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{Wordless Wednesday} Seattle Area Child PhotographerMay 7th, 2013This post is shared with: The Jenny Evolution |
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{Bridge Building, 101} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerApril 20th, 2013Both boys are on spring break this week from preschool and elementary school respectively. Now, spring break around here is hit or miss weather wise, usually more of a miss. I came across this project idea for building a bridge from Science Sparks (a new monthly link up they have called Challenge and Discover) and [...] |
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Tags: 2013, bridge building, fun, kids, newspaper, preschoolers, science experiments, STEM
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Posted in: 2013, arts and crafts, science experiments |
Both boys are on spring break this week from preschool and elementary school respectively. Now, spring break around here is hit or miss weather wise, usually more of a miss. I came across this project idea for building a bridge from Science Sparks (a new monthly link up they have called Challenge and Discover) and thought, what a GREAT project! The boys took to it quite enthusiastically, and it took up most of a morning. It definitely was one of the best science projects we’ve done. Not only did we get to draw out what we thought our bridge would look like, we got to build it out of newspaper (!!), measure and look at numbers, have a failed experiment, rethink our project, and then have a successful bridge. WOO HOO!
The guidelines to the project were: A) The bridge had to hold at least one kilogram (1kg=2.2lb) and B) the bridge had to be made out of one object in the recycle bin. Here is what we did for our project.
We used newspaper and scotch tape.
Here is the draft that my oldest drew for what he thought the bridge would look like. I would like you to note the star shape under the bridge!
For my preschooler, I printed out different bridges and had him circle ones he liked.
Next, we rolled up the newspaper in order to make it sturdier, like sticks. We rolled up half sheets, then cut them in half again for the bridge supports. For the main bridge, we rolled up a whole sheet for the bridge decking.
Our supports. I helped with this phase, I think we rolled up 12 pieces of newspaper to make 24 supports.
The boys figuring out how to attach them together.
My oldest went back to his drawing and decided the star design was the strongest. He went to town with the tape.
Cutting to level the supports.
The bridge decking, and all the leg supports.
The preschooler was Captain Tape Giver Person
He also measured the length and width of the bridge.
The bridge was 32 inches long, and 6 inches wide.
My oldest then went to taping the star shaped supports to the bridge deck.
The bridge is finished! We did have some problems with leveling (my husband later surmised it may have been sturdier on carpet, or another more giving surface than hardwood).
First test: EPIC FAIL!
We decided that scotch tape was not strong enough, so we went back and reinforced the supports with duct tape. SUCCESS!
Overall, this was a super fun and exciting project. My oldest did most of this, from drawing the bridge, to figuring out how to make it from the supports, to being sad about it not working, to suggesting the duct tape. We even made a video where he explains everything, if you want to watch. Thank you again, Science Sparks, for hosting this great event! We look forward to what’s in store for next month!
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{Math + Arth = FUN} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerApril 9th, 2013My preschooler loves math. He also loves arts and crafts, but everyone knows his real love is math. Most of the time, I’m able to combine the two together in a “lesson” to teach him something math related, while we’re creating something fun. Did you know that mathematics is sometimes called, the “science of patterns”? [...] |
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Tags: elementary school, flowers, fun, math, paper crafts, preschool, spring
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My preschooler loves math. He also loves arts and crafts, but everyone knows his real love is math. Most of the time, I’m able to combine the two together in a “lesson” to teach him something math related, while we’re creating something fun. Did you know that mathematics is sometimes called, the “science of patterns”? Think about it! Patterns happen everywhere, whether it’s in repeating numbers, colors, shapes, or expressions. By showing kids to look for a pattern, you’re teaching them the basics of problem solving.
For this craft, I had all these leftover little squares of construction paper. We decided that we would make a spring flower craft out of them, using different shapes. We did circles, triangles, and squares. This was a fun craft because we got to talk about shapes, patterns, AND make a cool art project at the end to show off!
What We Did:
- for the triangles, we used two colors as petals, and laid them down in a pattern. The placement of which way the triangle went wasn’t important, the pattern of which color went next was the important part.
- for the circles, I traced out circles from big to small, and had him cut it out. Then he glued them in descending order, biggest to smallest, learning about sizes as well.
- For the squares, we left them the same size, and just layered them on top of each other, with an additional circle for the middle.
My leftover pieces of construction paper. They were perfect for this project.
I had my preschooler cut out circles. We also cut the squares diagonally to make triangles, and finally left them as they were in order to have our three different shapes.
He also cut and glued on some grass, and flower stems.
