Big Messy Art - Golf Balls

Ok, this particular project wasn't very big at all. In fact, it was so small that it seemed it'd be reasonable to do it indoors instead of taking it outside to the deck or the sidewalk. But it was messy alright. So in retrospect, taking it outdoors would've been a good idea. Except we'd have to run an extension cord for the blow dryer.

The project again is very simple - a cardboard box lined up with paper (note to self - tape the paper to the box BEFORE turning the blow dryer on), a couple of light-weight small balls (note to self -golf balls aren't particularly light at all), some paint (note to self - thin it out with water next time so it's not as viscous) and a blow dryer.

Even though I seemed to make every mistake in the book (actually, not in the book) preparing this activity, it turned out ok. M enjoyed picking the two colors (we only had 2 golf balls) - red and yellow. I was happy with the selection since it meant the inevitable mixing of the two colors would produce a lively orange and not the dreadful "preschool-special purplish brown".

Next, there was some figuring out of the angle at which to hold the blow dryer. It was kinda tricky 'cause the box had pretty tall sides (sounds like another note to self here...) Also, after using the blow dryer for the project, M used it to make his DIY Death Star toy skid around the room. Awesomesause.

Hex Bug Nano - So Kewl!

Ok, so M chose a hex bug at the Liberty Science Center gift shop. Which was fine by me since a) it wasn't about space, b) it was small, c) it was much less expensive than most other stuff in the shop.

Next day we played with the hex bug (by the way, M chose the Nano, a bug that looks like and acts like a roach). First, we built a small enclosure for it with the blocks. Then we gradually expanded it and made it into a maze with several rooms. Along the way we figured that we had to reinforce the corners, otherwise the Nano was going to bang its head against them until a small crack would appear. Then just like a real roach, it'd squeese through and run away.

After building several versions of block mazes, we came up with a better idea. We cut a few "doors" in an empty cardboard box, turned it upside down trapping Hex underneath and tried to guess which door it'd run out of. Sometimes it'd run out of one door only to immediate run into a door next to it. That was a lot of fun.

Then I wrote numbers above each door. I kept it simple - 1,2,3. We counted out 10 beads for the Nano to eat. Depending on which door it'd run out of, we'd give him that exact number of beads. M especially loved this game.

Then I tried surrounding some of the exits with enclosures of different geometry - a rectangle, a triangle and a semi-circle, to see which ones the Nano would negotiate faster (find its way back to the door it came out of). This wasn't particularly exciting though since the Nano kept getting stuck in the corners where enclosures were taped to the walls.

I knew that we could buy a whole habitat for the Hex. It also doubles as a battle arena. But it looked very boring. Plus I didn't care to spend any more money and buy any more plastic stuff that we'd have to bring back with us. So instead we decided to create our own Nano habitat. M and I sat down, decided on various obstacles and general layout.

Then we raided our junk pile and recycling box to find tubes, wires, cardboard boxes, and plastic cups for a labyrinth. The end result was a bit unexpected. By the time we finished gluing down the last piece of the habitat, our Nano got lost. We couldn't find it anywhere and so ended up going to the store to buy a new one.

Week 2 - SNOW

It's been snowing every single day this week, I think. And when it didn't, we were busy digging ourselves out. I've heard on the news that so far NY has seen 8 snow storms this winter. I bet all of them happened this week. (Yeah, I know, it's not true, but boy it sure feels this way!)

I mean, sure, lots of snow is super-cool. We go out 2-3 times a day for about half an hour each time. And we dig and throw snowballs and run around the yard pulling the sled. Ok, I do run around the yard. I feel sort of like Rambo (when running downhill) and sort of like a barge hauler on the Volga (on the uphill part).

I also get to save money by not going to the gym and instead shoveling snow off the deck and digging out the cars. M and Grandma are building not one, but 2 snow slides. Yeah, that's how much snow we have. Need any?

The not so cool part is that I don't drive in the snow. And so we stay home all day. Thank goodness, M's Grandma (aka Babushka) took a whole week off of work to spend with us. The original plan was to go to Philly or to NYC. But obviously it didn't happen.

