Age 3-4 - Age 4-6 - Age 6-8 - Cooking

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Age 3-4 Age 4-6 Age 6-8 Cooking - Always Learning

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Homemade Lava Lamps

January 26th 2012 03:02

I recently implemented "Science on Saturday" projects with my youngest daughter. This little ritual is a hit. One of our favorites are the Easy Lava Lamps we made with her cousin.

Easy Lava Lamps

You will need:

Plastic bottle (water or pop)
Water
Vegetable oil
Food coloring
Alka-Seltzer tablets (generic is fine)

Wash the label off your plastic bottle and then fill approximately a quarter of the way full with water.
Pour vegetable oil into the bottle, almost to the top.
Let the oil and water separate and then squeeze about a dozen drops of food coloring inside.
Watch the coloring fall through the oil and mix with the water.
Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into small pieces and then drop one piece into the bottle.
When the action slows down add another little piece.

Check out a couple more fun projects here

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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Noodle Necklaces....revisited

November 30th 2011 21:07

Technicolor noodles and a handful of pipe cleaners surprisingly kept three young video game addicts very happy all afternoon. My niece and nephews had never made noodle necklaces- this was a SHOCK to me. So simple.

If you have forgotten the drill here is the "recipe"

After checking my pantry for a variety of uncooked pasta noodles, I gathered the kids around the kitchen table.

To make custom-colored noodles you will need:

Pasta
White vinegar
Zip-loc baggies
Measuring cup
1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon
Food coloring

1. Pour one cup of dried pasta into each zip-loc baggie.

2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar to the baggie of pasta.

3. Add 8-10 drops of food coloring to the pasta and vinegar. We happened to have fancy colored food dye in the cupboard, but regular colors work just as well.

4. Seal the baggie. Shake gently so the noodles are coated with the coloring, but not smashed in the process!

5. Inspect the noodles. If they are very dry, add a drop more vinegar. If the color is not intense enough, or there are noodles that are not covered add a few more drops of food dye.

6. Cover a cookie sheet with paper towels. Pour the noodles on the towels, separating as you go. Let them dry as you gather yarn, shoelaces, thin ribbon, or string. The noodles should be ready to string in twenty minutes or so.

7. Make necklaces or bracelets by stringing one noodle on a piece of yarn and then tying it in place to keep the rest of the noodles from sliding off. Pipe cleaners make cute bracelets or rings that are easy for small hands to manipulate.

8. Put a child to work separating the noodles by color or shape in muffin tins, or pull out cardboard or paper plates to create a mosaic pattern.

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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Candy Wrapper Crafts

October 24th 2011 14:04

Candy wrapper crafts

Go ahead, let your child have lots of candy this Halloween. What? Am I crazy? No, but instead of fighting the candy horde, embrace it and use it for good. Let your child eat a designated amount, stash your favorites and then unwrap the rest and store for baking, all the while carefully saving the wrappers.

The wrappers are the real treat this season. Take advantage of after Halloween sales for colorful, and tasty, supplies. Your children can create a slew of fun crafts for holiday gifts this year, make fashionable accessories and gift wrap.

Link it!
Make beads
Decoupage it
Turn it into bows
Build garlands
Go Big!
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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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Kids Art Show

August 2nd 2011 13:28

Better than a lemonade stand, a kids art show can be a fun way to promote creativity, earn money and build a sense of community.

Host your own with the following tips for a One Dolla Holla, Fifty Cent Center or Quarter Show Tips

Invite participates. You probably have a basic group in mind. It could be simply your own children or expand it to their close friends, a street in your neighborhood or make it a club event. Scouts or sports teams can pull off an effective quarter show.

Suggest sale items. Compile a list of items that are acceptable for the show. This can be decided upon as a group, or set in place ahead of time. Baked goods such as cookies should be wrapped ahead of time and ready to go. Handfuls of trail mix in baggies were just as popular as brownies at our show. Sun catchers, dream catchers, home made note cards and bookmarks were some of the offerings. Simple crafts, home made jewelry and little bouquets of flowers kept the show pretty, while they were there. We had a table for gently used toys and a place to buy hot dogs, lemonade and chips, for a quarter of course.

Read on for more information...and why a single set price is best.

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Cooking, Craft

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E is for Eggscellent Eggs

April 6th 2011 23:30

E is for EGGS of course. The A to Z blogging challenge post for the letter E is dedicated to Easter Eggs, but not just any ol' Easter egg, no these babies are Eggcellent!

Dye-ving Dudes from Family Fun are the best Easter Egg craft I've seen.

Directions can be found on Family Fun or the April edition of the magazine.

As you can see, each egg is dyed only a third of the way up, for the swim trunks, the bendy part of a flexible straw, a rubber band, water bottle lids for the goggle and some craft foam to make flippers.

Kids can create these little fellas with white craft glue, or an adult can help with a glue gun.....when doing crafts, I will often follow up with hot glue when the kids are all done just to secure the pieces without taking away from the, "I did it myself" aspect.

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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A is for Always

April 2nd 2011 12:52

For 26 days in April (minus Sundays) I will be posting a blog for each letter of the alphabet.
"Sylvie's word of the day"
I am all for challenges, so when this was dangled in front of me in my writers group, I grabbed it

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Cooking, Craft, DVDs, Maths, Reading, Social Studies, Toys, Writing

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Edible Earth Science Projects

March 5th 2011 01:23

Edible Earth Science Projects

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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Gifts for Neighbors-Magical Reindeer Food

December 21st 2010 14:26

Giving gifts, or even cards to all my neighbors would be an impossible task without this inexpensive, fun tradition. Delegating this task to the kids is a nice way to keep the little ones occupied while attending to other Christmas activities nearby. Like baking, wrapping presents, or simply sipping tea and regrouping.

Recipes for Magical Reindeer Food
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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft, Writing

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Thanksgiving Projects-Share the Blessings

November 23rd 2010 23:16

Whether you have a little or a lot...all depends on who you are comparing yourself to. Compared to my in-laws, we have little....compared to my family...we have a lot.

* It's interesting to see how differently we are treated depending on the company. Having more often doesn't mean we are treated better

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft, Toys

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Thanksgiving Projects-Share the Blessings

November 23rd 2010 17:10

help serve your neighbors in need

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft, Toys

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Halloween Craft: Shrunken Apple Heads

October 11th 2010 11:49

As my kids get older, I have found that making Shrunken Apple Heads with a few of their finds is as exciting as carving a Jack O'Lantern.

The frighteningly fantastic little heads are a marvel and look great amongst the Halloween decorations. My daughter wants to attempt turning one of hers into a doll this year. She'll use strong wire to make a body and design a dress out of fabric scraps

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Posted By: Sylvie Branch - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft, Toys

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Easy Cranberry Squares

November 12th 2009 18:54

Taken from the fun story, Cranberry Autumn, my daughter and I decided to bake this easy Cranberry Square recipe this afternoon as follows:

Cranberry Squares

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Cooking, Reading

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Cranberry Thanksgiving

October 2nd 2009 18:39

Cranberry Thanksgiving written by Wende and Harry Devlin in 1971 is one of those time honoured books that lends itself to family traditions - in the case of Cranberry Thanksgiving it is Cranberry Bread.

Cranberry Thanksgiving is the story of a young girl named Maggie who lives with her Grandmother near a cranberry bog in New England. The book includes some interesting characters and colourful illustrations and the story takes some interesting twists and turns, demonstrating that looks can be deceiving. It even includes Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread recipe for you to bake at home

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Computer Based, Cooking

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