Vintage car collage

                                      

Luke is in love with cars since he could crawl. He is totally obsessed with them. He would pick cars over balls or perhaps cars over mummy!

I found this collage idea off a children's activity book sometime ago and had always wanted to give it a try. Recently I have been trying to work on not procrastinating and valuing time. (This is a separate dialogue altogether)

It's probably more for a 5 year old child art and craft activity. But adults could help little ones in terms of drawing out the template and letting them cut and glue them. Little ones could attempt to decorate the car in any way they like.

Materials:
Colored paper
Scissors
Glue
Pencil
Black felt pen
Images of vintage cars for inspiration

I drew out main body parts. Likely 3 parts, one for the front, body and back.
Then I cut them out and glue them (leaving a small space between each part)
Then using a black felt pen to trace the car and draw in the wheels and details of the car.

I plan to share with Luke and Sophie this picture and also pictures of modern day cars. We could delve into details about the evolution of cars. I'm sure my husband would love to join in too!

Please share with me your pictures of  vintage car collage. I'd love to be inspired by your creativity!

Happy Easter Day!

It's Easter Sunday! Egg hunt, chocolates and bunnies? Though it might be for most people here in China, we wanted our kids to learn the real meaning of Easter.

I just kept it simple for the family.  We did a sun catcher of a cross and placed it in our front window for the kids and our neighbours to remember that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.

It was an easy activity for everyone and it was pretty fuss free. We talked to Sophie about the meaning of Easter and what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I have provided directions to make the suncatcher at the end of this blog.

At bedtime, we read our daily bible devotion for children to the kids and taught them the Lord's prayer and we sang some worship songs. 

Next year, when we are back home, we will take the kids to attend Sunday service  with family and friends. 

His love endures forever. Amen.

Materials for Suncatcher:

Hard paper or thin cardboard for frame

Contact paper

Colored cellophane paper

Sticker gems 

Washi tape

Double sided tape

Scissors

Cut out the shape of a cross on a hard colored paper and stuck the contact paper on one side. I used double sided tape to tape the back of the cross (sticky surface facing out) to a window.

I cut out strips of colored cellophane paper and the children cut them into squares or rectangles. We used pink, orange, green and clear as I wanted to have a spring look.

We stuck the colored paper and then I used washi tape to tidy up the borders as some of the colored paper would stick out of the cross. Once finished, we placed some pink sticker gems on the cross on both sides so that it sparkles on both sides.

I hope you enjoy this simple craft with your children. 

Keepsake of children drawing

I love Sophie's depiction of people and wanted to create a keepsake of her drawing at this age. I also love making small surprises for the family, so I decided to turn one of Sophie's drawing of daddy and turned it into a pillow case for my husband.
He adored it so much and suggested that we do a series of her 'Picasso' people onto pillows for the family room sofa set.

I traced her drawing on a cloth and used embroidery thread to sew the traced lines. After that, I used some fabric cloth and sewed a simple pillow case.

It took me 2 hours in actual work but with taking Luke for a walk in the park and feeding ducks, lunch and putting him to nap, I took a total of 6 hours from start to finish. I guess I just had to be patient and do it in small steps.

It was an enjoyable experience for me and I know it means a lot to Sophie and daddy too.

DIY Stamps

Some time ago, I was into making my own stamps for Sophie to play with. Simple shapes that she can identify with and not have to spend lots of money on stamps. Art stuff are expensive here in Singapore!

So, I went to a thrift store and got some wooden blocks and some craft foam. Cut out the craft foam according to the shapes and sizes of the blocks that I like to have. Used a hot glue gun to adhere the craft foam to the wooden blocks.

After that is done, I drew the shapes on the opposite end of the foam and painted it so we know what shapes we had.

You could either use an ink pad or paint.  I chose paint because Sophie tends to move from color to color and I didn't want the ink pads to have mixed colors. She ended up with finger painting after the stamping session.

Supplies:
Craft foam
Wooden blocks of different sizes
Scissors or craft knife
Glue gun
Paint

All in all, we spent less than $6.00 and there were plenty of craft foam and wooden blocks left to make more in future.

Vibrant edible paint

My one year old loves putting things to his mouth. While I know most paints for children are non toxic, I wasn't quite comfortable with him eating huge quantities if it happens. I found a site for homemade edible paint using cornstarch, water and food coloring. This was good for us and I made a small batch to try out. It turned out really well in terms of color and my three year old ended up with all the fun as the little one was napping. 

I picked 3 colors that complemented each other. Pink, blue and yellow. While playing, she discovered green, orange and purple.

We used aluminum foil instead of paper as that is sturdier than paper and it reflects the colors very well under the afternoon sun. 

Overall, Sophie had a fantastic time. Can't wait for Luke to wake up and try this out.

I experimented a little for the paint to get the right texture that I wanted. 

