DIY Magnetic Fishing Game

Currently, one of Chuck's favorite books is 10 Little Fish by Audrey and Bruce Wood.  It's a cute book about subtraction.  Kids count colorful fish on each page as they leave one by one.  And (my favorite part), it has a fishy romance at the end (What can I say?  I'm a closet romantic... tee heee hee.)  To accompany his love for fish, we recently made this DIY Magnetic Fishing Game. 

DIY Magnetic Fishing Game

It's cute and colorful and really fun to make and easy to play.  Want to make your own fishing game?  Keep reading to see how we made ours! 

Make a simple paper kite

Spring is here!  Let's go outside!  Let's go fly a kite!  What?  You don't own a kite?  No worries, we can  make one!  Today I'll share with you this really simple DIY paper kite.   It's easy to make, fun to play with, and my young son loved decorating his very own kite.  

Spring, spring, la la la!  (Can you tell that I have a bad case of spring fever?  *Twirls around and leaps*)

Make a Simple Paper Kite

Now the only warning I have about this craft is that you have to make more than one paper kite.    Seriously.  Each kid should get have his own.  And, be prepared for kites to break or float away.  (One of our floated away.) 

Alright, let's make some paper kites!

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)!