Elementary Fun Archives - ResearchParent.com

Harry Potter Movie Marathon

Michelle — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:20:00 +0000

Almost 2 years ago, my kids and I spent 10 months re-listening to all the Jim Dale Harry Potter audiobooks. (Between read-alouds, audiobooks, and independent reading, a couple of my boys have gone through the whole series at least 3 times.) At some point during the school year, we decided to set an end goal that we would finish the series by July 31, Harry Potter’s birthday. We decided to reserve that day for a Harry Potter movie marathon. It turns out you physically CAN’T watch all of the movies in one day, but that didn’t slow us down! As the day approached, I decided to turn it into a whole surprise experience for my kids. This is not something we do all the time. In fact, it was so much work, we may never do it again! However, I’m glad I put in the effort to make that one day special. It’s been a year and I was asking my kids about it recently. They definitely have fond memories. They asked if we could do it again and I said HA…maybe when they’re in their 20s.

The Decorations

My first idea was that I would surprise them by decorating the house while they were sleeping. There were 5 components to my plan.

Balloons

You can tell this was a last minute decision, because I literally ordered these 1 week before the big day. I bought burgandy and gold balloons (affiliate links) and started filling them up as soon as my kids fell asleep. I’m not really big on balloons, but it was a special occasion.

I think I blew up about 20 of each, so I didn’t use the whole pack. If I remember correctly, I PLANNED to do them all, but my lungs couldn’t hack it. I tied them to a string and hung them from our ceiling and taped them in pair in various locations throughout our house.

In the picture below you can see I also got out some of our Harry Potter merchandise, like books and games.

Chalkboard Art

I AM a fan of chalkboard art. There are lots of great quotes, but this is the one I picked that fit the playful theme of the day.

Harry Potter Quotes

Speaking of quotes, this was EXTREMELY last minute, but I think around midnight, I decided to print out some of our favorite Harry Potter quotes and hang them around the house. I’m not entirely sure if this legal…I don’t want to violate copyright law. I’m not selling it, so hopefully it’s okay: You can download the quotes I used here. I just taped them all over the living room and kitchen.

Random Harry Potter Inpsired Art

This I definitely can’t share, but I was inspired by this Harry Potter Party ideas post and did a Google image search for Harry Potter Wanted Posters, then printed some of the images to hang as decorations too.

Hanging Streamers

I’m happy with the way this turned out, but of everything I did to make the day special, this was the one thing that made me think that MAYBE I had lost my mind. By the time I had done all of the above to surprise them for the day, it was about 1 am. I probably should have just let it go, but I had already spent $6 on crepe paper and who am I to let that kind of sunk cost go to waste. This took me longer than it should have. I used a piece of PVC pipe (actually Fort Magic), measured out crepe paper the length of the doorway and taped them carefully onto the pipe in alternating colors. (I sort of wish I had made them a little longer, but when I measured, I forgot about the height of the frame.) If my recollection is correct, by the time I went to bed, it was around 2:30 am. If you decide to do this, maybe plan better than I did. I will say that my kids did really enjoy the streamers. It was the first sign when they woke up that there was something special going on. (All of my kids sleep in the same room.)

Harry Potter Themed Food

In addition to decorations, I also pre-planned what we were going to eat. I checked out a couple Harry Potter cookbooks from the library, but cooking is not really a strength of mine. I needed something even simpler than what they were offering. I used some of the names of their recipes as inspiration, but otherwise, I just did my own thing.

Harry Potter Themed Breakfast

For breakfast, I found a green drink at the grocery story (Bolthouse Farms Green Goddess), took off the label and called it Polyjuice Potion. I made a fruit platter and just called it Professor Sprout’s Fruit Platter. We bought some pluots that we don’t often buy and called them Mandrake Fruit. I followed this blog post by Raising Dragons to make Dragon Eggs. We also dipped some pretzel sticks in melted chocolate and covered them in sprinkles to make Magic Wands. My kids helped with this the night before.

Harry Potter Themed Lunch

For lunch, I honestly don’t remember why I made Hagrid’s Bath Buns. I’m guessing the name was inspired by one of the cookbooks, but that information has left my brain in the past year. From my notes, it looks like I followed this recipe from Feasting at Home. I think the idea for Pumpkin Pasties also came from a cookbook, but I know I didn’t follow the recipe from the book. I just bought puff pastry sheets and a can of pumpkin pie mix (it may have been in my pantry from the fall). My daughter and I cut squares of puff pastry, spooned the filling inside, folded into triangles, then baked for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. They were easy and not horrible, but I’m sure people with culinary skills could do better.

I added some liquid chlorophyl that I purchased while on a health kick to hummus and called it Gillyweed Hummus to serve with Professor Sprout’s Veggie Tray. I followed these instructions from Famous Family Recipes for Butterbeer. My kids loved it.

