Comments (4)

By Mom Unplugged, July 12, 2009 9:29 pm

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was fast. This is a fast post because the week went really fast, and we will soon be flying in a fast airplane to France.

We did experiment with some rubber band powered cars, and finally succeeded in making an original prototype from a Knex Set that went very fast…for about 6 inches. I think the axle needs work, as does the length of the rubber band. It was fun, even though our model obviously needs improvements.

If you have budding engineers at your house, try this project and see what you can come up with!

Here are a few links to get you started:

PBS Kids - Rubber Band Car

Easy Propeller-Driven Rubber Band Car

LEGO Rubber Band Car

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If you did a fast-themed Unplugged Project this week then please link to your post below (not just your blog, we always want to be able to find your fast post). If you didn’t do a fast project, then don’t link, but please read more about how to join in the Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have you!

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Since I will be away until August 6th, the Unplugged Project will be on vacation also (although, if anyone is interested, I hope to post a few virtual postcards from France, perhaps even one a day if I can!).

The next Unplugged Project will be Monday August 10th and the theme will be:

Photograph

I bet we’ll have a lot of photos by the time we get home, and you’ll have a lot of time to think about what you will do with your photos!

Enjoy and have fun!

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Comments (16)

By Mom Unplugged, July 10, 2009 6:07 pm

Oh my goodness! For once I was actually in the right place at the right time for something cool!

A few weeks ago while I should have been doing laundry, I just happened to stumble on a post by MooMama (I love MooMama’s natural parenting blog, but usually I just lurk on occasion). MooMama explained that, continuing a “pay it forward” idea that she took part in, she would send a surprise to the first three people who commented on her post. The catch: those three people would have to send a little something to three other people, and so on down the line.

Loving this idea as a fun way to spread some random goodness, I squeaked my comment in in 3rd place!

MooMama‘s little package arrived earlier this week. You can see what lovely little goodies she sent in the photo above! A potholder made by one of her daughters - age 8, the same age as my oldest daughter (aren’t those colors lovely?), a cute bee magnet, and set of homemade kindness cards - perfect for the theme of this swap.

Now it is my turn to pay it forward. Since we are going away to France next week, I unfortunately won’t have time for nice homemade things, but I thought perhaps a little simple something from France might make an interesting surprise.

• If you want a little surprise from France sent by me, and if you are interested in paying it forward, then be one of the first three comments on this post and I’ll contact you to get your address.

• Please continue the sharing by sending a little something to three other people, who in turn, should be willing to send a goody, etc. By the way, keep it simple! You needn’t send anything fancy. It is the gesture of connecting with a random “stranger” that is so meaningful.

• You don’t have to have a blog yourself, but you must be willing to pay it forward to three people. Please let me know what you do, so that I can publish it here.

• Finally, in my case, I am afraid you’ll also have to be a bit patient. I won’t be in France until the end of next week and shipping might take a little longer too (unless you are in Europe).

So, who wants to join in?

PS. You might also enjoy checking out the pay it forward posts from my two fellow commenters on MooMama’s blog: Nicola of Which Name? and Little House on Green.

Comments (21)

By Mom Unplugged, July 5, 2009 5:17 pm

This post is a follow-up to last Sunday’s Tiny - Cool Colored Rice post. The rice coloring was such a fun project in and of itself, that I decided just to focus on that. I chose this week’s Unplugged Project theme of container because it fit nicely with our original reason for making colored rice in the first place: A “Find It” Jar.

For a while now I have eyed these “Find It” games, thinking they would be fun for the car, travel or restaurants. But the the potential fun factor never seemed to justify the price, so I have never bought one.

With a long plane ride to Europe in our near future, I found myself once again considering buying one for the trip (would they let this through security?). But then it occurred to me that this could be fun and easy to make, so we decided to give it a try!

You’ll need a jar (a container!), preferably fairly tall and with a wide mouth. I used a glass spaghetti sauce jar, but I would recommend something plastic for travel or young children (a mayonnaise jar perhaps?).

You’ll also need some colored rice and many small objects to hide. I found that light, flat objects (like Legos) did not work very well since they seemed to stay on the surface of the rice. Another idea would be to choose objects according to a theme: nature objects (pebbles, acorns, twigs, shells), or animals (little toy animals), etc.

Tip: Consider the colors of your rice and how choice of color can increase the level of difficulty. You could hide all green objects in green rice for example, or do as I did and hide a variety of different-colored objects in multicolored rice.

