DIY Penguin Board Game

I have had the pleasure of guest posting again over at the Safari Ltd. blog and this time I'm sharing this super simple (and very fun!) DIY Penguin Board Game. You can really adapt this to focus on learning a variety of things, or you can play just for fun! 

Just click the link for more details and ways to play! 

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Arctic Sensory Bin

We recently created an arctic sensory bin to go along with our polar unit studies this month. We had a lot of fun creating the bin, and even more fun exploring in it. 

R is five (soon to be six!) and he still adores sensory bins. I love sensory bins because they are essentially open ended play prompts with lots of learning thrown in. 

You can see his delight at finding the arctic hare, that was cleverly camouflaged in the snow!

You can find the details about this arctic bin, as well as a few ideas for guided learning, over at the Safari Ltd. blog. 

And don't forget! You have an opportunity to win the Arctic TOOB and a few other fantastic prizes tonight (1/22/13) at the Safari Ltd. Winter Twitter party! The party starts at 9pm EST. Follow the hashtag #educationalplay and your hosts @ChildhoodBeckon and @SafariLtd. Can't wait to chat tonight!

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Kiwi Crate Review and Giveaway!

I was recently asked to review the December Antarctic Adventure Crate from Kiwi Crate and I jumped at the chance! I'm excited to share our opinion of this fantastic company, and I'm thrilled to give Childhood Beckons readers a chance to win a crate of their own!

The Review:

What is a Kiwi Crate? 

Kiwi Crate is a monthly subscription service that delivers everything you need for several hands-on activities. They are designed by parents, reviewed by experts and tested by kids! The activities are fun and perfect for kids aged 3-7.

I love that each craft comes with it's own booklet. On the front of the booklet you will find a key that rates the messiness factor and parental involvement, as well as shares what skills will be practiced. The booklet also contains instructions for the craft, fun "things to think about" and another section called "material fun." The "things to think about" section shares some great little facts while the "material fun" gives you even more activity ideas. 

This crate also came with an "explore more" booklet that shares a wealth of other resources. The booklet illustrates three ice activities, but also provides a link for even more online resources. This is a fantastic little unit study and I love having so many ideas ready-made and at our fingertips! 

R loves getting mail, so he was ecstatic when this crate arrived addressed to him! The packaging itself is such a special and thoughtful touch. A monthly Kiwi Crate subscription would be like receiving a monthly gift full of crafty goodness.

And that's just what R thought. I must apologize for the lack of pictures with perfectly laid out {unused} contents. I don't have any, because R tore through that package eager to look at everything and excited to get started. It was like Christmas morning! I'm being honest when I say that I cannot count the times he exclaimed over something and thanked me for the box. I remembered to snap the pic after many fun games of penguin bowling.

Oh, the penguins! This was such a fun activity. All of the materials were high quality and fun to work with. R had fun decorating his penguins with stickers and drawing on added details. He had a great time thinking of unique expressions for each of his penguins and giggled at his creations. After each one had a name and personality of its own, we assembled them into the bowling game. 

The next activity was a painting activity to capture the southern lights. It came with oil pastels and water colors which are always a hit with R. Oil pastels are a favorite art material and R can never get enough watercolors! He ended up painting even more after he was finished with his postcards.

The Giveaway:

Do you want to win a crate of your own? Kiwi Crate has generously offered to give one Childhood Beckons reader a crate of their choice! If you win, you can pick either the Antarctic crate, featured here, or one of their special holiday themed crates. 

Mandatory Entry: Visit the Kiwi Crate website and decide which crate you'd pick if you win {One of the four mentioned}. Answer the question in the Rafflecopter box below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Disclosure- This is a sponsored post, but the views and opinions expressed are my own and were not swayed by monetary compensation or free product. I will only feature products and companies I can stand behind, and I truly love Kiwi Crate. I love that the subscription service is a gift that keeps giving!}

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Snowman Art Using Salt

R made a snowman picture using salt for a nice snowy effect. It's easy and fun and the end result is really neat.

What You Need

Blue card stock (We used construction paper because I could not find my card stock. Construction paper was okay, but after it was all dry it had a halo effect around the snowman from bleeding.)
Glue
Salt
Misc. craft items to add (We used sequins, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners.)
Crayons, markers, or other art materials to add details

What You Do

Have your child draw a line across the bottom of the paper with glue. Then ask your child to draw an outline of a snowman on top of the snowy ground. Fill in the outline of the snowman and the ground with glue. R also wanted to go back and add falling snow. Drawing with glue is great for strengthening hands!

Then they can add craft items of their choice to create a face and other details for their snowman.

After those details are added, pour on the salt! I poured some salt into a small cup and R switched between sprinkling and dumping the salt on the page. Make sure all the glue is covered with the salt. Pick up the page and allow the extra salt to fall off. Lay flat to dry.