For the triangle shapes, we used two different colors to make a repeating pattern. It didn’t matter the orientation of the triangle, what mattered was the COLOR PATTERN.
For the circles, we went from biggest, to medium, to smallest. Again, learning sizes is another math concept at work here!
For the squares, we put them together and talked about how they made a pretty shape together, and how flowers in nature can look like that as well, like gerber daisies (which happen to be one of my favorite flowers).
And our final product! Circles, triangles, and squares all working together to make a beautiful flower art craft. In the meantime, it also taught my preschooler some patterns, shape and sizes recognition, and how nature also uses math. So go forth, have fun, and mix math and art together!
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{Secret Agent Party} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerApril 5th, 2013Recently, my oldest was invited to this SUPER AWESOME Secret Agent themed birthday party. Since my boys are All About Spies, this was pretty much the greatest thing ever to happen in their lives. I think my youngest may have taken it a mite too seriously. I don’t think I saw a smile on his [...] |
Recently, my oldest was invited to this SUPER AWESOME Secret Agent themed birthday party. Since my boys are All About Spies, this was pretty much the greatest thing ever to happen in their lives. I think my youngest may have taken it a mite too seriously. I don’t think I saw a smile on his face the entire time. Because, you know, Secret Agent Spies never smile. First, they had to have a password to enter the party. Next, they got to make their Secret Identity Card. Then, there were the Secret Agent Disguises. They even got to have their fingerprints taken. Next, they got “Secret Agent bags” which contained a crayon, a decoder wheel, a magnifying glass, and some other spy paraphernalia. Then, Secret Agent “D” led the boys on an obstacle course. There were clues to decode, balloon “bombs” to burst, juice to help you decode, and finally, an infrared “laser” field to get to the goodie bags! Overall, it was a smashing success and very, very fun!
I have to give major props to Mom (Secret Agent “M”) and Dad (Secret Agent “D”) of the birthday boy. They were 100% involved and led the boys all around in all the “secret missions”, not to mention setting up all the obstacles beforehand. Without them, the party couldn’t have gone off without a hitch!
Ordinary boys, ready to turn into Secret Agent Hawkeye and Secret Agent Flash. They even needed a secret password to get into the door! (provided by Agent “M” and Agent “D” prior to the party)
Arriving inside Headquarters
The laser field was blocked off with caution tape for the unwary.
Secret Agent Disguises
Agents, ready for their secret mission!
Working on their identification badges with Secret Agent “M”
What the badges look liked, aren’t they cool? My boys LOVED these.
Hanging out with some other agents.
Who are those cool spies?
Awesome and tasty cake.
Secret Agent “D” helping to take fingerprints.
Yes, he did fingerprint that entire line of kids! Big kudos to him.
The boys were just cracking me up with their spy antics.
Getting ready for their secret mission.
Finding the first clue.
Their Secret Agent bags with their decoders, and what the clues looked like that they were finding.
Hard at work. The papers had the list of where all the clues were listed.
There was a clue where they “painted” this decoder juice onto it to reveal the secret message.
Are you REALLY a secret agent?
Another mission!
This part was hilarious for me, some of the “bombs” were a smidge harder to burst than the others. There was a lot of giggling involved.
Last obstacle to overcome!
Goofing off after the mission.
I noticed that my water tasted sort of funny…
The birthday boy (and sneak attack by Secret Agent Little Brother!)
My favorite picture of the day.
Birthday Boy and his momma.
Happy Birthday, Secret Agent!
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{JELL-O Science} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerApril 2nd, 2013Last year at the Seattle Center and Bumbershoot, the kids got see art in action. Artists Lisa Hein and Robert Seng were building a wall made of Jell-O on the premises. Let me repeat that: They were building a WALL MADE OF JELL-O. The kids were amazed. Of course, my preschooler asked “Can. We. EAT [...] |
Last year at the Seattle Center and Bumbershoot, the kids got see art in action. Artists Lisa Hein and Robert Seng were building a wall made of Jell-O on the premises. Let me repeat that: They were building a WALL MADE OF JELL-O. The kids were amazed. Of course, my preschooler asked “Can. We. EAT IT.” They were using mortar, and Jell-O was used in place of bricks. As the Jell-O decayed and molded away, the mortar remained, and they had built it higher than the boys’ waist when we saw it. Needless to say, they wanted to try building their own Jell-o wall at home. (But maybe, without the mold). I googled and checked to see what other experiments we could do with Jell-o, and found a fun one about figuring out if we could nail Jell-o to a wall. So off we went!
