Ice chalk

This ranks in my top five kids activities ever (I think; I have a tendency to cram about 12 things into my top five of anything).

But seriously, this was SO much fun.

Let's start from the beginning...just making the ice chalk was a good hour-long activity that covered science (stirring the cornstarch until it dissolved), art (color mixing) and fine motor (mixing/stirring and filling silicone ice molds with an eyedropper). Not to mention good ol' messy fun.

Then we froze them, which led into another good discussion about states of matter and how a liquid becomes a solid.

We had to wait about a week to use the chalk because we took a vacation in the middle (side note: everyone should have friends they've been friends with for over a decade).

The chalk is so interesting to paint with. It feels like ice -- cold, slippery, melty -- but colors like chalk. You can draw with it a bit, or use it as a stamp, make it into puddles, mix colors, etc.

You can even paint your body (both kids quickly discovered this one). 

It dries with a wonderful smooth texture and bright color, so it's rewarding for the kiddos as well, and has a unique sensory component.

I snuck in one last "learning" bit and used our letter molds to spell "chalk." She of course also wanted to make an "E" for Ellie, so we did some talking about how to mix and match to make other words with those letters.

We kept about half our ice chalk in the freezer for another day, and now I'm so glad we did! Ellie already begged to make more.

Our recipe was drawn from a combo of pins all over Pinterest. We found half cornstarch, half water, and liquid watercolor to work the best. The watercolor means it washes right off of clothes and hands. And legs, and feet, and arms, and faces...

Tot time: texture painting

For our most recent tot time, we tried some painting with different textures. I gave each kiddo a piece of big paper and let them go to town -- in adorable little smocks from Ikea, of course. 

For toddlers, this was a crazy success. It kept three of them busy and entertained for nearly 45 minutes!

We used a mini paint roller, a loofah, a thin scrubbing sponge, two kinds of scrubbers with different handles, a few different paint brushes, a foam circle stamper, a Hot Wheels car and one of our dog's (clean!) rubber toys.

Beautiful artwork, little ones!

DIY water/sand tables

Ellie loves water. This is just a fact. She loves playing in sprinklers, the pool, the bath, Marah's water dish, the bird bath, puddles, the sink...anything with water, the child loves.

Clearly we need a water table.

Clearly I am not spending $40+ on a plastic table, much less $100+ for a wooden one.

I found this lovely tutorial via Pinterest. I pretty much followed it to a T, but here is a recap with some clarifications.

Supplies:

• Sterlite 41-quart underbed box ($9 at Wal-Mart)
• 1x3 lumber 
• I got the cheapest stuff. I'd recommend going a step up or getting a slightly larger cut. My wood was soft and I had to be very careful not to split it -- even if I drilled pilot holes.
• You'll need 3 8' pieces (mine were about $4 each at Lowe's)
• Screws (I used 6x1.5" wood screws for most of the pieces, but shorter 1" screws for where the legs attach to the long side pieces)

Step 1. Ask one of the nice Lowe's employees to cut your wood for you. Yes, you can do it yourself, but they will do it for free or very cheap. It is way worth it. You need:

• 3 pieces that are 33 3/4" (long sides and bottom brace)
• 4 pieces that are 16 5/8" (short sides and braces)
• 4 pieces that are 22" (legs -- can adjust if you want taller or shorter)

This of course is only applicable if you use the same box I did.

Step 2. Build your frame. Make sure the short pieces are on the outside of the long pieces.

Step 3. Add legs to the outside, overlapping the two pieces.

Step 4. Add an extra short piece between the legs on each side as a brace. I used a piece of the same wood as a spacer. 

Step 5. Place the last long piece on the bottom, screwing it into the side braces you just added. 

Step 6. Put your Sterlite box inside! Plus, you can still use the lid.

  

I liked it so much, I made two! One is for water and one for sand (but one will go to our friends who are staying with us this summer, and I'll just eventually store the other bin underneath).

EDIT: Here's the first go of the water table. We ended up filling them both up. The kids loved it (big surprise, right? It's hot and water is just awesome.)

Tot time: ice, salt and food coloring; shaving cream; flour paint

I've started doing "tot time" with Ellie and two of her little friends (who are both second kids). This week, we had a fourth little one as well (and her mommy, which gave me the courage to tackle some serious messy activities!).

We did three activities with the toddlers, who are 15 months, 17 months, 18 months and 28 months.

Ice + salt + food coloring
This is really neat. I would love to do it with older kids who understand more of the science -- but this kept the kiddos busy and interested for nearly half an hour!

I froze a sheet of ice overnight on a baking pan. Each kid got a scoop and got to add salt to the ice and stir it around. I added random drops of food coloring and just let them go to town.

As the ice started to melt and crack, the food coloring went deeper into the ice and mixed differently. The kids LOVED it.

Oh, as you can tell from the pictures, they all had a little taste sample as well.

Shaving cream
Next, we sprayed a ton of shaving cream into two other pans. I dropped some more food coloring in and again, just let them experiment.

Wow. They clearly enjoyed this one. I think Ellie and William were having a subtle competition over who got to cover more skin in shaving cream.

Ellie was convinced she'd win.

Flour paint
The last one we did was flour paint. Ellie and William played with it for a few minutes, but this was nearly an hour into these activities and I think all the kids were getting tired. I'd try this again with brushes, sponges, etc., and different kinds of paper. I just made a quick mix, eyeballing the ratio. Thinner definitely worked better than thicker!

Tin foil river

This was an idea we had found on Pinterest. Verdict: eh. We tried with six kids, ages 15 months, 16 months, 2 years, 4 years and two 5 year olds. It kept them entertained for about 20 minutes, much of which was playing with the hose. I'm not sure it was any better than general water play. It would probably work better with something sturdier -- any little bump in the ground pushed the foil up and kept the boats and toys from floating. Maybe I'll try pool noodles cut in half later this summer.

Here are some photos of the fun:

Trying to get the boats to float

All the kids playing in the river

This is what really ended up happening

Much more fun than the river!