A colorful crayon collage...and what went wrong with it!

I have been wanting to do a particular melting art project with Aidan for a while.  Ever since I saw a time lapsed video of someone melting whole crayons with a blow dryer onto canvas, I knew Aidan would enjoy wielding the tool that he thinks is fun to blow my hair with into a big mess.  The version shown in the video I saw would take too long for a four year old to do, so I modified our approach.

We gathered a blank canvas, pencil sharpener, blow dryer, and a box of untouched crayons.  Who doesn't have extra crayons lying around the house?  I think my mother uses the same bucket of miscellaneous crayons I used  as a kid with my nephews, they last forever!

Aidan and I began by peeling off the paper from certain colors he picked out, then he started making shavings of the crayons with the pencil sharpener.  He dumped and sprinkled the curly colors all over the canvas.

We tested the blow dryer on the shaving covered canvas on the floor, so Aidan could hold the dryer at a more comfortable height, hoping it wouldn't blow too many shavings away.  Even on the lowest setting, the dryer blew colors across the floor.  It was funny to watch, but not the result we wanted.  We tried covering it with foil, leaving space above the surface so the shavings wouldn't stick to the foil.  The dryer blew the foil closer to the surface anyway, melting the shavings a little, but sticking to the foil instead.  We picked off what we could and sprinkled it back on the canvas. 

Aidan wanted to try laying it under the sun, like we did when we cooked the marshmallow in the sun.  We moved the art/experiment outside and covered it with an aluminum bowl so the wind wouldn't carry away all of Aidan's hard work...and my patience!  We played in the sunshine for an hour and a half, but there was no change.  Aidan was looking discouraged, but told me we needed to try it in the oven now.

I set the oven to the lowest temperature it would let me, 170 degrees, fashioned a tray out of foil, and popped it in the oven for five minutes.

Finally!  Success!  As Aidan inspected the melted colors, he told me he saw a tornado in the picture.  I have more canvases stashed away, I bought a pack of them on sale.  Aidan hopes to do more melted crayon shavings with them because melting stuff is just too cool!

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Play Out The Story

How do you get things ready for a day of imagination?

• Do you pull out boxes of dress up clothing for your little ones to access and explore?  
• Do you add props?  
• Are there random items, or a common theme?  
• Is there a setting, such as the ice cream shop, or the doctor's office?  
• What typically gets acted out, fantasy (fairies, dragons, superheros), or reality (the supermarket, or doctor's office)?

As a child, I vividly remember dressing up about every other day in old over sized clothing, itchy wigs, and clunky high-heeled shoes.  I pranced around the play room in my outfit with my dolls, using plastic kitchen utensils to make imaginary food with my sister.  I don't remember having a particular agenda or goal.  There were bins of random items for us to choose from, and we made up scenarios as we played for hours.  As an adult, I was introduced to a form of imaginary play that was familiar, but never introduced to me in this particular way.  I observed a group of children one day being shown an area of materials that had been prepared in a specific way so they could play out the story.

Playing out the story simply means setting up play to reflect the different stages of whatever the scene is.  A simple example is washing baby dolls...

1. A tub or bin with soapy water, sponges or washcloths, and 2-3 dolls 
2. A stack of towels for drying
3. Diapers and containers of powder
4. Doll clothing

There are steps in everything we do.  When setting up for this type of play think about a set of instructions, or the order of a story, what happens first, second, third?  Then set up accordingly and your children can play out the story of going grocery shopping, eating at their favorite restaurant, going to the doctor, etc.  Preparing materials in this way is good preparation for an early literacy skill, story comprehension, and can also lead to narrative skills, being able to understand and tell the order of a story or stories.  

I ran across a GREAT example of playing out the story on a blog called The Good Long Road.  Check out the post Making something out of nothing #2: Library at home, and you'll see the steps this family takes when they go to the library, and their favorite coffee shop.  The author of this blog used materials she already had at home too, another plus!

Try out this method if you don't already and enjoy the story!

Musical Sticks

We have a small playground in our neighborhood a couple blocks away that we walk to when we don't go to our favorite park in town.  Aidan wanted to show his new little brother the swings and the climbing structure so we strolled around the corner one morning.

Aidan is a collector.  It never fails when we are outside that he will eye up and find "perfect sticks," or interesting looking rocks somewhere on the ground.  There are several trees at this playground, and handfuls of sticks pining to be discovered by a child's hand.

Aidan quickly spotted a couple of sticks when we arrived and decided they would be useful to make music. He began banging them on the pole supports, inviting me to make music too.  I took the skinny stick and joined in on the rhythm, mentioning to him that even though I was hitting the same object, the sound I was making was different than his.  He tried it out for himself, smiling at me as he listened.

We continued to experiment with sounds by using different sized sticks and objects, discussing the materials they were made out of, and how their size produced different sounds.

We had a mini concert echoing down the street for a little while, and Aidan still has his sticks.  He pulled them out the other day for an impromptu drumming session on some overturned sand buckets, yet another transformation the simple stick has made at our house!




If you have a child that admires the potential a stick can bring to their play, check out this adorable book Not a Stick.  It's a simple and quick read that I feel children as young as two would even enjoy, because there are many ways a stick is not a stick!

A lesson in architecture

Since Aidan was about 18 months old we've been making forts.  The first fort was made using the pillows from our couch, and has been a favorite almost every week since then.  This favorite fort usually resembles a tunnel since we use the couch and the coffee table to support the giant cushions.  As Aidan has gotten older he has tried other ways to prop the pillows up on his own, giving him a lesson in architecture that he thought he only had to worry about when using his wooden blocks and Legos.  We've had many conversations when the mood strikes him to dismantle our couch, about angles, size, distance, weight, etc, while constructing past tunnels and forts in the living room.  Even though he has remembered some basic rules he has a long way to go before earning that engineering degree or the right to call himself an architect!  

I found a wonderful article from The New York Times about Lessons in the art of pillow fort construction that inspired this post and is something I think you will enjoy if you find pleasure in building forts with your kids.  If you're looking for some fort inspiration check out All for the boys.  Every Friday is Fort Friday on her blog, where she features photos of all kinds of forts people send in to her, including our own couch pillow fort!

What are your favorite fort building materials?     

Back in busy-ness

You may have noticed my activity on the blog has dropped off suddenly.  I was occupied with bringing my second son into the world, and recovering from an unfortunate side effect that prevented me from looking at any reading material, especially things on screens, because of the distracting pain I was in.  All is well in our house now and we're slowly getting back to our busy selves as we navigate this new chapter of our lives.

Aidan has expressed his love for his new little brother with kisses, hugs, and requests to let him know when his eyes are open so he can show him things.  But mixed in with that have been some new emotions.  There have been a few times where I've heard, "This day is weird!"  We've made sure to keep some constants going in Aidan's life among the craziness of sleep deprivation, doctor visits, and visitors, so he still feels some familiarity of times before little brother.  We've also warned him at the same time that things would be different!

I'm not sure if the goal is to get back to the old version of our lives (yeah right), create a completely different one, or find one that involves the old and the new.  I do know that we're settling back into being busy and can't wait to continue sharing more moments and discoveries with you.  

Devin arrived on March 29th, all 8lbs. 6oz. and 20 inches of him!