epsom salt paitning

(Lou eye update at the end)

Epsom salt painting is one of those projects that I managed to do with my students no matter what grade I was teaching.  6th graders like is as much as 6 year olds.  I love those kind of projects!  I used this project with my little preschoolers at the nature center last week.  I would have taken it to preschool too, but we had all these snow days.  We had a little bit of snow and missed a lot of school. 

Here's a finished one.  It's a frosty snowman.   Basically, you draw with white crayon on black paper.  It sort of defines the area and helps the paint stay in place.  Any winter scene will work.  I like doing a window since the dried salt looks like frost. Lou's is a snowman. 

  

After you draw, you paint in the area you want to be frosty.  You are painting with Epsom salt (found in the drug store in the old people remedy aisle) dissolved in water.  Take a small amount of water, like 1/2 cup ish and add too much epsom salt.  Add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup.  Stir and help it dissolve. Let the mix sit for a minute or two and then it's ready to paint.   Be generous with the 'paint' and don't 'scrub' with the brush or go over an area a bunch, the crystals look better with less brushing.

We call this a patient craft.  At first it looks like nothing is happening.  When the water mix dries, the salt crystalizes and a really neat frosty effect appears on the paper.  Construction paper works, but this time we used card stock and it worked really well.

 

I've found that occasionally I don't get enough Epsom salt mixed in and there are not a lot of crystals, it's just a salty film. If that happens, remix with a heavier saturation of salt and repaint right on top.  That should help.   

I think you can grow Epsom salt crystals in a jar but it's been a long time since I've read about that. That would make a neat addition to this project, especially to help show big kids how this works. 

Lou update:  We have good news.  Yesterday (Monday) afternoon, Lou opened the good eye  a tiny bit and flickered it a bit.  He started yelling, "I can see, I can see my carpet!"   He had it open about 1/4 of the way and  If we held things right up to his face he could see them through the little slit.   What a good sign!

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Lou and the eye

People have been so sweet here and on facebook concerning Lou's eye injury.  All the prayers are so appreciated.  We had an appointment sunday evening with the eye dr (it's funny to see your doctor in sweat pants) to check for healing.  It takes three adults to hold him down for the exam and the dye to be placed in his eye (which we do in the glasses viewing area since there is a counter for him to lay on).  The exam is traumatic for all of us, but there has been healing.  In the 30 hours since the last visit, the doctor was so impressed by the amount of healing.  Praise the Lord!  Lou seems to be in less pain.  We haven't been giving as much pain medicane.  He can't open either eye yet and it is still very sensitive to touch.   By looking at the healing that has taken place in the past 2 1/2 days, the doctor is hopeful that Lou will be able to open his eyes by early to mid week.  At that point we at least know that he has one good eye.  The other will continue to heal and we'll take it from there.

He hasn't been able to play like normal.  He does seem to like to play the game, "what is it."  sometimes we trick him and add in things that don't belong in the group.  He scoots himself along the floor and uses the different flooring and the walls to get where he wants to go in the house.  He even rode his bike a little sunday.  He did decided that his big boy bike was too dangerous (once he got going to fast and hit the curb) but the old tricycle was much better.  I stand in the street and he follows by voice.  He's a brave guy and just pedals away.  We have monday off from the dr, but will be back Tuesday. 

preschool snowmen

This was now two weeks ago I think, but I'm digging through old stuff right now.  Lou is still blind (in both eyes) and it's pretty much consuming.  I took a video of him scooting around on the floor trying to move around the house on his own. I may post it tomorrow.  He's pretty much pitiful most of the time.  He did eat some french fries for lunch and an orange for dinner.  At least he won't starve.  We take him back to the eye dr today to check for healing.  We are praying for lots and lots of healing.

Anyway, here are some snowman activities from preschool and the nature center last week or so.   

The kids painted their feet on blue paper and then the faces and arms were added.  Older kids could add a hat and scarf and whatever else seems right.  I always want to put a pipe in their mouth, but that's not OK anymore.

Here's a game we played during circle time.  Many of the kids still need to work on recognizing numbers 1- 10.  For this game, I focused on 0-5. 

His belly is a pocket.  I asked each child to find a certain number and come up and put it in his belly. 

This picture is missing the plastic link chains, I left those at school for another activity. After snack time, I set out these snowballs.  They needed their assigned number of links added  in the punched hole.  I also set out the snowball sensory tub.

This build a snowman activity was like a wreath one we did at Christmas.  I worked a few of the kinks out though.  I used a dice with the written numbers instead of dots, had a blank snowman body to start with rather than have the body be one of the numbers, etc.

While I showed them all the pieces, I sang this little song.  Look how lazy; I took a picture instead of writing it out! 

The dice gets rolled and the snowman gets built. 

I stuck the eyes, 3 buttons on the front and the mouth buttons together on a sheet of blank scrap lamination. It worked out well keeping them together and we could quickly and easily place them  on the snowman.

