Art Supplies for Kids

August and September are a great time to refresh your art supplies for the year. Most stores are having back-to-school sales that make supplies quite economical.

For younger children, the most important rule is that everything is washable! My favorite brand for washable supplies is Crayola. In my experience when Crayola says, “washable,” it really is. And this matters to my couch. I have found this to be true of their markers, crayons, paint, and glue, etc.

For my youngest artist, I start out with crayons with scratch paper and coloring books and paint-with-water books. The paint-with-water books were a major hit when my kids were 2 1/2 to 3 years old.

Carina mentioned allowing older children interested in more advanced art techniques to explore with water color pencils. Older children may also be ready for art classes offered through your local community college or university. Sometimes local museums have kids programs as well. Some elementary schools offer before or after school art clubs. If yours doesn’t, consider asking the art teacher if you can assist him or her with starting one.

So what’s in my basic art supply kit?

Paper: I have scratch paper from the printer, construction paper in the standard size and the bigger size, and coloring books. Also, I like to keep the big long pieces of paper that are often crumpled up and used as packing material. I smooth that paper out and hang in on the wall in the kitchen. Over the next several weeks, my kids work on making a mural.

Color: Washable crayons, washable markers, and washable paint. I start the kids out with finger paint. As they get older I buy Kids Paint. For younger children, be sure to buy fat crayons, fat markers, and fat paint brushes to help them out as they develop fine motor skills. At some point in the preschool years, I introduce colored pencils, but my kids have never really loved them. Be sure to also provide regular pencils.

Decorations: Cheap stickers, beads, buttons, tinsel, raffia, ribbon, fabric, wrapping paper, lace, beans, lentils, pasta, glitter, pom-poms, confetti, etc. This category is often just whatever I’ve saved. I usually only buy the stickers, and I just look for big multi-packs for cheap at Wal-Mart.

Miscellaneous: I usually have glue sticks or glue bottles and tape for the kids to use. I also tend to keep old office supplies like file folders, post-it notes, and sticker labels. The kids like to use paper clips and staples, too, so I try to be generous sometimes. I also keep some shaving cream around to mix with finger paint for a different feel. Old sponges are also fun to play with.

What’s a must-have art item for your kids? Are you aware of any great deals on art supplies? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Tags: early elementary, preschool, sensory activities

Baby Led Weaning

These are our favorite links related to baby-led weaning.

Rapley Weaning: Fuss-free Solids
Baby Led Weaning Blog
Baby Led Weaning at Everything2
Wikipedia: Baby Led Weaning

Have you used this way to teach your child about solid foods? Share your stories with us. Leave a comment below.

Tags: sensory activities

Nature & Science with Kids

Messy Recipes for Hands-on Play

Dancing Popcorn
Fill a small glass about 3/4 full of water.
Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and mix well.
Add a drop or two of food coloring.
Add 10-15 popcorn kernels.
Then add a few drops of vinegar.
The kernels will start to move in 1 -2 minutes.

Volcanic Eruption
Place an empty baby food jar on a tray. Surround the jar with salt dough to look like a volcano/mountain.
If you want to make this activity, a multi-day experience, the the salt dough dry or bake it in an oven until hard.
Then allow children, to paint or color the mountain, glue bits of twigs or leaves or grass on to make it look like vegetation, and otherwise decorate their volcano.
When you’re ready for an eruption, place a drop of red food coloring and a tablespoon of baking soda in the jar.
Then add vinegar to your volcano to make it erupt.

Catch a Cloud
Have you ever wanted to bottle a cloud? Here’s how!
Pour just a bit of water into a two-liter plastic bottle.
The adult should light a match and drop it into the bottle.
Immediately close the lid.
Squeeze the bottle a few times to watch your cloud form.

Make Butter
Use room temperature whipping cream. Pour some into a baby food jar or other container and let your child shake it for a while. The butter aill forming to a small ball. Pour off the liquid. Let your child taste it to see what’s different about it and milk. Spead the butter on a cracker or piece of bread. You may want a bit of salt.

White Mud
Unravel about 1 1/2 rolls of two-ply toilet paper and put it in a plastic tub.
Add some dish soap.
Slowly warm water, 1 cup at a time, while you and your child mix it all together by hand until you like the consistency.

Ice Cream
Fill a gallon-size ziplock bag half way with ice.
Add 6 tablespoons of rock salt.
Put 1/2 cup of milk or half and half, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring into a small ziplock bag and seal. The ice and rock salt can puncture this bag so it is a good idea to double bag the ice cream mixture into another small ziplock bag.
Put the small bag inside the large bag and seal.
Shake the large bag until you have ice cream (5 – 8 minutes).
Note: The ice cream is going to be more a “soft serve” texture than like commercial ice cream.

Gooey Goop
1 cup cornstarch
a small amount of water

Add water slowly to cornstarch until the goop drips from the spoon.
The mixture will seem hard, but when you pick it up is slides between your fingers.
If it is too thin and liquid, add a little more cornstarch.
Add a bit of food coloring for fun. It might be a fun way to see how colors mix together.
You can use a funnel to put about 1/2 cup of this mixture into a water ballon. Then you’ve just created your very own stress ball for relaxation. Careful with young kids though since the balloon can be a choking hazard.

The internet is full of wonderful, hands-on experiments and activities that help children explore science and nature concepts. Share your favorite activity with us. Leave a comment below.

Tags: early elementary, preschool, sensory activities

Teaching Sorting

Slimy Sorting
This is an easy sensory activity that incorporates sorting. The materials were all available at my local Wal-Mart or dollar store.

First, get several kitchen sponges and cut them into 1 or 2 inch squares. The shape is less important that the general size. Don’t be a perfectionist over this. Your child might be able to help you with this using safety scissors. This will obviously depend on her abilities with scissors and how easily the sponge can be cut. Put all the sponge pieces in a large kitchen bowl and fill the bowl with water enough so the sponges are just floating.

Next, I added to the bowl three packages of the stretchy bugs. I got three packages at Wal-Mart in the dollar toys section. There were worms, spiders and bugs all in various colors when I got them. I think I paid 88 cents a package.

Now, set the bowl in front of your child in a place you don’t mind getting wet. If it’s warm enough going outside is a great idea. The kitchen table also works well. Then, let your child practice sorting out the bugs by type or color or whatever else.

Clean-up is simply a matter of dumping out all the water. It’s easy to use a colander to get rid of the water and save everything else. Spread all the sponges and bugs on a large cookie sheet and let it all dry out. You can save the dry pieces in a large Ziploc bag to play with another day.

This might be too messy of an activity for some children. If this is a problem, you can leave out the water or only make the sponges damp. Some kids don’t like the “slimy” feeling of the stretchy bugs so you can use something made of hard plastic or metal. Something such as beads or coins or some small hard plastic bugs would work. I would just browse the dollar store or toy section of Wal-Mart for ideas.

Around the House Sorting

• Sort clean silverware into the drawer
• Sort out piles of bowls, cups, and plates, etc. when putting away clean dishes
• Sort laundry by color or fabric
• Sort clean laundry by who it belongs to
• Sort toys during clean up
• While cleaning up a room, sort out stuff that goes in the kitchen, stuff that goes in the garbage, stuff that goes in the laundry, etc.
• Sort out markers, pencils and crayons during art time
• After a nature walk, sort out the leaves or rocks collected into groupings determined by your child

Tags: math, preschool, sensory activities