Lite-Brites in the Dark

It was a very calm and quiet Wednesday morning. We usually have 5 kids here, but this morning it was just Jack and Luke.

They turned the lights off in the bedroom, closed the curtains, and played with the Lite-Brites in the dark. Unfortunately, when I took the picture with the flash, it didn't look a bit dark . . .

. . . and then without the flash, this is all I got:

Boys in the Morning . . . Boys in the Afternoon

In the morning, Gabriel, Matthew, and Luke built an elaborate construction using both blocks and dominoes.

After school, Iain and Jack set up their camp around the swingset and made slingshots, amongst other things, out of tape, paper, and string.

New Hot Gluing . . . Take Two

This morning the boys discovered the new hot gluing supplies (though Iain of course knew this yesterday) and spent the entire morning creating.

A Busy End to a Busy Week

This morning Matthew got to try out the melted wax painting. He made two paintings: one for himself and one for his brother Andrew.

Josephine and Eden took out all the paper and heart punches and made Valentines cards.


Later on Josephine relaxed in the livingroom and crocheted.

And at the end of the day, the children asked for the hot glue gun stuff and had a great time creating.

Snake Ties and Temporary Tattoos

Yesterday I rotated all the toys. This is something I'd intended to do every month but have now gone several months without doing so. I have bins and bins of toys out in the garage, so I put away what had been out and took out "new" toys. Well, it took Iain less than five minutes to discover the change this morning. All the snake ties were soon out to the great enjoyment of Jack and Iain.

All the excitement of the new toys meant a very large mess to clean up before school. We put on Rock Lobster, cleaned it all up in a hurry, and then even had a little time leftover for some dancing before we left.

Ria enjoyed hearing Rock Lobster as well.

Last week Katie turned the playhouse into a post office, and today it became a tattoo parlor. Unfortunately, there weren't many children here in the afternoon, so Josephine ended up playing the tattoo recipient time and time again.

These photos were taken during Josephine's tattoo sessions. I just had to include them, as I think Ryan's expressions are priceless (and check out the gap-toothed smiles of both Jo and Ryan).

In the end Josephine looked like quite the biker-chick, all "tatted" up.

Crystal "Hearts"

This week the kids made Borax crystal “hearts.” I was a little worried that I had planned projects which were too closed-ended and that I had done the kids a disservice by creating models (my intention in making the models was to entice them). Well, the first child followed the heart shape, just like the model. Then the next child, Marie, asked if her heart could be made out of two pipe cleaners of two different colors. Of course! She cut them herself and figured out how to create the heart out of two versus one, and was very pleased with the result. Josephine followed Marie's example and made a bicolored heart, and then Lucas asked if he could use three colors. Of course! He made a red, white, and blue pole with a small heart on top in honor of Inauguration Day. In the following days children formed their pipe cleaners into the first letters of their names, double hearts suspended from each other, and the shape of the cross. I’m so glad they made the project their own and were able to see beyond the model.

This turned out to be a wonderfully simple and successful science/art project. We boiled water, and for every cup of water we added three tablespoons of Borax. Borax is commercially sold as a "laundry booster" type of detergent, but basically borax (with a lower case b) is sodium borate (check out Wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax ). The kids formed their pipecleaners into whatever shape they wanted, and then we suspended the shapes in the solution using a string. Within a few hours we could see crystals beginning to form, and then in about 6 to 8 hours, the pipecleaners, along with the bottoms and sides of the container, were completely covered in crystals. For complete instructions, check out:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/winter/crystalsnowflake/

Pollock Painting and Hot Glitter Glue

This morning Dylan and Josephine painted a sculpture which Josephine had made days before. They used the Pollock drip method. Here is Dylan using a dropper to add purple paint. Did you know that Pollock sometimes even used a turkey baster to drip his paint?

Again, in the spirit of Pollock, Josephine began to make her drips from high above, holding the brush and squeezing it while standing.

And here is the completed Pollock Village:

In the afternoon, we tried out a newly acquired art supply . . . hot glitter glue!

Eden:

Josephine:

Katie:

Eden and Georgia:

And while the girls worked on crafts indoors, the boys enjoyed the sandbox outside. Here are Holger, Ryan, and Jack:

Painting

Before I begin talking about the day, I must first say . . . I am caught up!!! I just spent the last 6 hours writing three weeks worth of blog entries, and this is the last one!!!

Okay, now for the day . . . . I unfurled quite a lot of butcher paper and took out the big paint cups and large brushes.

Lucas (a sweet pose, eh? . . . I think the scowling is over--until he reads this, that is)

Holger

Josephine

Jack and Iain digging in the dirt

And Sven took the day off work and started the base coat of the playhouse. No, it won't be Frankenstein green. Eventually it will be faluröd, the traditional color of Swedish houses (and American barns)--sort of a deep red.

New Feature . . . Labels

I've added a new feature this weekend to the blog . . . LABELS. At the end of each entry, you will see the word LABELS, followed by names. If you click on a name, you will get every blog entry containing that person. I'm putting all the labels at the end of this blog entry so that you can give it a try.

Walk-A-Thon

Today was the annual Walk-A-Thon at Josephine's school. I met up with Josephine and Eden after school, and they had each already walked about 10 laps. I joined them on the track and we spent the rest of the afternoon (and early evening!) walking.

Every 5 laps, the kids would earn a prize. Once they hit about 25 laps, they were eligible to have their hair sprayed with colored spray. They loved it. Here is Eden getting some color . . .

. . . and Georgia . . .

. . . and Josephine!

Here Josephine meets up with some of her friends and classmates . . .

. . . and they pose for a group shot: Josephine, Orianna, Claire, and Georgia.

Josephine and Eden both ended up walking until the very end, 6 p.m. (and they'd started some time around 2 p.m.!!!). Josephine completed 50 laps, while Eden did 52. They were absolutely fantastic!!!

Full House

Today we had a very busy cap to a very busy week. This week was "parent-teacher conference week" at school, and the kids got out every day around noon. The kids loved the longer afternoons full of long periods of play. Here they are today playing "family" and going on an airplane ride. They have the kitchen chairs lined up in rows and under the chairs you can see the packed luggage.

And for the first time today, we reached our maximum capacity! My license allows for 6-8 kids (8 requires a bunch of signed papers, which I've been working on). So today we had 8 for the very first time ever. They are a very fun bunch. Here we all are:

top row: Orianna, Josephine, Georgia, Jack, Eden, Marie

bottom row: Iain, Gabriel, and me--Rachel!

Snacktime and Tinfoil People

Before I could get the snack on the table, the girls were busy drawing, so snacktime doubled up as art time as well. Here are Eden, Georgia, and Iain . . .

. . . and on the other side, Jack, Josephine, and Eden (again).

Later in the afternoon we made people out of tinfoil. At a training session for Josephine's school, I had done this, and the kids had been wondering about my "tinfoil girl" sitting up on the shelf, so we decided to try it out. They were GREAT at it. Here is Josephine and her creation:

And Georgia made a person as well:

And here is Eden, intent on forming her person:

Jack simply enjoyed cutting tinfoil with scissors.

Here's everyone working together with Jack and his grandmother in the background:

Josephine continued working on her person, adding little pieces here and there.