Harry Potter Themed Dinner

For dinner, I heated up some frozen meatballs and called them Molly Weasley’s Meatballs which I served with gravy. Since I personally don’t eat meat, I also made some tahini/breadcrumb/bean-based “meat”balls for myself. We roasted some potatoes and called them Bubotuber Fries. I found some asparagus at the grocery stores that was a little purple and was inspired to call it Devil’s Snare. My most ambitious project was dessert. I loosely followed this Treacle Tart recipe from My Poppet Living, but I made a crumble topping instead, because it seemed like it would be easier.

Harry Potter Themed Treats

Throughout the day we also had various Harry-Potter themed treats. We actually went to a real candy shop a week before, which we never do. We bought various candies for the day and pretended like it was candy from Honeydukes. I also bought some lemon-flavored popsicles and called them Lemon Pops. These were just little treats we had between meals that kids could snack on while they watched.

I served the magic wands with breakfast (and told my kids they had to have them last), but they would make good mid-day treats instead.

I also tried to make chocolate frogs, but I had a really hard time with the mold I bought. I’m going to need to look into the right way to do this without have the chocolate turn white and the little arms break off if I ever try this again. This is the mold we got, but I’m not sure it was worth it.

Harry Potter Marathon Logistics

Watching all 8 of the Harry Potter movies without breaks would take about 20 hours, which obviously isn’t ideal. In the days leading up to July 31, we watched one movie per evening for 3 days and then planned to watch 5 on the actual marathon day. However, we didn’t actually do it. The movies are about 2.5 hours each and that’s a long time, even for kids. We ended up watching four movies on July 31 and then watched the final movie the next day.

Between movies, we did take a few breaks. We played Harry Potter Clue between two of the movies. I don’t necessarily recommend it. Regular clue is just as fun and a better price, but we were gifted it and my kids love it. If you want a Harry Potter-themed game, this deck building one is a good, which we also own, but we didn’t end up playing it that day. Note that it’s only for 2 to 4 players.

Another activity we did, which was completely spur of the moment, was a potions lab. This was later in the afternoon when I felt like my kids’ brains were going to start melting if they didn’t get up and stretch for a bit.

We used to do this ALL the time when the kids were more like pre-school and kindergarten age, so I actually have a bin in my house with like 80% of what we need, making it easy to throw together. Here are some of the supplies we use:

Baking Soda
Distilled White Vinegar
Cornstarch
Saline Solution for contacts
Glue
Bora Solution (about 1 tsp of borax per 1 cup of warm water)
Water with food coloring
Cups or bowls
Mixing supplies like chopsticks and eating utensils
Measuring spoons
Science-y supplies like test tubes and droppers

The advantage of supplies like these is that not only can kids can use them for baking soda and vinegar reactions, but they can also make fun textures like slime, oobleck or gak.

Approximate Schedule

Obviously, you can do what you want. I’m not the boss of you. Just so you can see how this looks realistically, though, here was sort of how it went for us:

10:30 pm to 2:30 am – decorate (do not recommend )

7:30 am – wake up to start breakfast

8:30 am – wake THEM up and let them appreciate all your hard work

9 am – start the first movie and have breakfast

11:30 am – play a Harry Potter themed game

12:30 pm – lunch and start second movie

3 pm – snack and start third movie

4 pm – take a break for potions play

5 pm – continue third movie

6:30 pm – short break and have kids help with dinner

7 pm – dinner and start fourth movie

I don’t know how I thought at some point we were going to fit 5 movies into the day. Maybe if I’d woken them up early, but then I would have gotten even LESS sleep! Also, in case it’s not obvious, I actually did very little WATCHING with my kids. About an hour before each movie ended, I would get up and go start cooking food or prepping potions or doing dishes, so of the about 10 hours of movie watching time, I probably only sat with them for about 3 or 4. The day went by fast!

If you decide to give it a shot, I hope it goes well and you and your kids have a memorable, magical experience!

Homemade Hula Hoops

Michelle — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 01:34:00 +0000

Ever since I was in college, I have always wanted to make my own hula hoop. I was at a graduation celebration once and saw this girl doing the most amazing tricks with her hula hoop. Her impressive feats have stayed in the back of my mind this past decade. During this pandemic time when I’m trying to keep my kids off screens as much as possible, I thought it was the perfect time to finally cross hooping off my bucket list. I knew my kids would enjoy making their own homemade hula hoops.

Although making hula hoops is extremely simple, getting all the right supplies was more of a challenge than I expected. After doing some research online, I placed my order and was surprised when the connectors I ordered didn’t match the tubing. I ended up having to re-order different connectors after figuring out my mistake.

Also, sizing the hula hoops was a little less straightforward then I hoped. Looking online there are so many different suggestions for adults and not a lot of guidance for kids. It took some trial and error, but I am ultimately happy with the sizes we ended up with.

So what did I learn? The type of connector you need is called a “barb” connector. It may also be called a barbed coupling or a barbed tube fitting. Sometimes it is just called a coupling for polyethylene tubing, but if so, be sure to look for the barbs on the picture. It is important that you buy the right type of connector for not only the size of your tubing, but also the material as well. I learned the hard way that a 3/4″ barb connector for polyethylene pipe is not the same as a 3/4″ barb connector for cross-linked polyethylene pipe. The inner diameters of the tubing are different despite both being 3/4″.

