Glow in the Dark Moon Shirt

My son loves pointing out the moon at night.  Today I'm over at DIY Candy sharing how I made him this adorable glow in the dark moon shirt.

DIY Glow in the Dark Moon Shirt

(By the way, did you see the solar eclipse yesterday?  We totally missed it. Ack!)

And if you really like glow in the dark crafts, here are some more from the archives!

Other glow in the dark crafts:

• Glow in the Dark Jellyfish Costumes
• How to draw glowing designs on your skin!
• Easy Glow in the Dark Bicycle Wheels

Have a great weekend, friends!

(Remember, you can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!)

Preschool Science: Let's Make Charts!

While I enjoy making things with Chuck, I'm also always looking for easy ways to incorporate mathematics and science into our daily activities too.   I loved math and science as a child, so I'd love it if he appreciated those subjects too.  Since he's only 3, our activities have to very pretty hands-on and relevant to his interests (like our shape dice,  cardboard bridges, and shape touch and find activities.)  We love taking walks outside.  So I incorporated science and math into our walk and created this chart to help us count the number of different things in our neighborhood. 

STEM ACTIVITY:  Make Charts With Preschoolers!

This was a super easy STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activity to do with my preschooler.  It required very little prep and we practiced our observation, counting, and data analysis skills in the process!

Here's how we did the activity!

How did I make my skin glow?

Looking for an easy way to entertain the kids this weekend?  

How about making their skin glow? 

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Yurp.  It's 1:30 AM here and I should be sleeping.   But I'm not.  Why?  Well, I couldn't because all my craft juices were flowing after seeing this tutorial.

Did you know that you can make your skin glow... with only 2 materials?  I had to try it out for myself.  So I took a highlighter and black light and then got working.  And guess what?  It worked!  The highlighter glows under black light!

Can you guess what Chuck and I will be doing this weekend?

Hope you have a great weekend!

5 Ways to Write Secret Messages

As a kid, I loved the idea of being a detective or a secret spy.  They got to wear cool clothes, go on adventures, and solve mysteries.  A couple of weeks ago I tried playing a detective game with Chuck.  I hid his favorite stuffed pig and then left 5 clues for him to follow.  The clues were all written as secret messages.  We had to do something to the paper to revel the hidden words.

5 Ways to Write Secret Messages

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Chuck was onboard with the game.   We've recently been gobbling up Nate the Great books from the library, so he really enjoyed being a detective and solving the case.

Magic Fizzy "Sand!"

Once upon a time there was a mom who found herself with a very bored child.  He didn't want to play with any of his toys.  He didn't want to play outside.  And he certainly did not want to do any crafts.  Finding herself at her wits end, this mom pulled out 2 ingredients from cupboard and within minutes, whipped up several batches of wonderful smelling Magic Fizzy "Sand."  She then gave her child the sand and he played and played. After he grew tired of the activity, magic mom waved her magic wand and poof!  The sand began to bubble and fizz, delighting the child once more.  And they all lived happily ever after.

Ok.  Full admission time... I was that mom.  And yes, I found myself with a grumpy child.  And yes, this magic "sand" ended up entertaining him for over half an hour (which as we all know, is like years in little kid time.)

Let's Make Magic Fizzy "Sand!"

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If you find yourself with a super bored or grouchy child, then this activity is for you.  Magic "Sand" is easy to make, smells wonderful, and really does fizz and bubble with water.

Wanna know how I made it?  Keep reading!

Building Play Dough and Rock Houses

Happy Friday everybody!  Today I just wanted to share with you a really, really easy and fun activity that Chuck and I recently did together.  Inspired by fellow Rockin' Art Mom Babble Dabble Do's Clay and Wood Block Structures, Chuck and I built Rock and Play Dough Houses!

Building with Rock and Playdough! 

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We've been going to the beach once a week lately, and I always come home with lovely rocks. To justify my slowly growing pile of rocks, I thought this would be a great way for us to use them in a fun and creative way.