What You’ll Need:
- Jell-O packets (we had 4 packages at our house, so we made two regular pans of Jell-o, and one pan of Jigglers)
- board
- nails
- drinking straws
- **optional** sliced fruit. I thought to use it like “mortar” for the Jell-O, but it turned out I didn’t need it at all
Ready for some Jell-O experimentation!
The boys’ had to write their own hypothesis about if Jell-o could stick to a wall. The preschooler did not believe it could. Because it’s food, and food does NOT stick to walls (believe me, he’s tested this hypothesis on more than one food object at our house during meal times.)
Our starting boards. The nails I hammered in for the boys, and I set them up outside for the Jell-o building.
Why yes, that is my preschooler sniffing the Jell-O. I…don’t even ask why he does it anymore.
Starting to build the Jell-O wall! SO EXCITING!
As you can see, we gave up using fruit (mainly because the boys’ kept eating the fruit since I forbade them from eating the Jell-o until the experiments were done). The wall seemed to be stable enough.
We got to five Jell-o levels before…oh no! They all came a-tumbling down.
“Now we can eat them, mommy?”
These just crack me up. They were very serious about their Jell-o consumption.
NEXT UP! Using straws as supports over the nails, we put the JIGGLER Jell-o on the wall! The regular jello just fell down (even with straw supports), but the jiggler jello stayed put!
And our exciting conclusions.
Overall, using Jell-O to conduct some science experiments was super fun!
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{Paper Marigolds in Baskets} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerApril 1st, 2013When I saw this craft on Pinterest about paper marigolds, I knew I had to try it with my boys. Spring is coming up, the garden is getting planted, and yellow and orange marigolds are just so sunny and happy looking! What I liked about this craft was that it also taught the boys about [...] |
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Tags: 2013, arts and cra, flowers, fun, kids, marigolds, papercrafts, preschool
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When I saw this craft on Pinterest about paper marigolds, I knew I had to try it with my boys. Spring is coming up, the garden is getting planted, and yellow and orange marigolds are just so sunny and happy looking! What I liked about this craft was that it also taught the boys about (paper) weaving, which was kind of a new concept to them, and something they had a lot of fun with as well. Also, my preschooler got to practice his cutting skills! In a sanctioned project by mommy! And the end product is so very pretty.
What You’ll Need:
- Brown construction paper (or some other color for the basket. I recommend two different tones, light and dark, for easier weaving)
- green, yellow, and orange construction paper
- scissors
- glue
- tape
- **optional** something round to use as templates for the flowers. I used canning jar lids.
Let’s get started! (bonus points for enthusiasm!)
My oldest son and I traced out circles and the leaves on the green, orange and yellow paper. We did the 4 of each: big orange circle, little orange circle, big yellow circle, and little yellow circle.
What the circles looked like. These will become the marigolds. Then I had the boys glue the small circles to the big circles. Be sure to use opposing colors!
Then, we cut “petals” on the outside of the big circle. I told my oldest son to cut to the edge of the small circle, all the way around the big circle. My youngest son had some troubles with this, and did need help. Then, we glued on stems and leaves.
While the flowers were drying, we cut out strips for the baskets. I used a few, wider strips for my preschooler. For my older son, I used narrower strips, but twice as many.
I taped all the ends together to make it a little easier for them to weave. Then, I demonstrated the “over, under, over” pattern, and let them go to town. This was where the two different colors helped them keep track of the weaving (especially for my preschooler).
All done! Both kiddos really enjoyed the weaving, which was surprising to me. I will have to look up some more weaving projects up for them to do!
Finished marigolds! Don’t they look cheerful? We taped the woven paper “basket” to our background paper, then stuck in our paper marigolds.
All done! The one on the left was done by my seven year old, the one on the right (with all the happy faces) was done by my preschooler).
Four thumbs up!
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{Science Fun – Density Tower} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerFebruary 5th, 2013**Hello and welcome! Please check out my other science experiments under the “science experiments” categories above. And please, leave a comment on how you found me!** Everyone has seen the very cool layered density column featuring different liquids (usually different colors), then you drop in things to show how there are different densities and [...] |
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Tags: 2013, density, fun, kids, preschool, science experiments
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**Hello and welcome! Please check out my other science experiments under the “science experiments” categories above. And please, leave a comment on how you found me!**
Everyone has seen the very cool layered density column featuring different liquids (usually different colors), then you drop in things to show how there are different densities and things fall in either all the way, some of the way, or float right at the top. This is a great visual learning experiment. You pour the heaviest liquid in first, being careful not to let it touch the sides. Then, pour in the rest of the liquids you chose. Pick some household items to drop in (ping pong balls, golf balls, pick both heavy and light objects for the best displays), and let your little scientist figure out how density means that different layers will support different items!