I decided to go with 3/4″ polyethylene (PE) pipe for my hoops as it was most readily available to me at the cheapest cost. I have also heard of people using high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (polypro). For the cheapest price, I recommend going to a hardware store and talking a to representative to see if they have the right fittings. However, the supplies can also be ordered online.

In terms of sizing, I ran into a lot of confusion. Many websites say that a standard adult size hula hoop is 38″ in diameter. However, I am a small person and I wanted to be able to make hoops for my kids as well. After much deliberation, I decided to make myself a 34″ diameter hoop, my 10 year old son a 29″ diameter hoop, my 8 year old daughter a 26″ diameter hoop, my 6 year old son a 24″ diameter hoop, and my 4 year old a 21″ diameter hoop.

My 8 and 6 year olds were unable to hoop using the size I originally chose. However, they were able to hoop using their older siblings and my bigger hula hoops. (My 4 year old was also unable, but for him, I think motor skills are more of an issue than sizing.) My 6 year old had the easiest time with his 10 year old brother’s 29″ hoop. We remade my 8 year old a 29″ hoop as well, which she was able to use, but she had an even easier time with my 34″ hoop, as did her 10 year old brother.

So what’s the moral of the story? If I was going to make a hoop for a child 4 feet or under, I would probably not go smaller than a 29″ diameter. Making an even bigger hoop, up to 34″ in diameter will make hooping even easier. For kids on the taller end of the spectrum or with a larger waist, I would just opt for at least 34.”

For children taller than 4 feet, I think this article by Ruby Hooping basing hoop diameter on waist size is appropriate. You can check the article for specific recommendations, but basically it recommends for the smallest adults with a waist under 30″, a hoop diameter of 36.” For larger adults with a waist size of 55″, a hoop diameter of 55″ is recommended. Larger hula hoops are easier to hoop with, but smaller hoops are better for more advanced tricks.

Homemade Hula Hoop Details

Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: about 20 minutes
Difficulty: Very simple, but requires some strength to attach connector
Cost: Around $3 to $5 per hoop in used supplies, but you might need to buy in bulk if you have to order online. Check your local hardware store.

Materials

3/4″ polyethylene pipe (I purchased 100 feet, but that can be used to make around 10 to 12 child or small adult sized hula hoops)
3/4″ barb connector for polyethylene tubing (Here is a 10 pack for under $3)
fun gaffer tape (This is mostly for decoration, but also makes the hoop a little easier to grip. I chose this multicolor 1/2″ pack from Amazon. We did not cover our hoops completely, but we have plenty of tape left over if we had wanted to.)

Supplies

pipe cutters
scissors
measuring tape
hot water (or a blow dryer)

Instructions

First you will need to decide how big you want to make your hoop. See the discussion above, but to summarize, I would recommend a diameter (distance across) of 29″ to 34″ depending on the size of the child. For adults, refer to this Ruby Hooping guide.
Next, convert your diameter into a circumference by multiplying the diameter by 3.14. Who knew this was going to turn into a math lesson?
Use your measuring tape to measure out the desired circumference and cut with your pipe cutters.
Next you will want to heat up the end of the tube in very hot water for about 30 seconds. I have heard you could also use a blow dryer, but we found hot water from my electric tea pot worked well.
Next, quickly push the connector into the heated end of the tube. You will need to push pretty forcefully. However, I am not particularly strong and I was able to do it.
If you fail to get the connector in before it cools off, you can always put the pipe and connector together back in hot water. This is a good step to let an older child try independently, because it is easy to fix if the connector doesn’t go in all the way. (I would not let younger children near the hot surfaces.)
This next step is optional, but if you would like your hula hoop to make noise, feel free to use a funnel to add some rice or beans before you close it up.
The next step is a little nerve-wracking, because you really want to get the second end of the tubing attached to the connector as quickly as possible. It would be harder to put the entire hoop in hot water, so if it doesn’t go all the way in, you may want to try a blow dryer to reheat the surfaces. I was able to do all our hoops without asking for a stronger person’s help, but one of the hoops did give me a little trouble. I managed to get it in, but I was struggling for a minute.
Next comes the fun part. Decorating! Just wrap your tape around your hoop however you see fit. You can use one color or multiple colors. You can cover the hoop completely or leave some of the plastic showing.

Enjoy your new homemade hula hoops! Hula hoops are such a great way to get kids (and adults) moving and exercising without even realizing it. There are several tutorials on YouTube that can get you started doing tricks. We enjoyed this one. I am also working on the hula hoop vortex. Enjoy!

Click here for more Homemade Fun activities for kids.

Cave Painting Activity

Michelle — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 17:18:34 +0000

What better way to kick off Ancient History studies than with a simple cave painting activity? This activity requires only a few supplies and very little prep. For the small investment required, it is a ton of fun and even a little educational. (You are welcome to use my free printable if you would like to inspire your kids and teach them a little about famous cave paintings.) My kids had such a blast “cave” painting, I’m wondering how I can possibly maintain this level of history learning enthusiasm!

