62 Ways to Decorate Eggs

If you are looking for some more beautiful and unique ways to decorate Easter eggs this year, forget the PAAS kits and try some of these amazing egg decorating techniques at Martha Stewart's Everything Easter. Oh my gosh! This website has me crying for joy! Egg decorating is one of my most favorite things in life.

What Kind of Glue Do You Need?

Do yo want to stick something to something else but aren't sure what kind of glue you need? Plug your items into This to That and it will tell you! This is a super easy way to find the right glue for all of your crafts and projects. Today my daughter's metal clip fell off of her felt mushroom hair accessory. Fixed!

Free Printable: "Ten Things I Love About You"

Looking for some great Valentines day activities to do with your kids? Check out these cute free "Ten Things I Love About You" printables by Crafty Carnival. The artwork is adorable and if you have a child who can't yet write, you can make it a collaborative effort where you fill in the blanks and they can color.

Flubber Recipe

We had so much fun today making this awesome slime recipe. The ingredients are mostly non-toxic, but be sure not to get any in your eyes and don't let the kids eat it. It is easy to clean up, just keep it off of cloth as it likes to soak into fabric.

Flubber will mold but you can prolong its life indefinitely if you keep it in the refrigerator.


Ingredients:

- 4 oz white school glue
- 1 tsp borax
- water
- food coloring (optional)

1. Pour the entire bottle of glue into a cup or jar.

2. Fill the glue bottle with water and pour into the jar with the glue. Mix well. Add food coloring if you want to; otherwise, your slime will be white.

3. In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup water with 1 teaspoon borax.

4. Slowly stir the glue mixture into the borax mixture.

5. The slime will thicken in the middle. Once it thickens up a little, remove the slime from the bowl of water. Knead and roll the slime in your hands until it feels dry.

6. Have fun! Flubber slime will wash up with plain water.


Want a different recipe? Try these great slime recipes!

Astra Taylor on the Unschooled Life

Super Soup

Even food can be educational! Soup makes a fast and fun meal that kids love and you can make with little effort. Soup is a great food because you can put almost anything in it, giving it almost limitless potential for nutritious ingredients.

I buy organic ingredients from the dry bins at the natural food store. This works out to be about $1 per meal for both my daughter and me. If you don't live in Hawaii, it might be even cheaper for you. My daughter loves the alphabet and number noodles. Here's how I make my ultra-easy Super Soup:

1/4 cup dried red lentils
1/3 cup dried split pea soup mix
1/4 cup Eden Organic vegetable alphabet noodles
2 cups water
garlic salt to taste (about 1 tsp if your mixture is 1/3 salt)

Bring the water, lentils and split pea soup mix to a boil, then reduce to simmer or a low boil. Be careful it's not too hot or the pea soup mix will foam up and boil over. Boil approx. 10 minutes. Then add the alphabet noodles. Boil another 10 minutes and serve.


photo by cherrycher

How to Make this Recycled Christmas Tree Star Topper

This glittery Christmas tree topper is fun to make for all ages and is pretty simple. My two-year-old helped to make this one.

First, print out a star shape from your computer in the size that you want. Trace it onto a piece of paperboard from a cereal box. Cut out your star. From another piece of paperboard, make a cone shape. You want a cone that is long and thin so that it fits snugly over the top branch of your tree without tipping over. Hold the cone while you cut off the excess paperboard and use tape to secure the edges. Use your scissors to trim around the top and base of your cone so that it is even.

Cut two slits on either side of the top of the cone so that you can slide the star down into it. It should look like this:


Coat one side of your star with glue. I use Tacky Glue but regular school glue will work as well. Make the glue just thick enough that it won't drip or run. Sprinkle glitter (we chose red) over the entire surface of the glue. Tap the glitter gently down with the flat of one finger to make sure it is stuck down into the glue, then sprinkle again. Shake off excess glitter. Repeat with the other side.

Let your star sit until completely dry, then coat the base of your star topper with glue and cover in glitter. Let sit until completely dry. The result is quite pretty!

Hanukkah and Environmental Stewardship

I am not Jewish, but I do think it is important to teach about the world's religions and what others believe. I also believe very strongly in teaching environmental stewardship. For these reasons, I am starting a new family tradition in our home to celebrate and teach Jewish tradition and also show our spirit for environmental conservation.

Photographed by Chayim B. Alevsky.
Email rabbicba@gmail.com

In the spirit of the Hanukkah story of how the sacred oil that was only enough for one day miraculously lasted for eight, I would like to start an eight-day Hanukkah tradition of energy conservation. You could use a menorah or any type of candles or oil lamps in your home for this. (Note that regular oil lamps burn toxic petroleum oil. Olive oil lamps are less toxic.)

I would like to have a celebration where our family uses no lights or electricity for the eight nights of Hanukkah. This means no videos, no Christmas tree lights, and possibly no cooking after dark. Instead, it would be fun to spend time together as a family on those eight nights. Jewish studies would be fun and interesting during this time as would learning about the Amish and Mennonite communities that live without electricity. We could play Jewish games as a family or make Jewish crafts.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Unintentional Art

I meet with a homeschooling group once a week in our area where kids from age 2 to around age 10 get together and do crafts, field trips and science experiments. This week, I had planned for us to make these cute hand print turkeys for Thanksgiving. We did end up with just one little turkey.

But of course the kids had other ideas. Why settle for turkeys? Why settle for just painting your hands? Instead, we ended up with a much more creative and fun child-led project! Afterward, the kids got to play in the water of the hose and the outdoor shower to clean off while the moms discussed how important it is not to fence kids in too tightly when doing art projects. After all, which are the kids going to enjoy and remember more, the day they made a project according to instruction or a day when they got to paint their bodies and play in the water?

Childhood: 1 Mindless Instruction: 0