R drew pictures in the excess salt as I made lunch. Yay for leftover entertainment value! Here's the picture he drew for me. He's a sweetie.

After it dries some you can go back and draw on further details like a hat and arms. R insisted that his looked great just the way he was, so he left it alone. Drying time will vary greatly depending on how much glue was used. And again, I recommend card stock over construction paper for this project. The construction paper bled a bit and it left a white shadow effect around the snowman, but I've used card stock for this project without problems in the past.

And that's it! The end result really looks snowy. R was very impressed that he could make a snowy picture with salt.

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Play Dough Snowmen

It has been terribly cold in Alabama the last several days. It's a cold that we are not accustomed to in this mild winter we are having. And it's a cold that is without snow. What's the fun in that? So this week we've made our own snow fun in various ways.

The first activity was a big hit with R. We made snowmen out of play dough and various crafting supplies. R had so much fun designing his snowman over and over again. 

Behind The Scenes:

I wanted to surprise R with some new winter themed play dough and I made a batch of my "go to" play dough. It wasn't white. Ooops. Apparently white flour isn't white enough and it was a dingy yellowish color. Definitely not the snow I want to play in. So then I did some experimenting. And then I did some research and tried other various recipes. I was left with a table full of play dough in various shades of white and various consistencies. And so, I present to you, my personal favorite recipe for snow play dough. 

1 1/2 cups cornstarch

1/2 cup flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cup water

3 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

4 tbsp cream of tartar

Mix all ingredients in a pot and cook on medium heat while stirring. It does eventually turn into a dough while you stir. It differs from the other recipe I use, but it's still just as easy. Once it forms a sticky glob of dough, turn out onto wax paper and let cool. After it cools, knead the dough and add glitter if desired. We used a lot of fine white glitter. It was really pretty in the dough but didn't show up in the picture. 

This was my favorite out of the many I tried, but I still wasn't thrilled with it. It was pretty, soft, and easily molded but the texture was different and it dried out quicker. It was perfect for the activity we had planned, but it is not something I would make for any other reason. I'm just not a fan of using the corn starch, which is needed for the white color. All that being said, R was happy with it and didn't mention the change if he noticed it.

The Fun Part:

When R woke up, I had the best batch of play dough out on the table with a bunch of craft supplies. I had scissors, sequins, pipe cleaners, ribbons, googly eyes, gems, and other miscellaneous bits. He had a blast making and remaking his snowman. The possible combinations are many and he loved switching everything around.

 For his favorite he figured out how to give the snowman hands and how to make a top hat out of pipe cleaners. He carefully chose the colors for each item. He used googly eyes for buttons, a ribbon for a scarf, and another pipe cleaner for his nose. He used sequins for the face and took great delight in the snowman's round mouth. 

Play dough snowmen were a happy and entertaining success! Even with the work of making several batches of dough, it was worth it because it provided entertainment for quite some time. But if you'd like to take my word on the recipe, you could easily get all of this creative fun for around 10 minutes of prep time. 

What materials would you provide for building snowmen?

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We had a white Christmas!

We had a very merry Christmas and it was a white one!  It was the first white Christmas of this area in a really long time.  The first one I had ever seen.  I woke R up and told him it was Christmas and then I opened the blinds.  He gasped and said, "Wow! It *is* Christmas!" 

On Christmas Eve we got ready for Santa's visit.  R had just come back from visiting with his nana and he hadn't napped.  He was in a very difficult mood, but we managed to do everything I had planned without too much trouble.  We hung our stockings, made food for the reindeer, and left cookies and milk out for Santa.  R wanted to leave him chocolate milk and he was very enthusiastic about it.  He told me over and over again that Santa liked chocolate milk like him.

R making food for Santa's reindeer.

Here he is looking very enthusiastic about having his picture taken.

That night was a rough night for him.  He was up several times with leg aches.  I'd have to come in and lay with him and rub his legs until he fell back asleep.  It was a very late night for me.  I finally got my shower and went to bed around 6:30 am.  I was up wrapping presents, decorating with snowflakes, and enjoying Santa's snack.  Luckily, Kevin put together R's big present.  It didn't take him too long, but I would have had to start days ago.

When R wrote his letter to Santa he specifically asked for the Creepy Crawler Bug maker, a ZhuZhu Pet, and some more paint stuff.  He was really excited to see that Santa had brought him the three things he asked for.  Along with the toys, he got an easel and an easel starter kit.  It didn't take him as long to open his gifts as it has in previous years.  He still wanted to play with each gift as it was opened though.  After he got finished opening all the gifts under the tree, it was time to show him his big present.  I was ridiculously excited about this.  We bought him a train table and we set it up in his playroom late on Christmas Eve.  He had no idea.  I told him that it was time to bring some of his new toys and put them away.  I left with my camera to hide in the room while he and Kevin gathered a few things.  He opened the door and was shocked. He gasped and squeeled and ran to it. 