In our family, we have done the 4 year Story of the World cycle one time through. This coming fall, we are planning to start again with Ancient History. Since summer is about to begin, I thought, why not start a little early? That way we can take our time and go nice and slow through the first part of our history book.

I don’t know how successful I will be at keeping up this spirit of hands-on learning, but our pilot event was a huge success. As soon as we started learning about prehistory (the period of history before the invention of writing), I knew that I wanted to do cave painting. How exactly to do the cave painting and have it be meaningful took a little bit of thought.

At first, I was thinking we could find some natural clay and mix it with water to make the paints, but then that seemed like too much work. I wanted to keep things simple. Then I thought about just putting some butcher paper on the wall and letting the kids finger paint, but that seemed a little below the educational value I was hoping for.

To start, I decided to up the educational value by learning about some real cave paintings. First, we read Discovery in a Cave by Mark Dubowski which thankfully was available for free through our library’s digital lending system. (Libraries are currently closed due to the pandemic.) I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is informative, not too long, and the story itself is extremely appealing to children.

For a fun treat, afterwards we watched the very first episode of Carmen Sandiego called The Stolen Smile. I happened to recall that this episode described the Lascaux Caves which are the same caves featured in the book above.

So that my kids would be able to look at inspiration WHILE they were painting, I also created a few pages with pictures of real cave paintings. This printable features 3 famous caves around the world. I specifically chose ones of handprints and simple animals, since I knew my kids would be able to replicate images such as these.

My oldest decided to use a stick to paint some of his drawings. I thought this was a good idea since simple tools like this were available to prehistoric people as well.

Overall, I am really pleased with how well our afternoon of learning went. Seeing the happiness on my kids faces while they were enjoying a memorable educational experience was well worth the time invested. I don’t always tie in hands-on activities to our history, but I’m planning to try to make an effort more often!

Cave Painting Activity Details

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: 10-30 minutes of prep (depending on if you want the overhang or not)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $2 in used supplies

Materials

a large cardboard box (or two) for painting on
a smaller cardboard or cereal box for creating structural triangles (optional, only if creating an overhang)
washable tempera paint in black and red (or you could be more colorful)
plates or containers for holding paint
tape to hang cardboard (I found painters tape to work well enough for the activity, though our “wall” fell down overnight)
optional: free printable educational document for inspiration

Instructions

If you haven’t already, first you will need to open up your cardboard boxes so that they lay flat.
If you would like to create an overhang with structural triangles so the child can paint on this portion, cut off the excess flaps from your smaller box.

It should look like this after you finish:
Next, cut this smaller box into width-wise strips an inch or two wide.

You will need at least 8 total.
Fold a strip into a right triangle and tape it together. It does not need to be symmetric, though the ones I used were pretty close. One of the angles in your triangle that is not the square angle should be the angle you would like your top flap to overhang.
Using this first triangle as a guide, make one just like it.
Repeat step 5 until you have 8 close to identical triangles.
Use the triangles to prop up one of the box flaps and tape it in place as shown.
Continue taping triangles in the same orientation onto the flaps along one side of the box. You will need at least 2 triangles per flap.
Next apply tape to the side of the triangle that will attach to the wall as shown.
Repeat above process to add tape to all of the triangles.
Next have someone help you tape the boxes onto a wall with the flap at the top.

From the side, the flap will look like this:
If you are using the inspiration sheets, post them somewhere nearby so the kids can look at them as they paint.
Set out paint for the kids to use. Start with a little bit and add more as necessary. Since I have 4 kids, I decided to set out 2 plates of each color so there would be less fighting.

Now you are ready! Let the kids have fun!

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Michelle — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:18:13 +0000

I remember making these peanut butter, bird seed, and pine cone bird feeders with my grandmother when I was a little girl. They are so easy that I have been meaning to make them with my kids forever! It would be a shame for their childhoods to have passed them by without having done this simple, outdoor activity.

We did this DIY activity on a weekend when we were able to camp in a tent in our backyard. I was trying to think of as many outdoor activities as possibly, such as gardening and playing outdoor games. We were originally planning to go camping at a national park that weekend, but our plans were canceled due to Covid-19. I figured a global pandemic was a good a time as any to invite some birds to our yard.

My kids have seen a few birds eating from these bird feeders in the past couple weeks. Unfortunately for the birds, within a few days, squirrels figured out how to get to most of them. Depending on how you feel about squirrels in your yard, this is not necessarily a bad thing. After watching this amazing YouTube video on a ninja warrior style squirrel obstacle course, my kids are definitely fans of squirrels.

If you don’t want squirrels eating them, be sure not too hang the pine cones too close to the trunk of the tree. One of ours was about a foot from the trunk and that one was completely demolished within a couple days by squirrels. The ones that were hanging on farther branches lasted much longer, but eventually I think the squirrels must have figured out how to pull up the pine cone by the rope. Those squirrels are ingenious!

PINE CONE BIRD FEEDERS

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Fairly Easy (though children might need help cutting of the pointy tips if your pine cone is sharp)
Cost: Less then $2 in used supplies.

