Our British friend Charlie shared this recipe with us. Her version calls for “digestive biscuits”….that just sounds gross, but she assures me they are delicious. We used short bread cookies instead.
Ingredients
Crush the cookies.
Mix in 2 TBS cocoa powder.
Gradually add the condensed milk until the mixture is the right consistency to roll into balls.. I used about 1/3 of the can.
Roll into 1 inch balls.
Roll in sprinkles.
Put in the fridge so they harder up.
Enjoy.
Marshmallow Guns were on our summer “bucket list.” If you haven’t yet tried this, you just have to! Filthwizardry.com has a FABULOUS tutorial and instruction sheet on how to make these cool guns.
Materials:
Filthwizardry.com has a great little print out on how to assemble your gun. I put one out on the table so the kids could follow the instructions….they didn’t. Instead they created whatever they could imagine.
Our school room is a work in progress. The only part actually finished is the art room.
This is the “keeping it real” picture.
Here is the work in progress….it has been the landing area for our toys since we moved in here. I am trying to find a way to merge our school stuff with our toy stuff without it looking too much like a traditional classroom. Any suggestions?
I really want to go with a BOLD color for the walls like this one at Independence Academy, but I think I am going to chicken out and stick with some sort of beige.
Stage Area. The walls are seriously messed up in here, so I am going to hang up a lot of posters to cover them up! If you can’t see it it isn’t there, right?
Reading area.
What do you do when your playroom needs art and you don’t want to break the bank.? You buy Kathy’s $5 dollar art mural download and let your kids have at it. Super cheap and hours of fun!
I love it when there is an art project we can to together as a family and this project was it for sure. The variations between each section of the mural is so cool to me and the boys love telling anyone who will listen which parts they painted.
The way it works is simple, purchase the download and print it on heavy weight paper. My crazy printer wouldn’t let me use card stock, so I printed it on copy paper and then transferred the design to watercolor paper. I let each kid choose what pieces they would work on and, after they dried (okay, really it sat on the shelf for a month), I mounted pieces to cheapo Home Depot subfloor using YES Paste. YES paste is amazing, by the way. I also covered it in Modge Podge to make it shiny as well as more resistant to little finger prints. Check out Kathy’s blog for some super cool homeschool art ideas for your kids. The boys really enjoy her free (and simple) “how to draw…” instructions. I can’t wait to try some of her Mini Murals with the boys!
After making some modifications to their original Art Bots, the boys came up with a design that fixes the two biggest flaws.
The first big flaw was that the wires would get tangled in the “feet” of our bot causing it to tip over. Oh, the frustration. We tried tape and rubber bands with minimal success. In the new design, you just stuff all of the battery pack and wires into the cup and problem solved!
The second problem was the stability. The markers are easier to tape onto the container than they are to foam. The design also allows for enough wiggle to make the bot fun, but not so much that it falls. You can see that we needed to add a popsicle stick to support the motor.
I would love to see any variations your kiddos come up with!
If you haven’t already, you should absolutely sign up for Supercharged Science’s mailing list for all sorts of FREE instructional videos. I have never gotten an email from Aurora that was junk, they truly are an awesome company with a great philosophy….no pressure to buy anything…e.v.e.r. All Aurora's videos have useful information and great video links to make cool projects like this!
We are linked up to Adventures in Mommydom Science Sunday!
Our version of Picasso’s Hands with Flowers.
Isn’t he cute?
We recently moved to an old Victorian house that our kids nicknamed the “castle”. (Psst. Don’t tell them it isn’t a real castle, the WILL argue with you.) Dylan decided we should make an enormous dragon so that its head was sticking out of the top story and into the house and his tail was wrapped around the outside. While I think that is a fabulous idea, my husband didn’t agree and so we came up with Fred.
The idea was inspired by Gourmet Paper Mache’s incredible paper mache art. This guy is AMAZING, a true artist. The boys have watched all of his videos countless times.
Creating the dragon was easy and almost 100% kid made. I did interfere once and poor Fred now has six legs because of it! Guess I should have listened to the 6 year old. Oops.
Supplies needed:
Step 1: Flip the tomato cage upside down.
Step 2: Fill plastic bags with paper (or other plastic bags) and tape them together to form the bulk of the body. It doesn’t need to be perfect at this point. Just get it on there.
Step 3: Add paper and tape and then MORE paper and tape and even MORE paper and tape until you start to create a shape you like. Honestly, I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to stay our of the way and let the kids have at it. I just kept taking biting my tongue and drinking Chai Tea and it turned out fabulous…even without my “help.” Dylan is my little perfectionist and kept putting on more layers until he thought it was just right.
Step 4: Paper Mache. We use Elmer’s Paper Mache Paste for all of our paper mache. I just can’t deal with the goopy, powdery mess flour makes. Elmer’s Paper Mache Paste is cheap, can be stored for future use and is WAY cleaner.
Step 5: Paint. Acrylics (yes, the paints that stain clothes) are the best. Otherwise, you’ll need to cover your finished creation with Modge Podge.
Have Fun! We are already starting to plan our next project!
