Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, February 3, 2008 8:36 pm

It was a wintry, windy, snowy day here in Arizona’s mountains. Without TV there was no Superbowl to watch (I would probably have preferred The Puppy Bowl anyhow!). All in all, a good day for a project.

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was pipecleaners (or twist-ties, or wire in case you don’t have pipecleaners).

Last week I realized that we were sorely in need of stocking-up on craft supplies. So in addition to buying a lifetime supply of assorted pipecleaners, we also found pompoms, googly eyes, craft sticks, glitter, and even feathers. Now we have plenty to work with!

I set it all out in front of the kids, along with some corks that I had been saving (at the request of my 7 year-old), and let them have at it while I cooked dinner.

This is what my 5 year-old and 7 year-old came up with:

Later I joined in and made a spider (kind of an obvious project, but I had fun) and started some coaster weaving. My 7 year-old finished it for me while I put the baby to bed.

The weaving seemed like an inspired idea for teaching weaving to a child since it is very easy to thread pipecleaners under and over. You just have to watch out for the sharp, wire ends that can easily prick fingers. Perhaps folding over all the ends before using the pipecleaners would solve this problem.

If you joined in the project this week, please remember to put your link in Mr. Linky below so that we can find each other easily.

Tomorrow might be a good day for a project too. I suspect we might have a snow day. 100% chance of snow tonight (6 to 10 inches), 80% tomorrow (3 to 7 inches). More pipecleaners perhaps? Or maybe an early start on next Monday’s project:

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Next week’s project idea comes from Jess who suggested collage/magazines (thank you Jess!). We have done collage recently (although I do love it and we missed it last time), so how about magazines/catalogs (but you can still do a collage if you want).

Some ideas:

- collage

- decoupage

- finding colors

- clipping pictures and making up a story

- clipping letters: make a cut-out alphabet

Comments (16)

By Mom Unplugged, January 27, 2008 8:06 pm

After guests, blog moving, and sick kids (croup and colds), I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this one. I know…excuses, excuses, excuses.

I came up with the idea this week, but the kids added to it and modified it. My idea was Tiddlywinks. Do you remember Tiddlywinks? Does anyone play Tiddlywinks anymore?

First we cut the top and little side flap off the egg carton. Then my oldest daughter marked each cup with points. First row 1, next 5, third 10, etc. Then we took the little plastic disks from our Bingo game and played Tiddlywinks with those.

It was hard. I have always been bad at Tiddlywinks, and still am apparently! The kids weren’t much more successful either.

I then suggested that we try bouncing a small ball into the cups. That worked MUCH better and was actually pretty fun.

At first the tall, pointy, cone-like structures between the cups (there is probably some interesting technical term for these in the egg carton manufacturing world) got in the way a bit, but then my 7 year-old daughter suggested that we cut them off. So she did.

After that it was smooth sailing and fun playing. My daughter decided to use the top of the egg carton to record her scores.

By the way, my daughter had the idea of playing Mancala with the egg carton. I thought that was very clever, but it was too rainy today to go out and collect stones.

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Next week’s Unplugged Project:

Pipecleaner (or Twist Tie? Or Wire?)

(This was my 5 year-old’s suggestion, so blame him if you don’t like it!)

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Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, January 20, 2008 8:41 pm

This week I have an old friend and her 2 year-old son, and mother visiting from Upstate New York, so we had an impromptu toothpick art party!

We got out construction paper, glue, playdough … and of course toothpicks, and had fun.

Here are some photos:

And the finished products:

Dolphin and Fish (5 year-old)

Dog, Butterfly, Tree and Clouds (7 year-old)

Mystery Sculpture (2 year-old)

And finally…the grownup projects:

(Note the cherry stem fishing line in this one, very clever!!)

If you did the project with us, I hope you had fun and please be sure to put your name in Mr. Linky so that we can visit.

I look forward to seeing what you all came up with! As usual, I am sure there will be many creative ideas that I would never have thought of.

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Next Monday’s Unplugged Project:

At the suggestion of Becky who is overrun with egg cartons at the moment, the theme is:

Egg Cartons!!

Thank you Becky! Sounds like a fun one.

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(Sorry the comments are here instead of where they should be. I didn’t want to import the post the normal way for fear of overwriting all the work I have done up until now, but I didn’t want to leave them behind! )

COMMENTS:

12 comments:
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- said…

The “subscribe to” link at the bottom still uses the blogspot URL instead of the new one. I’m kind of new to this RSS reader thing, how do I add the new address instead?
January 20, 2008 8:33 PM

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Tamara said…

Yours are super! How nice to combine various things together. I never think of using play-doh in conjunction with paper for art projects. I’m off to dig some egg cartons out of our recycle bin….
January 20, 2008 8:49 PM

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Andrée said…

Somehow I remember sticking toothpicks into playdough when I was a kid. Why in the world did I do that or for what purpose? But anyhow, these are neat pieces of art. Egg cartons? Got it! I may even incorporate some art into that one. My daughter has been collecting them for the farm so I have plenty.
January 20, 2008 9:01 PM

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Mom Unplugged said…

That is a good question about the RSS feed. I think you’ll just have to subscribe using the blogspot address.

When I move, I’ll put a notice up here. Then you can go to the new blog at unplugyourkids.com and resubscribe there. Sorry I don’t have an easier answer.

If anyone knows of a better solution could you please post it here? Thanks!

