Week Ending 2/10/2018 Fun, STEM & Crafts

This year I wanted to be a little more intentional in doing fun things, experiments, crafts, etc with the kids.  Issac is still at the age where he's game to do anything even if it's a learning activity :) I've seen lots of activities that are for younger kids, but I still felt he would enjoy them, they would be quick to do and ultimately we'd have fun and learn something. This week we were able to do a few different activities. I think Issac enjoyed them equally, but when asked he said his favorite was the cloud dough. The cloud dough was super simple, it was equal parts of foam shaving cream and cornstarch.  We didn't start out with a large enough bowl, so ended up having to try and mix in two different bowls. That's wasn't best because one bowl seemed drier, so we finally found a large enough bowl to mix the two together. Issac made a video of us making this dough HERE on his YouTube channel. He makes funny videos and is always looking for new followers. He's up to 14 and super happy :) Before I could get pictures he decided to add baby oil to the dough and see what happened. It totally changed the texture and wasn't the fun cloud dough we made :) According to him he was experimenting and that's always fun :)

Another things we did this week was talk about how animals in the cold climates stay warm.  This was a super cute activity and really got the point across to Issac. All you need is a bowl, water, ice and some Crisco.  You first put your hand in the ice water for as long as you can stand it. After that we used a finger on the other hand and covered it with Crisco. He then put it back in the ice water and realized he could keep his finger in there much longer. We discussed how the fat the animals have help keep them warm. He asked since he was fat was that what kept him warm?? Oh Issac...... :)

We also did an experiment on whether you can sink marshmallows or not.  Issac enjoyed this, but then again any time he can sneak a few marshmallows he will :)  The last activity we did this week I learned about from my friend Roxanne over at Homework and Horseplay who does amazing STEM boxes each month.  All we needed to build an igloo was a disposable cup, icing and marshmallows. We did find out as we worked that our cups were super flimsy and made the job a little harder :) Issac and I enjoyed doing this project and again he was happy to eat marshmallows and like the icing off his fingers (LOL)

All in all I think we've done a few neat activities this week and made some good memories. I want my kids to have good memories of being at home and not few school as something bad or not fun. There is always something that needs to be done that maybe they don't want to be done, but there is also time for fun and laughter :)