Mixed Media Newspaper Art

We love exploring various surfaced to paint other than paper sheets. We have tried painting on cardboard box and last year calenders and some boxes. This time we used newspapers to paint on.
We started with our art in the evening. I spread the two or three layers of newspaper over each other. so that they do not get too soaked with the colors.
We used- rollers, tempera paints, sponges, glue- the most favorite of M, magazines, big brushes and other tidbits like sequins and buttons( M didn't use them in this project. )
Here are some pictures from the night of the painting. Its fun to see a masterpiece created from a scratch.

Starting out with glue.

Adding colors with rollers and paint brushes

Sticking magazine cutouts on the glue patternas

we are almost finished! good night time

 Next morning I took some dried pictures of the Mixed Media Newspaper art. I think my little girl did quite well. what do you think?

How beautiful it turned out the next morning

some collage detailing

Keep experimenting!
Mansi

10 Tips for raising a fruit lover

Are you looking for innovative ways to raise a fruit lover? Then this is a perfect list for you. My family is a fruit lover. M loves to try all kind of fruit and it's her favorite in-between-the-meals snack. She is Three and has gone through several picky eating phases already and yet she still maintains her liking for fruits.This post will inspire you to use fruits in activities, learning and innovative recipes. Also, some of my tips for raising a fruit lover.

What I love most about the fruit related activities is that- The kids end up eating the fruits in the end! There can't be any other fun way to add nutritive value to play. In this post real blogger moms share their tips and tricks to make kids love eating fruit , learn and have fun along the way.

1# Start young
 As soon as we got a go ahead for starting semi-solids by our pediatric, We started with all kind of fruit that can be made into pulp. As opposed to the common practice, we did not use a mixer to mash our food. Small lumps and textures made the fruit interesting for my little one. Her favorite fruit includes mashed bananas, mango, apples, pears etc.

2# Opt for Natural and Seasonal fruits
As a parent, I encourage my daughter to try the food in this most natural form. I try to keep out processed can fruit from my kitchen as far as possible. No baby food and no Gerber fruit jars. Only pure and natural fruits.  Best way to introduce fruits to kids are in their natural form. Frankly, I cannot think of eating a fruit from a jar so I choose not to give those to my daughter. I remember carrying a banana to our tips to beach or the mall when M was about one. It served as a best food option when nothing else was available. She loved the freshly mashed banana and we were relieved as parents.

3#  Eating full fruit
 Biting into a ripe fruit is one of the eating pleasures of childhood. The colors and the flavors are so enticing. I taught M about edible and non edible seeds and she made in a point to spit out the seeds in the cherries or the litchis. She loved biting into a ripe guava and try to eat up a full mango. Let your kids discover the real fruit in real form.This can also include a science lesson about seeds and how plants grow from seeds.


4# Fruit Display
Attract kids to try put new fruits by creating attractive display on the dining table. I do a Berry display with all kids of berries like strawberries, raspberry, grapes, gooseberry. It looks irresistible and M has to finish it all.


5# Make fruit salad together
CreativeFamilyfun shares a  fun way to cook with kids. The simplest and most satisfying Fruit salad.

6# Make Innovative Recipes with fruit
A colorful and sweet alternative to junk food.  I love these wonderful recipes by fellow mom blogs-
The Spinach Icecream by Mamasmiles.com
The Strawberry and Creams, Fruit Popsicle and Strawberry and cream Popsicle by WordPlayHouse.com
Muffin Tin Saint Patrick Treat by Jdaniel4mom.com

7#  Crafting with fruits
Here is a wonderful craft of Making fruit mobile by AMomwithalessonplan.com.


8# Learning geometry with fruits
Crafttoart.com share a great way of learning geometry with grapes.

