Wilting Petals & Watercolor {Practical Mondays #52}

These are simple flowers that I had bought for my neighbour on her birthday, a dear old lady, but they never got sent! Blame it on my dentist’s impromptu decision to pull out my molar and leave me in horrendous pain in spite of the painkillers & anaesthetics! 

Not just that I couldn’t bare to take an elevator to go three floors up, I even scraped the outer rear view mirror while pulling the car out of the hospital parking and had to cancel all my plans for the next day! 

Although I was eventually more than relieved to have the tooth gone, I felt sad for the wilting flowers that didn’t serve there purpose. Hence this project! 

Quite simple, I’m sure some really creative kids out there could do much, much better! 

Pin Please!

Happy Valentine's Day

No Skittles Please, We're Skittish {Practical Mondays #46}

It’s not that it was a disaster, but it was one of those times in life when you question your own common sense. I’m sure I have some, somewhere. It just seems to go missing sometimes.

Like when we spatter painted with skittles. And I left my laptop right there next to the project! 

Not only did I have to sit and wipe sticky slimy sugary skittle stains off the MacBook and iPhone (I have an iPad too, if only Apple rewarded me for my loyalty!), I even had to scrub the dried off gooey sticky mixture off the palette and brushes the next day! 

So that’s how I chose to begin this post, with caveats right at the start; I’m Practical Mom after all: Sugar is not only a danger to health, it’s a danger to your common sense too! Sugar is bad. Period! 

But watching my son’s face light up at the sight of skittles in the grocery and then watch it all twisted in bewilderment when I told him it’s not for eating, but for painting- priceless! 

*chuckle*

{TV Trivia: The title of this post is a play on words of a Frasier episode named “No Sex Please, We’re Skittish” which incidentally was also a play on words of a West End play named “No Sex Please, We’re British”. haha! Frasier fan? Raise your hand!}

Bleeding Paper- 3 Ways! {Practical Mondays #44}

Spending hot afternoons in the middle of art projects is something that DOES NOT happen on school days. So doing them side by side with my 5 y.o. in this summer is so relaxing. It’s therapeutic! And we’ve been obsessed with crepe paper last week. 

Bleeding Crepe Paper 1: Impressions

Place crepe paper cut outs on the drawing sheet in whatever shape and manner you want. Spray or transfer drops of water over it so the color transfers from the crepe paper to the sheet.

Wait till the paper dries off, remove the cut outs and watch their imprints on paper! Now this is ready for some more drawing & decoration

Bleeding Crepe Paper 2: Color Mixing

Red+ Blue= Purple Blue + Yellow= Green and what not!

Bleeding Crepe Paper 3: Palette Paint

Put some left over crepe paper into palettes of water. The color flows into the water, ready to be painted with!

Chocolate & Marzipan Winter Wonderland (Practical Mondays #40)

*Practical Mom will be on Summer Break till 9th January, however Practical Mondays #40 will remain open till then. 

Happy Holidays!*

OK FINE! I finally gave into this hugely popular christmas tradition after all! I knew for sure you don’t get molasses easily at my neighbourhood mall, so I didn’t bother making a gingerbread house, chocolate bars however are available anywhere & everywhere, including my own kitchen.

While I purchased Marzipan (had made it earlier around), I had a lot of leftover icing, food coloring, tiny M&Ms and what not from previous baking projects. 

Our Winter Wonderland is 100% edible! 

i.e. if you don’t include toothpicks. 

...And the straw that held the roof together.

 Stuff I already had - check out the colors! 

 Chocolate at room temperature is easy to cut! We used almond thins for the roof

And we painted with Eggs Shells & Yarn! (Practical Mondays #35)

That’s my approach to kiddy arts. Look around you. Use what you’ve got. The wet residue in your coffee machine? Sugar Cubes? Lemons? Straws? A little something something for an afternoon of pure joy!

Here's what we did with Yarn this time. And egg shells- Thanks to Ayan!