I love a good counting rhyme.  This one goes like this:  

5 little snowpals standing in a row,
each had a hat and a big red bow.

Out came the sun and it shone all day,

and one little snowpal melted away.

repeat with 4, 3,2,1

I read one of my favorite snowmen books, Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.  It has great pictures! If we had more time, we could have sorted through bags of 'good stuff'(like from the story) and put together faces out of all the goodies.   

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boys and girls and books (and an injury!)

The title here may be misleading. This post is actually about books I have just finished reading about boys and girls (injury is at the end).  If you have little or even medium aged little people, James Dobson's books, Bringing up Boys and Bringing up Girls are must reads.  He not only validates the job that parents do, but reminds you of the huge  responsibility you have and the high bar you must set for yourself as parents and your kids as little people.

I like these two particular books for several reasons.  First,  he celebrates the differences between boys and girls.  God made them different for reasons we can only begin to guess at and (as every parent will tell you) that they act different and thus need to be handled differently.  It's not all give your boys trucks and mud and give your girls baby dolls and brooms though. It's more about raising your boys to be good men and your girls to be good ladies. 

I had planned to write more about the books, but I only have a few minutes... Luke has injured himself again.  This may be the biggest one yet.   These pictures are reminding me that he is a little boy full of energy and spunk and personality and will be this boy again.  Sorry for all the details that follow.  Skim if you like.

Friday (yesterday), at lunch time, we were at the food co-op building to buy some dried black beans.  It's an old downtown house turned artsy hippy granola shop.  The bathroom is neat and artistically tiled and the kids wanted to go visit it.   When Lou went to wash his hands, he pulled the soap bottle towards him and pumped it.  Instead of shooting down into his hands, it shot him straight in the eye. It was Dr. Bronners castile soap with peppermint oil.   He screamed like he had been stabbed.  He shreaked.  Blood curdling screams.  I tried to help him wash it, but it was really hurting.  He was shaking and screaming and really in pain.  I tried to wash it, tried to calm him down unsuccessfully for the next half hour.  I asked him if he wanted to go to the Dr and he said "YES!  Help me mama, take me to the Dr."   So we left the shop, got in the car and drove to the eye doctor.  The entire trip he's crying crazyily (new word) and yelling, "Help me mama,  make it stop!  Hold me!" 

At the eye doctor, they weren't able to get him to open either eye and he was very scared.  They decided that the crying was doing a good enough job washing out the eye.  We were sent home assured that in the morning, he would probably open his eyes.  He was in a panicked crying pain for about three hours until he wore himself out and he essentially passed out.  I gave him two baths trying calm him and to rinse out the eye more.  At bed time, he still had not opened either eye, was still in extreme pain, wouldn't eat, and insisted on being held (while I was standing, I could not sit). 

He had to sleep with us since he was blind and did not know where he was.  This morning, I was sure he'd be fine, but woke to him crying.  His eye was swollen and discharging crazy yellow stuff.  He still couldn't open them and seemed to be in more pain.  I called the eye Dr after hours care and we went right in. It took three adults to hold him down with him kicking and screaming for the doctor to get little peeks in his eye.  They died the eye ball to check for abrasions.  He has a chemical burn over the entire surface of his eye. The goop is from the infection he now has.  He lacks the muscle coordination to open one without the other, so both eyes are shut tight.  It was so severe that it will be 3-4 days before he will be able to open his eyes and hopefully will have vision when he does.  It will be a week or more before we know where the vision stands, but the doctor is hopeful. I have several days of a blind son up ahead.  He is mopey and lethargic. He doesn't want to talk, to play, to hear stories, etc.  He's a sad boy.

Bottom line, Dr. Bronners castile soap is a natural cleaner, but the essential oil (peppermint oil) makes it very caustic.  Very -burn your eye- ball caustic and should not be handled by children.  

So, the plan for the next three or four days is that we go see the eye Dr each day to check for healing, we have antibiotic drops, oral antibiotics, and we are to piggy back Tylenol and Motrin to take the edge off and dose him up with Benedryl so he rests. We try to get him to eat and let him listen to videos.  Poor guy.  Good thing it's the weekend. 

good news:  he has agreed to eat a happy meal.  

Part 2 on the eye injury

Part three- 2012

The follow up (2014)

indoor iceskating on the carpet

At preschool last week we had penguin day.  It was the other teacher in the classroom's day to teach.  She had the kids ice skate on the carpet like penguins slide on the ice.  The kids just stood on wax paper rectangles and slid on the carpet.  I was so fun. I think it would make a lovely work out too, I could feel it in my thighs!  I was very surprise at how easily we slid around.

Lou did this in his room too, but I knew Bee would like it too.  I brought some of the pieces of wax paper home and we took a spin down in our basement that afternoon.  We discovered that the burbar carpet didn't work as well as this large caper remnant in the laundry room that must be 20 years old and is all worn down. 

