Diaper Box Play Kitchen

Two years ago it was Builder Boy who was the one very interested in "cooking" and play food. So one day I used paper to turn a diaper box from Sam's into a play kitchen. It took maybe 30 minutes and he was thrilled. I made it look like our kitchen. All the paper was cosmetic, there were no "working" knobs. The paper was cheap construction paper that I glued/taped on. The top was laminated with clear packaging tape (I didn't know about contact paper at the time) to make it last longer.

It was perfect. He loved it. Then his friend who is a girl came to play and asked "where's the sink?" So that night I spent two hours making a sink. That barely got used by Builder Boy. But I wanted it to be a complete kitchen, so I made it.










I cut a hole in the box and attached a recessed box (we have a rectangular metal sink, so that was perfect) that I painted gray. The faucet was a prescription diaper cream box that I cut and then taped at an angle.

I am posting this for those who would like to make a play kitchen for their young children who do not have the time or money to make a wooden one.

Homemade Play Kitchen, Part 1

Shelves (left,) sink and stove (middle,) and refrigerator (right.)

Guess who's making a Pinterest inspired play kitchen for Christmas?! My friend gave me the idea, Pinterest is giving me the details, and I already had these in the closet being under-utilized.

Mini Marshmallow Shooter

We had to cancel Builder Boy's birthday party this weekend due to his cold. It was just a few days before Thanksgiving so we decided to do his birthday activities then. One of the things I had planned was a cool mini marshmallow blow gun for the guests to put together and have fun with. I got the idea from Pinterest (here's the pin.) It was originally posted on the Filth Wizardry blog. (Check out her neat blog!)


What you need (for each kit)

1/2 in PVC pipe in 3 in, 4 in, and 5 in lenghts
an extender fitting for a mouth piece
a T-junction
an end cap

a bag of mini marshmallows
stickers for personalization

Filth Wizardry has an instruction sheet you can print out that also include rules of engagement. She also included cheap swimming eye goggles and a paper plate shield for extra safety.

Party Favor Kit

I got the pipe for $1.65/10 feet. Each "gun" needs only 1 foot, so it cost $0.17/blow gun. The T junction I bought in at about $0.20 for each piece and the extender in a bag for about $0.15 a piece. The end cap was around $0.30. Walmart had bags of mini marshmallows for $1.00, and I got the stickers at the dollar store. So the whole things cost about $1/kit.

We purchased a ratcheting pvc pipe cutter and it was definitely worth the $12. I also purchased a bunch of pipe for Builder Boy's building kit birthday present, so we needed it for that, too. I've been researching this project for about 8 months now. Everyone who wrote about it said that trying to cut it with a saw was an awful experience that left a jagged edge. The pipe cutter was easy and smooth, and it took us less than 6 minutes to measure and cut all the pieces for 10 kits.

I put the pieces in the dishwasher and sterilized them since we were going to put our mouths on them.

Target Board

I made a target out of poster board, and sorted colored marshmallows so that teams could keep score if they wanted to. I taped plastic bags behind the holes for easier cleaning. Also, Early Bird had a lot of fun making the ammunition "disappear."



This was so much fun! Our family had a blast with these! We were cracking up and having a wonderful time. The adults started aiming at each others' mouths which was really funny. Luckily, all the adults were wearing glasses. I think this just became a new family Thanksgiving tradition.

Target Practice at Nana and Apa's House

Sniper Daddy

Color Lab

Today was an Art Day! Thanks to a recommendation from the Teaching My Baby to Read blog I bought 123 I Can Paint! on Amazon.com. It has 6 painting activities to teach kids simple color concepts and painting techniques. The first activity is "Mix It Up" that makes an ocean scene and teaches mixing red, yellow, and blue to make orange, green, and purple.

Here's how they turned out:

Builder Boy's Ocean Painting

Early Bird's Painting (updated with orange fish)

My Picture (the yellow and the red were suppose to blend with the blue)

Builder Boy already knows what primary colors mix to make what secondary colors, but he had fun doing it anyway. Early Bird knows his main colors, but this was the first time talking about mixing some colors to make others. So while we were waiting for the paint to dry we did "Color Lab" which is something I had done with Builder Boy before, but it had been a while.






I put water in some small glass jars and put food coloring drops in each, making red, yellow, and blue water. Then I gave the kids larger jars for them to combine the "starting colors" in. Builder Boy knows they are called "primary colors," but so Early Bird could understand I also called them the "starting colors." That came in handy when he tried to mix different colors to "make yellow." It also helped having the primary/starting colors in the small jars and having them pour into the larger jars so that the secondary/mixed colors were "bigger." After we covered all the color combinations I let them play and mix with new water for a while. Early Bird was very excited about making brown, and he kept trying to add yellow to orange to make it.