Uncle Arkadiy braved the cold and the snow and took the train from Jersey City last weekend. He drives in the snow, no problem. He also brought a sled. So last Sunday we drove half a mile down the road for some sledding down a real big hill. But since it was like the coldest day so far this winter and A and I wore jeans, not snow pants, we stayed there for about 20 minutes. Then we went to a bagel shop for some coffee for A, hot choc for myself and a black-and-white cookie for M.

Here's what did happen (apart from all the snow play):

We cooked. Ok, Babushka and M cooked and I mostly just took pictures, or slept, or tried to catch up with work. We made juices (we make fresh juice every day now and M now drinks veggie juice, like kale and celery, as long as it's mixed with orange, carrot and apple juice - hooray!).

Then we made Russian meat dumplings called pel'meni. M made his own dumpling, which we decided to call "pel'menburger". He was really satisfied with the result and ate it up.

Next, Babushka and M ground some chicken, added lots of kale to it (!) and made little fried kebabs and fried patties. The patties turned out so green, you'd think it was St. Patty's day already. But M ate them up too! Awesome! He's much less picky with food now. And he's gained some weight in the last two weeks.

In addition to cooking, we played. We didn't bring many toys with us and by now he's a bit tired of all of them, including his Christmas gift. Fortunately, grandparents have a ton of odds and ends all over the house, the attic and the basement. We normally call it "trash", but now it's being re-branded as "awesome junk". I mean, check it out - little boxes and baskets, tiny blown glass figurines, old kitchen utensils, glass beads, leftover tiles from tiling the kitchen backsplash 8 or so years ago... Totally playable, don't you think?

So the candle holder houses "friends" and their "magic tree" that grows, depending on the day, lollipops, candy, toys, or whatever else. And the tiles and glass beads are a cool mosaic.

The tree branches, cut into pieces, became a lighthouse and a little house next to it and a garden for Pandora the Cat, Seabold the Dog and Huck the Bird (if you didn't read "The Lighthouse Family", it's your loss).

And the seashells - families. M told this story about one of them: "Papa Shell went to Home Depot to buy saw and told the boy Shell to stay home and do house work. Then Mama Shell and Papa Shells went to play with the cat and the boy Shell just did house work." Lol, like this ever happened to him!

But I sure do hope that next week we'll get out more even if it's just down the road to get groceries or something.

Week 1 Is Over

One week down, only 8 more to go. Chris has made it ok to Alabama and last time I spoke with him, he was about to start his training. (He'll love getting letters, so if you feel like sending him one, please e-mail or call me for address.)

Yes, we've been here, in NY, for exactly one week now. It's been pretty good so far although we spent most of the time inside because of the weather.

Fortunately, also because of the weather, my mom's office had a few late openings and she didn't leave for work 'til 8:30-9am. Which gave me an opportunity to sleep. Well, sort of... 'Cause of course M, while getting used to all the changes, is totally off his regular sleeping schedule and wakes up at ungodly 4:30-5am. Sure, he stays in bed 'til 6 and even 6:30, but he is not asleep.

And when M is not asleep, he likes to talk. And since he sleeps with me (remember, the room we're staying in is just big enough for 1 fold-out loveseat), I am the one he talks to. Mercifully, Grandma wakes up from all the chatter (it's a small house, I'm telling ya) and takes M away to the kitchen to feed him breakfast.

We also make juices now. M is very excited about it and now is getting lots of fruits and even veggies (and veggies, in his mind, are more terrible than hot sauce). Yes, he drinks carrot juice. Although at first he refused to believe that carrots where not fruits, but veggies - they tasted so good juiced!

Another thing we do is gardening. First, we picked up some paperwhites' bulbs and are forcing them now. Then we had a pineapple top left over from all that juicing and decided to plant it. Plus we're taking care of one of the begonias (I think that's what they are anyway) that Grandma has.

This week was the drinking straws week (kinda went along with the whole juicing idea). So we did a ton of fun stuff with drinking straws - math, art, construction. But I don't want to bore you with the details.

And, of course, we're slowly making improvements to our room, but more on that in a future update.