MATERIALS

a pine cone
bird seed (about half a cup)
peanut butter (about half a cup) — Note: We only had chunky peanut butter, which is fine, but smooth would probably work better.
string (about 3-4 feet)

SUPPLIES

butter knife or spatula
bowl
scissors

INSTRUCTIONS

If your pine cone has sharp tips, cut the tips off the pine cone before giving it to your child to prevent injury.
If your pine cone is dirty, rinse it off with a hose to clean it.
After it dries, spread peanut butter all over the upward facing surfaces.
Sprinkle bird seed all over the peanut butter covered surfaces.
Cut a string about 3 or 4 feet long.
Tie one end of the string to the top of the pine cone.
Tie the other end of the string to a tree branch.
Cut off the excess string.

Have fun watching birds and other critters visit your yard!

Super Easy Bottle Rocket

Michelle — Wed, 29 May 2019 06:00:49 +0000

This has to be one of the most fun science activities I’ve done with my kids in a long time. It is super simple, inexpensive, and quick. It took us a few tries experimenting with how to add the baking soda to the bottle, but I think we got it down. We were able to make this super easy bottle rocket launch higher than our 2 story house four times in a row.

This experiment was inspired by our astronomy curriculum from Pandia Press (NOT an affiliate link, but a great curriculum). The primary change that we made between the instructions in that curriculum and our final version was to use a Kleenex instead of a paper towel. Also, as we were inserting the baking soda-filled tissue into the bottle, we ripped off the end of the tissue as described below to cause the mixing to occur more quickly.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: 5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $3 in used supplies

Materials:

2 liter bottle
baking soda
vinegar
#4 rubber stopper
measuring cup
tablespoon
3 pencils
packing or duct tape
Kleenex or other tissue
funnel (not pictured)

Instructions:

Place rubber stopper into empty 2-liter bottle.
Put a piece of packing or duct tape near end of unsharpened pencil opposite eraser.
Stand 2-liter bottle on rubber stopper and tape pencil to bottle so that it touches the ground.
Repeat previous steps by taping a second pencil to 2-liter bottle.
Repeat previous steps again to tape a third pencil to bottle. Adjust pencils if necessary to make sure all 3 erasers are touching the ground and bottle is more or less vertical.
Measure 2 cups of vinegar.
Use a funnel to pour 2 cups of vinegar into bottle.
Use a measuring spoon to place 2 tablespoons of baking soda onto a facial tissue.
Fold tissue in half to get baking soda to gather along the center crease.
Fold bottom of tissue paper up as shown to hold in baking soda.
Fold side of tissue over as shown.
Roll up the tissue as shown into a tube that will fit into the opening of the 2-liter bottle.
Start inserting the baking soda packet into the opening of the 2-liter bottle.
Continue pushing tissue packet into bottle being careful not to let it fall in.
When packet is almost completely into the bottle and the remaining part outside the bottle contains no baking soda, use the stopper to hold the packet in place. Rip off the remaining tissue that does not contain baking soda and let the packet fall into the bottle.
Give the bottle a quick shake and turn it over so that stopper is at the ground.
Wait patiently. This never took more than 60 seconds for us.
Watch the rocket launch!

Have fun being a rocket scientist!

Birthday Interview Form

Michelle — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:41:27 +0000

A while back, I was listening to this episode of the Bravewriter podcast, when the mother being interviewed mentioned a family tradition that sounded incredible. She took each child out to dinner the day before their birthday. Just the two of them. Additionally, she would ask the child the same questions each year. Her questions were inspired by a Russian movie about a girl named Anna who was asked the same 5 questions every year from her 6th to 18th birthdays.

First of all, it would never occur to me to take just one child to a restaurant. I have 4 kids and we almost never go out to eat except for special occasions. Even on special occasions, it’s not really that fun. We have FOUR kids and they are still relatively young. Most of our restaurant outings involve me trying to keep my bigger kids from fighting too loudly and my younger kids from throwing their food everywhere. To be able to sit and actually TALK to one of my children and focus all my attention on what they have to say? No interruptions? I don’t even have to cook? Mind. Blown.

Additionally, the idea of asking kids the same questions each year and documenting their responses is so intriguing. I ended up selecting a mix of the Russian director’s and Joules Evan’s questions (the mom from the podcast). My list encompasses the general idea behind both lists, I feel. They are fairly open-ended and right away you can see how the answers would change over the years. For example, my 6 year old’s biggest wish right now is to have a pet tiger. I can’t even imagine what she’ll wish for when she’s 16.

Additionally, I included a page of “favorites.” I’m hoping it will be fun to look back when my kids are olders and see how their favorites have changed as well.

So far, I’ve done this interview twice, once with my 8 year old and once with my 6 year old. My 8 year old and I had a great time going out to dinner by ourselves the night before his birthday. I honestly learned a few things about him that I didn’t know before. He is growing up so quickly. Take away the constant sibling bickering and all of a sudden, he’s a mature young man. We had so much fun, my husband decided to take him out to dinner a week after his birthday. They had a great time as well.

