Back to School Fun Photo Labels

A quick picture post to share with you the first craft of the summer this year. Yeah we had a craftily lazy summer vacation this year :) But today the kids were extremely excited with this activity that took up our morning when we had originally intended to finish off all the labeling of school supplies. But I guess in the last few days of the kids home, one could give themselves and myself this much leeway :)

Work in progress ...I took printouts of letters of the kids' names from these Alphabet Printables and  stuck them onto different colored construction paper. The kids then cut them out and decorated those with crayons and stickers.

Then came the posing against different backgrounds! A brown tree trunk, green grass, blue sky!

 

I then put the 4 pictures to together on Picasa, made a collage, copy, pasted 4 of them on a Word Document and took printouts. And lo and behold, we have among us a lovely label and an extremely proud and happy soon to be Kindergartner! 

The older sibling made it quite excitedly but doesn't want to have to do anything with it at all thereafter. "No way am I carrying it to school!" Well he is just a growing boy, I suppose.

The idea came from one of my absolute favorite activity blog here.

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Recycle all those crayons lying around ...

... and make these beautiful pieces that can be used to be worn as necklaces, bracelets or whatever you can imagine them to be.

Super easy steps :

1. Peel the crayons' wrappers.

2. Break them into small pieces and fill muffin trays (fill the molds about halfway) - You can make multicolored or combine a dark and a light color for great effects.

3. Bake at about 200 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Take out the muffin tray and let cool. After cooling for a few minutes at room temperature, the trays can be put in the freezer for quicker results.

4. Once the trays are cool enough, the disc of wax just slips out easily.

5. Heat a pointed knife on a candle to make a hole in the discs and pass yarn/ribbon through it to make into colorful necklaces.

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A pack of foam sheets from the Dollar Tree...

... is all it takes for hours of fun and a dazzling display of color on your windows. Just spray water on the glass door/window, give the kids pre-cut shapes to work with and sit back and marvel at the leaps of imagination a child's mind dares to take on this mega size canvas. Better still, finish off that mystery novel you were struggling to find time for ;)

 Those are a tree with colorful leaves, a Jedi and Yoda by the currently Star Wars obsessed son and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

And the collection keeps getting bigger and bigger for hours of fun!

Easy, inexpensive and loads of fun even for very young kids! We also did this activity at Chica's weekly playdate and it was such a big hit with kids ranging from 1-1/2 years to 5 years and later enjoyed by kids as big as 7-8 years.

Putti Prapancha is where we got this idea initially! The kids had something similar in India but we had forgotten about it and its on her blog that I was reminded of it again. Thanks PP :)

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The Tree of Love

The kids have been asked to get valentines for their classmates next week for their respective class parties. We bought the little cards from Target, the kids wrote their and their friends' names enthusiastically and attached candies. I had not planned on making anything at home for the same because of the sheer volume of work that meant. Its hard to keep the kids interested for very long and instead of a fun activity, it becomes more like a 'Come here and at least finish what you started' activity. However, once I saw the great crafts going on at the blogs in the blogosphere, it was hard to remain uninspired :) I loved the Magazine Tree of Hearts at Putti Prachanda and when I showed it to Chica, she wanted to try making it too. So I started cutting out the pink and red hearts from sweaters and towels and blankets of the same color in old magazines. Chica tried too but she could only manage triangles or trapezia :) She could however cut out big hearts if I drew the outline for her.

She then started sticking them on a plain white paper. The trunk was made from putting her hand on a green paper in the magazine and then cutting it out.

That's the ready tree. It felt very white on the top and bottom of the paper, so we decided to add some grass and sun and clouds.

  

Now this is how it looks on the front door spreading the love as Valentine's Day approaches. The craft on top is something Chica made at her preschool with butter paper and melted crayons. That too looks very pretty.

We loved it so much that we decided we did have some energy and patience to make miniature versions to be turned into cards for teachers and some friends from the apartment complex. We are yet to stick them on red card stock (which we make out of red poster board which sells for 50 cents at the Dollar Tree - we make about 9 medium sized or 12 small sized cards from one poster board).

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Christmas 2011

Its the most wonderful time of the year! :) Indeed! Whats to not like - the spirit, the cheer, the music, the festivities, the dazzling lights, the carols playing on the radio all day long, the kids recognizing them  from having sung them at school even if there parents just sung 'Jingle Bells' as kids themselves! Once again I am indeed thankful to the Lord for having given us an opportunity of experiencing a country and its culture firsthand.

