Category: 4-Year-Old

Weave a Bajau Mat

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This interesting craft idea from Travis’s Welcome issue of Highlights magazine not only teaches a little about an interesting culture, but was also Travis’s first introduction to weaving. Although a bit advanced for him, it was a neat activity to work through together.

For a little background on the mat, it’s technically called a banig, a mat woven from plant leaves by the Bajau people, who live in Southeast Asia. Traditionally, they have lived in wooden houses on stilts above the sea, and so the zigzag pattern on the mats resembles ocean waves. Neat! We wanted a turn.

Instead of leaves, you’ll be using poster board and cardstock. Highlights recommended using a full 11×22-inch piece of poster board, but I knew that would be too big a canvas for Travis’s attention span.

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Instead we cut a piece of poster board to about half that, at 10×11-inches. He liked doing the measuring!

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Cut the poster board into strips about 1/2-inch wide, leaving a border about 1 inch long at the top. Great scissor practice.

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Now fold two sheets of colored cardstock in half, and then in half again. Travis was my expert creaser.

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Cut these cardstock pages on the diagonal into strips, then unfold; you’ll now have a zigzag.

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Working with one strip at a time, weave into the poster board, alternating under and over. Push the first zigzag up to the top, then repeat with the remaining strips. Travis did tire out, but watched as I finished up the weaving.

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Cover the edges of the mat with duct tape to secure and voila! A beautiful homemade mat. Ours was too small to really be a floor covering, of course, but it quickly became a prop for Travis’s action figures in his games.

Natural Egg Dye

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Looking to avoid artificial colors when you dye eggs this Easter? Look no further than your own fridge to make beautiful shades, whether you plan to dye real eggs or vegan ones! Travis helped me craft this deep purple from nothing more than cabbage.

In a saucepan, combine 4 cups water, 2 cups sliced red cabbage, and 2 tablespoons white vinegar.

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Bring to a boil, then simmer for 45 minutes.

Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl, and discard the solids. Add your eggs to the bowl and let stand for a few hours. The longer the eggs sit, the better the color. This didn’t work great with our ceramic eggs, but the plastic ones picked up the color!

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If you want a few more color ideas, try either: 4 cups water with 2 tablespoons ground turmeric and the vinegar for a yellow; or 4 cups water with 4 cups chopped beets and the vinegar for a red.

Make Volcano Eggs

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Yesterday Travis and I tested out a few ways to dye plastic Easter eggs. We had another batch of eggs (this time more properly ceramic rocks, which are meant to be painted), so although we know the results wouldn’t show up that well, we still wanted to have fun with the process!

In a small bowl, stir together 3 tablespoons baking soda, 10 drops food coloring, and just a bit of water until you have a thick paste.

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Dribble the paste over the eggs – I recommend using a baking sheet or other craft bin as a base, because you’re about to have a mess!

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Drizzle 1 tablespoon vinegar over each egg, and watch the colors run!

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Travis couldn’t get enough of the fizzing.

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This was so fun we mixed up a second bowl of color and repeated the process.

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Bubble bubble!

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As with our previous egg crafts, the color didn’t really set on the fake ones, but a few streaks were left behind. I’d love to hear if you have great results with real egg shell!

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Easter Egg Maracas

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Here’s a great use for any extra plastic Easter eggs you have lying around this time of year! You can make the maracas after the hunt on the holiday, or set aside a few and make them beforehand; they look beautiful among other Easter decorations.

First, scoop a little rice into plastic Easter eggs. Good scooping practice!

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Place two plastic spoons around the egg, and secure with decorative washi tape. Any color will do, but I looked specifically for colors and prints that evoked springtime! Whoops – Travis thought it was funny when he taped my thumb in for a moment.

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Now continue wrapping in washi tape until the egg and the spoon handles are completely covered. This step got a big frustrating for Travis, so finishing up became a mama job.

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Turns out little sister Veronika loved the maracas, too!

