Calm Down Jar

Our version of The Calm Down Jar

I've been seeing the Time Out Jar a lot online recently and I thought it was a great idea, with one problem: it's fun! Time Outs in our house are a punishment, so why would I give my son something cool to play with while he's in trouble? Kind of defeats the purpose. So I altered it a bit to become known as the Calm Down Jar.

You know how you kid is kind of being a pest, but isn't exactly being bad? Or maybe he is bouncing off the walls and you just need him to chill out for five minutes? (Just imagining here, of course.) You know he doesn't deserve a Time-Out, but oh my gawd just give me two minutes to finish these dishes before you decide it's time for me to build another freaking Lego set!!!! Well, shake this bad boy up and tell them they have to sit still until all the glitter has floated to the bottom. Voila! A calmed down child!


You will need:

• A jar with tight fitting lid (We used a plastic peanut butter jar.)
• Glitter glue
• Glitter
• Food color
• Water

How to:

1. Fill jar with hot water. (The warmth helps to break up the glue.)
2. Add glitter glue. (If you choose to make this a time out jar, there is some kind of ratio to make it last a certain amount of time. I think it may be 1 cup water to 1 tablespoon glue equals one minute of glitter floating. We did not follow any measurements and just added as much as we wanted.)

3. Add some glitter. (Again, we just shook until we stopped.)
4. Add food color a drop at a time until you get the color you want.
5. Place lid on tightly and ensure seal before shaking! (Oops!)
6. Enjoy!

Thoughts:
OK, I'll admit this isn't as cool as I'd like it to be. I was expecting it to be a bit more "floaty". Maybe we colored the water a bit too dark because the glitter doesn't stand out as much as I'd like it to. But still, as a craft it was fun to make and it really does work. Elliott actually likes when I pull it down (I keep it on top of the fridge so it doesn't lose its appeal too quickly.) and hand it to him. He knows to sit at the table and give the jar a good shake.

Elliott's Evaluation:
 "So, how I made this is I just put blue food coloring in it. Then I put sparkles all in it. Then I put a lid on it. It is good."

Woah! Not sure what's up with the overly excited face there!

Gluey Ghosts

Boo! Try these crazy easy ghost decorations next Halloween.

You will need:

• White yarn, cut into long strips
• White glue
• Googly eyes
• Black construction paper, cut into ghost mouth shapes
• Clear fishing wire
• Waxed paper

How to:

1. On a sheet of waxed paper, lay yarn into ghosts shapes. They don't have to be the same size.

2. Fill in the ghost outlines with glue.

3. Use a popsicle stick (or your finger) to spread the glue, making sure it spreads the entire width of each ghost. Place googly eyes and paper mouths on each ghost.

4. Let dry overnight. Check on it every couple of hours. The glue may pool in some spots, leaving "holes". Just spread the wet glue back over any holes that form.

5. Once dry, carefully pull off the waxed paper, string the top of each ghost with fishing wire and hang.
6. Be scared!

Thoughts:

Elliott really liked this craft. It was easy enough for him to do on his own and he really liked filling each ghost with glue. I hung these banner style on the fireplace mantle and they looked cute, but were constantly flipping over the wrong way. Next time I would hang each one individually. Elliott wanted to keep these, but after about a week, the glue started yellowing.

Elliott's Evaluation:

I don't remember doing this. I think I probably liked it, but I don't remember this.

Zombies and Glitter

Where have we been?

Some of you may have noticed that Elliott and I have been missing in action for quite a while.

I decided to go back to work full time. For the first time in my life I have become a Nine to Fiver and Elliott has enrolled in day care. We’ve settled into a different kind of life than the one we had before. There’s a lot of this:

And this:

And this:

That’s right; I became the Mother I never wanted to be: Video Game Mom! Able to clean the entire house uninterrupted while her child’s brains get sucked out by small handheld devices! Adept at handing off the Kindle Fire while cooking dinner each night. Perfectly capable of falling, exhausted, on the couch and defeating some zombie boot-ay with my son as our wind down activity each night. Each. And. Every. Night.

But then, lo and behold, something happened to remind me of the fun we used to have crafting: Dr. Dreadful’s Zombie Lab.

That’s right, Zombie Lab. Nothing like zombies to remind you of glitter and googly eyes. Anyone who knows me knows of my love of all things zombie. So when we spotted this product a couple of months before Christmas last year, and Elliott requested it as a gift…well, right on Brother.

The zombie Lab has several different “activities” or science experiments that you can make and eat. Ear Wax Snacks, Bubbling Brains, Bug Molds, Zombie Skin and the foulest of the foul: Zombie Barf, a questionable “drink” that mirrors what comes out of your nose when you are the absolute sickest that you have ever been in your life.

Drink up! (Or not!)

Most of the experiments, while edible, were pretty gross. I still shudder thinking of trying to take a sip of that snot-like concoction. But, the whole point was that we had fun. So much fun that we ended up trying every experiment in one sitting. Clean up was easy, so that stress was taken away.

When we were finished, El and I were killing some zombies on the Kindle Fire (of course), talking about how silly and gross the lab was and Elliott said, “I wish we could do crafts together again.”

And so we shall. Stay tuned for some new crafts coming soon!