So we thought of making cards for the kids' friends and teachers thanking them for touching our lives in the way they do. I browsed some absolutely wonderful blogs for some ideas and was amazed at how creative people are. Each idea was so wondrous and resulted in such beautiful products. It was so easy to get inspired and motivated. Unfortunately I do not exactly remember the blogs from which I got the idea for our Christmas cards (it was a mish mash of a couple of ideas) but I am putting up a link to another awesome blog which, in turn has links to many more interesting and awesome crafts, bloggers have done for Christmas.

We started out with using the clean side of used paper to make kids' handprints in red and green. We used Acrylic paints.








Followed it by letting them dry for a bit and then brushing a layer of glossy Mod Podge - my super favorite recent discovery and while it was still sticky, we sprinkled a generous dash of red, green and silver glitter.






I don't have pictures for the remaining steps because we were knee deep in all the work but basically, I cut a triangle the size of the Christmas tree we wanted to place on our card and then cut it into strips careful to place them in order. The kids then glued the strips to the pre-prepared card cutouts (from white poster board) after they had drawn and colored the trunk with a brown crayon. I think a trunk made out of brown construction paper might have looked better but we didn't have any at hand. Nevertheless the end result was stunning. We also used cut strips to make borders and small cut squares to make gifts under the trees. I have to say that the cards look even better than they do in pictures because here the glossy finish isn't showing too well.

Also finally we collected our ceramic ornaments from the workshop we had enjoyed immensely at the Lillstreet Art Center. (Winter classes at Lillstreet Art Center begin January 9 and registration is open with a full schedule of classes available oniline at lillstreet.com. They offer classes in a wide range of mediums from metalsmithing to ceramics, photography to painting. Be sure to check them out.) And that proved to be the final straw for getting our very own Christmas tree :) Its a little silver one and only endorses the ornaments we are proud to have made ourselves even though they are far from perfect. I might just indulge in topping it with the very beautiful Christmas Tree Star I have my heart on but am not sure if I'll be able to find the time for it with a whole lot of play dates and busy social lives my kids feel they have a right to!

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Diwali for the kids this year

After 2 years of Diwali at home close to family, this year we are away from des again. Like everyone else in the same situation, the festivities with the family are missed acutely during this time of the year. Extra efforts have to be made to make a festival meaningful and fun especially for the kids which otherwise happens naturally back home. Anyways we began last week with some fireworks in a bottle and the puffy microwave art. I discovered a Beautiful blog a couple of weeks back and I told Rashmie, the owner of the blog that it had to be divine intervention that I discovered her blog full of amazing activities for the kids when I was just thinking about what to do with the kids this Diwali. Both the activities that we did were such a big hit with the kids and their friends too. She has given the full details in her posts that I have linked up to. But in short, for the fireworks in a bottle, we filled the 500 ml bottles with 1/3rd water and topped it up with cooking oil filled upto about an inch short of the rim. Added different colors (food coloring) to each bottle. Watching the color pass through the oil without coloring the oil and then settling on the oil water border for a few seconds before splashing down to the water and coloring it was mesmerizing enough. But of course there was more. Alka Seltzer tablets were then added to each bottle (3/4 tablet was optimal) and then began the fireworks. The colored CO2 bubbles fizzed up and the oil layer above served as the display window for the fantastic works! The expression on the kids faces has been priceless. And the four bottles sit on our kitchen table and Alka Seltzer tablets are dropped each time one of the kids' friends drops by much to everyone's delight and amusement.

The puffy microwave art - we mixed all purpose flour, baking powder and water to make a pancake like batter, added different food colors again, filled the batter in ziploc bags and made them like henna cones. And took out loads of one side empty sheets to decorate. It was not very easy for the kids to create designs from the cones because its kind of tricky but that didn't deter them one bit from doodling on and on and on. Niño (which is what the elder child will be called from now on :) couldn't stop making 'jalebis' and Chica (the younger one :) could manage lines and some flowers and smileys with help. After 4 small cut outs (from an A4 sheet) were ready, we tossed them inside the microwave for about 40 seconds and Viola! the results were awesome - puffed up art which smelled like pancakes, was so very colorful and very interesting to touch too. Awesome for all the senses. The best ones were mounted on card paper to give to the kids' friends for Diwali and the rest made up a very colorful quilt to adorn our main door. Not perfect at all but hey we are a household of real kids ;)

Last night we lit some sparklers and some small pop pops to the kids' delight and they just can't wait for more today with their friends. Just hope that the rain doesn't play a spoilt sport. 

