Category Archives: Entertain Your Kids

Concocting Sculpting Dough

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Today we whipped up a little batch of sculpting dough. This is somewhere between playdough and clay. It is a thick dough that dries pretty quickly. It is good for making ornaments, shapes, beads, etc. Ready? Let’s get started.

First, head to your pantry and your craft closet. Here is what you need: food coloring (Evan’s favorite), glue, water, flour and cornstarch. 

Put a few drops of food coloring in a bowl. I told Evan to do four, we ended up with about eight. Life is all about compromise, right? Then, pour in 1/4 cup glue.

Pour in 1/4 cup water and stir it up. 



Next stir in 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup cornstarch. It will get pretty thick, so use some elbow grease. 



Once it gets too thick to stir, pour it onto the counter and knead it for five minutes or so. You’ll want to get all of the flour and cornstarch mixed in. Now is the fun part. 

Start shaping the dough! You can roll it out, cut it into shapes or sculpt it. The dough does dry quickly—a little too quickly for my guy’s tastes. The outer layer starts to get a little crusty, which wouldn’t be bad, but Evan was having a lot of fun just playing. I finally convinced him we should cut out some shapes. We did Miss Madelyn’s initials, since she was being so patient while we whipped up our little concoction. 

Here are a few of our masterpieces: 

Evan liked this dough, but it wasn’t nearly as popular as last week’s slime. I think this would be a lot of fun for little girls making beads for necklaces. The beads dried completely in about two hours. I expect everything else will dry overnight. I will make this again during the holidays so we can create some custom ornaments for our tree. 

The Recipe:

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup glue
4-8 drops of food coloring
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch

Mix water, glue and food coloring in a bowl. Stir in flour and cornstarch. Mix in bowl until thick, then turn it onto the counter and knead for five minutes. Shape into shapes and then let dry. 

Concocting Slime

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I have labeled Wednesday afternoons kitchen concoction time at our house. For our first concocting adventure, my little guy and I whipped up a batch of slime. It is a quick and easy kitchen project. However, I should warn you that mixing up the slime will take a lot less time than cleaning up the resulting mess and the load of laundry that is sure to follow.

Let’s get started. There are only three ingredients: borax, white glue and food coloring.   

Measure one cup of glue. In our house that equaled two partially used bottles of glue and one full bottle. 

Pour glue into a large bowl. Add 1 cup of water. Stir in several drops of food coloring. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to be sure to get out a few paper towels at this point. You may also start thinking twice about not putting an apron on your kid. Just keep going. That Shout Advanced you have in the laundry room will work wonders. But if you don’t have any Shout Advanced, you should probably add it to your shopping list.  

My guy went a little wild with the food coloring, which is why our hands retain a slight blue tint after playing with the final product. You may want to limit your little scientist.

In a separate bowl (or a large measuring cup) mix four teaspoons of borax with 1 cup of warm water. Guess what’s next?

Try to get your helper to pour slowly. It might be a challenge. Then, start mixing the two borax into the glue. My guy dove in with his hands. 



Once it starts to take shape, pull it out of the bowl and knead it on the counter.

Now you get to play. Let your imagination run wild. Evan loved making hand prints and declared that the slime was alien goo. 

Store your slime in an air tight container. Ta da:

Here is a quick recap of the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Solution A:
1 cup glue
1 cup water
Food coloring

Solution B:
1 cup warm water
4 teaspoons borax

In a large bowl mix Solution A. In a small bowl mix Solution B then pour it into Solution A. Mix until it starts to take shape, then pour onto counter and knead. Have fun! 
 

Concocting A Mess

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Evan is into Spiderman these days. As in, he can’t get enough. We play Spiderman, read Spiderman books and watch Spiderman on t.v. He is going to be Spiderman for Halloween, but I just ordered his costume yesterday. Later in the day Evan asked me if he could paint. I said sure, got out the paints and gave Evan some paper. I went about making dinner, which means I was in the kitchen with Evan, but had my back to him quite a bit. Imagine my surprise when I turned around to find this: 

He can even shoot webs. 



His feet got in on the action, too. 



Dinner was late. And I am still cleaning up red paint. Luckily it was washable. 