9# Math activity with fruits
Ever heard about Cocktail Maths? You can read all about Learning maths with fruit cocktail at Nurturestore.co.uk

10# Book Reading with fruits
And how about reading a book with the fruits. Here are some interesting book related fruit activities-
Little hands to cook with books by educatorsspinonit.blogspot.com
Making a Tickly Octopus by crafttoart.com
Making a Crown and Ice cream fruit salad while reading The Ice cream King Book by Crafttoart.com

Making an anytime Water Wall in the Bathroom

I had been planning to make a water wall for M for a long time. It loves so much fun for kids and adults alike. Water wall is maze of the tubes/bottles and pipes for playing with water similar to the marble run . Our water wall was made in a jiffy. I just browsed through my store and found few pipes which I didn't even remember saving. I collected other disjointed items-
Funnels
Pipes
Yogurt container
Duct Tape
Some parts of the marble run pipes.
Kids play Saucer
You can also use- used water bottles and various recycled materials around the house.

If you follow my blog, I had mentioned in my earlier posts that I live in a apartment on the seventh floor. So certainly I don't have backyard to create water wall. So My Water wall was created in the bathroom. I taped the ends of the funnel and the pipes together. Next was taping the pipes to the wall. Now the duct tape can hold the pipes for an hour or so as it gets all wet and it starts to lose its stickiness. But I assure you that its so much fun to rebuilt it and add newer twist to the wall. Initially I did thought about using the suction hooks to hold everything or a pegboard or a grill of some kind. Before I could try my of those. I impulsively decided on using the duct tape. I have already rebuild the water wall twice!

For one of the versions of my water wall. The pipes are placed so that the water falls in steps from one funnel to another funnel and finally fills up the saucer which in turns spill the water in the yoghurt container. Now I asked M to use different container to see which one will get filled first. The Amount of water each will get will depend on the quantity of water she puts in at the start and also the speed with which it falls thought the maze.
I would highly recommend you try this with your kids if not in the backyard, The bathroom is the ideal place to start building one.

Earth day is tomorrow( Apr 22) and our water wall is one of the recycled project that we did to celebrate Earth Day. We also did some experiment to learn more about our planet earth.
You can read all about it here.

How are you celebrating earth day?

Please leave your comment in the post below and let us know about your great ideas about celebrating earth day.

Using Story books as Art Inspiration

We are lucky to have some beautifully illustrated books at home. One of M's favorite book is "Who took my strawberries?". Its a book about a selfish farmer who is too greedy to share any of his strawberries with the birds or the children of his village. But when his crop of strawberries accidentally finds its way into the mouths of the animals, birds, and people of the community, he discovers that sharing can be a lot of fun.

 

The author and illustrator is Arlina Cavo, a french artist born in Geneva, Italy, in 1958. She studied painting in Milan. Some of her works can be found here.

The story setting is in the farm land, a village and surrounding forests. I loved the flow of colors and the transparency of the water colors bringing various shades to the illustrations. The flowers and fauna are made with little brush strokes. The detailing of the little bushes is simply beautiful. The trees in the background looks shady and flowing with the wind. It made me want to draw with some wet paint brushes and water color.

Little elements from the illustrations

The strawberry and the farm by M

So M and I turned the pages and I spoke to her about beautiful elements in the illustration. We drew them on a piece of paper using water colors. M is three and can't actually draw from still life. But she used this medium to translate her thoughts while drawing. What I loved about this activity is-

1) Bonding over the painting- Both of us could participate in our own way. I drew the elements and she loved dipping her brush into water and then the water color slabs, mixing colors. She drew the strawberry farm, plants, ocean and the sun.

2) Expression: She learned to express her thoughts through drawing. When she discovered the transparency of the water color medium. She wanted to draw a fish. A toadstool and the turtle hiding from everyone.

A fish colored by M

3) Transparency and color mixing- Water color medium allows kids to mix colors in layer. The gradual transition and mixing of color as oppose to mixing thick tempera paint and creating a blob of new color, it introduces them to shading, light/dark shades, transparency, detailing  and so many things at the same time.

Who need art books when a story book can bring in the inspiration and gives you an opportunity of introducing new art medium to kids. Another positive point in drawing inspiration of book illustration is that kids can associate and express themselves in a better way as the story books are very close to their heart and minds.