Once we had cleaned up I put on the Blue's Clues episode about mixing colors (Season 5, Episode 2.) Builder Boy already had all the colors on it memorized, but it was still good review for him. Early Bird had watched it before, but I don't think he understood the mixing concept until today. The Blue's Clues episode also goes over the tertiary colors. It calls red-orange vermilion, yellow-orange marigold, yellow-green chartreuse (which was Builder Boy's favorite color for a long time after seeing that episode for the first time, and don't you mistake it for green!) blue-green aqua-marine, blue-purple violet, and red-purple magenta. However you can't really make them with colored water, as the distinction really isn't there.

Added later: Another way to mix primary colors into secondary colors: Koolaid ice cubes in Sprite! 
_________________________________________________________________________________ Be aware that this is a thin book, only 6 lessons and 22 pages. I didn't pay attention so I was surprised when it arrived in the mail, but I still think it's worth the $5.95 (if it's part of a free-shipping order.)


For older children, Jenny over at Teaching My Baby to Read did an awesome color Osmosis Experiment that can also be used to teach mixing colors.

Make an Ancient Egyptian Wig

Materials you need:

• strip of paper
• black yarn (book recommends two 2-ounce balls but I think I used less)
• black cloth
• a strip of felt long enough to go around the kid's head with a little extra
• a piece of cardboard about the size of a piece of paper
• chalk
• white glue (I used Tacky Glue. I tried fabric glue but that did not work.)
• needle threaded with black yarn (optional)

1. Use a paper strip to measure your kid's head an mark a space for his head, then cut a strip of fabric with a little bit to lap over.
2. Cut a piece of cardboard (mine was 7.25 X 13 inches.)
3. Tape the end of the yarn to the cardboard and wrap the yarn around the cardboard until you get to the end. (Try not to wrap it too tight.)
4. Cut the yarn on along the bottom of the cardboard.
5. Glue the yarn along the strip of fabric.

   6. Let it dry, check that it fits, then glue it together.
   7. Put a piece of black fabric on the top of your kid's head and put the band of fabric around it.
   8. Trace the area with chalk, then cut it out leaving 3/4 inches of material around the edge.
   9. Put glue around the edge of the fabric and add strands of yarn on top. Cut off the extra around the edge. (The fabric will be in an oval shape. I put the rows of yarn with the ends on the short side when I should have put them the other way.)
   (Optional: the book suggests to make a part to sew a line of yarn stitches down the center of the top.)

(Before trimming the edge)

   10. Glue it all together. Trim the ends of the wig to make it straight and you're done!

 
Total time: around 45 minutes (for me anyway,) not including glue-drying time. If you have a kid who's good at or enjoys crafts and is older than 6 years old I would definitely have them help you. 


I tried putting glue on the fabric and putting the yarn, still on the cardboard, directly on it before cutting, hoping that it would stick and be easier and faster. That did not work. What you're suppose to do is cut the yarn on one of the long sides of the cardboard and glue the strands on doubled over. I had to untangle the yarn from the first way I tried to do it, so it took a bit longer than the right way will.

The gluing together part at the end is a bit precarious, and may require additional gluing and cutting before it's on all the way. Also, I got glue in Builder Boy's hair, so be aware of that, too.

The wig in the book of course looks better and fuller than mine. If I'd known about this before I probably would have sewn it together and added a second layer of yarn.
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(Craft Topics) Egyptians: Facts*Things To Make*Activities by Rachel Wright (Out of print/not available on Amazon.com. ISBN 0-531-14209-4 The inside has the Dewy number as 932.01 but my library had it at 745.592)

Purple School Bus Mini-Van

(The white square is a sign on the outside of the other side of the van.)

Builder Boy really wants to ride in a school bus. He has sat in one at the kids' expo, and he's ridden a county bus, but it's not quite enough. When we had to replace our car, he begged for a school bus. We got a used mini-van, which is pretty close. So that he could feel like it was a school bus I sat down with him and we made a Home School Bus sign. I let him decorate it with shapes and stickers, whatever he wanted. Then I laminated it with clear contact paper and we taped it in the window (I actually moved the sign to the back driver side window.) The contact paper has bubbled a bit in the heat, and it's only up when we (usually Principal Daddy has it) have the car, but it's a lot of fun. The kids call our van the Purple School Bus Mini-Van (it's a very light purple-gray.)

