Messy Kids

Monday, June 24, 2013

100 Days of Play Presents: Ice & Lava Sensory Baths

Have you been following the 100 days of play? If not, it's not too late to start. This terrific blog hop has been put together by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo in order to inspire and challenge you to spend more time playing with your child(ren).

For my day of play I'm sharing one of my son's favorite activities: shaving cream in the bath. He would do this every day if he could. Our last round consisted of creating an ice bath one day and a lava bath another.

All you need for either bath are shaving cream and food coloring. The shaving cream I purchased at the dollar store.

For ice, mix blue food coloring with the shaving cream.

Add some blue coloring to the bath water then let them go wild with the water and the shaving cream.

My son, splashed around in the "cold" water. He often wears goggles so he doesn't get water in his eyes.

After playing with the shaving cream, the residue floats around in the water. My son thought it looked like snow. He's pretending he's "frozen".

My son does his own thing but you could add Arctic/Antarctic animals to your bath. If you have easy access to foam sheets, cut some irregular shapes from white foam, creating icebergs for the animals to float on. If it's a hot day, add some ice to help them truly cool down.

Of course after taking a "cold" bath, the next night my son wanted to take a "hot" bath. He asked me to make him some lava. I mixed red and yellow food coloring into the shaving cream. More red, then yellow.

I also added red and yellow color to the bath.

It wasn't long before he painted himself with the lava.

He had some dinosaurs join him in his lava bath, but my son is a fickled one. He wouldn't let me take any more pictures. His dinosaurs got very clean that night though.

Now go, have a bath! What will your kids imagine the shaving cream to be?

And don't forget to check out the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop! Take the challenge. There's still plenty of time.

100 Days of Play Blog Hop

Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!

New ideas shared each day from 4/1 - 7/20.

Help us spread the word!

Grab a Button to Share on your Blog!

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails . Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas .Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots .Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators' Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti's World .Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal's Tiny Treasures .Rainy Day Mum . Momma's Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day .MumCentral . Artchoo! . Creative World Of Varya . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4's Mom .NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama Miss. Making Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque .Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum .B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life .Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma .Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma's Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures .Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide . Learn with Play at Home . Mummy... Mummy... MUM! . Science Sparks. Toddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom .Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing .Teach Beside Me

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Chalk It Up To It's Playtime

Drawing with sidewalk chalk is classic outdoor fun......but.....at the same time, gets old quickly. Shared on previously on It's Playtime, here are some new ways to explore and learn with sidewalk chalk.

Reading Confetti posted their recipe for Frozen Popsicle Chalk. If you don't have popsicle molds, try simply making Ice Chalk.

Train Up a Child shared their post, Top 10 Ways to Learn with Chalk. Here you'll find some great learning games and play ideas for kids toddlers through school-age.

If you were featured this week, don't forget to grab your special "featured button."

These activities plus more can be found over on the It's Playtime Pinterest Board. Happy Pinning!

Now, on to this weeks play date!
It's Playtime is a community and Thursday link-up hosted by:

* Rachele : Messy Kids (That's me!)
* Rachel & Holly : Quirky Momma
* Jillian: A Mom With a Lesson Plan

How to Play :

* Link up a post about a playful learning experience enjoyed by kids.

* Give us love and pop a button into your post/blog. Invite your readers to the weekly play date!

* Stop by one of our blogs every Thursday and add your link about play. Your link will show up on each of the blogs in the It's Playtime community.

* Each week the playtime hosts will choose favorite posts to feature. (By linking you are giving us permission to use an image and link to you, if featured.)

* Be sure to visit some of the links that catch your eye. Commenting on posts that you find interesting or inspiring is a wonderful way to develop your own playful community.

By linking up you give us permission to grab a picture and feature you here, on a site we write for, on FB or Pinterest. If we share your link, we will always credit you, send people to your original post and use only ONE photo.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Snail Painting

*may contain affiliate links

Let me begin by saying no snails were harmed in the making of this art. Also if you are easily grossed out by slimy creatures then I'm sorry, because this post is full of them crawling around, getting kids slimy and stuff, trails of colored goo left behind. Look away...or don't...preferably don't.

Snails are fascinating! I've loved them since I was a little kid. They are slimy but have the cutest faces! I mean have you ever taken the time to really look at it? Adorable! They are also good artists. To help your snails create art, you'll need a few items:

Food coloring or Liquid Watercolors
Several small, shallow containers (one for each color you plan to use)
Paper (a large sheet of butcher paper works best)
Snails
Magnifying Glass (optional)

This activity is easy peasy. Simply fill you containers with water and add food coloring to desired shade. Gently dip a snail into the color and place it on the paper. Let the snails go nuts.

Look at how much fun they are having! OK, I don't know if snails even have the concept of fun, but it sure looks that way.

The more snails you have the more colorful your art will be, but you don't want too many, unless multiple kids are involved, because they can be difficult to herd.

Make sure you talk to your kids about being gentle with creatures great and small. It's fun to explore but we don't want any casualties.
If you have one, encourage children to use a magnifying glass to view the snails and study them.
Yes, sometimes snails poop on their art and on little hands. No biggie, simply wipe it up and wash your hands. Wash after releasing the snails too!
Please release your snails...or feed them to a box turtle; they love them!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Science Rocks on It's Playtime!

Science is messy! Science is exciting! Science Rocks! Check out these fun science features from It's Playtime.

Frugal Fun 4 Boys uses popsicle sticks to Build a Chain Reaction.

Science Sparks shared 50 Summer Science Ideas. 50 people! That's a whole summer of fun and learning.

Also check out:

Adventures with Earthworms from Mama Rosemary
Water Bead Science from Gift of Curiosity