7 Tips for Using Story Books as Art inspiration

1# Reading together- Read Stories and create an interactive environment while doing it. Read my post about making reading fun.
2# Introduce them to new art mediums- Try different colors/ mediums/objects and give them a free hand for expressing themselves. Read more ideas at our Art Series.
3# Look for inspiration- Look for beautifully illustrated books for your kids at bookstores or  libraries. Even a magazine or a newspaper can act as inspiration.
4# Bonding with the kids- Participate in the art projects. Kids will love to see you enjoying art. They will learn that art brings enjoyment and pleasure.
5# Art as a Process- Don't be very result oriented. Let them draw and paint from their heart and express themselves.
6# Appreciate Art- Point out things you love about the paintings or illustrations. Ask them about what they like best about them.
7# Art with learning- Art gives us so many opportunity to learn. For example when M was coloring the little fish that you can see above. I told her that "why don't you give some fins to your fish. They will help her swim better" . This teaches her the importance of fins for fishes to swim. You can add several fun facts and learning to introduce new concepts while they are up at art.

The above mentioned ideas have really worked for me. I know the list in not exhaustive, these are only from my experiences with M. Your inspiration is just resting in your book shelf. I hope this post inspires you get up and take another look at your kid's bookshelf.
And now for this weeks Kids Co Op linky. Read more for the great kid friendly ideas from across the globe

A new addition to our Fairy garden

Here is our little addition to our fairy garden. Did I mention M wanted a swing for her fairy garden. I was too happy to oblige.

The Fairy Swing the seat is made from egg carton

From past few weeks, I am working on my Window Sill garden. More pictures to be shared next week. We are recycling egg carton to create small world @ our fairy garden which is also a part of the garden space.

Next on our list in a chair, fences and a slide for our fairies. This is our first attempt at the fairy garden and we are enjoying every step. We stare at the evolving space, enjoy the developments and love to see our plants grow.
You must start your fairy garden with your kids if not started yet. 
Read about our
Window Sill Garden
Small World From Egg Carton

Stay tuned for more ideas coming up next week for recycling material for the garden space. 

Discovering the planet Earth: The Clouds

We are doing a series about discovering the Planet Earth on Experimenting-Mom. I love experiments specially the ones which are impromptu and brings in a lot of learning at the same time.  I had previously explored simple experiments that we can do with our preschoolers to introduce them to nature and discover the planet earth bit by bit.

In this post I am sharing some experiments about discovering the Clouds. Clouds are probably one of the earliest connect of young kids to nature. The babies would look up and point at them. The toddler can notice the black rain clouds and can tell that its about to rain. At the preschooler age( around 3-4 years) they can see an elephant or a ball or other objects in the clouds. Also, here is my little 3 year old learning more about clouds by simple experiments we did today.

I have tried to cover questions like
How the clothes get dry in the sun?
Evaporation: Where does the Water go?
Making the Rain drop.
Why the rainclouds look black?

Part1: How the clothes get dry in the sun?

M loves to go swimming and by mistake, I hadn't dried her swimsuit and it was still wet. As I was putting it out to dry. I started this conversation with her that lead to all some wonderful experiments during the day.

Me: How do you think the swimsuit will dry if we keep it outside?
M: The Sun makes it dry
Me: Ok. Do you think its hot?
M: Yes

We kept the clothes outside to dry. After sometime I made M touch the swimsuit.
Me: Come touch and see, It is a bit hot. Isn't it?
M: Yes. Does it get hot because of the sun?
Me: Yes. You are right.

After an Hour
Me: Look. You swimsuit has dried up.
M: Wow! now I can go swim.
The first lesson we learned- THE SUN IS HOT AND IT DRIES THE WATER.