The plan didn’t go as smoothly with my 6 year old however. She didn’t want to go out to dinner, because she would “miss her dad and brothers too much.” So we made tacos at home and did the interview there. Even though she was not on board with the mom-and-me date, she enjoyed the interview immensely. I’m hoping next year she’ll be ready to have a girls night out with me.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School
Time Required: ~30 min
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable

Materials:

paper for printing birthday interview printable

Supplies & Tools:

pen or pencil

Instructions:

Print out the birthday interview.
Find some quiet time to ask your child the questions on or around their birthday.
Repeat the following years.
Save the forms for many years to come!

This is totally optional, but I thought it would be cute if I had my kids write their own names on their form, so that I can see how their “signature” changes over the years.

Enjoy!

Click here for more Homemade Fun ideas for kids.

DIY Hollow Book Secret Hiding Place

Michelle — Wed, 02 May 2018 04:04:20 +0000

My 2nd grader is really into detectives, spys, and secret agents. (Check out his secret plans for his latest mission.) Ever since he started reading the detective series, Nate the Great, he likes to turn everything into a case or a mystery. When I was a kid, I went through a Nancy Drew phase, so I completely get it. Ever since then, I’ve thought it would be cool to have one of those hollow books used as a secret hiding place. I knew my son would appreciate this project as well.

Be forewarned that it takes a lot longer to cut the pages out of the book than you might think. I don’t know what made me think that I could cut 400 pages out of a book in a few minutes. It actually took more like an hour or a little more. However, when I was finished, my kids thought it was awesome. I made a “treasure hunt” for them with clues like, “look in the toy oven” and “look in the silverware drawer.” Eventually it led them to the piano bench which had the hollow book inside.

Now we keep this secret hiding place book on a bookshelf with other normal books so my kids can keep their treasures inside. They rest assured that if our house is ever burgled, all their special trinkets (like bottlecaps and McDonald’s toys) will be safe. Unless the burglar has a strong desire to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Then we’re in trouble.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~1 to 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy (though a grownup should use the X-Acto knife)
Cost: Practically free, we got the hardcover book we used from a used book sale for $1

Materials:

plastic container (I used one from our deli meat)
hardcover book that is thicker than the plastic container

Supplies & Tools:

hot glue
ruler (preferably metal)
X-acto knife
pencil

Instructions:

Place the plastic container into the book and trace around the edge. I chose to push the container all the way to the binding, which made it a little easier to rip out the page, but you could also cut around all 4 sides. Note, if I were starting over, I probably would trace around the lid instead. It worked well enough tracing the container, but ultimately it was a very tight fit to get the lid on.
Use the metal ruler and the X-acto knife to cut along the lines you traced. Don’t worry about rounding the edges when you cut. Square edges will work just as well. Just use the pencil marks as a rough guide.
After you’ve cut along the 3 edges, you can start ripping them out along the binding.
Continue cutting out pages using a few already cut pages as a guide. After you’ve gone down a bit, double check to makes sure your lid will fit.
Keep going! I was surprised by how long it took to remove all the pages. Put on a movie or something fun to listen to while you cut and rip.
Periodically check to make sure your container is still going to fit in your hole. It would be a shame to have the hole gradually get smaller without realizing.
Continue ripping until you can place the container with the lid into the hole and close the book all the way. For me, that required all the pages to be removed.
If the binding broke at any point, just use a little hot glue to attach the pages back together.
If desired, use hot glue to attach the container into the book. Just warn your kids first. I forgot to tell mine and the first time I let them play with it, they ripped the container out and I had to glue it back in.
Check to make sure you can place the lid on the container and close the cover of the book. I found it worked best for me if I opened a few pages before putting the lid on and then closed the pages on top of the lid.
Place your treasures inside your very own DIY hollow book secret hiding place.
Secure the lid and close the book.

Have fun with your new super sneaky place to hide your valuables!

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Generic Game Board

Michelle — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 21:58:02 +0000

Have you ever thought, “If I could just turn this into a GAME, my kid would learn it no problem.” Kids are like that, aren’t they? Ask them to clean their rooms and they’ll fall on the floor at the injustice of it all. Turn it into a game and they’ll be transformed into little cleaning machines. (Sorry, this game board will not help your kids clean their rooms.) I’ve been wanting to make a generic, re-usable, board game for awhile now. I have definite plans for what I want to do with it. (Stay tuned for some upcoming math games.) However, if you have your own ideas, this free, printable, hand drawn, game board will work just as well.

I’ve spent a lot of time making free cards that kids can match to learn different subject areas. I have plans to make a lot more. Since the cards each contain little bits of information or images that need to be matched to a specific term, they make great clues for a trivia style game.

Since I just finished this game board yesterday, so far we’ve only tried it out once, but I have to say my trial went remarkably well. I think even my husband, who is a skeptic by nature, was impressed. Since my oldest studied Ancient history over a year ago and will be studying the Middle Ages this fall, I decided to use the board game as an opportunity to review Ancient Rome. To prepare to play the game, I let him review the terms from our Ancient Rome Definition set. As always, we first talked about the control cards together, then I gave him a set of split cards. He matched the clues (in this case the picture) to the term. After he thought he had all the right pairs, he checked his answers himself with the control cards.

