The Unplugged Project theme for the month of March will be:  Sphere

The linky is below and will remain open until April 1st.  On April 1st I will post a new Unplugged Project theme.

If you are wondering what the Unplugged Project is, then please read more about it here.  We’d love to have you join in!

The basics are the following:

• Please only link if you have done a project that is related to the theme.  Don’t just put your website in there because you like the idea of the project.  I appreciate the support, but if I don’t see a project, then I’ll have to delete your link.

• Please don’t link until you actually have a post to link to.  The post should not simply describe an intention, but document an actual completed project.

• When you link, please link to your POST, not just your blog.  I am trying to build a library of project ideas, so we want people to always be able to find your project in the future.  If you link simply to your blog, they won’t be able to find your post later on.  (Feel free to email me if you have a question about this.)

• Don’t worry about the “accuracy” of your connection to the theme.  Be creative, have fun, and think “outside the box” if you wish.  For example, the theme was once soft and we made moth feeders out of soft cotton balls.  Another time the theme was kitchen and we made Oobleck because it was made with cornstarch which is a substance you find in the kitchen, right?  If you think about it, you can find a connection with almost anything and that is what is really fun!

• If you have the time, energy, and inspiration to come up with more than one project for sphere that’s great!  Feel free to link to each sphere project separately in the linky.

• If you have no blog, then please leave a comment on this post with a description of what you did.  The more ideas we get, the better!

• It takes a lot of time and energy to put this project together and I would greatly appreciate a link to Unplug Your Kids in your project post.  Thank you and enjoy!

Photo is from Wikipedia, by Andrzej Barabasz.

I promised another Spiral Unplugged Project post and I am finally here with it – at the eleventh hour (a new Monthly Unplugged Project theme begins tomorrow)!

All day yesterday I was looking after four girls in addition to my own two girls (my son was very happy to escape this overdose of estrogen by fleeing to a friend’s house).

The age of the girls ranged from 4 to 11 and after boredom appeared to be setting in, I tried this totally retro idea out on them:  Spirograph Shrinky Dinks.  Just 3 words:  THEY-LOVED-IT.

I had bought some shrink plastic at a Michael’s craft store on my last trip to the big city.  We pinned the Spirograph rings on to the plastic sheets with no problems.  NOTE:  The frosted type of paper worked out best with markers, the shiny white tended to smear.

Since my original Spirograph ball point pens were long dead after 30+ years, I had also bought some fine point Sharpies in many different colors and they worked great!  The tip was small and long enough to fit through the holes in the Spirograph disks and produce beautiful results.

Before they went in the oven, we punched holes in some of the finished Shrinky Dinks.  A regular one-hole paper punch works fine and, once shrunk, produces a hole large enough for a thread or fine wire.   If you need to thread on something larger than that, then punch several times to make a bigger hole.

The girls strung them on thread to make necklaces.  I actually have an even fancier idea in mind, so check back!

If you like this, then be sure to read my original Spirograph post.  To find out how to make your own Shrinky Dink plastic from home trash, don’t miss my Homemade Shrinky Dinks post!

The theme for this month’s Unplugged Project is spiral.  All along I had been thinking Spirograph and dug out my old Spirograph sets (yes, I am a packrat!), but we haven’t had a chance to play with those yet.

Coincidentally, my husband gave each of the kids a gift bag full of Valentine’s Day goodies, including a very cute, small, heart-shaped Spirograph-type toy!  They pulled those out this afternoon and had a blast with them.  It was their first time playing with such a thing (although the results reminded the kids of our very fun string art project).

It is still a bit hard for my 4 year-old to manage on her own (holding frame still and keeping the gear tracking along the teeth), but she loved it and it seems like a great exercise in fine motor skills.

When I was a child, the classic Kenner Spirograph was as ubiquitous as Crayola Crayons or Play-Doh.  Everyone had one!  But nowadays, as far as I can tell, this is considered a “vintage toy” that can only be found at places like Ebay.  Am I vintage too??  Feeling a little old here…

Anyhow, I have lots of not-so-vintage ideas of things to do with our Spirograph creations.  Hopefully we’ll get to try them and post about it before the end of the month.

LINKS:

• There are still Spirograph-like sets out there.

• Here’s a simple one that looks pretty good to me: Hypotrochoid Art Set.

• The mathematics and history of Spirograph.

• Find a real Spirograph set on Ebay!