As for me, well I am going to write a separate post for that. In short have been mighty busy last week cooking sweets and savories (which to my total utter delight are being tried and enjoyed by the kids), and trying out a couple of crafts to make little decorations. So tomorrow is designated no work day :) 

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Summer 2011 Writing Journal

Vansh got a Summer 2011 Writing Journal at the end of his Kindergarten last week. He has to write a couple of sentences, the more often the better, and draw a picture for each entry. To make up for the utter negligence that I have rendered to my blog, I decided on the same strategy for myself. Summer is a great time for this part of the world. We have been going out on weekends and sunny week days. There have been so many fluctuations in the weather this season. Its close to 40 one day and 12 degrees the next...its bizarre! Thankfully the city is absolutely new to us and has so much to offer both in terms of indoor and outdoor fun.

May 22nd - Lincoln Park Zoo

It turned out to be a much hotter day than expected. It was hot even in the shade. So the highlights of the day were cooling off with almost baths at every water outlet along the way.

Cooling off with snow cones and showing off the rainbow colored tongues thereafter.

And an indoor air-conditioned tree house climbing for kids. We strategically asked Vansh to go first and Jiya after him so that she eggs him to go on further rather than Vansh telling her to not go any further and go back with him.

I deliberately have missed out on the animals in the zoo this time because the dainty Miss Jiya was overwhelmed with the heat and the fact that she had to walk through it. I had not carried her stroller from India thinking which soon to be 4 year old needs a stroller. Turns out that mine does. So had to buy another one after this rather hopeless trip in terms of us doing anything fruitful because she tires out so soon. Luckily we went with friends who went around the entire premises with their son and Vansh to see all the animals while we sat in a gift store with Jiya sleeping in my arms.

Jun 4 - Last Gymnastics Class

Jiya is really fond of music and sways to any music that plays quite rhythmically. When we reached here in March, preschools were not enrolling any new students because the session was anyways about to end in a few weeks. So I enrolled her in a couple of classes so that she can get out and meet some children her age, get used to the language and accent, et al. Dance was our first choice but we didn't have options for that again during that time. So we picked gymnastics and she loved it so much that she literally went through the entire class with a smile on her lips. The first session ended Jun 4th and she now says that she wants to continue with Gymnastics and not dance at the moment. Her very flexible body is a bonus.

Jun 12 - Last Soccer Game of the Spring Season

Vansh was quite keen on playing cricket right after we came here from India. The World Cup fever was on. India won it while we were here which added to the craze. I told him he could play baseball which is also a bat and ball game but realized he won't be able to continue once we move back to India. So suggested soccer (football elsewhere) to which he had had some exposure last year during the Football World Cup but didn't remember much. But he decided to try it out and after a slow luke warm start, took a liking to it and started getting the hang of it. And has even asked me to sign him up for the next season in fall. I think the fact that he got a popsicle and a really cool medal at the last game and that he looked all glam and jazz with that shiny oversized red jersey(white in some games) and the shin guards has something to do with it ;)

I think his expression in the picture is because he was trying to smile but fighting back tears too though he doesn't admit it. But yeah lately he has become way too sentimental. A phase? I don't know.

June onwards

We have undertaken a really cool project at home titled 'Around the World'. The idea came from the really cool Choxbox's really cool post on studying Mexico over here. Since Vansh has been extremely fascinated with different languages and cultures and countries, locating them on the map and the likes, I thought it would be a good time to pick it up. We started with making their own passports. We found some very neat resources online for profile pages, immigration stamps when you visit a country and the place profiles.

We started with Germany. He colored the country on Europe's map after looking it up in the Atlas. We looked about its climate and current temperatures on weather.com which anyways is bookmarked on our computer because he likes to go on it every hour, if not sooner, to check the weather conditions. Listened to the German counting song on youtube. Jiya did a craft where she colored and dressed up a German boy. And they both added details in their respective passports.

We have studied India after that but more on that later. As also our adventures from last week because duty calls now. So ciao and hope to keep up with this religiously :)

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Woolly Sheep

We did a fun simple craft last evening and made a pair of woolly sheep. The best part was we didn't need any fancy supplies, we simply raided our bathroom cabinet and got ready for the fun.

We used:

• toilet paper rolls
• cotton buds
• tape
• cotton wool balls
• glue
• tissue paper
• black marker
• cheerios

We proceeded as follows :





1. We taped the cotton buds on the cardboard rolls to make legs.








2. I poured some white glue into a shallow dish. Then we dipped the cotton wool balls into the glue and stuck them all around the cardboard roll.





3. Next we scrunched up some tissue paper/kitchen towel and stuffed it into one end of the roll to make the head.

4. I had some black paper lying there, so I made small eyes out of it since Vansh was enjoying sticking with glue. You could also use a black marker like I did for the mouth.






5. Vansh smiled proudly, mighty pleased with his latest creation.








6. I wondered what to do about the horns until it struck me to use the cheerios the kids were snacking on. Now the couple of sheep, the sturdy standing one and the lazy lying down one, adorn our TV set :)

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