Part 2: Evaporation. Where does the water go?
For explaining her all about the water vapors, I took out the steamer/ humidifier. I showed her how the water level goes down as the steam rises.
Me: Look. The steamer is also hot like sun. It makes the water go into the air as tiny drops.
M: (Fascinated) Mummy! all water go in the air?
Me: Yes, and they become clouds and when they are filled with lots of water, it rains.
M: (Laughs)

Lesson Learned: THE SUN HEATS THE WATER AND IT GOES UP IN THE AIR AS TINY DROPS.

Part3: Making the raindrop.

We continued our experiment with a glass jar. The steamer can get really hot so caution is required.
I filled the steam into the container. As the steam got filled in the jar. I closed the lid. Tiny drops appeared inside the jar.
Me: Look. The tiny water vapors have become big drops and they are falling down.

M: (Excited)

Later, I opened the lid to show poured the water onto her hand.
Me: Thats the rain water which makes the puddle.
M: I love to jump in the puddle!

Lesson Learned: THE RAINDROP AND HOW IT RAINS.

Part 4: Why the Rain cloud is dark?
I used some cotton for illustrating this to M. We spread some cotton onto a tray.

I asked M to drop some water onto one of the cloud using a dropper. As the cotton cloud get saturated with water, it looks darker than the other fluffy clouds.

Me: See! The rain cloud is looking darker because it is filled with water.
M: (Observing)

Checkout my first post in this series " Discovering the planet Earth" covering subjects like
Planet earth from the space.
Why sky is blue?
The outer space
The mountains and the oceans

I assure you these are very kid friendly experiments and written with preschoolers in mind.  

Tune in for more EARTH DAY ( Apr 22nd) Activities and fun learning on this blog throughout this week. Just a reminder don't forget to check in the EARTH DAY Blog Hop hosted by Mommylabs and Greening Sam and Avery and check out more than 70+ activities for celebrating earth day.                                                               

The Rolling ICE Art

Its Earth Day on Apr 22nd. We are doing simple experiments at home for learning about our planet Earth. In my last post, I had promised a part 2 of the Discovering the Planet Earth series. I could not resist the temptation to share this lovely art project in between.  Its almost like making various views of planet earth and hence it too fits the Earth day theme.
Last time we made some Rolling Egg Art. It is till date the most popular post from my blog.
This time we are making Rolling Ice Art.
Here is what your need-
A filter dish( probably a circular one) You can use a rice strainer or make holes in a Styrofoam plate. Anything which will allow the paint to sip through.

Tempera paints
Ice cubes( let them become a little watery by keeping them outside for some time)


Firstly add tempera paints to the filter dish. We choose the earth theme colors- yellow, violet and green. 
Now Roll the ice cubes in the dish. Lift the dish to find the stunning rolling Ice effect.

 

 

 The Ice moving on the filter actually transfers the colors through the tiny holes onto the paper. The Watery ice mix the colors giving stunning effects. M enjoyed touching and moving the cold ice cube around the filter.

We had beautiful earth from various angles. M also brought some miniature animals to lives on our planet Earth.

Little joys of parenting #3, The awesome questions

I am fascinated by amazing questions that kids ask.
Here are few which my daughter asked recently-

1)  The buzzing bee
She heard some buzzing sound coming out of machine I guess. She prompted " Mummy, Can you hear the honey bees?"
I told her that it's probably a machine. She said " Mummy, it sounds so much like honeybees". Yes smarty pants it does.

2) Putting learning to use
Another of my awestruck moment was at the swimming pool. M was trying to pull her float in the water and releasing it to make it hop in the air. She had actually taken a lesson from our hopping bunny activity, we did the other day.

3) The Sun and The Moon
My dear M didn't wanted to go for her afternoon nap. She said "Mummy, There is no moon outside. Its bright outside". I asked her why its bright outside. She said " Its because of the Sun, It is bright". I asked her "what about moon?". She said " Moon does not give out the light, it just shines".
Excuse me. When did I teach your that? was exactly what I thought at that moment.

These are truly the little joys of parenting!

Earth Day: Discovering our planet Earth.