We skated and skated until we had worn through the wax paper.  At school, the kids kept their shoes on and it worked fine.  Bee and I were both wearing tights when we did this at home and discovered that our feet bottom were slick afterward.  We kept sliding on the linoleum flooring in my sewing room afterward.

While we are talking about penguins.. here's an adorable penguin snack.  I'm not sure this would have gone over well at school, but my kids would love it.  They love olives!

iceskating and reward charts

This iceskating trip was actually back at the end of last year, but I got a little swamped with photos over the holidays and several fun things got buried.   Bee went to an iceskating birthday party on a Saturday and since it was only girls, poor Lou and daddy got left behind.  Bee LOVED it.  She loves it so much that we decided to take the boys the next afternoon.  

Lou was having a rough Saturday evening so I decided to bring out an old behavior plan to use the next day.  It's one that I have used in the classroom.  The student using this little number list would usually start at 10 and then there would be a list of rewards/consequences for the final number of the day/class.  For each behavior infraction, the highest number left gets torn off. 

Bee didn't really need one, but it only seemed fair.  I told them that the ice skate picture was their ticket and as long as they had that, they could go.  I was just waiting for the first misbehavior so I could show them how this worked. Of course, at this point. the kids know all of the behaviors and expectation we have for them.  I was strict with the first infraction.  Kick your sister, no warning needed; Lou lost a number.  I worked really well for us this day.  I will remember to use this one again. 

So, later that afternoon, everyone had a number and picture left.  Lou was on 1 and Bee's hadn't been touched. We got to go iceskating. Of course, I had to be prepared for one of the kids not to get to go.  That would have stunk, but I would have stayed home.  

 I didn't get many pictures, especially of Bee.  I locked the camera up in our locker and didn't get it out until the end of our time. Bee had hurt her ankle and was already back in street shoes.  Two days in a row of iceskating was too much for her!  Me too.

Lou and daddy ended up in hockey skates, which they both preferred.  I tired them too, but the ankles are super loose and I didn't like them at all.

Bee is really good.  Next time she said she wants to wear a twirly skirt. 

It was most of our entertainment budget for the whole month to go ice skating for one afternoon!  Bee has been asking to go weekly since this.  I've told her we'll go again, but until then maybe she can iceskate on our frozen pool!  Not really.  We just need more birthday parties to go to.

*I had to turn the comment word verification back on. If you leave a comment you'll have to type in one of those funny words to make sure you aren't the crazy escorts who keep leaving spam comments.  Hopefully I'll be able to get rid of it soon.  Thanks!  really?  This blog is a good place for them to advertise their. um. services?

My wins

Back before Christmas, Sew Mama Sew was doing their annual group giveaway.  There were hundreds of participating blogs all doing giveaways at the same time.  I meant both this year and last to get involved, but I missed the deadline. I'll be watching much closer this coming year so I don't miss out.  

I didn't totally miss out though, I entered many many of the giveaways myself.  I won something.  Two somethings actually.

I got email telling me I won a bag from Peaceful Peg.  

The front of the bag is the bottom picture, but I love the yellow fabric so much that I have been carrying that side out mostly.  It's a really pretty yellow paisly.  She's from Canada, I probably can't find the fabric here...  I should ask her.  I've been carrying it to school.

Then, I got another email and I won a purse and zipper pouch from JaLaRu.

 It's a good thing that I'm getting over my 'I hate birds' thing.  In fact, the kids and I made a special trip into town to buy bird seed this week when we saw it was on sale.  Both pieces are really well made. The fabric is really unique.  It's not quiet a regular quilting cotton, but not a decor fabric.  It's going to be sturdy fabric for sure.  Bee has taken over the bag, I'm keeping the pouch for myself.  

crochet snowflake garland

I don't have a fireplace mantel at our new house but I'm still into the crochet garlands.  Last year I made heart garland and St.Patrick's Day garland.  This year, I thought snowflakes might be fun.  

I found these directions for making your own crochet snowflake garland.  I think mine looks much different than those pictured and I don't know why.  I changed the way they are joined to just a chain at the top. 

I used up the rest of the white wool yarn I had left over from this felted wool bag.  I am not sure where it will end up being hung, but right now I'm OK with it hung by my wooden snowman. 


Here's the pattern from redheart.  


Ch 5; join with a slip st to form a ring.
Rnd 1: Ch 1, [2 sc in ring, ch 3] 6 times; join with a slip st
in first sc
Rnd 2: Slip st in next sc, ch 1, [(2 sc, ch 3, 2 sc) all in ch-3
loop] 6 times; join.
Rnd 3: Slip st in next sc, ch 1, [(sc, ch 3, sc, ch 5, sc, ch 3,
sc) all in ch-3 loop, ch 2] 6 times; join. Fasten off.

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