(And thanks for your interest in subscribing to my blog!)
January 20, 2008 9:08 PM

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soo said…

what beautiful art work, I’m afraid that I am another one that would never think of combining different materials such as paper and playdough.
It just so happens that I’ve been saving my egg boxes for a friend, but she won’t be getting them … well not all of them anyway.
January 20, 2008 9:57 PM

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Maria said…

A great collection of things. It’s curious, because Joel (3 1/2 y) has made a similar ‘thing’ than the 2yo boy.
1kiss.
January 21, 2008 12:32 AM

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Kate in NJ said…

We are in..love the cherry stem use by the way!
I thought P would use some clay too, but she wanted a frame for a picture
she drew..we have egg cartons a plenty for next week.
January 21, 2008 8:10 AM

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amanda said…

I love your project! Very cute results, and fun for all ages, too. clever :)
January 21, 2008 8:23 AM

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SuburbanCorrespondent said…

Kids can be so creative with anything! My kids love craft sticks and duct tape (!) and tinfoil. Also cardboard. My eldest once made an entire suit of armor out of tinfoil.
January 21, 2008 9:33 AM

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Claire said…

You made some cool stuff this week. I really like the way you have combined mediums. Does the playdoh stick to the coloured paper?

Took us a while to get going with the theme this week but we were soon on a roll and had great fun.

Not sure what we will do this week. I won’t use my egg cartons as I save them to give our hens eggs away to friends. I suspect we may look to doing something with egg shells instead - we have plenty of those!
January 21, 2008 12:19 PM

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Heather said…

They look great. I am so in for the egg caarton project. My husband and I were just wondering the other day what we were going to do with all of our egg cartons. So a great way to use them up. Thanks.
January 21, 2008 1:40 PM

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Becky @ Boys Rule My Life said…

Well, my original intention was to get the play dough out and stick some toothpicks in, but then I came up with something different. I’m so glad I actually did the “assigned” project this week! :)

Your kids did a great job incorporating everything!

PS. Thanks for helping me do something with the egg cartons!

hugs to all,
Becky
January 21, 2008 2:37 PM

Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, January 13, 2008 10:31 pm

We did not do well with the Unplugged Project this week (theme: Sculpture).

With me being plugged in more than usual and a few ski trips plus homework that had to be done, I am afraid we didn’t get to do anything new for “sculpture.” That’s a shame, since the children were excited about it, and seemed to have some interesting ideas.

I did take a picture of an old project that the kids did one day, all of their own devising.

Are you all familiar with Sculpey Clay? Ever since making Sculpey Clay beads in art class one time, my children are quite enamored of it.

Sculpey Clay is a modeling clay that you mold and then bake in the oven. After being baked, it turns hard and can be drilled, painted…whatever.

This picture depicts some Sculpey Clay cookies made by my son (age 5). On the right, you can see a baby in a cradle, complete with pillow by my 7 year-old daughter.

Unfortunately I baked the baby and cradle too long and they turned from red (cradle) and beige (baby) to jet black! So although I recommend Sculpey Clay to those who have never tried it, be sure not to overcook unless you want everything to turn black!

So what sculptures did you and/or your kids create this week? If you made some sculpture, please put your link in Mr. Linky so that we can find each other.

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Next week’s theme: Toothpicks.

Why? I don’t know, but that’s what popped into my head. Sorry!
Heather wisely pointed out that pointy toothpicks and little boys might not be the best combination so she is going to change it a bit for next week. That is totally fine!

Since we all have children of a wide variety of ages, and there are even adults who do the project from time to time, remember you are always welcome to change and adapt a theme. How about popsicle sticks, or twigs, or anything you want!

The point is to have some TV-free fun with your children (or for yourself). If we can do it together and share our projects once a week, that makes it even more enjoyable. So do whatever you want that fits your child’s age and interests, but the one requirement is to have fun (oh, and be sure to stop by next Monday and tell me what you did, OK?).

Good luck!

Comments (14)

By Mom Unplugged, January 6, 2008 9:03 pm

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was: Puzzle.

We decided to make our own jigsaw puzzles. I had been thinking of using magazine pictures pasted to thin cardboard, but my 5 year-old son had the brilliant suggestion of recycling our 2007 calendar. This worked well since the pages were stiffer than magazine pages and needed less reinforcement. In fact we didn’t have enough thin cardboard for the backing, so we used construction paper as a backing for one of them and that worked fine.

The first step was choosing pictures. There was some squabbling over who would get August so I declared that if they couldn’t cooperate, then no one would get August. Things settled down after that.

Once each child had chosen a picture, they tore them out, trimmed the edges, and pasted them onto thin cardboard (the top of a shirt box) or construction paper.

Then came the fun part. The kids cut the pictures up into pieces. My son decided to keep it simple, but my 7 year-old daughter cut hers into little tiny pieces!

Then, they put them back together again a few times.

It was a fun little activity for this gloomy, rainy day.

I look forward to seeing what you came up with at your house! Please sign in with Mr. Linky (if he’s here this week) so that we can all find each other.

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Next week’s Unplugged Project:

Sculpture

Don’t worry, we’re not talking Michelangelo-quality here.

My kids came up with this project idea. When they said “sculpture,” I was thinking mundane playdough or clay. Silly me. My children apparently were thinking far more imaginatively and began talking about cardboard dogs and natural sculptures made from materials collected outside.

This is yet another reason why we adults should just stay out of our kids art work as much as possible. They often have far more creative vision than we do!