How do you teach a three year old about our planet earth? That were precisely my thoughts on doing an Earth Day activity at home with a preschooler. April 22nd is celebrated at the earth day and as the theme sets in, there are wonderful blogger from across the world joining in a unique Earth Day blog hop hosted by Mommy Labs and Greening Avery and Sam.

I loved their initiative and it had motivated me to answer the question I started my post with. How to teach my young kid about the importance of this day. I figured out its not that difficult after all.
Thanks to the inborn skill called- Curiosity. I had already written a post about " Facilitating the Naturally Curious Child" in which I have observed the delight and the learning which results from curiosity.

A Small World Made from Egg Carton

 

I have become a big fan of Up cycling lately. These Small world accessories have be made using egg cartons and pipe cleaners for our little fairy garden. The molds of the egg carton ( I call them cones) were cut in the desired shapes. M had colored these with her favorite tempera paints.

The little house is made from joining the base of two cones cut from a egg carton. For the top of the house, just invert the cone. The little fairy can come out by lifting the top. I also added some detailing by adding a little bell on the top of the house.

The mushroom is made by an inverted cone and a small egg carton cone bundled into a rectangular shape for the base. The spot are made from pasting the wasted paper dot from the punch machine. 

The Basket is made from a cone cut from the egg carton and the handle is made from a  green pipe cleaner.

The flower is also cut from the cone and the steam is made from a pipe cleaner.This little Play garden has become an important part of M's imaginative play. Next up is the Swings she wants to setup for her fairies. Which might become my next addition to her play space.

 

 We are Submitting this post for the Tinker Lab Creative challenge hosted by Rachelle @Tinkerlab

Its a Fun creative challenge and this time the theme is Egg carton. We also participated in the last challenge- paper bags in January. We made some Handcrafted bangles and a Play hut from paper bag.

The Weekly Co Op Featuring My favourite Ideas from last week

 Last week at Kids Co Op was a huge hit with 227 cool ideas, activities and art projects for kids. I am Featuring few of my favorites submissions from last week.

Spring is a perfect time for outdoor activities and here is an impressive art project inspired by Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock usually painted nature scenes.
Sunny Day Mama is making Jackson Pollock for Children

Another lovely Idea from Learn with Play about Creating an Underwater Scene. I am being wanting to make an aquarium with my daughter for ages now. This has certainly given me a food for thought.

And Last but not the least, Here is the wonderful Backyard Fish Pond from Graham and Parker Blog. The little fishes is the pond are just so adorable. The loved the underwater plants too.

Thanks for linking up at Kids Co Op last year. Keep the Good Ideas Flowing in with this week's Kids Co OP Linky.
I will also be pinning the featured Ideas on Pinterest. Thanks for the Inspiration. 

Read more for This Week's linky.

The Hopping Easter Bunny

M is a big fan of bunnies. She always ask me to make her finger puppet bunny from pipe cleaners. This Hopping Bunny double up as a finger puppet too. These are really esay to make at home and they hop too!
We made this really cool hopping easter bunnies with pipe cleaners, Styrofoam from a fruit packaging and googly eyes. Here is a detailed tutorial about how to do it.

Wrap a pipe cleaner around a jumbo crayon

These will look like a spring when taken off

Draw a Bunny face on the Styrofoam plate and cut in out with scissors

Put pipe cleaner through the Styrofoam bunny to make a fluffy nose of the bunny. Stick googly eyes

Now hold the bunny from both ends and press the bunny vertically.

Now leave both sides together to see it hop in the air.

After playing with the hopping bunny. It was bedtime and M wanted to take her bunnies to bed with her. We made up a bedtime story with Bunny and made up some silly bunny songs like
HOP! HOP! HOP!
Can you HOP a little HIGHER!
HOP!HOP!HOP!

NIBBLE! NIBBLE!NIBBLE!
NIBBLE the Carrot!
NIBBLE! NIBBLE! NIBBLE!

And the Bunnies are now sleeping with M. The End