I hate the short days of winter. It gets dark so early, and all I really want to do is snuggle up and go to bed...at 6:00! Since I really can't do that, I've been looking for things for us to do at home together to bide the time. We've played all kinds of board games over the last few months, and tonight I think we were all just a little gamed-out. It's hard to find activities that both of the kids will enjoy, since they are 5 years apart. General science-like experiments usually do the trick, because Jake likes nothing more than to mix concoctions, and Andrew enjoys anything that involves food coloring.
Tonight I decided to make flubber with the kids, but I didn't have enough glue for the traditional recipe. I googled recipes without glue and found one that seemed like it would meet our needs. The kids had a blast making a huge mess with cornstarch, flour, water and food coloring. Unfortunately, the end product was more like play dough than flubber. I was going to share the recipe, but since it didn't work out so well, I decided it really wasn't worth the extra typing effort. Oh well, it's the process, not the product that counts!
At first, Jake seemed a little nervous about making flubber.
"Eh...is this what it's supposed to look like?"
"Yep, Jake. That's what mine looks like too!"
As soon as they were able to put their hands into the mess, and get down and dirty, he started having fun!
A little flubber Rorschach testing...what do you see here?
Andrew saw a bunch of navy blue dots in white goop, while Jake saw something much more interesting!
A little kneading does a boy good!
"Mom! I'm a mess!"
Yes, dear. That's why we have a drop cloth and a plastic dollar store table cover!
Jake's final masterpiece before scrapping the gooey mess - a flubbed flubber pig. Awesome!
What do you do to pass the time on cold winter nights?
2 comments:
I am so proud of you!normally when you do messy the kids are in their undies! We do what you do. Alex got 3 science kits for Christmas so we have been doing those things. He also got a build your own boat motor kit which i put tigether and became quite angry during. I wonder if an actual 8 yr old could do it?!
Haha! You're right, Dorie! I do usually make them strip down! Actually, Jake wasn't wearing pants, and Andrew's clothes were old...plus, this house gets chilly in the winter so I decided not to freeze them last night!
I know what you mean about those assembly projects. Jake has had more than his fair share of them over the years and what I have learned is that they are not for me to do! I make Greg do those kinds of activities, because they just irritate me too!
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