Building the Star City

I've noticed that since M spends most of his waking time downstairs, he almost never plays with the blocks nowadays. Not good! So I freed up some shelf space in the family room and moved the smaller unit blocks there. It seemed to work since he started using the blocks for different games.

And then he built a city for his astronauts and hangars for all the shuttle and the Hubble telescope and a launch pad for the rocket.

He even "planted" a few trees in his city saying that those were apple trees so that the astronauts would pick apples. And he built a planetarium for the astronauts too (can't see it on the pictures though).

Do you see that red structure made of two flat blocks and one cylindrical one? That's the International Space Station. But we ran out blocks before he could build a house for it too.

Astronaut Training

A couple of weekends ago M and I spent almost the entire weekend in astronaut training. Well, he spent it in training. I was just helping him.

But before that happened, we went to a friend's birthday. Actually, the birthday was at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. It's an awesome place with a rocket outside and a bunch of cool exhibits inside and on the museum's grounds. And yes, kids can touch and play with pretty much anything there.

So on that particular trip M spent quite a lot of time outside, primarily at the water feature. He said it was a space station's chocolate making factory. Making space chocolates... Hmm, as long as he's got his priorities straight.

Inside the museum M spent most of the time at the astronaut's exhibit looking at the videos of lunar landings and monkeys getting trained up for space flights. He also spent quite some time at this contraption kinda like the one they have at some malls. We launched a few coins down it and M concluded that it was a black hole (I couldn't agree more).

Finally, he spent the remaining hour or so in the space capsule, counting down and launching it (his countdown goes like this: "One-two-three-one-blast off!".

So the following weekend we had an astronaut training camp. Since M already knows so much about solar system, it was a bit of a challenge to come up with the age-appropriate learning tasks. And then I realized that even though we had a total of 4 solar systems around the house, we didn't have a single comet!

That became our first training task - to learn about comets and make one. Here it is, complete with a tissue-paper tail and a cotton-ball coma.

We then experimented with gravity, practiced putting the space suit on, discussed which foods cannot be eaten on the space station, ran around a little obstacle course, and went to the planetarium. By the way, M wore his full astronaut costume - space suit, glothes, helmet, etc - into the planetarium to the great pleasure of 100 or so people that happened to also attend the "Earth, Moon and Sun" show there that morning.

Further training was delayed due to inclement weather - snow! It was awesome, falling in huge heavy clumps that quickly covered the garden, the car, the driveway. M was so excited! You can see that he didn't even want to take time to change from his astronaut suit, but instead put a shark hat and a jacket on.

But then the novelty wore off and it started getting really cold outside. So we went inside and made a huge space mural of Astronaut M Exploring Lunar Surface. Then, while M acted out space shuttle's landing on the Moon and launch of Hubble, I asked him all sorts of questions for his letter to NASA (because you know, now that he is ready, it's up to them to decide what mission he'll fly and when).

Plus M wrote his own letter to NASA just to be on the safe side. Afterwards he put some more star and planet stickers on his space ship (he says they show all the places the space ship's been to) and the day was over. Now we're waiting for NASA to write back to us.

Our Fall Crafts

With Space being the theme of choice these days we don't get to do much of unrelated activities. The play stove in the play kitchen has been cold for days. The Candy Land game sits lonely on the shelf. The drum is collecting dust up in the attic (I actually don't mind this last one).

Surprisingly though, M makes an exception for holiday crafts and activities. But he definitely keeps these two types of activities separate. The family room and the hallway leading to it is where his space stuff is - rockets, shuttles, puzzles and games, and craft displays. The kitchen and the living room is where we decorate for the holidays.

Anyway, back to the fall crafts. Here's a couple we've made this far:

1. Leaf garland - I got the idea from The Artful Parent blog. The good news was that I found the silver oil pens on sale at the craft store. The bad news was that they were on sale for a good reason - they weren't writing too well, especially the thinner ones. But I gave M the thicker of the two pens and he enjoyed drawing with them on the leaves.