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Do you have a spiral-themed project to share?  Then please consider joining our Monthly Unplugged Project and link to your post here.  Read more about the Monthly Unplugged Project here!

Welcome to the new Monthly Unplugged Project!

February’s Unplugged Project theme is spiral.  Remember, the theme will be up for a month now instead of just a week.  I will close this linky on March 1st and also open up a new one for a new theme.

The “rules” are basically the same:

• If you do a spiral Unplugged Project, then please link to your project post, not just your blog.  I am trying to build a library of project ideas, so we want people to always be able to find your project in the future.
• If you don’t do a spiral project, then please DO NOT LINK.  I will remove any links that clearly do not fit the theme at all, no matter how nice your blog is.  Sorry, nothing personal, but I just want to keep this organized.
• A link back to Unplug Your Kids in your project post would be greatly appreciated!  :-)
• If you have the time, energy, and inspiration to come up with more than one project for spiral, then feel free to link to each spiral project separately in the linky.
• If you have no blog, then please leave a comment on this post with a description of what you did.  The more ideas we get, the better!

The Unplugged Project is very flexible.  The point is to be creative and have fun!

(I will have the buttons available later in the week.)

Gorgeous nautilus shell photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

THE LINKY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO JOINED IN!

I have been a bit burned out on the Weekly Unplugged Project lately.  We just don’t seem to get to it every week and it has become more of a Blog Burden for me, then a Blog Benefit.  Plus, public participation seems to be waning along with mine.  Sigh…  Time for a change.

I have heard from a few people who are still interested.  I am still interested too, but now that my children are older I can no longer get to it every week and it MUST NOT become a chore. The point is for it to be fun.   So, I have a new plan.

How about a Monthly Unplugged Project?  I will announce a theme on the first day of the month, and close the Linky on the last day of the month.  That will give everyone (including me) a month instead of a week to come up with a project, do it, write about it,  and link to our posts (and/or leave our project in a comment).  Those with more time and enthusiasm could do as many projects as they want for each theme.

Over the years I have also been contemplating creating “Unplugged Project Buttons” that people could download and which would link to the project.  Button display would be entirely optional of course, but I have had some requests from people over the life of the project, so I guess interest is out there.

After about two years, I am finally getting to the buttons, and have even created a few!  Once I figure out some of the technical issues, I’ll put them out for any interested readers to take.

How does it all sound?

But if you did a writing Unplugged Project this week, then please link to your project post in the linky below. If you didn’t join in with a writing project, then please do not link, but read more about how to join us here.

Due to seemingly waning interest and the holidays, I think we’ll have a bit of an Unplugged Project vacation.  Enjoy and stay creative!

In honor of the American Thanksgiving holiday, the theme for this week’s Unplugged Project is Thanks. We will be doing our Thanks project on Wednesday afternoon (a half day at school). We’ve been too busy with school and other things to get to it yet.

If you did a Thanks Unplugged Project this week, then…well…thanks!  And please add a link to your project post (not just your blog) in the Linky below.  If you didn’t do a Thanks project then please do not link, but read more about how to join in here.  We’d love to have you take part!

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

Writing

Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was cats.  We have a lot of cats.  In fact there is an annoying cat trying to get between me and the computer screen now as I write this.  But, that is as far as we have gotten with cats this week. Maybe I’ll link to something later.

In the meantime, what did you do for a cats Unplugged Project this week?  If you did a cat-themed project, then please link to your project itself (not just your blog) in the linky below.  If you didn’t do one yet but would like to join in, you can read more about the Unplugged Project here.

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

Thanks

(Since it is the United States Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 26th)
Enjoy!

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project should have been green, not purple, since green is how I felt all weekend. I am better today but still moving slowly. No project for us this week.

If you did a purple Unplugged Project this week, thank you and please link to your purple project (not just your blog) in the Linky below. If you didn’t do a purple Unplugged Project but would like to learn how to join in, then please read more about it all here.

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

Cats

Have fun!

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was smell.  I had some fun ideas so it’s too bad we didn’t have time to get to it this week.  Oh well, I’ll have to try and work them into future Unplugged Projects.

If you did a smell Unplugged Project this week, then please link to your project post, not just your blog.  The reason for this is that we always want people to be able to easily find your post, even a year or two from now!  If you did not join in, then please do not link, but you can always read more about how to join in here.

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

Purple

Have fun and be creative!

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