Like It Or Nautical

I have a deep, abiding love for all things black and white. Particularly when it comes to my wardrobe. I'm not sure how happy I am about it, though. Every time I step into a shop, I remind myself that my wardrobe is begging pitifully for more colour. And an hour or so later I walk away with more black and white stuff. Always.

A few days ago I had set aside a rather battered pair of flats to be thrown / given away. But then last night, for some reason, I decided to try my hand at jazzing it up. I used a simple tape resist method - hey, if it is something my 3 yr old can do, I should be able to pull it off. And the results were brilliant!

Materials Required

1) Shoes

2) Acrylic paint and brush

3) Scotch tape

How To Go From Boring To Ba-Da-Boom!

Tape off sections on your shoe. I tried to keep the lines even, although asymmetrical would look gorgeous as well. Now all you have to do is fill in the spaces between the scotch tape with a colour of your choice

You may need a couple of coats of paint, depending on how you want your shoes to look. Just give each coat at least an hour to dry before you layer another one on top.

And this is what I ended up with. Not bad for an easy peasy craft with stuff lying around the house.

Not. Bad. At. All!

I'm madly, MADLY in love with them already!

Lunar Lesson Part 2 - Paper Mache Moon

This week, Jr and I kept ourselves busy with all things Moon related. As always, Albie and the Space Rocket and Moon, Ramu and I have been read over and over and over again. We also kept ourselves busy with our Phases of the Moon Hopscotch game (more on that later).

I was about to move on to another topic when I came across this rather cool paper mache craft that I thought could be stretched to fit our theme for the week. This activity was far easier than I had assumed it would be, and Jr had a blast! 

Paper Mache Moon 

Materials Needed

• Balloon
• Glue
• Disposable bowl and stirrer or paint brush
• Newspaper
• Tissue Paper (optional)
• Lights (optional)

How to make it

Begin by tearing the newspaper into small strips. Jr initially couldn't understand why I wanted him to rip paper, considering I've generally made it very clear that paper must be treated with respect. That perhaps explains the slightly doubtful look on his face :)

In the disposable bowl, mix two parts glue to one part water. This is the paper mache paste.

Next, dunk the strips of paper into this paste and wipe off the excess. Then stick these on to the balloon. Jr happily joined in all of these steps.

This is what our balloon looked like once we were done smothering it in newspaper bits.

I also gave it another layer of tissue paper. But you could opt to skip this part.

We then dried it over night. And this morning, Jr and I popped the balloon rather ceremoniously. We then stuck our Moon on an unused lamp - and voila!

Ok..Ok... so it doesn't really look like the Moon! :D But Jr and I are super thrilled with it! We also loved the way it looked with fairy lights inside it. And now I'm seriously considering making a more colourful, refined version of this to hang in our balcony :)

One simple craft, so much joy!

Our experiments with Flintobox

Jr is a relatively quiet fellow who definitely prefers his books and cars to running around on the playground with friends. He also loves watching the same rhymes over and over again on my phone, curled up in the fetal position on the cold floor. While we have significantly reduced the amount of time he spends with my phone, I despaired of ever finding another activity that kept him as hooked as mindless rhymes on cracked cell phone screens.

And then I stumbled upon Flintobox on Facebook. "No more struggles to keep your child away from TV or gadgets while preparing dinner or quickly finishing up an office file" declared the website. And I was immediately hooked. Anything that promised to get my son away from my phone had my attention. 

Flintobox is an award winning startup that sends you gorgeous, well thought-out activity boxes every month. Each month deals with a specific theme (colours, space etc). These boxes are packed with fun activities that children from 3-7 can either do on their own or spend quality time with their parents over. That sounded right up my alley so I wasted no time in ordering February's box as a sample.

About 10 days later we received a beautifully packed Flintobox with Jr's name emblazoned on the side. The theme for the month was Space, and each item in the box was specifically designed to teach young kids more about things space-related in a fun and engaging way. The box contained :

• Two cardboard tubes, concave and convex lenses for a DIY telescope.
• A fun jigsaw puzzle full of planets and rockets.
• A box, rechargeable flashlight, stickers and printouts of constellations that can be put together to make a projector.
• A story book about space.

I was very impressed by all the items in it, and couldn't wait to get started. The instructions provided were clear and simple, the pictures were bright and engaging and everything was beautifully packed. So our Valentine's day was spent with Flintobox as Jr and his father happily assembled the telescope. The skills required for this were too much for my 2 1/2 yr old, and he had his work cut out for him simply trying to peer through his "teyekkope" with one eye closed.

However the Build Your Own Projector was a huge hit with him. He had absolutely no trouble in following every step -  from punching out the stars in the constellations to decorating the "projector" with the stickers provided. He absolutely loves this, and we have spent many happy moments projecting constellations to our walls and ceilings. The kit also comes with blank papers that we can punch our own designs on, and Jr has really gone to town on them!

The jigsaw puzzle was a little beyond his abilities too, but I loved it.It was evident that each box contained activities suitable for kids of different age groups, and different interests. However the story book wasn't up to scratch.

So although we still have a long way to go before my son is fully weaned from my cell phone, I would say the Flintobox was pretty much a hit with Amma and Jr. I have packed away everything except the projector for now, to be taken out once Jr is a few months older. 

But we will be having a lot more Flintoboxes around for sure!

That's Jr and his father using our Flintobox telescope to check out the neighbour's Valentine's Day activities :) 

Details

1 Month's subscription - Rs 1095

3 Month's subscription - Rs 2985

6 Month's subscription - Rs 5370

The Flinto Blog is also a great resource for entertaining, educational activities to do with your child. The Moon-Phase Hopscotch game looks like a fun way to spend the afternoon with Jr.