funky nests in funky places

We just love finding bird nests! We find them while hiking, driving, in parking structures, there's even one at the entrance to our favorite grocery store. Once a bird built a nest (and laid her eggs) on top of a spring wreath we had hanging on the door. But the best nest ever was the one built inside Grammy's house, on the fireplace, when the roof was being replaced.

So we're especially excited about about Celebrate Urban Birds Funky Nests in Funky Places program. It begins tomorrow, April 15th, so get out your cameras and your bird nest peepers. It's time to do some detective work!

coming in from the snow: balloon races

We've been so lucky (at least some of us think so) to be playing in the snow the last few days. Yesterday, we took a family walk out in the stuff that ended up lasting seven hours. Of course, there were a few stops for hot chocolate along the way, a duck into the library to warm ourselves a bit, and a good hot Indian lunch to keep us going on the journey. But for the most part, we were outside the majority of the day. Had our share of snowball fights (or flurries, as the case may be, since the snow was not wet enough to make into real snowballs). Zeal especially loved just picking up pieces of ice pack and crashing them down on the sidewalks to test how many times he had to do so in order to get them to shatter into a million tiny pieces. Along the way, we talked one of his favorite subjects: Greek Mythology, and various other tales that happened into our little brains.

Snow aside, though, for if you're looking for a good indoor activity about now, try this: balloon races!

















Zeal was REALLY excited to get back indoors and just warm up. He's been enjoying doing air experiments lately, and this one has him thrilled. With a string, a straw, a bit of tape, and a balloon, there is nothing stopping this little rocket man from using all his hot air. Goodness knows he has enough of it! ;)

Creative Fun and Discovery with Paper

Paper Explorations

It’s that time of year again; we turn a little more inward and move our activities a bit more indoors. For many kids, school is back in session and often our learning tools look more like paper and pencils than the previous month’s water and lemonade stands. And with that, our opportunities for exploring and encouraging creativity still abound.

Paper is an everyday part of our world. It is a perfectly simple tool to explore with and learn from. It is such an everyday common item that children are not mystified by its presence, so they can really go further with their thinking and problem solving through their play with it. They can observe it, understand its special properties, experiment with it, and play with it. Whether you just put the materials out (sometimes with a how-to book appropriately placed near to it, sometimes not) or are leading a more organized group lesson, there are many opportunities to explore with paper and make discoveries.

Folding Paper
Origami is the art of folding paper (ori is to fold; gami is paper). The goal of this art is to create a given result using geometric folds and crease patterns. Folding paper, the possibilities are endless. Make a paper cup and see if it will hold a liquid. Next time you have a present to wrap, try folding a box. Play with how you can make a hat for your dress up corner. And don’t forget the all important and wonderfully fun paper airplane.

For simple folding that is still truly mesmerizing and even meditative, show your children the simple technique of folding back and forth to make a fan. It can double as a curtain for a favorite stuffed animal that likes to perform plays for you.
For some folding with a purpose, go here to learn about folding peace cranes (in honor of Sadako Sasaki who was two years old at the time of the bombing of Hiroshima and died tens years later of leukemia.)

The Science and Math of Paper Folding
How many times can you fold a single piece of paper? Go ahead and try it. Take a piece of paper, any size or shape, and begin folding it in half. Then, folding the same direction, in half again, and so on until you just can’t fold any longer. Count how many times you fold it. What did you get? Four times? Five times? Six? Did you possible even get to eight? Try it with even a larger piece of paper. What are you results? Well, the science and math of progression tells us it is impossible to fold a piece of paper more than eight times. Go here to see the story of how one high school student solved this problem and see the picture of her 11th fold! Now that’s creativity at its best.

Cutting Paper
Cutting paper (whether in the shape of jack o’ lanterns, snowflakes or otherwise) is a powerful learning experience and avenue for creativity to emerge. The use of scissors offers its own wonderful way for children to develop fine motor skills: cutting on lines that are straight, squiggly, or cutting out shapes are great! Even just cutting a piece of paper up into tiny little bits can be a wonderfully empowering little meditation for kids. Then add a fold to that cutting and see what happens. A fun way to add extra dimension to an abstract piece of art might be to cut silhouettes out of dark paper. Check out the book Easy-to-Cut Silhouette Designs by Betty Christy for some great silhouette projects. And for the more intricately minded/handed, introduce the creation of your own paper dolls. How can you make a series of dolls to hold hands?

Tearing Paper
And finally, a very wonderful tactile and fine motor developing experience with paper is to tear it. Tear it into big pieces, small pieces, even smaller pieces, or try tearing shapes or letters. Then try gluing the pieces back together. Explore the art of découpage with gluing those pieces onto a recycled bottle or some other item your child would like to breathe new life into.


Through observation, exploration, folding, cutting, tearing, and most of all, playing, the opportunity to develop and express creativity through paper! Dare I even say it happens ten fold with paper? No, maybe that’s 12-fold!

What floats his boat...

Zeal loves to both weave and experiment with what floats and sinks. So what better combination than playing with water plants? Here's his few cattail boats that are still enjoying themselves in our kitchen sink and bathtub. Such fun!

Can you tell which one was only able to float on its side?

"A Great Day for Volcanoes!"

Kitchen and science "experiments" around here often lead us back to our favorite two ingredients to just play with: baking soda and vinegar! It seems these are the kinds of things that often show up in science fairs and a few classrooms. Around here, they might as well be considered everyday objects.

The ways in which Zeal likes to play with these two wonderful ingredients are more varied than I can probably recall and write down here, but here's the short list of some favorites:

-use an eye dropper to dribble vinegar on a pile or line of baking soda
-tape two plastic cups together, create a hole in the top and get baking soda and vinegar to react and ooze out the top
-add baking soda and vinegar to a bottle, cork it, and count to see how long it takes for the cork to pop! Repeat, and repeat again, trying each time to get the cork to shoot higher!

Zeal worked on this latest and more resembling of a volcano than any of his other baking soda-vinegar forays for a week: first building it from a container, tape and newspaper, then papier-macheing it thoroughly (a few days' project), then painting it,

















and finally letting it blow! (or ooze, if you prefer)



Today, he pulled it out again and said, "Today is a great day for Volcanoes! Let's go to the park!" So we grabbed the necessary supplies and walked the few steps from our front door to our neighborhood park where he made it a community event.

Here's our favorite easy recipe for papier-måché:

Mix 1 part glue and 1 part water. Dip dryer lint, newspaper, or colored tissue paper strips into the glue mixture and gently lay them onto the object of your choice. Let your sculpture dry in a warm area for 2-3 days.

and our favorite combination of lava: baking soda, vinegar, red food coloring, and a touch of dishwashing soap (we keep Dawn around just for projects like this - it also makes the best bubbles!)

















By the time they got past the initial eruptions, the kids got really into the "hands-on" experience and, eruption after eruption, the lava got redder and sudsier than ever. They had a wonder-full time!