THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

 ....session 2 : Rainy day fun..

 

 Welcome to the second session of THE NOSTALGICAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

Today I will show you some fun projects to do indoors for a rainy day....

On Monday we had torrential downpoors and thunderstorms here in the UK, so me and Little Miss Moo and her friends, Reuben, Samuel and Freya spent a couple of hours in the kitchen....

....making fun soaps, doing some magical marble paper painting , marvelling at some water and oil fireworks and making a big fun mess with foam dough...

So here's how it all went down: 

SOAP MAKING...

The first thing we did was to make some fun soaps....we filled them with small toys so that every time the kids use the soap to wash their hands they get closer to the price in the middle.... 

YOU WILL NEED:

Clear melt&poor glycerine soap (you can get this in HobbyCraft)

Moulds (Silicone Cake moulds work well)

Food colouring

Small toys

glitter

Essential oils for fragrance 

 Surgical Spirit (in a spray bottle)

 

 Cut up the clear glycerine soap block into small chunks, place in a pyrex jug, and melt in the microwawe...it will melt quickly, so keep an eye on it the whole time....I found that 1 minute on full power was sufficient for a full pyrex jug. Do take care not to overheat as this will discolour the soap, but more importantly: you don't want anyone to get burned...(If the soap is heated gently, the melted soap will not be that hot, and should not be a burn risk for little fingers...)

 

Samuel an Reuben chose little toy cars to put in their soaps.....because "we are boys...."

When you take the melted soap out of the microwawe...give it a good stir...you can now add a few drops of food colouring, the essential oil and some glitter...

Freya giving the soap mix a good stir...

Poor a thin layer of the soap into the moulds, and let it cool and harden for a few minutes.....

 Give it a little sprits of Surgical spirit....this is important because it allows the soap layers to stick together.

Poor a little more soap into the moulds, then place the toys in...again, allow to cool and harden to set the toy in place and prevent it from floating out of position...

 Samuel has set his cars into the moulds...( He has muffin moulds, because " boys don't like hearts"...)

 

With the toys now set into the soap, sprits a little Surgical spirit into the mould..... 

 

...before topping it up with the soap mixture....

 

With the moulds filled up, the soap now needs to set... 

 Mia and Freya is very exited to see how their soaps turn out...

 To speed up the setting process, place the moulds in the fridge for 1-2 hours... 

The girls, glittery pink soaps with a treasure within....lovely aren't they??

Unfortunately the boys ran off with theirs before I could get a picture!!

So with the soaps setting in the fridge, the next thing we did was some...

 

MARBLE PAPER PAINTING...

 

This is not too dissimilar from making traditional Victorian wrapping paper , and you will probably have all you need to do this in your kitchen cupboards....

YOU WILL NEED:

Cooking oil

food colouring

Small bowls

Shallow pan (to fit A4 paper)

thick paper/card

medicine dropper

water

 

Mix a little cooking oil with some food colouring in a small bowl....beat hard to mix thoroughly.

Repeat with different colours...we had pink, yellow, blue and green.

Fill the shallow pan with just enough water to cover the bottom...

Let the kids drip the food colour/oil mix into the water using the medicine droppers...

The colour mixes will float on the surface ....use a fork (or similar) to swirl patterns in the colours...

 After a little while simply swirling the colours was not enough....a more hands-on approach was needed...(he he)

 Place a piece of paper on top of the water, and let it sit for 30-40 seconds....

We had lots of fun trying to count to 40....

The kids loved seeing the marble effect gradually showing through the paper.

 

Then lift off the paper to reveal the marbled paper...

 

 Place on some kitchen paper towels to dry....the paper will be very oily...as will the kids hands....and your kitchen......so a quick break to clean up and have some juice and biscuits seemed appropriate at this stage...

Snack break over, it was time to try some:

WATER AND OIL FIREWORKS....

 This activity fits in well after the previous, as you can use up any leftover food colouring/cooking oil mix...

YOU WILL NEED:

Tall glass vase

food colouring

cooking oil

small bowls

fork (or similar to mix with)

water 

 

Fill up your glass vase with water, then simply poor the oil/colour mix into the water...

Only do two different colours at the time, as using too many colours will just turn it into a brown mush...

Then wait and watch for the coloured drops to "fall" into the water...

  

....creating a fascinating "firework display" .... 

The last thing we did on Mondays session was having some messy fun with... 

FOAM DOUGH...

Kids love getting messy, and this is a great activity to have some messy fun with...

 The beauty of this simple recipe, is that although it will look like total chaos...it is really easy to clean up...

 YOU WILL NEED:

A large mixing bowl

Shaving foam

Corn flour

food colouring

Mix 50/50 shaving foam and corn flour in a bowl....add a bit of food colouring.

(you can also add glitter if you like)

 We gave up on the mixing bowl half way through, as it was so much more fun to just tip it out on the table and mix it with our hands...

 Reuben loved seeing how much foam dough he could get to stick onto his hands...

Working the corn flour into the shaving foam...

....will eventually turn it into a pliable dough... 

 

...and Little Miss Moo spent hours after her friends left making some lovely "ice cream sundaes"...

We had lots of fun, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves....

My kitchen was a mess, but as it was just shaving foam and corn flour, so it cleaned up in no time...

  Everyone got a couple of pieces of their home-made soap to take home, and a piece of marbled paper for Mum to hang on the wall...

If you are looking for more fun activities to do with your kids over the summer holidays, have a look at my pinterest board KIDS CRAFTS AND FUN.

Pop back next Wednesday to see what we get up to at next weeks

NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB

Thanks for looking,

Enjoy your holidays!

xxx

June