2. Contact paper collage - first, we went on a walk to collect all the different leaves and flowers. That was a lot of fun on its own, kind of like a scavenger hunt. Then we dried them (all those volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica do come handy after all). Then M decided that he needed to snip all the stems with his little scissors (hard work, but he did well). But the most exciting thing for me was that M started and finished this entire collage BY HIMSELF! Usually he asks for my help just a few minutes into the project or loses interest altogether.

I think, given that it's the end of November, we'll wrap up our fall crafts for this year. Time to work on winter crafts :)

I am a Russian Kosmonavt

Ok, well, I am not a Russian kosmonaut, but that's what M says about himself now. It all started last week when we walked into a Marshall's store to pick up some underpants for M and walked out with a hot-orange astronaut costume. The following several days M spent pretty much living in this thing, taking it off only at night.

Then we read the Magic School Bus book, the one about them exploring the Solar system. We already had a small astronaut and a toy space shuttle. Then we built rockets at SparkCon. And today M said that we had to buy more astronauts 'cause the one we had at home was feeling lonely. So we bought a space-themed Toob.

Our art project for the day was white-on-black painting. M said that the big sheet of black paper was kosmos and he then painted a big planet and lots of stars on it and proudly showed the results to his "ashtronauts" (that's what he calls them in English).

From 2 Weeks Ago

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth right after turning 32. It's just now that I'm older and wiser and more responsible, I decided to devote more time to work and less time to frivolous activities such as blogging. Wait 'til next year, when I turn 33 (although I just might win lottery by then and get filthy rich).

So anyway, where was I? Ah, right, 2 weeks ago, right after turning 32, I decided to be a bit more diligent in homeschooling M (you see, I get these moods now and again). So I drew up a very flexible plan for the following week that included all sorts of activities for gross and fine motor development, arts and crafts, pre-reading and pre-math, etc. The theme was supposed to be SPACE. Yes, we were even going to build a rocket out of cardboard boxes. And I was going to finally make use of my land-water globe that I recently made.

Except, of course, M didn't care for any such thing. We still ended up doing lots of stuff, but if I was to try to pull it together under one theme, it'd be something like Farm-Kitchen-Anatomy (which, come to think of it, is weirdly logical).

Here is M playing with the shaving cream "snow" and making a fine mess out of it. The nice thing is he actually helped me to clean up by washing all the toys and utensils he used in the process (and that was lots and lots of stuff).

We also drew this cheerful dude. Yeah, body tracing seems to be catching on since M also did lots of chalk drawing and hand- and foot-tracing. You see, I was thinking that we'd do body tracing and then M would draw an astronaut (remember - SPACE). Instead, he wanted me to draw all the internal organs and various body parts. We split the work with me taking care of the heart, veins, lungs and digestive system and M drawing the brain (most important), facial features, arteries, hair, and muscles.

In case you don't know - ever since last winter M's been fascinated with various body parts and internal organs. It started of right after the Halloween (think - skeletons) and blossomed after we got him "Uncover the Human Body" book (he really-really wanted it). Since then we've read it to him countless times (we have to skip some of the longer explanations since the book is for ages 9-12). So he knows all his organs and "systems" by now with digestive system being his favorite (poop - funny).

Moving on now... After the body trace was thus decorated and labeled, including the content of the stomach, it was time for the kitchen play. Yes, he still plays with his toy kitchen that Chris made a while ago (truth be told, the blasted thing has never been finished which doesn't seem to deter M). He also did some art work, finger painting and using different size bottle caps to make prints.

I also gave him a new open-ended activity that I read about in one of the Mary Ann Khol's books. Mine consisted of a large piece of florist foam, 3 wooden BBQ sticks, a bunch of wooden spools, and a handful of fuzzy sticks (have no idea of what they are really called). I put the BBQ sticks into the foam and then let M invent. He came up with a structure that he called a Big Birthday Cake for Eeyor. And we had to sing the birthday song too.

Oh, and we've been reading tons and tons of books - Tales from Fern Hollow, Жили-были кролики, Именинный пирог Финдуса, The Big Pumpkin, Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs, the already-mentioned Uncover the Human Body book, Кит и Кот, and a couple of others.