What You’ll Need (in list of heaviest to lightest):
- Honey
- Corn syrup or pancake syrup
- Dish soap (I used Dawn because it was blue and pretty)
- water (you can color it)
- vegetable oil
- rubbing alcohol (you can also color this to differentiate it or just to make it pretty.)
- lamp oil
- Random Household Objects – have fun with this one! check out small items like toy balls, ping pong balls, golf balls, beans, legos, screws, washers, keys, etc.
Our layers! I used what I had on hand. In order: honey, corn syrup, dishwasher soap, water (I colored it red to differentiate), corn oil.
My little scientist in training.
I let him pick items around the house to drop into the layers. He picked lego mini figure, buttons, different beans, pasta, peppercorns, an aluminum screw and a metal screw.
The ingredients and what the layers looked like. In hindsight, I would have colored the water something lighter!
He didn’t believe me that the layers wouldn’t mix, so he was watching very closely.
“mommy, look! they’re staying separated!”
Our first pass dropping items into the layers.
Lego Man and the peppercorns stayed on top.
After a while, we noticed that items started to sink through the corn syrup layer, especially if you piled more things on top.
A before and after shot. Overall, a fun and colorful experiment!
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{Fall Activity Tree} Seattle Area Childrens PhotographerSeptember 5th, 2012We did this last year and it was such a hit, the boys asked to do it again. Around here, autumn begins with long rainy days starting in October and doesn’t really end until June. With school holidays, snow days, days off from school due to power outages, the “activity tree” is a great way [...] |
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Tags: 2012, autumn, crafts, fall activity tree, fun, kids, personal
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We did this last year and it was such a hit, the boys asked to do it again. Around here, autumn begins with long rainy days starting in October and doesn’t really end until June. With school holidays, snow days, days off from school due to power outages, the “activity tree” is a great way for a frazzled parent to have some things on hand for the kids to do, or look forward to doing as a weeknight or weekend treat.
I got the original marbled leaves idea from Little Wonder Days’ blog. First, I cut out different leaf shapes (I googled “leaf shapes” and found a bunch of great leaf outlines to print). Definitely use cardstock or a heavier paper (I used old file folders). Regular paper will soak up too much paint and you won’t get the marblized effect. Also, I would recommend just putting the leaves on top and then lifting them, instead of dragging the leaves across. Dragging mixes the colors, and while it’s fun, you get more brownish leaves instead of the marbled leaves.
Shaving cream with acrylic paint on top. I let the boys swirl with a chopstick.
What your leaves will look like. So pretty!
Be sure to have some sort of water on hand, for fun mixing when you’re done with the leaf crafting.
If your kids are like mine, eventually after all the leaves are marblelized, they’ll start to play with the paint and shaving cream mixture themselves
Then you might have some kid clean up to do as well. 
After we made all the leaves, the boys and I made a list of what type of activities we wanted to do during the fall and winter. Then we wrote one activity onto the back of each leaf.
Using paper grocery bags, I made a paper bag tree with branches to hang all our leaves. I used thumb tacks to secure the leaves to the wall. Last year, after we picked our activity, the boys would have the leaf “fall” to the ground. They were pretty excited about the bare tree at the end of winter!
Here is our list for our 2012-2013 Autumn Activity List:
- make a spaghetti and marshmallow building
- have a sleep-over in the tree house
- go bowling
- make a train city and take over the house
- have an unbirthday party
- have a rain party (I’m not quite sure what this entails, but my youngest came up with this so we wrote it down)
- make s’mores for dinner
- go camping (with the tent) in the family room
- kids get to be the parents for a morning, while the parents get to be the kids (big hit last year, requested again this year)
- make cookies
- go on a scavenger hunt
- write and mail letters to family
- make our own movie
- visit a farm
- have an egg hunt
- put on a puppet show
- go on a hike
- do Dad’s electric train set
- do a leaf nature book
- shadow puppet show
- make a blanket fort
- family board game night
- pretend to be pirates for a day, even when we leave the house
- make a time capsule
- have a dress up parade
Have fun and ENJOY! The more input your children get, the more excitement you’ll see them generate, and the more creativity they’ll get flowing. Plus, there are just bonus points if it’s something you can direct them to do and it lets you have a few more moments of peace and stillness during the long winter’s day.
