Rocket Science

Preschoolers may be too young to understand the Third Law of Motion, but they still have a lot of fun watching Alka-Seltzer rockets soar. Forget about paper templates, to make a rocket easy enough for a small child to handle, all you need is:

- clear air-tight plastic canister (e.g. film canister) - rocket's body
- stickers, permanent markers, etc - to decorate your rocket (optional)
- Alka-Seltzer ORIGINAL pill, broken into 4 pieces - rocket fuel
- water
- flat surface in the open area (e.g. driveway, patio) - launch pad

1) Turn your can lid-side down. Decorate the rocket, making sure that you can put the lid on and off easily.
2) Go to your launch pad, make sure there is no breakable things within 6 ft (2 meters) off the launching area.
3) When ready to launch, put 2 tablespoons of water in the rocket, put 1/4 of Alka-Seltzer pill into the water, QUICKLY snap the lid on, turn the rocket right-side up and set it on the launch pad. DO NOT try to pick up your rocket up once you set it down for launch.
4) Step away! Count backwards from 10. And watch your rocket take off.

Once your rocket has launched, collect the rocket, cap and leftover fuel. Clean it up, and it's ready to go again.

Crochet flower pattern

I see more and more things for little girls decorated with crochet flowers. Dresses, hair accessories, bags, scarfs - most anything nowadays gets decorated with crochet flowers.  It's very cute, romantic and very "homey", but a pair of hair barrettes with crochet flowers can cost as much as $5! There's no way I'm going to pay that much for something my daughter will lose right after leaving the house.

If you know how to crochet -just basic stitches, really- you can make your own flowers in just a few minutes. And then you can decorate your little girl's things. Not only she'll look trendy but she'll be proud to tell everyone that her mom  (grandma, aunt...) made these for her.

I don't know how to write the crochet patterns, so I've made a chart instead:

Notes: Use two different colors to make a "daisy", or use one color and sew a button in the middle.
I recommend using mercerized cotton yarn as it's very strong and "shiny". It also washes well.

Catching a ball

This came up in the conversation today...
Do you know how to tell a difference between 3.5 and 4.5 yo? Ask a kid to catch a ball. The eye-hand coordination is much better in 4 yo.

When my daughter was learning to catch a ball, we did not use a ball, we used a ... balloon! Yes, that's right, regular air filled ballon.

A ballon falls slower, giving a toddler a change to track it with his eyes and get his hands ready for catching. It also it lightweight and easy to hold. And it's won't break the chandelier should it be thrown too high.

"Can I paint on your computer?"

We have an EEE PC (with Linux) that we bought for travels. It came with a Tux Paint software that our daughter, then 3, mastered quickly. It was and still is a big life saver during long flights.

The program has an easy kid-friendly but not too-cartoony interface, and a very good set of tools (brushes, stamps, "magic" effects, etc) and some coloring pages. It's all your child needs and even more.

It supports various operation systems, so it will run on whatever you have. And you know what the best part is? It's FREE! You can download it from their website: tuxpaint.org


We also got some "painting" apps for iPod. They are not exactly drawing apps, but are fun nevertheless.

Doodle Kids -this is good for small ones, there are no tools or controls, everything is random. All you do is doodle. But doodling is good too, right?

Make a Martian - this is an alien making "factory". It's fun, cute, simple, and makes my daughter giggle every time she plays with it.

If you like an educational twist, the Dot-to-Dot Number Whiz is a good one. The level of difficulty can be adjusted. So your child can practice 123s or ABCs, or skip counting.


Let me know in the comments if you know about any other good paint/doodle apps for small kids.

(photo by mamalya, snapshot of the Martian we made)

Printable calendar template

It's May, and it's time for a new calendar. We have a little tradition: we print out a monthly calendar, our daughter draws a picture and writes in the numbers. Then we put it on the fridge, and every day she makes sure to move a magnet to the right date. You can read more about it in the earlier post.

You can see that I wrote some of the dates, this is what is called "control of error", it allows a child to do the work independently (fill in the blanks), and to be able to check whether or not the numbers are in order. Depending on where your child is, you can write in as many numbers as needed. Filling in the blank spaces with flowers also gives a child a signal that they need to stop. You know that a 4yo will keep writing 32-33-34-etc. until she runs out of paper.

If you'd like, you can download my template to use at home. I'm not sure how I can "attach" a pdf, so the template is in jpg for now.