2 cups cornstarch
1 cup cold water
4 cups boiling water
Food coloring (I used wilton food coloring gel)

Stir 1 cup of cold water into the cornstarch.  Pour the hot water cup by cup and stirring between each cup.
Try to achieve a custard like texture. If it fails, put it under stove,  medium heat for 1 minute and the solution should thicken.  Stir out any clumps.
Pour into bottles and add coloring of your choice.

Adapted from this site.

Pink Friday! Play dough fun

Sophie loves play dough and she loves pink! What a better way to spend a Friday afternoon playing with this while Luke is napping. 

All supplies can be found at home. It's homemade play dough (not gluten free)

Recipe for play dough as follows:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup water
1/3 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tar tar
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Sprinkle of cinnamon powder (optional)
Food coloring (your choice)

Combine all ingredients (except food coloring) into a pot and turn on the stove. Stir the mixture until it clumps up and forms a sticky dough (about 3 minutes)

Remove the dough and let it cool a little. Divide into portions and add coloring of your choice.

We usually play the dough in a tray and add a few items (rolling pin, beads, goggle eyes, etc) for her imagination to have free play.

Do share with me ideas on setting up a play dough activity that will entice your child to play. Cheers and have a good weekend!

Alberto Giacometti inspired sculpture

This was a fun project for me instead of Sophie. Perhaps an older child will enjoy it better as it requires patience and certain dexterity.

Supplies:
Pipe cleaners
strips of aluminium foil
A ball of paper (for the stick man head)
Play dough or blue tac

Steps:
Take 1 pipe cleaner and make a loop in the center for the head. This piece will make the head and the arms

Take 2 pieces of pipe cleaners for the legs. Use the arms to secure them tightly. Twist the 2 pipe cleaners a few times to make the body.

Put a ball of paper in the loop and start using the strips of aluminium foil to wrap it.

To make it stand, attach balls of play dough and wrap the foil around. It is quite challenging making it stand after a few tries, it will find its equilibrium.

Watercolor spray artwork

I love watercolor. Liquid watercolor especially! There are lots of art activities that can be done with it and today, we did a simple one. Dilute the liquid watercolors in spray bottles, set up paper and start squirting away.

Supplies:
Spray bottles (clear ones are preferred)
Liquid watercolors (your choice)
Butcher paper
Scissors
Tape or peg

We had a splendid time spraying away and what's best is we are going to use these as wrapping paper afterwards. 

DIY story telling board

Sophie has a wild imagination and we love making up stories. I decided to make a story telling board with some stickers, magnet sheets and a white board. I stuck the stickers to the magnet sheet and cut them to size. Voilà!

We could also draw on the board and have the little magnets placed on it to tell a story.

I may try one with a tea party or dress up doll version.

I think it makes a great start for story telling and also quiet time activity for toddlers. 

Happy to hear your views. 

The Giving Tree (Story, Art, Learning)

The Giving Tree

By Shel Silverstein

I love this book. We have been reading this book fairly often over the past one year. It’s a simple and heartwarming story about a tree’s unconditional love for a boy when he was little till he turned old.

 

This week, I decided to use this book as a starting point for art and some learning time for Sophie. I drew up a tree on a large piece of paper and labelled it with the different parts of the tree. Placed a palette with green and yellow paint and a couple of brushes. When Sophie was up from her nap and saw it, she went straight to it and started painting away.

We talked about the different parts of the tree such as the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits and animals that live in trees. We also looked at the papaya tree that we had planted together. I have one that we planted months ago and another a couple of weeks ago. We planted these trees from seeds. In this way, Sophie was able to see the stages of a plant. Papaya seeds are really easy to grow in Asia. I repurposed an old milk carton to germinate the seeds. We watered it everyday and within 2-3 weeks, we saw the sprouts peeking out of the soil. It was a beautiful sight. In another month or two, when the plant is slight bigger, we will plant it into the garden. And with the repurposed milk carton, all we need is to cut up the carton and put the soil and plant into the ground. In this way, we avoid hurting the roots of the plant.

In the next week, I plan to dig deeper into this subject. We will make a trip to the botanic gardens to do tree bark rubbings, leaf printing, create a little catalog of the trees that we have seen.

 

Painting on umbrella

 

More often than not, we find ourselves painting as it’s one of Sophie’s favorite activities. So, on this very hot day, we decided to paint our little transparent umbrella bought from a thrift shop (Daiso). We then wait for a rainy day to bring out this umbrella to let the rain wash it off and admire the beautiful colors run off. We used Crayola washable paint for this little activity.

 

 

Welcome

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

Kay Redfield Jamison
Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

Welcome to Tinyminds@play. 

This space is dedicated to the activities that I have done with my two young children and that they are simple for you and your family to also implement and enjoy the journey. I hope to grow this space such that it inspires creativity and provides an avenue for positive mindset when nurturing our little ones. It is a challenging journey and we always need some encouragement from others that we are not alone. 

Yours sincerely

Sharon

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12