When I said we were going to play a game, my 5 year old immediately wanted to play too. I decided to reduce the number of vocab words to 10 (Romulus & Remus, Tiber, forum, toga, patrician, plebian, Roman numeral, gladiator, barbarian, and aqueduct) and let her quickly have a chance to match the words to the pictures and check her answers. Once we started playing, the 3 year old wanted to get in on the action too.

They each chose a game piece, then whoever’s turn it was would draw a picture card. If they could name what the picture represented, they got to roll the dice and move (hoping to land on a shortcut or “go again” space and not a go back or “lose a turn” space). Since it wasn’t really a level playing field, I gave my 5 year old hints as needed. (“It sounds like tiger.”, “Remember in Harry Potter, when Hermione said wizard’s chess was totally barbaric?”). Most of the time I would just tell my 3 year old what to say and have him repeat it. By the end of the game, I think they all gained a lot more familiarity with the terms and my 7 year old in particular now has them completely memorized.

I should also point out that while I planned for the game board to be made of 4 taped-together pages, I also made a shrunken version that fits on one page. This would be handy for a quick game where you didn’t want to save the board. Coins work pretty well as the game pieces. Although I didn’t, it might be fun to have the kids decorate the game board by drawing on it or using stickers. If you were playing with older children, you could also use the written clues (either alone or mixed in with the picture clues). We might try this next time with me reading the clues to my non-reading children. Or you could not use clues at all and just use the board to kill some time in a restaurant.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes (to put board game together, mount, and laminate)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable, less than $1 to mount and laminate.

Materials:

Paper for printing generic game board. (Note that you only need to print either the first 4 pages or just the last page depending on the size of the board you want.)
1 sheet of poster board (optional)
contact paper (optional)

Supplies & Tools:

tape
scissors
glue stick (optional)

Instructions:

Print the generic board game. If you want just a 8.5″x11″ game board, just print the last page and you’re done. If you want a bigger game board, print pages 1 through 4.
Cut out the borders for all 4 sheets of paper.

Flip the pages over, line up the edges, and tape them together.

At this point, you could be done if you’re not planning to save your board for a long time.

If you’d like your board to be a little more sturdy, find a piece of poster board. Foam board or cardboard could also work.

Glue the game board onto the poster board. I found it helpful to glue it down a little section at a time.

Note the game board paper hangs off my piece of 14″x22″ poster board, but the entire game board is on the poster board if I center it properly.

Cut off the excess paper and poster board.

At this point you could also be done. However, if you live in a house of filthy animals/children, you might want to protect it a little further. If so, find some contact paper and cut out a piece slightly bigger than your game board. (Note that my baby drooled all over my board and my kids got greasy popcorn on it within 30 minutes of “laminating” it, but my house might be more of a disaster zone than yours.)

Peel off the backing. I find it helpful when peeling the paper to tape the corners of one end to the floor.

Leave the contact paper on the floor, sticky side up, to ensure it stays flat, then push the game board onto it.

Cut triangles off the corners of the contact paper.

Fold the edges of the contact paper over onto the back side.

Add some game pieces and dice and you’re ready to play!

In order to play, you can use the game board as a trivia game with question or clue cards as described above, you could work on spelling words or have the child solve a math problem before each turn, or you could just forgo the questions and play it Chutes and Ladders style. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

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Homemade Spinning Brushbot

Michelle — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:00:19 +0000

What better way to get kids interested in science and technology than fun, hands-on projects that move on their own? This simple, homemade, spinning brushbot was inspired by the book How to Build Robots. This book recommends taking apart a battery-powered, electric toothbrush to get the parts for this project. While that sounds like fun, I have a lot of kids I plan to make this with, so I decided to just buy the little motors and toothbrushes in bulk to save money. I also added some googly eyes and changed the positioning slightly to make it look more like a cute little bug.

Like the other “robots” on this site, this little spinning brushbot is not REALLY a robot, since it doesn’t have any sensors or respond to its environment. I’m still planning to get there sooner or later, so sign up for my newsletter if you’re interested in staying up-to-date!

The reason why I’ve held off on making a robot of this type before was because I didn’t trust my littlest munchkins not to eat the cell batteries. Combined with my constant vigilance during the construction process, I now have a crew that I am confident will survive the robot-making party we’re planning to have in the near future. If you have little kiddos, know that this project does contain choking hazards and use your best judgement!

Here is a short clip of my little brushbot in action!

Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $5 in used supplies to make one (The more you make, the cheaper the cost as buying in bulk saves a lot!)

Materials:

toothbrusth (here’s the 50 pack we used if you have a big group)
Mini vibration motor (This link is not exactly the same, but similar to what I used. You could also get a motor from inside a battery-powered electric toothbrush)
Mounting tape
3V cell battery (This is a link for the 20 pack we used.)
Googly eyes (mine are approximately 1/2″ or 12 mm, but came in a mixed size bag)

Supplies:

Scissors
Wire strippers
Cutting pliers (or anything to cut the head off the toothbrush)

Instructions:

1. Use the cutting pliers to cut the head off the toothbrush.

1. Use your fingers to spread out the bristles. For improved stability, place a book on top of the toothbrush head with the bristles spread for several minutes (or as long as you wish).