But probably the most fun we had that day was playing in the beautiful snow.  It was so fluffy and nice.  We made a snowman, we ran and played, and we sledded!  R's giggles were heard constantly.

Now we've just been hanging around the house, playing, and being lazy.  I'm glad things are slowing down.  I was just thinking though, that before I know it, Christmas will be here again.  Time flies by at an alarming speed. 

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Winter Sensory Box

One of R's favorite activities is playing with sensory bins. He loves them! So I wanted to share the festive winter sensory bin I made him. You can make one too! I used a few craft supplies and items we had on hand from previous winters.

The "snow" is a cotton batting material that I had on hand. You could also use cotton balls, but I just used what I already had. I added blue and clear gems and some white beads to the snow.

The red house was a quick little craft I did last year as well. I cut the top off of an orange juice carton. I painted it red, added red glitter glue, and glued cotton on the roof for snow. The pour spout is the chimney.

 I bought the Santa and the little fur trees at the dollar store last year. I have pom poms randomly hidden in the snow and he uses them as ornaments for the trees. They stick to the needles of the little fake trees and stay nicely. He decorates them over and over.  I also added some toys that he already plays with.  The baby polar bear, puffin and the icy fish are all toys he plays with throughout the year. I also threw in some paper snowflakes, bells, a pine cone, some fake holly, a bow, and a little present ornament.

Last year I really wanted a reindeer for his box, but I could never find one that would be right. This year I finally remembered that you can make basically anything with pipe cleaners! I Googled "pipe cleaner reindeer craft" to get a general idea and Martha Stewart had the example. I didn't follow the instructions exactly. I'm pretty sure hers would have been grander, but I liked how mine turned out.

When R woke up, I showed him his box. He was surprised to see it and he was absolutely delighted. He kept calling it his "surprise winter wonderland" and he thanked me repeatedly. The rest of the day he kept doing little things to surprise me too.

What would you add to your winter sensory bin? Please let me know in the comments!

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Shaving Cream Snowscape!

We don't get a lot of winter weather here in Alabama so I thought I'd set up an activity to let R pretend to play in the snow. This shaving cream snowscape was even more fun than it was messy. If you could imagine!

I started off by asking R to pick out a few toys he'd like to play with in snow. While he was in the next room, I made a snowscape using shaving cream in a shallow bin.  He had no idea what I was planning.

When he came back, I think he was intrigued but a little hesitant and not fully excited. He doesn't typically like mess. He still loved this. After touching the shaving cream and getting the feel for it, we started adding in his toys. He picked out some trees, dinosaurs, lizards, bugs, a cat, and some robot bad guys.

Soon after this picture I realized that the bin on top of the table wasn't the right height for him. So he sat on top of the table and played the rest of the time. We listened to Christmas music and played in the snow. Squeels of delight were heard often.

The last picture was obviously taken in messy splendor. He was saying "messy is fuuunnnn!" I'm really glad he enjoyed it so much. In spite of his appearance, he really didn't make a big mess outside of the bin. Sometimes, when R laughs really hard, he puts his hands to his face. There were several times that he was laughing and did this without thinking. Then he'd realized what he'd done and laugh harder.

When it was time to get cleaned up, his daddy wiped the majority of the mess off of him. While he was doing that, I sprayed the shaving cream off of the bin and his toys in the bathtub. Then I ran a bubble bath for him and we played some more. The mess wasn't so bad that I wouldn't want to do this again. In fact, I'm sure we'll do this again next year. Maybe even again this winter season. It was such a big hit.

Do you have any creative uses for shaving cream?

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On your mark, get set, go!

We have had some horrid weather lately. Weather that we are just not accustomed to. R and I have been spending way more time indoors and its already taking its toll. Winter hasn't even officially started yet! I definately want to be able to mix things up this winter and stay active, even if we have to stay indoors. I was brainstorming last night and a wonderful idea came to me. I was so excited that we tried it out right after breakfast.

R has been really interested in measuring things. He wants to measure everything.. the bed rail, his hand, his candy cane.  The list goes on. So I thought I'd show him something else to measure while burning off some energy. I had him race himself! We brought out his tricycle and my stopwatch. We put his helmet on for safety. After all, this was a race with high speeds and tight turns. He had to ride his tricycle, as fast as he could, through the dining room and around the kitchen island, crossing the finish line into the living room. He loved it. We looked at his first time and then he set out to beat it. Afterwards he wanted to run the course. Then he tried to beat that time. Next, he hopped the course like a bunny. He timed me. We had slow races too. It was an active, fun morning that didnt involve the cold. He even stayed in his pajamas.

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