Static Electricity

Pinspiration:  STEM Bored Jar

I've pinned this one before, but we have since used more ideas from this post.  The author claims to have 48 STEM activities to prepare in 5 minutes or less.  This is true... as long as you have the materials on hand.  Most of the items can be found on hand, if you are remotely crafty, but really, you need to plan ahead if you want to be able to make good on any activity they pull out of the jar.

The kids really enjoyed putting the butterfly together, and using the balloon to make him fly.  (It did work!) However, this activity only occupied my kiddos for about 2 minutes.  If you really want to give your kids something to occupy their time with a rich learning activity while you cook dinner, you will need to find a different activity.

Happy STEAMing!

Pipe (Cleaner) Dreams

Pinspiration:  33 Cheep but Brilliant Ways to Keep Your Kids Busy

Who remembers that Gameboy Game?  No one?  Ok then, let's get to the main event.

This pin actually has a lot of easy to set up activities.  Don't be surprised if you see this one again.

I don't know about you, but my kids need my attention the most while I am cooking dinner.  Luckily, I have all the needed materials on hand, pipe cleaners and a colander.  Over the last two days, this has kept Lainey busy for hours.  Jake has even joined in the fun creating "patches" that are actually quite cool!

Lainey's Design

Jake's Design

What About that Base?

Pinspiration:  Building Block Fun

Jake has become quite the master builder (Who out there in blogville has seen The Lego Movie?).  He plays with Legos ALL DAY!  When he is not playing with Legos, he's talking about his next "structure".

Lainey has also become quite interested in Legos lately as well, which is awesome and terrible at the same time.  Jake is a great sharer, but Lainey can be a tornado around Lego creations.  Luckily, I found a great deal on a Lego Education Brick Set on Amazon and, voila!  No more arguments.  Each child has his/her own set of Legos and everyone is happy, right?  Not exactly, the Lego set we purchased did not come with Lego men...  No worries, I found another great deal on Lego men on Amazon. (Who doesn't love Amazon?) Three days later, we had 30 brand new Lego men.  No child needs to be given that many Lego men, and can you imagine the tears we would get if one child got 30 new toys while the other got... peace, quiet, the end of Lego destruction?

So, when I found this pin, I had to give it a shot.  We decided that each time we play the game each kiddo can choose a new Lego man as their game piece, and keep him.

The site has a link to the free downloadable game board.  I taped ours to a piece of cardboard in hopes that we can keep it longer.  I will, however, be making a slight adjustment.  The pin and paperclip spinner really does not keep well.  I have an unused clear spinner in some old school things that we will use in future game sessions.

The game was pretty fun (considering we were playing with a 2 year old who refuses to learn how to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 8...).  However, if you are playing with youngsters, the game board is a bit long.  We changed the rules so that when anyone reached the finish, we would all stop and compare stacks.  This lead to an awesome discussion on measurement and comparisons.  Jake also learned to read two new words, take and lose.

I would also caution all gamers that the stacks can get quite tall and unstable and fall over constantly. (Playing with an uncoordinated 2 year old didn't help much either.)  We moved our stacks off to the side of the board and chose a different Lego piece to use as our chip on the game board.  Another option would be to build the towers off to the side and use the Lego men as your game pieces, but my kiddos loved seeing how high their little man was.

With those few adjustments, I would recommend this game for all of young master builders out there.