil

1 cup Water

Food colouring (optional)

Mix the above ingredients in a large microwavable bowl (larger than you think you’ll need).  Put it in the microwave on high for 5 mins.  It should boil over the top of the bowl.  Remove and let cool slightly.  It should be gel like.  If needed microwave for another 3-5 mins.  Dump onto a surface to cool – careful, it’s really hot!  Once cool to touch, it’s time to play!

This kept my daycare kids entertained for an hour!  A whole hour, it was amazing.  We put it in a ziplock bag after for them to take home.

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Simple Father’s Day Craft

We made these cards, so sweet and simple.

What you’ll need:

Paper (preferably card stock)

Scissors

Crayons or markers

Glue stick

Pen

Laminator and laminating sheet

Cut paper in half and have child colour on one half covering all the white as much as possible.

Trace child’s hand on the other half of the paper or on a different piece of coloured paper.

Cut out the hand and flip over so that any pen marks don’t show.

Glue hand down over the coloured paper.

Trace a heart shape around the paper with the hand in the middle and cut out.  (Tip: make a template by folding a scrap paper in half and drawing half a heart and cutting it out.  Trace heart template onto the card and cut out).

Write the message on the card “It takes a big heart to hold a little hand.  Happy Father’s Day 20–”  Have child write a message on the back or you write one.

Put through the laminator and cut out.

There you have it, an inexpensive, easy, but sweet card for Daddy.

No Sew Waldorf Inspired Sock Doll

There’s something special about a doll you make yourself for your child.

” ……a handcrafted doll is one of a kind, an individual which carries the spirit of the maker in its stitches and absorbs the spirit of the child who loves it”.

You don’t need a lot of skill or expensive materials to make a simple doll.  Infact, you don’t even have to sew to make this one.  This is what you need:

-1 knee sock in a skin tone

-2 regular patterned socks

-yarn

-scrap fabric

-string

-small square batting

-rice

-scissors

Optional

-doll making needle

-embroidery floss

First thing, take a piece of scrap fabric and start wrapping yarn around it to make a ball.

After you have your ball of yarn, take a square of batting, double thickness, and put the ball in the center and gather the batting around it.  Tie the batting tightly with some string just below the ball.

Next tie a string tightly around the center of the ball to form the eye indentation.

Now take your knee sock and cut the foot off.

Tie the sock where you cut it off tightly.

Insert the doll head right up to where it’s tied off.

Tie the sock just below the head to form the neck.  Now start filling the sock with rice.  I used a funnel to help.

Once the sock is as full as you’d like it, tie off the bottom with string.

Now this part is optional.  You can sew on eyes and a mouth with embroidery floss or you can draw or paint them on or leave the face blank.  I sewed them on.

First use pins to mark where you want the eyes and mouth to be.

Then thread your long needle and push it through from the inside of the eye to the top of the head.  Remove the needle and knot the thread and put tight from the front.

Make the eyes by rethreading the needle on the other end and inserting it to the outside edge of the eye and through the head coming out on the inside of the other eye.  Repeat on the other side and repeat again.  Then insert the needle on the outside of the remaining eye up through the head and knotting the thread at the top of the head.

Repeat the process for the mouth only knotting at the back of the neck.

Next take your other sock and cut the ankle off.

Put the sock on the body of the doll as a blanket.  Cut the other sock across about the middle of the foot and roll up the edge to make a hat.

And voila – an adorable sock bunting baby for your child.  So simple and so quick to make.

When I gave Pumpkin 1 her new baby she said, “I love you Mommy!  I love it!”.  I was actually surprised that she fell in love with it so much.  She was singing to it and rocking it.  She names the doll “Quinn”.  Children really don’t need fancy toys.  They just need toys made with love which they can fill with imagination.

Gluing for Todders

I can’t take credit for this as I saw it on a blog (I can’t remember which) but thought it was a great idea and wanted to share.  If you work with toddlers you know that it’s hard for them to use a glue sticks.  However, they like to glue things to pages.  Here is a simple solution that makes gluing easy for them.

Pour glue into a container (if you use one with a lid you can save any remaining glue and use it again).  Mix it with a little water.  Give the child a small sponge to use to soak up the glue and spread it on their paper.  I found these sponges on a stick at the dollar store.  They were perfect.  When done squeeze out any extra glue from the sponge and wash them.  Put a lid on the remaining glue and use it again later.  It is a little messy as the children dripped the glue everywhere but it wipes up easily and the children were very excited to do the pasting all by themselves.

Beautiful Spring Flowers Craft

I saw this craft on Fun at Home with Kids. The flowers looked amazing.  Her camera is better than mine so I’m going to steal her photo to show you how beautiful they are

It was a really simple and inexpensive craft to make and great for toddlers.  Pumpkin 1 is starting to figure out how to use the eye droppers and pipettes.  It’s a great way to develop printing skills.

What you need is:

Coffee filters

Liquid watercolours or food colouring

Eye droppers

Scissors

Pipe cleaner

Take the coffee filter and fold it in half and then fold it in half again until you have a small cone shape.  Cut a curved petal shape through it, cutting down towards the point but not all the way.  Open it up and lay it on a piece of paper or tray (it needs to remain flat to dry so you don’t want to have to pick it up and move it).  Using the eye dropper drop the watercolours onto the filter.

Leave it flat to dry.  When it’s dry pinch it at the middle and twist it a bit and wrap a pipecleaner around it to create a stem.  We found layering 3 or 4 coloured filters and then twisting made a fuller flower.  We put them in our frosted jars.  They look so lovely and have a fabric like look and texture.

 

Window Writing

I love the big windows in our new playroom.  They let so much light in, the kids love looking out them and they’re great for some window writing (in a princess dress of course).  A new way to draw and create.

Frosted glass craft

We tried out this craft from Happy Hooligans.  It was really easy to set up, I used white glue and liquid water colours.  The kids painted baby food jars.  They looked really great when done.