Pages

Monday, June 23, 2008

Unplug Your Kids: OLD

Last week, I found a new blog called Unplug Your Kids. The goal is to "unplug" your kids and do something fun instead. Each week, she is giving a theme and you are to try to do something with that theme. We participated this weekend for the first time and had so much fun! I believe we'll continue doing this weekly - at least as often as we can.


The new posts are given on Monday and last week's theme (which you would post today) was "old." So, we pulled out a kit about "old", actually ANCIENT, Egypt. (The kit is a "Tresure Chests" called "Ancient Egypt" by "Running Press" which we bought used a couple of years ago.)


Here Alexandra is working with some of the hieroglyph stamps. She also worked on a necklace.

I worked on this grid drawing. It was harder than I thought it would be. We worked on this kit for about 30 minutes and it was so much better than watching TV or playing video games.
We also looked through some of the archives and tried some of their projects this weekend. This project was on the Unplug Your Kids blog under "sticky." We found some old containers and tore little pieces of masking tape and covered the containers. Then, we used shoe polish to "paint" it and give it this faux leather appearance. She found the original instructions here.
Morningstar Green Time had a project under "sticky" to make necklaces and Polly Pocket plates out of Elmer's glue.
You can use any container and use WASHABLE markers to color the bottom of it. (We used a mini muffin tin.) Then, you add a layer of Elmer's glue and let it set about 24 hours. It should be CLEAR when they're done. We LOVED watching the colors change!

Then, we pulled out our finished projects. Alexandra thinks she'll use them as plates, though we might make some of them into necklaces.


Morningstar Green Time also had a terrific post under METAL. You use tinfoil and "draw" on it. We used a very dull pencil, but pushed pretty hard on it. This dinosaur was my favorite creation. I drew it by looking at one of Alexandra's old coloring books. These pieces look a lot better (I think) if you use some texture - like the polka dots and stripes on his "hair."
I also tried using a little color with a Sharpie. Morningstar had a lot more colors of Sharpies than we do and I LOVE the look of their projects.
We'd love to have you all join us as we "Unplug Our Kids!"

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:56 PM

    That Egypt project looks fun. My 6 year-old son is obsessed with Egypt at the moment and would really enjoy something like this.

    I too remember those "plates" or "beads" from Morningstar Greentime. They are on my to do list, so it is nice to see how they turned out for someone else. Very pretty.

    I really like your boxes. Since we only did it with color and not shoe polish, I enjoyed seeing your shoe polish results. They look great!

    Thanks so much for joining in. Welcome to the Unplugged Project! I hope you had fun and that we'll see you and your daughter next week for "garden!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. What great egypt projects. I am going to have to remember those when we study egypt this year. The rest of your projects turned out great to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't comment a lot, but I sure enjoy your blog! :-) You two have so much fun together.

    I too recently discovered the unplugged blog and can't wait to start participating!

    Blessings to you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those colored glue circles and foil art is really neat! We've got to try those out! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OOHH
    I really like the glue beads!
    We will have to try that. What a great idea for a kids fundraiser.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What great projects! Sounds like you two have been having a lot of fun! My little one is learning about Dinos this week during our "Fun School" summer and I think that I will let her try that Metal (tin foil)Drawing. That looks like a fun project to do!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7:25 AM

    Your projects are wonderful! I love that you used mini muffin tins for the glue! The colors are so bright and pretty. I like the egyptian art! Will have to try that one. The tape with shoe polish is awesome! I had forgotton about that! It turns out so cool.
    Can't wait to see what your kids do with the glue beads.
    http://morningstargreentime.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. VERY cool projects, Dana!
    I sure wish GB was more into this stuff. I love crafts and art. Sometimes I can sneak something in here and there, if I'm lucky. I may be able to do the foil art. That's super-cool!
    I wish I'd seen your taped boxes before father's day. That would have made great little coin holders. Don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like that! We'll have to try that foil art for sure!

    ReplyDelete