The Bathroom Painter! (Practical Mondays #28)

Our glass window had been a canvas for my little boy, we used paints, dry erase markers and even shaving cream. And now we’ve moved to the bathroom tiles- which BTW is a MUCH BETTER option as cleaning it is so easy that it is done by by son himself (I think he enjoys cleaning more than the painting itself)

The only problem is taking pictures inside a steamy bath. Here are the only few shots I’ve taken without my lens fogging up!


{Update: The paints we use are normal tempera paints! Just dip the brushes directly into the tiny bottles and use!}


{Tip: Do not water down paints, as they will drip as soon as they touch the tiles and make blurry pictures (duh!)}

Reggio Emilia Style Invitation to Play: What a treat this was!

Throw the Dice & Draw! Game for Ages 4+ (Practical Mondays #25)

Prep! Draw a Legend, using 1, 2, 3 (or more!) dice. Since my kid’s 4.5, he can draw a few simple things such as fish, butterflies, bees, flowers so we used  only 2 dice. 

Play it! Throw the dice & draw the picture corresponding to the number! 

Quiz: Do you *really* LIKE your kids? (Practical Mondays #21)

The REAL TEST of whether you like your children or not, is taking a 35 hour flight with them.

And the ULTIMATE TEST of whether you like them or not, is suffering though the subsequent 60 hour jet lag with them. 

In case you didn’t suffer the ordeal like we did, here’s an imaginary scenario, just for fun, to picture whether you’ll pass the ultimate test of endurance with flying colors or crash within minutes! 

So, do you *reeeally* like your kids? 

(Remember, You haven’t slept in two nights and are hopping from one flight to another at odd hours, waiting in a different queue each time. Go!)

(a) You are in yet another immigration queue and your child suddenly starts bawling. You

1. Turn his face towards other people, waiting, just *waiting* for some nice person or a person irritated enough to cave in and give you his /her place (works like a charm!) 
2. Embarrass him, it’s only 4 am- and what’s a little queue anyway?
3. Wave your wand and magically make him stop crying

Salt Glue Word Building (Practical Mondays #19)

Salt Glue painting is therapeutic, strengthens fine motor skills, can be modified into what you’re currently learning (Alphabets, Numbers, Words, Drawings, or simply squiggles) and is a lot of fun! 

Don’t bother saving these art pieces however pretty they turn out, as the sheets tend to shed salt long after they've dried! Don't forget to take some pictures though!

Art Studio Diaries: 10 Chapters (Practical Mondays #12)

I had an Art Studio, that conducted 8 sessions in the summer of 2015. It was something very close to my heart and made me extremely happy. But before I could start it full time, we moved countries. I don't know when will I be able to pursue it next, but here are my memories from it. 

Why Should Kids Paint?

Because paint needs to be poured & spilt.. 

SALT DOUGH MAGNETS- EARTH DAY

Remember the cute little salt dough ornaments I’d made for my christmas tree? well, the obsession continues!

How to go about it: For one batch, all I needed was 1 cup white flour+ 1/2 cup salt +1/2 cup water. Well of course there can be various combinations they'll all turn out fine. If you hate the stickiness of the flour, add some more salt. I kneaded the dough, rolled it on a parchment paper (baking paper) and had my kid cut out shapes & imprint “Save Earth” with cookie & play dough cutters (Even bottle caps!). I laid them all over a cookie sheet and baked it at 135C/275F for 1& 1/2 hours.

Then all we had to do was paint, glue magnets on the back & voila! Our own personalised Earth Day Magnets!

Earth Day Ice Slabs

Paint on slabs of Ice NEVER gets old! I keep at least one slab in the freezer to pull out impromptu! Its a bit 'sciency' too, as he gets ice melting into water and how salt speeds up the process. Many times the glistening combination of paints create a magical effect! 

Here are some EARTH DAY themed Ice Slabs!

Method: 

• Freeze water in a large round shaped container. When rock solid, bring it out and place it on a plate. 
• Sprinkle salt over it and wait for a bit. The salt will melt holes on the ice slabs! 
• Bring out blue & green paints and few droppers and watch your kid be thrilled to transfer paint via droppers into those tiny holes! 

Coffee Art

We've officially used most things that can be used for art from the Kitchen. Flour, Corn starch, Seeds, Lemons, Flowers, Straws, Salt, Sugar, Potatoes, Baking soda, Vinegar, Powdered Milk, Oil. 

So why not Coffee? There's so much left after filtering anyways! And it's a *gorgeous* brown! 

For 13 Non-Traditional Art Supplies for Preschoolers, click here! 

Art Explosions! (Art Studio Diaries # 10)

Adding ANYTHING to paint makes it twice as fun. And adding it to a baking soda and vinegar Concoction resulting in a bubbling eruption can guarantee squeals of laughter and excitement!

I mixed a dollop of tempera paint with two teaspoons baking soda in each of the disposable plastic cups, arranged on a tray. In a beaker I poured some vinegar and few squirts of kitchen cleaner (to add a 'bubbly' effect). Then all the kids had to do was pour the vinegar into the plastic cups and voila! What happens is NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2 → NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2. (Or whatever that means!)

Solar System Art: With Forks & Bubbles

Mix paint in the bubble mix and blow on paper. When they land, they make delightful circular patterns! Here's our previous project (with gorgeous prints!) And here's taking it a bit forward. (Was my 4 year old's idea btw!) 

Our DIY Solar System Mobile

Our nice big square dining table is now officially our recreational table- thanks to our breakfast table in the kitchen where we do all the eating. I recently bought a plastic-y table cover to protect the table from paint and scratches and laid out our various pens, brushes, and what not in the many many Pringle cans turned into pen stands on the window sill. I love window sills. We have a large bookshelf on the other side. We also have another kid sized table and chair which we keep far far away in the terrace area- for messy paint and glitter. - So the mess is out of sight and out of mind. 

Art with Playdoh & Powder

I really miss ink droppers /pipettes and it is *really* weird that I've looked for it in every stationary shop I've been to in Santiago and have not yet found even one! How strange is that! Maybe I'm asking it wrong, who knows! 

We have *so* many art projects that simply cannot be done without pipettes!! Esp our most fave: salt & glue designs! (For how thats done, you can visit one of my old posts by clicking here)

So one day I replaced salt with baby powder. Just for fun. Just to see what happens. and Just to try out something new! Like wise play doh is an all time favourite material and is a big hit when added to Art work. 

Art on 7 Different Surfaces

We love process art, where the focus is on the process and not the product. As a variation, we engaged in a week long project of painting on different type of paper or sheet everyday. Not just paint, but we used glue, and crayons too. Whatever felt natural! 

We used: burlap, plastic sheet, cork paper, metallic sheet, corrugated sheet, butter paper & aluminium foil

DIY Book Based Colouring Pages (+Book Recommendations for 4 yr olds)

Honestly , we don't use colouring pages. I've *always* encouraged open-ended art since my kid was 2.5 and he's used to that! Colouring pages are a bit like putting your creativity in a little box and honestly a bit boring too. He is so used to open-ended that he just tosses over a colouring page when given to him. Restaurants & birthday parties where they dole these out with cute little crayons - are completely ignored. So when I say 'he loves painting' I look like a crazy person!

Anyways, he just turned 4 and I'm a bit focused now on his pencil grasp and fine motor strength. So for once, I *want* him to some extensive amount of using crayons/pencils/paints for more than a few minutes at a time. So I started drawing pictures from his favourite books (read: those that were quick & easy to draw!) and started asking him about the story while he picked up his crayons or paints to add some magic into the paper.  

So this is not only a story telling + fine motor practise activity, it is also a great exercise for "parallel play", he can do his thing while I do mine, on the same table.