Normally you could just make a list of the hidden objects, but since I wanted my non-reading 3 year-old to be able to play too, I decided to make a picture card instead.

I laid out all the objects on a plain white piece of paper (for clarity) and took a photo of them. Next I printed out the photo so my 3 year-old would know what to find:

The final step is to drop the objects into the jar and pour in the colored rice.

Don’t fill the jar completely, otherwise the rice and the objects won’t be able to move around very well.

Put the lid on (tightly!) and shake it up.

If you are worried about your children opening the jar and making a mess, you could glue the lid on. If you don’t glue the lid on however, you can easily change out the hidden treasures for others to keep it interesting.

I glued a bit of ribbon around the lid to make it prettier, but that’s just me being an over-the-top perfectionist and is absolutely not necessary.

Give the jar and list or photo to your children and let them see how many objects they can find. This is my 3 year-old giving it a go:

For older children,you could even give them a timer to race each other. For solitary play, they can try to top their own best time!

NOTE - Storing the Colored Rice: I finally found a use for the lovely, old-fashioned style French soda bottles that I had packratted away in the back of the pantry for years. I keep them on the kitchen counter now because they look so pretty! What do you think?

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If you did a container-themed Unplugged Project this week then please link to your post below (not just your blog, we always want to be able to find your container post). If you didn’t do a container project, then don’t link, but please read more about how to join in the Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Fast

Be creative and enjoy!

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Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, July 5, 2009 9:19 am

It is time for a new look. I feel stale, boring, stagnant. Should I go platinum (I am already sort of blonde) or jet black??

Actually I am referring to Unplug Your Kids, not me, although my personal look could certainly use an update too.

Confession: I have been secretly playing with new themes for some time now and today I accidently took the irreversible step (well, reversible, but with a lot of work) of pressing the “Activate” button instead of the “Preview” button. Since that small misstep instantaneously erased all the changes I had so lovingly tweaked over the years, fate is telling me that now is the time for change! (Haven’t I heard that somewhere before recently??)

So Unplug Your Kids might look a bit funny and incomplete for a while, but hopefully it will all be for the best. So stay tuned to see if will I choose platinum or jet black …

(By the way, for you techie types out there, this time I am attempting to create a child theme so this fatal error never happens again!)

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, July 3, 2009 1:40 pm

Most parents would agree that dinner preparation is the toughest time of the day. We are worn out and the kids are tired and crabby. The easiest solution for a hard earned bit of peace is to plunk them down in front of the TV or a video in order to cook without “help” or having to play umpire.

On really bad days, I sometimes find myself too easily wanting to resort to the distraction of a video, especially with my 3 year-old who of course wants to “help” with everything, including dinner. So whenever I come across a new trick to happily and easily occupy her, I am eager to share it with others!

Several years ago I picked up some colored plastic threading and counting frogs at a yard sale. I have used them for everything from math homework to French lessons, but I just discovered a new game that my 3 year old loves: “Find the Frog!” This is proof that we don’t need something complicated or expensive (or electronic) to entertain and teach a child.

Our frog friends come in three sizes and six colors. I simply tell my 3 year-old what to thread, for example, “medium blue,” and she does it with joy! Sometimes I get fancy and say “three large orange,” or “one small red and two medium green.”

This is so simple that most of you are probably saying “Umm … what’s so special about this?” But since it never occurred to me that this game could entrance my daughter for an hour at a time, it might not have occurred to a few of you either.

Plus, consider these benefits:

• I can work in the kitchen while playing this game with her (or be lazy and sit on the sofa and read a magazine).
• The game teaches colors, numbers, and sizes.
• Children practice remembering and following increasingly complicated instructions.
• The threading is an excellent exercise of fine motor skills.
• You could play this with almost anything that threads: beads, thread spools, colored pasta, or buttons for example. (Great for creatively repurposing household items!)
• Variation for non-threadable items: have your child place certain items in an egg carton, container, or selection of dishware. For example: “Two blue buttons in the glass” or “One large seashell in the red bowl.”
• Make this an activity for your “Mommy I’m Bored Box!”

For more easy ideas, please read these posts about other very simple toddler pastimes that have worked for me:

• Beans - The Perfect Toy?

• How to get by Without the Electronic Babysitting Box

• Great Resource for Keeping Young Toddlers Busy!

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