Coffee and Diapers

Monday, July 31, 2006

Making Do on Mondays: Artsy Alternatives

Most of these are old tricks, but they don't always see a lot of press and I think they are wonderful little activities to encourage artistic tendencies in your child... and on a budget too!

Rainbow Crayons

You know the culprits- those broken up chunks of crayons that no kid likes to reach for anymore. Well, gather them up, peel the wrapper off them and put a few different colors in a glass measuring cup and bake on 350 for a few minutes. Then you can pour the melted colors into plastic cookie cutters or candy molds and let them cool for a few hours. Kids suddenly have fun new big, chunk crayons to play with! I've found that if you let them melt too long, the colors kind of run together so you have to watch it. Or you can put like colors in different containers to bake and then customize your swirls and rainbow effects in the mold. Muffin tins with paper liners also work if you just want big, chunky crayons useful for shading.

Edible Playdough

Making playdough is simple enough, but here are a couple fun recipes to use where you don't have to worry about your little ones swallowing chunks of it:

-2 parts oatmeal

-1 part water

1 1/2 parts flour

Knead until soft. Food coloring can be added to the water before mixing it in.

I also liked this following recipe I found because it sounds like it actually tastes good! Though I'm not sure colors would work in it.

8 oz. creamy peanut butter

3 TBS. honey

1 cup dried, powder milk

Add powdered milk until mixture becomes dough-like.