Marble painting

 Paper, tempera, marbles, box, ARTWORK!

 Starboy loved making these. He probably made 10 of them. We only have green paint, so they all were green.

July 4th Sparkle!

Starboy was super-enthused to make these "sticks with pokes on them made from pipe cleaners."

It's very easy to make your own kid-friendly fireworks display. Many, many thanks to Miss Molly for giving us the idea! 

The materials are simple: Pipecleaners, sticks or dowels, and duct tape. We got special, shiny tape, and two lengths of sticks. We also used some old canning jars and rice to turn them into a table decoration.

A decent burst requires four pipecleaners, though five is a little better. You can cut them into thirds, or just cut off one third and bend the remaining long piece in half.

 Kid scissors will be useless. Starboy loved using adult scissors. This gave us a chance to talk about "leverage." Math lesson!

Then, really secure the duct tape to the stick. If you have ripped the tape instead of cut it, feel free to attach that ragged end here, to bury it. And leave the ragged side at the bottom so it gets wrapped in to the project with the straight edge on top. We used strips that were about 1/2" wide by 5" long.

 Then, start adding pipe cleaners, and rolling.

 As you roll, add a few more stems.

 

Starboy was very interested in the sticky tape, and rolling it by himself. You'll notice his isn't too tight. You can pinch it down, and wrap another piece of tape around the outside to snug it down.

Then, arrange the "pokes" to make some rockets' blue glare.

Sparkly joy!

Here's a close-up of a cinched-down firework.

Oooh, what are those other fireworks?! Stay tuned!

Can you think of anyone more perfect to enjoy some holiday sparkle? We couldn't! Hope they arrive in time for celebrations! And check out SparkleStories.com for a free summer story!

Palm Springs Children's Museum

 I have to give a shout-out for the Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert, in Palm Springs. We just made our second visit, during one of our many PS family events this year, and Starboy had a ball.

First: It's air conditioned. This is a big selling point, especially during the off-season (read: summer).

 But also, everything is hands on. It's all about play, and a lot of the play offers math and science opportunities, like pizza making, or playing with magnets.

From the mind of a toddler

Here are some things I discovered while Starboy was playing on his own.

Starboy loves the little plastic tiles from the Rummikub game. It looks like he discovered that they are the same width as the notches in the playmat.

Starboy is into matching lately. I noticed he ransacked the Velveteen Rabbit story bag, and matched up the characters with the picture on the endsheet of the book.

Ummm...? It turns out the Squinkies bubbles fit exactly on the cabinet knobs.

 Lego crane transporter with ramp.

Zoo animal transporter. Vehicles figure prominently on a daily basis.