Adding Magic People and Accessories

This week the kids asked me for play wands. They have been using the wooden spoons from the play kitchen to flourish about while saying 'Abracadabra!". 

The wands were already in the works, along with other magic elements so I was pleased to hear the kids ask for them. I purchased the materials for the wands a couple of weeks ago and I hope to get those done by the weekend. 

Also started this week is our gnome family. Later I'll add a gnome house, and then wizard hats possibly to go with the wands. 

After the gnomes and wands, I have plans to make superhero capes in rainbow colors, enough so each child has one cape if they want, plus matching masks. This will all be added in the next few weeks to enrich our dramatic play materials. 

Here is the first gnome we made today. This was my test gnome, actually, to figure out what pattern I wanted to settle on, so I used a color I didn't care about to start with knowing I'd need to do some trial and error. I planned to make rainbow gnomes, and this guy is more a forest green, so maybe he'll end up being part of a woodland gnome set, instead of the rainbow gnomes in brighter colors. :-)  

I had not planned to do anything decorative for this one since he was my test subject, but I decided to add a rough blanket stitch and some embroidery accents to liven it up a bit and see what it looked like. Not bad I think!

The gnome is so cute and I can't wait to add the rest, though for the first rainbow set I want them very simple and later as we add more I'll dress them up a bit more.  

Mother's Day Gifts

Gift wrapped mysteries for moms, the kids made these sweet gifts for Mother's Day this Sunday.

Lemon Cream Squares

Lemon Creame SOAP Squares

NOT for eating! lol

We made these fun all natural goat milk lemon soap squares today to test an idea and they turned out lovely! 

They look so delicious! REAL lemon was used with no added chemicals or fragrances. They smell so nice and I can't wait to put them to use in our bathrooms. Super easy and fun!

Straw Necklaces

We had some used smoothie straws that had been washed in the dishwasher and were piling up, begging to be reused for something. Last weekend I finally decluttered my kitchen drawers and set the straws aside to use this week in a project.

Making straw necklaces is a fun oldie but goodie, especially when using giant colorful straws like these! 

You'll need yarn or string, tape, and straws. 

Cut the straws into 'beads', making them different lengths as you go for variety. 

Take some yarn, cut it into necklace lengths (be generous), and tape off the ends for easy threading.

Place the beads and cords on the table and let the kiddos go to town creating!

Threading beads is an excellent fine motor skill builder, too. This is just right for 3-5 year olds, and challenging for 2 year olds and under with varying degrees of assistance. 

Making Candy Houses

This week we made candy houses!!  Thank you to all my families for being so generous and donating supplies!  

Here the kids are ready to put their houses together. They aren't at all excited, you can tell. lol

 I put a little bit of everything in several plates and put them all on the table. We used the shoe boxes to hold the houses and for carrying them home.

Here are pics of some of the houses. I should have started snapping before they went back into the boxes, but they really are adorable. The kids had so much fun with these!

 

Salt Dough Stars

These are our salt dough stars we made last week and painted.

I love how fun they turned out!

Crayon Butterflies

Using fun silicone molds from Denmark, we made these bright and colorful

Crayon Butterflies!

If you have old, broken or unused crayons, this is a fun project for all ages. My only tip is not to mix crayon brands, as they do not always mix well. Some melt at higher temperatures than others and the end result may have unmelted chunks remaining. 

Happy Solstice!

Happy Suns to Greet Visitors!