1. Use the wire stripper to expose about 1/4″ of wire on each of the leads coming from the motor.

1. Cut a piece of mounting tape slightly smaller than a googly eye.

1. Use the sticky side to attach one of the wires from the motor to the front of the cell battery in the location you would like to stick the googly eye.

1. Peel off the backing and stick a googly eye on.
2. Apply another piece of mounting tape for the second eye (without putting a wire under this side).

1. Peel off backing and apply second googly eye.

1. Use mounting tape to apply motor to toothbrush. It’s fun to experiment with the placement of the motor. Too far in one direction will cause the bot to tip over from being too heavy on one side. Too far in the other direction will cause it to spin so fast it eventually flips over. I found placing the motor approximately as shown worked pretty well. Make sure not to tape down the spinning part of the motor.

1. Use another piece of mounting tape to attach the second wire to the opposite side of the battery. Note that at this point the motor will start spinning.

1. Place another piece of mounting tape onto the non-spinning end of the motor and the front of the toothbrush. Peel off the backing.

1. Peel the backing off the tape on the battery and attach it to the tape on the motor.

Put it down and watch it spin! (See video above.)

ENJOY!
Click here for more Robotics activities for kids.

Origami Flapping Bird

Michelle — Mon, 08 May 2017 13:00:44 +0000

When I was in 4th grade, I got a chance to fly across the continental United States. The only reason I didn’t go out of my mind with boredom during that nearly 6 hour flight was that my aunt taught me how to make this origami flapping bird on the plane. I probably made nearly 100 birds during that flight. Even now, decades later, I still remember exactly how to do it due to aunt’s careful instruction.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you might recall that I am currently in the process of teaching math to a group of kids between the ages of 9 and 14 at our local homeschool co-op. During one of the classes, we worked on YouCubed’s paper folding task. We had a little time at the end of class, so I decided to show my crew how to make this bird.

The experience taught me why a plane trip is a good time for learning this skill. Trying to cram all that information into 10 minutes with 15 kids really did not work that well at all. They were so enthusiastic about our detour into origami, but we only made it about two thirds of the way through the steps before they had to go home. I felt so bad about disappointing the students, that I went home and made a handout to give them at our next class.

Recommended Age Range: Elementary, Middle School, High School (honestly, who doesn’t love origami?)
Time Required: ~15 minutes (once you are familiar with the steps, it only takes about a minute to make)
Difficulty: Medium (there is one slightly tricky step, but I’ve tried to describe it in detail — once you’ve done it once, it’s easy.)
Cost: Free (regular paper works just as well as origami paper)

Materials:

Paper (I recommend using origami paper when learning since the different colored sides make the instructions easier to follow, but really, any square paper will work.)
Handout (optional…you could also just use this post)

Instructions:

Start with a square piece of paper. If you are using origami paper, start with the white side facing up.

Fold the paper in half by bringing the top edge down to the bottom edge.

Open the paper back up. Notice the horizontal crease in the middle.

Now fold the paper in half by bringing the left edge over to meet the right edge.

Flip the paper over. If you are using origami paper, the colored side should now be up.

Next you are going to fold the paper diagonally in both directions by first bringing the upper left and lower right corners together…

…opening it back up…

…then bringing the lower left and upper right corners together.

Open the paper up and flip it over so the white side is showing again. Orient the paper so that a corner is at the bottom.

Bring the left and right corners down to meet the bottom corner.

Then bring the top corner down as well, so all 4 corners come together as shown. If you’ve folded the paper as described in the first steps, all the folds should already be bending the correct way.

Next bring the lower edges of the top to meet the vertical line in the center.

Flip the paper over.

Repeat Step 12 on this side too.

Next, fold the top point down as shown, making a horizontal crease.

Open up the three flaps on that side.

This is the tricky part. You are going to start be lifting the top layer at the bottom point upward.

Make sure that the paper stays creased at the fold you made in Step 15. Bring the left and right bottom edges in to meet the vertical line in the middle.

Flatten the whole side as shown. You will need to reverse two of the folds in the upper portion. Tricky part done!

Flip the paper over. You are going to repeat the last few steps on this side…

Fold the point down as was done on the other side.

Open up all three flaps.

Repeat Steps 17 through 19 on this side.

Now you want to bring the left and right top layers together (shown) and the left and right back layers together (now shown). Sorry, it’s a little hard to take a picture of this step.

When you lay it flat, it should look like this.

Fold the top layer bottom point up to the top point.

Flip the paper over.

Fold the top layer bottom point up to the to point on this side too.

Grab the two points sandwiched between the top and bottom layers and pull them out to the side as shown.

Fold one of the ends over to make a head.

Push the head fold to the inside as shown.

Now you’re done! Sometimes it makes it a little easier to flap the wings if you bend them a little bit beforehand, but this isn’t really necessary.

To flap the wings, you need to hold on to the back at the position shown and pull the neck forward.

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