Builder Boy's Zoo Mural

Aka: What to do with Kumon coloring workbook pages.

Builder Boy is not a fan when it comes to coloring. He likes drawing well enough, though his drawings, like many kids' his age, require explanation. But he hates coloring, especially staying in the lines and covering the entire area. I've tried various dollar store coloring books, and even a nice color-by-number book. He had to be bribed to do even one page, and he wanted me to do half of the colors. I know a lot of people will wonder "what's the big deal? Why push it?" But this is something that is important to Principal Daddy, something he worries about. So I'm trying to encourage Builder Boy to try. I ordered a few Kumon workbooks to try them out. The first coloring workbook they had seemed too babyish and easy for him but the My Book of Coloring: At the Zoo looked like fun. They have beautiful pictures of animals with, in the beginning, a circle area that needs to be fully colored in with just one color. Builder Boy was not very impressed. I got him to do two pages, and that was it. I cut the pictures out, but I don't remember what I did with them. So I put it away and we didn't try coloring for a while.


I re-discovered the workbook and tried again. This time he was less resistant. I praised his pictures and he asked if we could put them up on the wall (I have their drawings all over the house.) I said "sure!" and asked him where he wanted to put it. He thought about it, walked around the house, and decided he wanted them up in his room. A wonderful idea was born. He had colored in four pictures and we put them together on the wall. He noticed it looked like a zoo and became very excited about the idea of adding more animals and expanding his zoo. He wanted to show Principal Daddy immediate when he got home.







Now he has fun finishing pictures (though he still need coaxing to start sometimes.) We're building a zoo mural in the boy's room and he's progressed in the book to smaller and more precise areas. We do two to four animals at a time depending on how many he wants to do. He chooses where to place them, and I help with the too high spots. I can hardly wait until the whole thing is done. We're only half way through. It's going to be huge!

And to top it off, today when we put up new animals Builder Boy said "lets make observations like scientists!" So we made observations and comparisons about the animals on the wall.
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(I don't get paid for reviews.) Click here to see how it looked finished!

Homeschooling as a Home Decorating Choice

I was going through my old threads on the Well Trained Mind Forum (awesome homeschooling forum) and I came across the pictures of the wall stickers I put up last year (they're still there.)

I put the letters going up the stairs in alphabetical order. This happened around the same time Early Bird was learning his letters and sounds (he knew them all by 26 months) and Builder Boy and he had a lot of fun going up and down the stairs singing the alphabet song. They are the RoomMates Alphabet Peel and Stick Wall Decals. They are re-stickable, can be cleaned and then put back on, relatively durable, and don't take the paint off.

All on his own, for fun, when we got the stickers Builder Boy got out his magnetic letters and matched them up to the letters on the wall. Our rail is magnetic so it worked really well.

At the same time I also got the RoomMates Outer Space Peel & Stick Wall Decals as an incentive to get Builder Boy to go up the ladder on his (then) new bunk bed. He was really into rocket ships and this one came with a lot of them. It also had enough asteroids to make an asteroid belt. Not all of the other brands did (that I saw.) The planets are a really good sized. The sun is bigger than my hand! And the boys had a lot of fun learning the names of the planets and matching the name to the planet sticker.

 

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(I don't get paid for reviews.)

Homemade Lab Coats

I wanted the kids to really feel like scientists. So I made them lab coats! I bought two white, long sleeve, button up men's shirts at the thrift store for $3/each and a short sleeve one for Early Bird that did not need any sleeve alteration.

Next I put the shirts on the two older kids and marked where on the sleeve I needed to cut them to make them fit. I cut off the cuff very carefully and put Fray Check on the cut edges. Next I cut the sleeves at the marked part and turned up the edge and loosely hemmed it. I turned the cut edge to the outside so that it wouldn't tickle the kids' wrists. I had originally planned on using interfacing strips (is that the right name?) that I bought so that the project would be quick and easy. But I lost it. So I had to hand sew since I don't have a working sewing machine. After I had hemmed it I stitched it loosely and gathered it. Then I sewed on the cuff so that the gathered edge did not show. Lastly I used puffy fabric paint and pained "Dr. Warde" on the boys' lab coats and "Dr. George" on George's coat. (I asked my friend and the George nickname started with her grandpa when she was a baby.)

Here they are! They are really long; probably longer than a real lab coat. If I ever find that interfacing tape I might shorten them in the future. But right now I'm just glad they're done. I'd say it took me less than an hour per coat hand sewing it, but I can't be certain because of all the times I was interrupted. But however much time it took it was definitely worth it!