 

Concocting A Mess

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Evan is into Spiderman these days. As in, he can’t get enough. We play Spiderman, read Spiderman books and watch Spiderman on t.v. He is going to be Spiderman for Halloween, but I just ordered his costume yesterday. Later in the day Evan asked me if he could paint. I said sure, got out the paints and gave Evan some paper. I went about making dinner, which means I was in the kitchen with Evan, but had my back to him quite a bit. Imagine my surprise when I turned around to find this: 

He can even shoot webs. 



His feet got in on the action, too. 



Dinner was late. And I am still cleaning up red paint. Luckily it was washable. 


 

Reading: Goodnight Nobody

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I should have been reading any one of the many baby sleep books that are lining my shelves, but instead, I treated myself to Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner and I am so glad I did! I love when I come across just the right book for where I’m at in my life right now.

I know I would have liked this book even if I had read it when it first came out in 2005. But that was back before I had kids. Before I experienced walking onto a new playground and learning that some mommy circles feel like high school all over again. Before I schlepped through my neighborhood hanging reward posters when my little guy lost his special bear. Before I cried real tears of joy when I finally found that ratty old bear. Before I became the type of person, like the main character in the novel, that would hand over everything I own except my child’s lovey if I were mugged. Now that I am knee-deep in mommyhood and living in the suburbs, I appreciate the main character in Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner so much more than I would have before my own many readings of Goodnight Moon. 

In addition to all the little mommy-isms I could relate to, I liked the plot and the humor. A quick run down of the book from the back cover: "When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is the most exciting thing to happen in Upchurch, Connecticut, since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank. Even though the local police chief warns her that crime-fighting’s a job best left to the professionals, Kate launches an unofficial investigation — from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school."

Now, let me add that I always worry just a little bit when I share that I loved a book. I get visions of folks I know reading it and then thinking I have really bad taste. But, I will say it again—I did love this read. I also like Weiner’s blog: http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/. I can’t wait to read her latest novel, Fly Away Home. But first I need to finish some of those books that promise to teach me how to get my kiddos to sleep. 

 

Reading: Goodnight Nobody

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I should have been reading any one of the many baby sleep books that are lining my shelves, but instead, I treated myself to Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner and I am so glad I did! I love when I come across just the right book for where I’m at in my life right now.

I know I would have liked this book even if I had read it when it first came out in 2005. But that was back before I had kids. Before I experienced walking onto a new playground and learning that some mommy circles feel like high school all over again. Before I schlepped through my neighborhood hanging reward posters when my little guy lost his special bear. Before I cried real tears of joy when I finally found that ratty old bear. Before I became the type of person, like the main character in the novel, that would hand over everything I own except my child’s lovey if I were mugged. Now that I am knee-deep in mommyhood and living in the suburbs, I appreciate the main character in Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner so much more than I would have before my own many readings of Goodnight Moon. 

In addition to all the little mommy-isms I could relate to, I liked the plot and the humor. A quick run down of the book from the back cover: "When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is the most exciting thing to happen in Upchurch, Connecticut, since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank. Even though the local police chief warns her that crime-fighting’s a job best left to the professionals, Kate launches an unofficial investigation — from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school."

Now, let me add that I always worry just a little bit when I share that I loved a book. I get visions of folks I know reading it and then thinking I have really bad taste. But, I will say it again—I did love this read. I also like Weiner’s blog: http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/. I can’t wait to read her latest novel, Fly Away Home. But first I need to finish some of those books that promise to teach me how to get my kiddos to sleep. 

 

Against My Better Judgement

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I distrust wildlife. I like to keep a safe distance between myself and any wild animal—and by wild I mean anything other than a domesticated cat or dog that belongs to someone I know and trust. But, I was won over by the little chipmunks on my parents’ property during my Utah vacation. My dad has been feeding them for years and finally has them eating peanuts out of his hand.

After some encouragement from my dad, I gave it a try.

And, we even let the kiddos feed the furry creatures (my niece’s little ones are on the left—my little guy is on the right).

 

Guess what? We all lived and no one had to get a rabies shot—if a rabies shot is what you’d get if you were bitten by a chipmunk. The little things were actually kind of cute. Right up until they stole my little guy’s shoe, chewed some holes in it and left it out in the great wide open. But that’s another story for another day.