Wooden Robot

Ruben and I made this lovely toy robot last week:

After building some robots out of blocks, and then taking them apart to move them a few times, Ruben asked if I could help him glue the blocks together.  He had some specific ideas about how he wanted them stuck together, pointing to each joint and telling me, "Hot glue here and here and hinge this so it swings like this and hinge this so it bends like that..."

I love it when we make toys together.  While he drew on the face and body, I figured out how to make the joints that he wanted.  I drilled some holes and threaded elastic through them. 

This would probably be a lot prettier if I had attached the elastic to some buttons or something like that, but we were on a roll and wanted to play with it as soon as possible.  I tied some sloppy knots, and it worked just fine.

I got the idea to wood burn Ruben's drawings onto the blocks from this post on Made by Joel, and I think that this is the best part of all.  It was so easy, too; he drew on the blocks with a pencil, and I carefully traced his lines with the wood-burner.  (If you have a chance to do this with a child's drawings or handwriting, please do it!  It looks so good, and I'm sure it will age beautifully.)

Ruben and I are both so proud of this spontaneous project!

Praying Mantis

I could imagine a farm life with cats and dogs and chickens and a goat.  Maybe rabbits, and horses too.  I know that living with animals is good for all people, and the responsibility of daily maintenance and witnessing the life cycle especially abound with deep lessons for kids. 

But, this is no farm life, so we do what we can.  Just a few days after releasing Ruben's caterpillar-turned-butterfly, we took our second tentative step into the world of pets with this graceful praying mantis that Diego found on our front lawn:

She is an elegant insect, don't you think?

Collecting

Are you a collector?  When I was a kid, my three brothers avidly collected: comic books, bottle caps, license plates and banana stickers. 

Look at what I found in the "secret compartment" of Diego's special pencil box:

I've always seen myself as more of an accumulator than a collector, but now I think I'll start collecting these:

So, what did you collect when you were seven and a half?

Tonight in Our Kitchen

A flubber party!

Our preschool teacher told us that hanging flubber in a plastic strawberry basket and giving the kids scissors would provide hours of fun, as this gluey fluid drips and stretches slowly and cuts so easily.  We also blew bubbles in it, made hilarious noises with it, and watched our hand prints melt away.  It was amazing!

Paper Heart Valentine with Pencil Arrow

Here is a quick and easy Valentine that is fun for kids to make and give out at school:

1. Cut red card stock or construction paper into strips.  (This one is 1" x 11".) 

2. Fold each strip in half and staple it right next to the fold.  Bend the ends back until they touch and staple them together to make the bottom point of the heart. 

3. Use a standard hole punch to make holes on each side of the heart for the pencil. 

4. Thread the pencil carefully through the heart and your note.  It should be a little tight, so take care not to tear it. 

5. Add an eraser tip, tape on a paper fringe for the arrow, and you're done.


We are going to make A LOT of them!

Fortunately, Julio is very interested in stapling and hole-punching these days.  Did you see his hand in the top picture?  He really was my photo assistant this time!

Here are some other Brooding Hen Valentine posts that you might like:
Kissing Thaumatrope
Tiny Bow and Arrow (This project wasn't originally for Valentine's Day, but I see that people are using it for little Cupid's arrows.)


Tips and Tricks:

1. You can make this a lot simpler by writing your note or name directly on the heart before stapling it, and by just sharpening the pencil so that you don't need to add an eraser tip or fringe. 

2. You can make them even splashier by using a shiny pencil, a ribbon for the note, a heart-shaped eraser tip, or adding feathers or other decorations as the fringe.

A Gift from Ruben

Holiday decorating is in full swing at our house.  We will get our tree tomorrow, but the halls around here are already decked with many quirky decorations.  Last week, Ruben made this posable paper Santa toy for our front door, and today he asked me to share it with you.  If you want to make your own, you can print this on heavy paper, punch holes in the arms, legs and body, and use wire brads to put it all together.

Ruben's fondness for Santa runs deep.  He pulled out his old hat and pipe cleaner beard again, and I can easily imagine him dressing up like Santa every year from now until his real beard is long and white.

December Leaves

Do you decorate your house for the seasons?  Here in Los Angeles, the reality of our natural world bears little resemblance to our "seasonal" decorations.  Back when the kids were painting Fall leaves in school, outside the trees were green and blooming.  We picked strawberries and went to the beach.

Now that it is December and the school children are making cotton-ball snowmen and construction paper evergreens, the few deciduous trees that show color are giving us their muted reds and yellows, while the chilly winds kick up their fallen leaves and swirl them about.

It won't snow here.  People are just now harvesting the last of their tomatoes.  In winter our hills are green and in summer they are brown, but our seasonal decorations carry on with daffodils, ice cream cones, falling leaves and snowmen as if the whole world was New England.  I don't mind.  I want my kids to know that in December, children somewhere else are sledding and having snowball fights.

But, last week we gathered some of the prettiest leaves on our block and found a sycamore branch that fell in the wind, and I made a Los Angeles style December decoration for our living room.


Falling Leaves Mobile:  Sycamore branch, Liquid Amber & Ginko leaves dipped in beeswax, transparent thread.