All Things Beautiful: Games and Pastimes

Showing posts with label Games and Pastimes. Show all posts

Summer Fun # 61: How to Whistle on an Acorn Cap

I have had so many people ask me how to whistle on an acorn cap, I thought I better write a little post on it.

Take the acorn cap so that the open side is up and curl your fingers around it to support it from the bottom. Take your thumbs and make them flat over the top of the acorn cap, pressing the knuckles together. Cover the bottom part of the acorn cap with the lower part of your thumbs, pressing them together no air can escape. Your fingers should leave a little triangular opening at the top of the acorn cap. Press your open lips over your thumb knuckles and blow hard. It does takes a little practice, so be patient. Beth at Acorn Pies has a good picture of how your fingers should look over the acorn cap, if you can't picture what I mean.

Summer Fun #58: Neighborhood Photo Scavenger Hunt

I saw this idea at WhiMSy Love and I knew right away that it was the activity for us, although we made it a co-operative activity instead of a competition. We also decided to have them notake pictures of the various places to give us as their answers. In advance of this activity, Katie walked around the neighborhood and picked out things for the little brothers to find.

Then the boys, with their questions, went on their hunt.

What is Betterton's motto?

On what street is Cody's vegetable stand?

How many flags are on the telephone poles?

How many fire trucks are at the fire station?

What is the name of the church that has been recently converted into the town hall?

Who is the pavilion named after?

What is the price for a small pizza at Marzella's?

$8.00

How many missiles are in front of the VFW hall?

And for a job well done, we stopped off at Betterton Park to play...

to collect acorn caps...

and for me to show them how to turn one into a whistle.

What summer fun can you find in your own neighborhood?

Summer Fun #24: Balloon Rocket

The Balloon Rocket is a simple, fun toy for indoor or outdoor toy that can be made from materials you probably have around the house. (You can teach some science concepts, too, if you would like.)
You will need:

Plastic drinking straw

10-25 ft. of fishing line or string

Long, tube-shaped balloon (all we had on hand this time were round balloons and it worked, although not as well as the long balloons)

Tape

Blow up a balloon. While keeping the end of the balloon pinched shut with your fingers, tape a straw to the balloon. I found that having someone help you with this makes it a lot easier. Then put some string through the straw, making sure that the open end of the balloon is facing backward from the way you want the balloon to go. Tie one end of the string to something like a chair.

Then let the balloon go. It will zip along the string like a rocket. You can do it over and over again by just leaving the balloon attached and blow it up while it is still attached.

Snowman Game

This is a fun game that my youngest boys played at a Valentine's Party.
It is a good party game because you will need a lot of people, but it can be used for any winter party.
To play, divide into equal teams. Have one be the snowman.

His job is to stay as still and straight as possible, while the other members of the team wrapping him in toilet paper...

...until you cannot see anything but a white toilet paper "snowman."

You will need to have cut-outs with tape on them prepared for the teams so that they can add the snowman's face.
Make sure you put the face on the back of the person's head so that people won't be poking his face.

Add the last touch of a hat.

Did your team build a snowman the fastest?

Shadow Play on Groundhog's Day

So now that we are at the midway point between winter solstice and vernal equinox, we turn to the groundhog and his shadow. All week we have been having fun with shadows. Shadow puppets to be exact.

A few months ago I bought this book

and I brought it out this week and every night we made hand shadows on the wall.

The book simply has illustrations to show which way to hold your hands to make various pictures on the wall.

much to eveyone's delight.

And after your show, refreshments could be served...

Groundhog Hot Chocolate

idea from Gourmet Mom-on-the-Go

Hot Cocoa

Thin Chocolate covered cookies

Edible Eyeballs

Chocolate Chips

mini M&M's

Whipped Cream

Green sugar

Candy Melts

Wax Paper

Melt about 4 oz. candy melts in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval. Do not use chocolate chips as they will not set up hard enough to hold your groundhog to the cup.

Lay out your cookies on wax paper. Dip a toothpick or pointed knife into the melted chocolate and make three dots on your cookie--two for the eyes and one for the nose. Attach eyes and nose. Dip two chocolate chips into melted chocolate and attach to sides of cookie for ears. Let groundhogs dry until set, about 15 minutes. Using a spoon, smear some melted candy melts on the side of a mug. Press groundhog into chocolate and let set until dry, about 15 minutes. While your groundhog is drying, smear a shadow shape of melted chocolate onto a saucer with a spoon. Fill with cocoa. And add whipped cream and green sprinkles.

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A Treehouse for Robin Hood

Quentin received as a Christmas present a whole set of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. He loves them, but he longed for a treehouse for them. I had seen lots of popsicle sticks houses for girls,(at One Crafty Mumma, Almost Unschoolers, A Little Hut to name a few) but as I have said before, I do not possess crafting talent. I was afraid to attempt it. We searched for doll houses to use, but they all either looked to girlish or were too expensive. I finally caved in to his wishes and armed with a ton of popsicle sticks, I began my adventure to make a treehouse for Robin Hood.

I had to scale it to Robin Hood, so it had to be quite a bit larger than the ones I have been seeing. Instead of one row of sticks, it had to be two rows high. Did I mention that I am not a crafty momma?

I did notice that all of the popsicle houses had a loft, and I did find out that they do add a bit to the stability of the house, so I added one in my plan. I also noticed that One Crafty Mumma's house had the sticks going up the sides forming a type of baseboard. I found that this was also gave it a stabalizing effect.

So many, many pieces and several hot glue gun burns later, I had all my pieces. It was time to put them all together and hope for the best.

I had originally planned for the house to have a roof that could come off, but it was not stable enough that way, as large as it was, so I glued the roof on, but left a large doorway.

No, it will not win awards in the beauty department, but my lack of skill did kind of make it look more rustic, like a boy's Robin Hood treehouse should. At least that is what we are telling ourselves.

I also left an opening in the back as sort of a window as it was rather dark inside without it. Quentin said that it was a good place for Robin to shoot his arrows.

It was now time for the Merry Men to occupy their house.

My plan is to find a sturdy branch with several limbs, mount it on a platform and glue the treehouse in the limbs. But that is for another day.

Sand Molds Are Not Just For The Summer

The boys' Godmother gave them a set of Fourth of July sandmolds this past summer.
The boys filled them with wet sand and water this past week...

and left them out to freeze. They popped them out this morning.
Aren't they awesome?

Cootie Catchers for Fun Learning

My youngest son likes variety in his lessons. He, like me, does not take comfort in sameness. So I am always on the lookout for fun ways to do his lessons.

Although he knows all the basic sounds of the alphabet, he is hesitating taking that leap to blending the letters to make words. I came upon the idea of using a cootie catcher to making sounding out three letter words a game. This is a simple way to make reading those simple, three-letter words fun.

Just grab a sheet of paper, and if you can't remember how to fold them, directions are here.

To write the words, flatten out the Cootie Catcher and write the a's first. Then fill in the rest of the words. The words we used are bat, sad, ran, cap bad, cat, sat, pad, rap, van, can, and tap . If you follow this order, each word can have a different beginning and ending and as the Cootie Catcher is moved the letters form a new words. Or you can use your own words.

You can open the flaps and put drawings or stickers for rewards for reading the words correctly or you add sentences with those words in them.

Or you can make a nature study cootie catcher like this lovely one from 5 Orange Potatoes.

This one uses the flaps to direct the child's attention to various things in nature in their own backyard. It is nice because they can pick the area they want to explore by picking the flap. If you follow the link, she gives lots of ideas on what to write inside.