Rainbow Heart Crayons

If you are like me, you probably have a lot of broken crayons in your house.  Instead of throwing them away, turn them into a fun Valentine's (or any day of the year) activitiy!

First, remove all the paper from crayons and separate into colors.  I just did the basics, if there were two different greens, it didn't matter.

Heat about 1/2-1 inch of water to boiling.  Place a liquid measuring cup in the boiling water.

Now put a group of crayons in the measuring cup and watch them melt.  If you don't stir the melted crayons you get more of a swirl effect than a new color effect.  So experiment and have fun!

Pour the melted crayon into a rubber ice cube or candy mold.  I just happened to have a heart one on hand, but you can find all sorts of fun shapes and molds, especially around a holiday.

Wipe out your measuring cup with an old cloth and repeat the process with a new color.  Pour each new color over the last to create a layered, rainbow crayon.

 Let the crayons set.  This doesn't take long, but it goes even faster in the freezer.  Pop out the crayons and color away!

Bread in a Bag

 Make yummy homemade bread with your kids and no mess!  Mix up the bread and knead it all in a freezer bag!  I got this idea from "The Waldorf Book of Breads".  I used the recipe in the book, which I will share below, but I don't see why you couldn't do it with any favorite bread recipe.

 Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 package yeast
3 TBS sugar
3 TBS dry milk
1 tsp salt
1 cup hot water
3 TBS oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour

Put the 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, milk and salt in a gallon freezer bag.  Zip close and let your kids shake up the ingredients to mix.  Add water and oil.  Close again and have children squish bags to mix.  Now add last two cups of flour.  Have children mix and knead.  Bread should pull away from sides of bag.  I needed to add a little bit of extra flour to our dough.  Knead 2-4 minutes.  You will have to help younger children a little at this point to work the flour all through the dough.  Let rest 10 minutes.  Remove dough from bag, shape into loaf and put in greased bread pan.  Cover and let rise until double in size.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.  Makes 1 loaf.

Here is a little snapshot video of this fun activity.  The kids love squishing and shaking, and they especially feel proud of helping make dinner.  The bread was tasty too!

Love Notes Chalkboard

Valentine's Day is coming up and you know what that means...Getting mushy!
This easy to make chalkboard is perfect for writing love notes to all the "wild things" in your life.

1.  Choose a piece of smooth board and have it cut to your desired size (most of your home improvement stores will do this for you free of charge).
2.  Ask the person working in paint to show you where the chalkboard paint is.  At Lowe's they will even make it in any color you choose.
3.  Tape off the section on the board that you want to be the chalkboard.  Decorate the edges however you want.  We used paint markers so that the kids could help.  You could easily make yours fancier than mine if you did it by yourself...but where is the fun in that?
4.  Now remove the tape and place it over your edges.
5.  Apply chalkboard paint.  Several coats.  I put on 2 or 3, and I think it could still use one more.  Wait 24 hours after the last coat before writing on the board.
6.  Start expressing your love!

Our Family Story Book

Last week Jane found some pictures of Rob and I on our wedding day.  She followed me around for the next 3 hours and asked me to "tell her the story" at least 20 times.  I started out with the basics, and then I started adding in the next details in "the story" like Jane and Max being born.  It gave me the idea for this project.

Our family story book is just a 3-ring binder filled with page protectors.  I printed off some black and white photos (when the kids are older and not prone to destruction I will print off full color photos).  I cut them out and pasted them to colorful cardstock.  I had the kids color and decorate the pages with stickers. 

 

Then I wrote in the story.  Right now it is very simple for short attention spans, but it can get more and more in depth as our family grows.  I included Rob and I meeting, getting married, all the different places we've lived, graduation and births.  You can include whatever you feel is important in your story.

If I could change one thing, I would have used lighter cardstock.  The crayon didn't show up well on these darker colors and the kids quickly lost interest in coloring.

Right now, it is fun to have a "story" all about our family, and looking at all the blank pages waiting to be filled makes me excited to see what the future holds.

Every family has a story.  How do you tell your children their "family story"?  What events would you include?