Let's Explore Art Materials like Scientists

Whenever we do art projects, I always hand Chuck certain drawing materials because I know their properties and how they'll look and interact with each other.  In this activity I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and let Chuck do some exploring.  So we tried our hand at exploring art materials like scientists!    

Scientifically exploring Art Materials with Kids

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DIY Cardboard Rocket Launcher Toy

Apparently we've reached the stage where Chuck likes pretending to shoot things... and people.  (Ack.  Is this common?  I'm assuming so... )  So I thought it would be fun to somehow make a toy that would actually shoot things, like a catapult or a slingshot.  We always seem to have cardboard rolls lying around, so I built this cardboard roll rocket launcher toy.  Then, we had a BLAST playing with it!

Get it?  Rocket launcher?  Blast? Like blast off?   Hee hee hee... wah wah wah.

DIY Cardboard Roll Rocket Launcher Toy

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This rocket launcher toy uses rubber bands and cardboard rolls to shoot aluminum foil balls.  It's so powerful that we can actually shoot a ball across our (small) patio... whoa, right?  Since the balls are made from aluminum foil, they don't hurt. So you could create several launchers, shoot each other, and then not worry about anyone getting hurt.  Excellent, right?

Keep on reading to build your own rocket launcher and see other cool DIY toys that you can make and play with your little one.

Building Cardboard Bridges (Kid Engineering!)

Ever wonder why corrugated boxes are so strong?  Since we've started unpacking, I'm surprised by how well our boxes held up.  Even after being shipped across the country, our stuff is intact and our boxes still look good.  Wow!  Those folded bits really make corrugated cardboard strong!  This thought inspired me to try building some simple cardboard bridges with Chuck.  This way we could see for ourselves how folds made cardboard stronger.

Easy Kid Engineering:  Let's Cardboard Build bridges!

(Does folding paper make it stronger?)

Build a Bird's Nest

Lately Chuck and I have been going on a lot of nature walks.  Typically after lunch or dinner we'll just walk around our neighborhood and fly our toy planes, or pick up random rocks and twigs on the sidewalk.  Because Chuck loves collecting different objects, I thought it would be fun if we tried making something with the items that we found.  This time, we tried our hand at making a bird's nest.

Let's Build a Bird's Nest!

Let's Build Boats! (Engineering with Kids)

Lately we've been reading books on pirates around here.  Arrrrgh maties!  So I thought it would be fun if we tried our hands at building some boats from everyday materials.  (I saw a similar idea from i2camp's Instagram feed and really wanted to try it out.)  This was a fun engineering activity that required very little prep and just used random items from our crafting and recycling bins.

Kids' Engineering:  Let's Build Boats!

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Kid Science: Make orange soda!

There are so many neat scientific demonstrations out there showing how acids and bases react.  Last year, Chuck and I used vinegar and baking soda to blow up a balloon. Seeing that balloon fill up stayed on my mind for quite some time.  The balloon blew up because of the carbon dioxide released when the acid and base combined.  Carbon dioxide is also what makes soda taste fizzy on your tongue.   So I tried out some kitchen chemistry and created homemade soda, using an acid and base reaction.   

Easy Kid Science:  Let's Make Orange soda!

Make a Record Player! (Inspired by Travels with Charlie) #bookingusa

Today I'm going to share with you how I made a record player using materials found around our apartment.  *pauses*  Wait, wait, I know what you're thinking, "What are you doing Leslie?  A DIY record player?  Why would you even try to build one in the first place?" Well, friends, before I answer those questions, let me first show you the finished product:

Kid Science:  How to Make a Record Player

Yes.  This baby plays.  Yes.  I have a video of it playing a record down below.  And yes, I will share the inspiration behind this fun project!