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In fact, perhaps more so than Travis.

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But they were still great for shaking and grooving to music.

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Add these to your table centertop for an Easter decoration, or just enjoy them during any music play.

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Vegan Easter Eggs, Three Ways

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Every Easter since Travis was little, I’ve wanted to dye eggs, but didn’t manage to find plastic or wooden ones in time for the holiday. This year, I was prepared! Today, Travis and I tested out three neat methods of dyeing plastic Easter eggs. Did other people know these plastic ones from Paas exist? What a find!

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To be honest, none of the following three methods worked that great on the plastic – it was more about the process and the fun than the result. The colors and tricks may work better on real egg shells, if your family is not vegan.

First up was a Marble Finish version. Fill a baking sheet with a generous layer of shaving cream.

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Add drops of food coloring at 4 separate intervals. Swirl the color slightly into the shaving cream.

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Now add 1 egg to each color, rolling around slightly.

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Let sit for 10 minutes. Wipe off the excess shaving cream, and you should see a neat marbled color effect.

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Of all the methods we tested, this one worked best!

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While the eggs sat in the shaving cream, we set up the second attempt: Soap Star eggs.

Fill a small bowl with 2 tablespoons dish soap, 1 teaspoon water, and 10 drops of food coloring. Use a straw to blow bubbles in the solution (they will be big bubbles), then stir quickly until you have smaller bubbles.

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Dip an egg into the bubbly water, then let set until the bubbles dry.

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Finally, we made Bubble Fun prints! Draw with sharpie marker (or use an ink pad) on bubble wrap.

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Wrap around an egg while the ink is still wet, and press firmly. You’ll have dot marks left behind.

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As mentioned, all of our results were faint, but I was so glad my little vegan got to join in the Easter egg fun!

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Gallant Challenge: Secret Agents of Kindness

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Travis was introduced to “Goofus and Gallant” in his welcome issue of Highlights magazine, a feature my husband remembers from his own childhood! For those who don’t know, Goofus is always messing up or erring on the side of rudeness, while Gallant always does the right thing. Each issue will feature a Gallant Challenge, and Travis was up for the first one – to do a secret and kind deed for a neighbor!

We talked about some nice things you can do (such as leaving cookies at someone’s door, or helping an elderly neighbor carry mail or groceries) and decided that today our task would be to make people smile – with cheerful chalk messages!

At various entrances around our apartment complex, Travis helped me think of kind messages to write, and I chalked them in (bigger kids can, of course, do this step themselves). Travis added scribbles and drawings around my messages, and loved signing his name at each stop, too!

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Soon we had left behind happy missives like “Happy Spring!”

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“You are wonderful!”

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and “Life is Good!”

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Near this last one, Travis decided to make X’s, which he said meant he was crossing out any bad days that people were having. I loved how into the project he was!

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Some other suggestions included:

  • Bringing in trash cans
  • Leaving the newspaper at a neighbor’s door
  • Cleaning up trash

Whatever action your kids choose, the key is to do it in secret. Then hide and see if you can watch a person’s surprised and pleased reaction! How do your kids spread kindness? I’d love to hear in the comments.

 

Art of the Color Wheel

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A gray day seemed like the perfect chance to bring color inside. To combat all the dark rain clouds, Travis and I explored different ways we could make a color wheel. This project was part lesson, part craft – and all fun!

First, we did a quick review: I showed him paintings that use yellow, red, and blue as the dominant colors, including Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie and Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow, Red, and Blue).

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Take the time to ask your child what he or she thinks the pictures are about, or how they make him or her feel. He told me Rothko’s made him “happy happy sad.” When I asked him to explain, he said the red and yellow were happy, but the blue was sad. Then remind your child these are the three primary colors.

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Now it was time to make color wheels! We started with the most basic version using crayons. I filled in yellow, red, and blue on a paper plate divided into 6 portions. His job was to figure out which secondary color went where.

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The next version was a little messier. We made three blobs of paint in the primary colors, and he used a paintbrush to drag these together. Soon we had a color wheel!

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I encouraged him to make a version with hand prints, but he didn’t want to get that messy. Using my hand and fingerpaint, I  showed him an example, pressing together yellow and blue prints. Your kids might want to have goopy fun with this and make a full handprint color wheel!

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Finally, it was water mixing time! We filled three cups with water, and added our primary colors (now in the familiar red, yellow, and blue) with food coloring.

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Use a pipette (which means you’re sneaking in fine motor skills, too!) to make a few drops of each color on a plate. Then mix and match to form the secondary colors.

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Travis enjoyed this version the most, and soon was experimenting with making a big plate of brown.

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All of this was prompted by a Raddish Kids lesson, so we also watched some of the recommended videos to further our exploration. There’s lots more you can do to go further in depth with older kids: check out fine art books at the library, or head to a gallery for a primary and secondary color scavenger hunt!

Hummingbird Puppets

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We’re welcoming the birds of spring with this little finger puppet craft from Travis’s Ranger Rick Jr.! The pom pom puppets probably come out close to a hummingbird’s true size, which is neat to think about.

First, Travis selected which color pom poms we should use for the bodies. His was dark blue and light blue, and mine was yellow and pink. Glue the two pom poms together.

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Next we snapped toothpicks in half for the long pointy beaks. Glue a half onto whichever pom pom will be the head. Cut triangles from foil cupcake liners, and use two for the wings and one for a tail.

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Googly eyes complete the little birds.

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To make them into puppets, cut a strip of felt and glue into a circle that will fit your child’s finger. Glue onto the bottom of the pom poms and let dry.

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Now flutter your hummingbirds! Ranger Rick even included a sweet little poem to recite as you fly them around.

Look in your garden

And you just might spy

A hummingbird flash

As it quickly flies by.

 

Watch the small bird

Putting on a great show – 

Moving this way and that,

Always on the go.

 

When it finds flowers

So bright and so fair, 

It sips sweet nectar

While still in the air.

Travis even had the birds drinking “nectar” from some other toys!

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Ribbon Dancer

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April showers bring May flowers, or so they say! Which means we’re having a rainy month and we’re on the lookout for rainbows these days. This easy craft is a cute way to bring a little color and rainbows inside, even when the days are cloudy and gray.

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First, we measured out a length of red ribbon that was as tall as Travis – he thought it was neat to see a piece so long!

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Once we had our red, we could measure out the other colors of the rainbow against it. This is a good chance to review ROYGBIV order for preschoolers. Travis used scissors to cut each to the right length.

Now fold one ribbon in half, and loop through the ring of a canning jar. Pull the ends of the ribbon through the loop.

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Pretty soon we had our rainbow strings for dancing!

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Put on some good music and just jive.

Rainbow Dancer (6)Or perhaps do a raindance.

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If you’re lucky and it’s beautiful outside, this little rainbow looks even prettier out in the sunshine!

Build Your Own Tacos

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When Travis came home for lunch today, we set up a whole taco assembly line in the kitchen. He loved the hands-on nature of this recipe, care of his final issue of High Five magazine.

Ahead of time, I cooked a package of Gardein chick’n strips, and let cool. Travis helped shred the chicken, and we sprinkled it with 1 teaspoon taco seasoning. Microwave for 1 minute to rewarm.

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Meanwhile, warm up hard taco shells according to package directions. Travis then got to hone his knife skills; together we chopped a tomato and a little lettuce.

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Time to assemble! We made a big line with everything.

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In goes:

  • Gardein chick’n
  • Tomatoes
  • Lettuce
  • Shredded Daiya cheddar
  • Non-dairy sour cream
  • Guacamole
  • Mild salsa

Travis loved it! We made one version that was a stuffed taco and one that was more like nachos.

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If your kids don’t like Gardein chick’n, try the recipe using black beans and roasted sweet potatoes as the base instead.

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