Challenge Day 18+

I haven't been updating b/c I've been taking pictures with my camera instead of my phone. Well, I don't really have a computer accessible all the time. I use my phone and tablet. I DO have a comp but I have to go to hubby's work area to use it and I don't like messing with his things. I've also been working out and we've been playing... A LOT! Some of the days aren't here because they've been repeat activities, and some days well, with three small kids... there was no set structure for those days. I'm trying not to be hard on myself. But, this challenge has DEFINITELY changed the way we interact with our children and it has been so wonderful! I'll post all the pics I have here and will tell you what I can remember about each of them! ENJOY!

On this particular morning, the kids asked to play with play dough ASAP. Which worked out well, because I needed a little time to set up their other invitation. I was VERY excited about the one I was working on!

Colored Ice and Water

OK. TELL ME a kid would not FLIP over this!? Well, the did. They LOVE this and request it OFTEN! We have several different shaped ice cube trays and they love the variety of color and shapes.

They were both very curious

tasting

touching

serious work

and melting :(

The kids played with the ice and water for like 2 hours. They kept asking for more ice and I gave them just about all we had. Bella thought they would taste like popsicles but was rather disappointed. She ate them anyways. LOL When they started to melt, we talked about temperatures and how the room temperature water and their warm hands was making the ice melt. They were fascinated but also, not excited that they could not magically re-freeze the ice.

They were covered in food coloring after this, so it was bath time. By now, Mia was awake and we threw her in the bath with Bell. We wanted Mia to get in on the fun so we threw some colored ice cubes in there with them. It didn't have the effect I had hoped for. HOWEVER... when I dropped a drop of food coloring in the water... WOW! Mia immediately tried to splash the drop and made the color spread. While Bella, freaked out that the color was coming towards her and jumped out of the tub crying, Mia happily finished her green bath by herself.

Checking out the new temperature change

changing the color of the water

green bath water

splash splash splash!

Our next invitation, which I believe was the following day, is what I call 'Color Bombs'. You add a FEW drops of food coloring to some oil and mix until the droplets are VERY small. You then pour the oil into the water and WAIT. In a few minutes, you begin to get EXPLOSIONS of color! We did this over and over and over!

mixing the colors

It starts out slow... but cool

EXPLOSION!

The next day we played with something I think they love AS much, if not MORE than the colored ice. WATER BEADS! If you do not know what they are, they are little tiny dehydrated beads that you soak in water and they get like 50x their original size and become all gummy/jelly like. TOTALLY AWESOME! I'm kind of obsessed with them myself!

HOW awesome are they!?

one by one

mass amounts

Mia didn't play with these for two reasons. 1- She eats EVERYTHING and I was particularly afraid of her ingesting several of these and 2- she was napping. When she woke up we set up her own sensory bin invitation. She loved the textures and color and sounds of it all.

ohhh! What's this?

EEEEK! It's LOUD!

On a different day we made home made (edible) finger paint! I'm glad I made the edible kind, b/c Mia was only interested in eating it as fast as she possibly could.

apparently it tasted good

REALLY good

Jeremiah really enjoyed this

Bell had fun too, despite her glare

Mia eventually bored of eating paint and whined to get down and go play. She found something better to eat.

I'll do another large post with Easter and the day after here, soon. I hope you enjoyed!