Build a toy car that moves

I love painting things with Chuck, but sometimes I yearn to make things that actually move or do things.  So when a mommy friend suggested that we build cardboard toy cars that actually move, wowzers, I had to say yes.  She found the directions in an old kids' science book (that I don't remember the name of... sorry).  And that's how we spent an awesome play date with five kids- eating pizza and then building and racing some cardboard racing cars. 

Kid Science: Let's Build a Car that Moves!

Today's craft is awesome for 2 reasons:

1.  The cars really move.  Really.  You just twist the tin can and then let go.  Bam.  The rubber bands store the potential energy and then once released, they turn the can... and your car moves by itself!

2.  You don't need any expensive materials.  In fact, you probably have most of the items already at home.  

Have I whet your appetite enough?  Ok.  Let's build! Vroooom!

DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy

Lately Chuck and I have been infatuated with things that fly. That's why we made our cardboard space shuttle a couple of days ago.  So today I took things one step further to create a handmade toy that actually did fly.  Modeled  after a plastic toy that hubby brought back from one of his trips, here's our version of a DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy.

DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy

It's pretty neat that the toy actually does fly.  You simply spin it between both hands and the copter flies out and floats to the ground.  Keep reading to see how we made it (and a video of it flying!)

Oil and Colored Ice Cube Science

When you were a kid, did you enjoy seeing how oil and water would not mix?  I always thought that was so neat.  (I'll even admit, sometimes even now as an adult, I shake salad dressing bottles at the store just to watch that happen.  Is that weird?)  Eh hem... anyway... a couple of days ago, Chuck and I played around with this phenomenon.  We placed some colored ice cubes into cooking oil and watched them melt.  The results were just really, really beautiful.

Observing colored ice cubes melting in oil

Can science be dreamy?  I hope so, because that's the best word that I can think of to describe what I saw.  Now Chuck didn't appreciate how the colorful bubbles looked like jewels, but he did enjoy swishing and moving the liquids around.  

Keep reading to see how we played with oil and water!

Cardboard Space Shuttle Craft (template included)

A couple of weeks ago we visited our nearby Science Center and Chuck fell in love with a small space shuttle toy.  Of course, the wheels in my head began whirring and I knew that we could easily transform a  paper towel roll into our very own rocket ship.  So after a couple days of planning, cutting, and painting, we are now the proud owners of two cardboard roll space shuttles:

Cardboard Space Shuttle Craft

Want a ride to the moon on your very own cardboard roll space shuttle?  Then keep reading to see how we made them (template included)!

DIY Cardboard iPod Projector

I've been on a crapty DIY technology kick lately.  A couple of weeks ago, I made this set of  DIY Cardboard roll iPod Speakers.  After making those speakers, I wondered if I could take the idea one step further.  Could I somehow make an iPod projector out of everyday materials?

After searching online, I saw that others had some success with a creating a DIY iPod projector out of a cardboard box and magnifying glass.   So, of course, I had to try it for myself. 

Tada!  Here's today's craft- a DIY Cardboard and Magnifying Glass iPod Projector  

Wanna see how this projector works?  Keep reading for more!

Make Rainbow flowers

Rainbows and bright colors are currently on my mind.  Chuck and I are impatient for spring to come.  So when I stared at our white flowers (leftovers from Valentine's Day- can you believe they lived that long?) I knew the perfect "almost-spring-but-not-yet" craft.  Painting rainbow flowers!  
 

Heh heh.  We couldn't wait for Mother Nature to give us colorful blooms, so we painted our own.  Keep reading to see a super easy way to make your own rainbow flowers!

Make a square and cube bubble

We are definite bubble lovers over here.  With the colder weather outside, we've just been blowing them at home over a beach towel.  Recently I learned that bubbles didn't have to just be spherical shaped.  They could also look like squares and cubes too. What? No way! 

Yes way!  Behold!  A cubic bubble!

Whoa.  It's bubble play for us older folks! Keep reading to see how we made different shaped bubbles: