My Special Things

FOR AGES: TEENS

Teen-agers often have special objects that mean a lot to them. Here is an opportunity to make those objects immortal by making a book.

MY SPECIAL THINGS

MATERIALS:
Pen and paper or computer and word processor
Camera (optional)
Scrapbook

DIRECTIONS:
Suggest to your budding writer that she take photographs or draw pictures of the objects in her life that have meaning to her and paste them in a scrapbook. Under each picture, she could write a story about how that object came into her life and what it means to her.

Eye Dropper Fun

FOR AGES :3-5 YEARS
It takes a moment or so to learn how to make an eye dropper work and then the fun can begin.

EYE DROPPER FUN

MATERIALS:
Eye dropper
Two small containers
Water
Food coloring (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Teach your child how to squeeze the top of the eydropper, put it in water, release the squeeze and watch the dropper fill with water.

Let her experiment with removing the water from one container and putting it, drop by drop, into another container.
Add food coloring to the water if you’d like.

For silly fun, use the eyedroppers to squirt each other with water!

Yarn Pix

FOR AGES:1-7
If you are going on a long car or plane ride, here is a game you might want to tuck into a plastic bag and take along.

INSTANT YARN PICTURE

MATERIALS:
Piece of coarse sandpaper
Bits of colored yarn

DIRECTIONS:
Cut pieces of different color yarn in various lengths and show your child how the yarn sticks to the sandpaper and then can be pulled off.

Make an abstract design together taking turns laying down a piece until it feels complete. Make another picture of something real such as a house or the sun . First, she puts down a piece of yarn and then, inspired by that placement, you add your piece next to hers. She then adds another piece to the growing abstract design and you both continue on until all the yarn is used up or the design feels complete.

Take all the yarn off and do it again together. Maybe, this time doing a recognizable picture like a house or sun. Or let her experiment on her own.

No sandpaper and yarn handy? You can play a similar version of this game using cooked spaghetti and a cloth place mat!