Make Your Own Movie

Who doesn't like to be the star of their own show? Most children I have met love to watch themselves "on film" over and over and over. A great activity is to create a short film and let them be the stars. With the wide availability of digital cameras and their video capabilities this can be a pretty entertaining activity for even older children/teenagers. My neices will spend hours prepping scripts and props and then recording their short film (usually in one take, so they do not have to edit.) It keeps them entertained, gets their brains working and they always love the results!

Read more over at Funonadime.net and see our first short film!


P.S. Remember, there is a gift card coming from CSN Stores and all link participation in the Friday Brag Fests and the October Fun Challenge will count as bonus entries! Come join in on the fun!

 

Indoor Fun with Fishing

My son has been begging to go fishing for months! I saw "Counting Felt Fish" on Counting Coconuts and decided today was a perfect day to go fishing inside. The weather has not been agreeing with his intense want and we needed a fun inside activity to keep the kids busy while it snowed outside (someone needs to tell Mother Nature that it is almost the middle of May!). It took me less than 30 minutes during their naps to get everything ready and it kept the two entertained for at least an hour! We had  a lot of fun! Here is what you need:

Items Needed

• Fish made from card stock, felt or fabric (and then stuffed)
• A pole (stick, bat, long wooden spoon, etc)
• String
• Magnet
• Paper clips, washers or a stapler
• Scissors
• Permanent marker/pen
• Strong tape or hot glue gun

** see additional ideas at the bottom

Directions

1. Trace your fish and cut them out. I made our fish out of card stock simply because that is what I had on hand already. I used cookie cutters and traced them out on the card stock. Originally I was going to print a clip art drawing from online and trace that, but then I remembered I had animal shaped cookie cutters that had lots of different fish.


2. Attach paper clips to fish. If your magnet is strong enough, staples will work, too.

3. Attach string to magnet using strong tape or a hot glue gun. I think the magnets I had to choose from were to either too strong or too weak.  The magnet that probably work best are in between the strengths I have. They are the size of a penny and my kids like to stick everything in their mouths still, so I have avoided those in our house.


4. Attach string to your pole by tying it for a temporary pole or glue gunning for a more permanent pole. Don't have a stick? Use what you have around. I was going to use my sons baseball bat and a long wooden spoon for their poles until I found 2 sticks in our garage. I even considered using the vacuum extension pole (that's a little embarrassing to admit, but it is what I have!)


Additional Ideas for Fun

• Have your children sort them by color as they are "catching" them.
• Draw shapes, letters, numbers and have the children identify them and/or sort them.
• Draw items on each fish that will allow to count what they see (i.e. 3 stars, 1 circle).
• You can also have them group their catches by numbers.
• Draw the letters of their name(s) on different fish and have them find all the letters to their name.

Things That Did Not Work

• The magnets you get from advertisers were not strong enough.
• Tying the string on a stick. Glue it or cut a slight groove into the stick (and then tie it) if you do not want to be constantly retying the string.
• A shorter string seemed to work better than a really long string. It is easier for them to guide. And by shorter, I mean enough length so that there is little slack when your child has the pole in the air and the magnet on the ground.

Someday I'll make some fish out of felt, but for now I am perfectly happy with these fish and so our my kids!


Have fun!

Toilet Paper Run...or is it a Drop?

You may be looking at this picture thinking, "What is that? And why do those kids look so happy about it?"  I have seen this invention at many places like a children's science museum or at a family member's house. Usually the others are made out of piping  and plastic, but my friend created one of these on her fridge out of toilet paper rolls a couple of weeks ago and my son thought it was so cool that we had to do it, too. It's simple, affordable, fun and gets their puzzle brains going!

 Just some of the basic supplies that almost every mother has lying around.

 What You Need

• Toilet paper/paper towel tubes
• Crayons (optional)
• Magnets
• An object to slide down the tubes
• Paper (optional)
• Glue (optional)
• Scissors
• A light box or cup for object to land in (optional) 

*See the additional fun section below


Directions

The best part of this is that you get to make it your own. Sit your children down and decorate the paper tubes. You can have them color on a sheet of paper and then glue that on the tubes for added color.

Use the scissors to cut one or two tubes open lengthwise. It's even better if you cut about half inch of the cardboard out. The idea is to have an open tube for the rolling device to drop in.

Next, glue or tape tubes to magnets. I only had alphabet magnets, so I taped the tubes on. I will be buying the magnet strips and replacing the current magnets. The tape on the magnets made it a bit to fragile for the kids to move it around on their own.

Arrange on fridge so that one tube leads to another. Get creative with the arrangement.

We also added a empty box with an open top to the bottom of the arrangement to catch what we dropped through the tubes.

Find a round object and start testing out what you have created.

We tried a bouncy ball at first.

It was a bit too heavy and way to bouncy. I racked my brain for something else that we had that was round and light and discovered these in the pantry...

It worked perfectly and it was a nice little snack!

My friend used mini jaw breakers and my son loved that, too, of course. What kid does not like sugar? Let me know how this works for you...

Additional Fun

• Try different shaped items like M&M's or beans, etc. to see what happens
• Try different weights
• Try rearranging and exploring how far apart you can get the tubes without dropping the item

A lot of Snowmen and a Winner

We had many creative Snowman entries and many from warmer climates. Here are a few of them...

The Citrus Snowman

Classic Snowman, pipe and all!

The World's Smallest Snowman. Only 3 inches tall!

Trashy Snowman (they named it, not me!)

Az Snowman made from backyard toys!

The Snack Snowman. Very creative! Made from cottage cheese, a english muffin with cream cheese, raisins, and veggies.

And we can't forget about these:

The Coconut Snowman

The Owl Snowman

And

CONGRATULATIONS to our winner Alexa.

A Big Thank You to all those who participated. I hope you had fun!