Bottle'O'Bubble - How to make bubble blowers from household items.

How to make bubble blowers from household items to make your own COVID ISO Foam party at home with the kids.

You need:

• Detergent

• Water

• Plastic bottle

• A sock

• optional *for touchable stronger bubbles you can add glucose syrup (available at most supermarkets or in houses with fructose allergies)

The Bubble Mix:

Mix 1 and a half cups of hot water to 1/2 a cup of detergent. Optional - add 1/4 of a cup of glucose for tougher touchable bubbles.

The Bottle Blower:

Cut a plastic bottle** in half. I found the slighter harder plastic better than the really thin plastic water bottles.

Put a sock over the open end.

Method:

Dip and blow. Don’t slosh and stir - that will just make bubbles in your mix and as my friend, Frehd the Clown will tell you, froth is the enemy of good bubbles.

❤ Simone

Check out the disco kids making their own foam party during the last rainy day.

**I’m thinking this could also be a way to reuse the bottom halves of all the drink bottles you end up with that have no tops after your child has chewed the mouth spout thing to pieces or you discovered the non leak promise was all lies.

Foiled again! Oh look something shiny- the power of distraction.

One of my most valuable parenting tools is DISTRACTION. When the meltdown is huge and the person having it isn’t responding to logic, reason or consoling, try distraction. I needed to distract my smalls with something shiny after a lego incident (did you know lego friends wont’t fit on traditional lego motorbike pieces? I can tell you the discovery of that caused some major meltdowns the other day. Thinking fast I looked for a quick distraction around the kitchen and spotted ALFOIL.

Not only is it shiny and makes great baked potatoes, its also a fabulous art surface. Did you know you can draw on Alfoil? It has a lovely smooth feel and makes the colours pop off the surface nice and bright.

You can freedraw or if you are feeling particularly crafty you could try this string geometric style option, or even use string and glue-stick to make your own shapes. Check our shiny little distractions: Instructions below.

Freestyling version:

1. Cut a piece of card from a cereal box or any box you have handy. ( I keep a few in a tub for making aside from our recycle box)

2. Wrap in alfoil and gently press down

3. Colour with markers (permanent work better but keep tabs on them so you don’t find them on your walls or furniture later)

Geometric dreams version:

1. Cut a piece of card from a cereal box or any box you have handy. ( I keep a few in a tub for making aside from our recycle box)

2. Cut little notches around the edges

3. Use string in and out of the notches to make some geometric shapes.

4. Wrap in alfoil and gently press down so the string is raised slightly

5. Colour with markers.

Swirly curly version:

1. Cut a piece of card from a cereal box or any box.

2. Cover with white glue or draw lines using a glue stick.

3. Use string pushed onto your glue marks to make shapes and pattern.

4. Wrap in alfoil and gently press down so the string is raised slightly.

5. Colour with markers.

My pancake art brings all the kids to the yard

Don't play with your food, unless you made it playful! Introducing the disco kids making pancakes with a pinch of play. Instructions below

Pancake basic recipe from my beloved Mavis Mundy, who loved to batter up.

Recipe:

• 1 cup of flour (s/raising for height)

• 1 egg

• A cup and a slosh or so of milk

• Pinch of salt.

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in one bowl until lumpless.

2. Let it rest for five

3. Divide pancake mix in different bowls

4. Add FLAVOUR or colour e.g. food colouring, cocoa, berry syrup.

4. Heat pan, add a little butter or non stick spray

5. Make your own crepey masterpiece.

Enjoy!

❤ Simone

Taking (Tina) Turn(er)s

Sometimes I describe parenting my twins as the Thunderdome… two kids enter, one kid leaves. Especially when I used to set up those little playpen cages in the toddler years. Twins are brutal and I can’t remember a time mine weren’t best frenemies - ultrasounds watching your blobs kick each other is quite the memory.

It’s hard to run things here in Bartertown, so when things get hectic with screams of, “Its my turn!” I channel my inner Aunty Entity, my inner Tina Turner. As my inner monologue repeats, “break the deal, face the wheel” I pull out a surprisingly crap craft that small people respect and understand.

The Taking Turner.

You need:

A paper plate, paper, textas, scissors, bandaids, a split pin or something like that.

Check the video for how to build you own in 10 minutes or less and regain control of your own post-apocalyptic household action. In all seriousness, taking turns can be tricky for our small family members and visual prompts help. For parents, the sense of humour goes a long way in a mad mad world.

Good luck!

Simone

aka Aunty Entity. Shout out to all the 80’s kids who got my pop references. Now I’m off to find myself a chain mail dress.

Lets have a (disco) ball! CO-VID Craft Time

Having dance floor withdrawals? Or perhaps you are looking for an activity to quench to calls of, “I’m bored” Let’s have a ball: Make your own disco ball, malls balls or easter egg at home!*

You need:

• Foam ball or shape

• Sequins

• Pins

*If you don’t have a hoarder level of craft in your household, you can get all of these online, and in nearly every store that has a craft section including the bargain stores.

How to make:

• Pin the sequins to the foam

And that’s it! A crafty way to develop fine motor skills,make an artsy accessory and reminisce of a time when you were allowed out of the house, maybe even a bar…. not drinking in your pantry alone.

This little craft activity is repetitive but in a good meditative way. My children and I are sensory seekers, we like to touch, taste, move and make - so week 4 isolation for them means I am having to get more creative. We switch off the screens, slip into something more comfortable….pajamas I mean, working with pins means that flannel is practically protective wear. Crank SBS chill for the background tunes and let the time melt away while we pick, pin and prick ourselves all afternoon. As everyone gets into the flow the arguments and the volume of my children quietens as they concentrate, compliment and calm down through craft.

Bonus life lesson for the kids - if they don’t pack up properly the pins will hurt when stepped on later but won’t kill them. Cleaning and learning!

*Or don’t. Making is my mindfulness, my calm, my happy place. If it isn’t yours, just don’t do it. Now is not the time to put pressure on yourself to “be” or “do” anything that isn’t necessary or nurturing (for you, not just the kids).

Take care,

Mone

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