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{Tidepool Exploration} Seattle Area Lifestyle PhotographerAugust 23rd, 2012Living here in the lovely Pacific Northwest, we’re very lucky to be able to go to the beach and explore the sand and surf. Along with building sandcastles, my kids love to explore the tide pools. It’s a lovely reminder of the wonderful and fragile ecosystem surrounding us, and which we live alongside. There are [...] |
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Tags: 2012, beaches, boys, edmonds, fun, marina beach park, ocean, personal, science, summer, tidepools
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Living here in the lovely Pacific Northwest, we’re very lucky to be able to go to the beach and explore the sand and surf. Along with building sandcastles, my kids love to explore the tide pools. It’s a lovely reminder of the wonderful and fragile ecosystem surrounding us, and which we live alongside. There are a few things we do to make a trip to the tide pools more memorable:
Tide Pools Checklist:
- Check times for low tides. I like going to the NOAA website, or your local newspaper (like the Seattle Times) will have it listed as well, usually under the weather section.
- Bring appropriate clothing, including footwear. Rocks are slippery, so flip flops would not be a good choice. A sturdy shoe with good traction and grip will prevent cut feet or turned ankles.
- Likewise, it’s good to have a full change of clothes in the car, just in case. Like, a brother dumps a full bucket of water on top of another brother’s head.
- have the kids bring a bucket (or a flat tupperware container)
- if you have it, bring along some popsicle sticks and string. You can mark off a square section of the tide pools (use the sticks as fence posts, and rope the string around to make the square). Makes a great and quick observation point for kids, especially small ones who may be overwhelmed with everything.
- for bigger kids, have them bring along a magnifying glass as well to check out sea animals.
- Remember, tide pools are animal homes. So talk to your kids about not removing animals to take home, etc. In my pictures, you do see my kids handling sea stars and hermit crabs, but I made sure they replaced them where they found them. We talked about how it would be if someone came and removed them from our house, and how they would not like that very much. Practice good, ecological etiquette so others can also enjoy the tide pools as well.
At Marina Beach Park during a neap tide. See how far out the low tide went?
Sunhat? Check. Boots? Check. Bucket? Check.
Tide pools aren’t only found in the subtidal area left after a high tide leaves, they can be found amongst the rocks in the intertidal area as well.
Don’t forget the appropriate footwear! My son loves his ladybug rainboots.
In cases when you don’t plan ahead, the tide pools can provide you with these fabulous seaweed footwear instead.
Checking out the sea life.
The best thing about tide pool exploration is the sense of wonder by all ages! You’re never too old, or too young, to be too cool to check out tide pools.
A very serious discussion about where to explore next.
Tiny hermit crab! My oldest actually would stalk out a tide pool for half an hour to watch a hermit crab move to a new shell home.
Starfish in your hand! My youngest said that it was very tickly, and not like a spider at all.
The boys were quite intent on all the new discoveries they were making left and right among the tide pools.
Don’t forget about looking down inside the rocks either. We found this between rock crevasses. It’s either a flattened sea anemone or a sea cucumber
Another hermit crab! You can see the little antennae poking out towards my son’s thumb.
After closer examination in our buckets, we put everything back in their original tidepool “families”.
And one last cool find! We found this guy clinging to some rocks. We believe it’s a tonicella chiton.
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{Go Outside and PLAY!} Seattle Area Children’s PhotographerAugust 2nd, 2012The boys and I have embarked on the KaBOOM! Summer Playground Challenge this summer as well. Basically, you go outside, and play. Simple, right? We are fortunate that we live in such a beautiful area with an abundance of parks, skate parks, walking trails, green space, state parks, and wonderful places to play outside. So [...] |
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Tags: 2012, fun, KaBOOM, outside, parks, playgrounds, summer challenge
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The boys and I have embarked on the KaBOOM! Summer Playground Challenge this summer as well. Basically, you go outside, and play. Simple, right? We are fortunate that we live in such a beautiful area with an abundance of parks, skate parks, walking trails, green space, state parks, and wonderful places to play outside. So go outside and play. Get dirty. Find a new park. Have a picnic. And above all else, have some fun!
If you are in the Seattle area, this is a great resource: Best Parks in Seattle
If you are on the Eastside (Kenmore, Bothell, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah) check this out: My Parks and Recreation
Cedar Groves Park. Bothell, WA
Imagine Childrens Museum. Everett, WA
Peek A Boo
