Creating Paper Glass Chihuly Art

Chihuly Glass Sculpture in Nature?

Whenever it is too a cold too wet to play outside or a children are sick grandparents can take out a few art supplies and try a new easy craft. It’s always good to be prepared. This craft is based on the famous contemporary glass lamps and sculptures of Dale Chihuly found in beautiful buildings around the world. You will need  some coffee filters, non- permanent markers, spray starch, a yogurt container or plastic cup about the size of the middle of a coffee filter, and battery operated tea lights. 

  If you and the children search Google images “Dale Chihuly glass” children will  get inspiration for their own paper glass Macchia which means spotted in Italian. Thespotted glass they will make can be used for dishes or a candle holder with a little nonflammable light in the middle.

Paper Glass

  To make the paper glass, cut around a coffee filter edge to make it scalloped or slightly uneven in no particular pattern.

Making Paper Glass

 Flatten out the filter and make a series rows of scribbles like short tightly closed tents with different colors.  Children should make each color about half an inch wide before starting another color around the filter.  They can also make different colored dots. Looking at the images of the Chilhuly glass will help get across the idea that one color is going to bleed into the other. Blue next to yellow will bleed into green. Red next 

Delicate and Translucent

to blue will bleed into purple.  If children want to stick to primary colors, leave a large space between them.  Children can make each filter different or make a set that look the same.

  Once children have made jagged lines, spots, and blobs, drape the coffee filter over an upside down plastic cup or individual yogurt container. Place some newspapers under the containers. Apply spray starch to the filter until the marker colors blend and the coffee filter is completely wet. Allow the filters to dry and do not touch them.

Once dry they will be translucent and mimic the look of Chihuly glass.  They will be as delicate as glass but will not break.  If they are gifts, place them in a box with tissue paper tucked around them. They will keep their shape if not handled too roughly. There is also a short film on Vimeo at bit.ly/chihulyvideo.

Flower Bouquet  
Coffee filters come in handy for a variety of children’s art projects.  Sprayed with starch or not they can be painted with water colors and attached with pipe cleaners for a floral bouquet. They can be flattened and placed in a window to add a stained glass look to a child’s room.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos 

Learning with Spring Eggs

Lots To Do With Plastic Spring Eggs

Every spring bags of plastic colorful eggs appear in stores.  They are inexpensive and appeal to kids of all ages.  Here are some springtime fun activities with the eggs which encourage discovery and learning.

  You will need about a dozen plastic assorted color eggs which come apart in the middle, various small items to fit inside the eggs like pretzels, jelly beans, popcorn, cotton balls, pebbles, pennies, nails, rubber eraser, and cheerios, toothpicks, and dental floss.

Patterns

   Spend some time just laying out eggs  halves on a soft 

Look for the Patterns

surface.  Count them together.  Group the eggs by color. Ask children a few questions. Can you make some patterns like yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, red?  Can you use the half eggs to make shapes like triangle, square, or a circle? 

   No bring out the little items and place some pieces in each egg.  Talk about what you are putting in each egg as you do it.  When each egg has something different inside, help children play a little guessing game by shaking the egg and guessing what is inside. How does our sense of hearing help  when we can’t see what is making the noise?  Does the sound suggest something soft or hard, big or little, rubbery? How many did you guess correctly? You can play the game lots of times or add new items.

  The eggs can also be used for a fun container for snacks for little fingers—cheerios, pretzels, small carrot sticks or peas. Younger children may need help to open the egg without spilling the contents.

   Let your child hide an egg and then play the hot (getting closer) cold (going away from) game as you try to find it.  In the bathtub, children can experiment with eggs that float or sink depending on what they put inside.

Hide and Seek With Eggs

Decorate Trees

 Older children can use the eggs to play simple math games with adding one more egg or taking away one or two eggs from the group.  Let them make up some problems for you. Use the eggs to show your answer. Your little ones will have fun using the eggs to decorate the dinner table to help celebrate the coming of springtime.

  You can also hang some colorful eggs in the trees. Tie a piece of a toothpick to some dental floss. Poke a hole through one end of the plastic egg with a large needle and poke the toothpick through the hole.  When you gently pull the floss back out the toothpick will hold the floss inside the egg.  Make a loop on the other end of the floss and use that to hang the eggs on a tree branch. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons, live and podcasts; Facebook, and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

Traveling Solo with Grandkids, Part Two

Set Expectations & Reinforce Them:

Sandi Poindexter, grandparent and worldwide traveler has more suggestions for traveling solo with a grandchild based on research and personal experience in part two.

 She suggests to set expectations, reinforced by parents. Beside the basics of where, when, and how, there are the creature comforts and specials considerations for traveling with children.

Where will we eat? How late can you sleep in? What’s unacceptable behavior? How will we get around ? How much screen time is permitted?  Is there free time?  How will we keep safe?  What do you do if lost? Does your teenage grandchild know your phone number if their phone is lost? Children should always carry an id, hotel info and phone numbers separately from a phone. Learning safety and group social skills will last a lifetime.

The Bank

  Souvenir buying doesn’t need to be an on-going struggle. Agree upon a souvenir process before you leave. 

Use "The Bank" Method for Kids' Spending

You can write down a dollar limit on a piece of paper and put it with the money into an envelope called “The Bank.” Every purchase is paid by and subtracted by the child from the envelope total.  Have the child write the item down on the paper. 

  When the bank is empty, there are no further purchases so remind the child to consider value, balance, and opportunity cost. Don’t be surprised if you hear a child’s self- debate “If I buy this, I can’t buy that. This costs too much. I don’t have that much left.” With this experience, a child may be able to understand a travel budget.

   After the trip ask for an assessment of where money should be spent in the future – on lodging, eating out, activities, and why. While the answers may not be your preferences, the selection process is a route to expressing reasoned opinions.

Contrariness

  Whining, pouting and other contrariness are inevitable so plan for it. Quietly wait it out, eat a snack, read a book, or find a park with a playground or nature area. Inserting these activities into your schedule may reduce problems. Calmly verbalizing when you become irritable can help a child learn how to handle their own behaviors. Watch for cues. Everyone needs a time out occasionally, some protein, and exercise. Maybe you are doing too much.

Plan & Check Your Documents

 Plan ahead. Collect needed documents for the trip. Written parental permissions, insurance cards and birth certificates may suffice. If you travel internationally, visit the country’s embassy and immigration websites for rules on traveling with minors. In addition to passports, it may require original documents, immunization, notarized letters and marriage certificate when the child’s surname does not match yours. 

After the trip while making a memory book, evaluate what worked and whether you met your goals. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

Solo Travel with Grandkids

Where Are You Going?

Sandi Poindexter, grandparent and worldwide traveler has some suggestions for traveling solo with a grandchild in this two  part series. Understanding your motivations and asking some basic questions at the front-end helps increase trip rewards and make it enriching and enjoyable, according to Poindexter.

  Why are you going? Objectives range from helping parents and building memories to exposing a child to new environments and having fun while educating on the go. Will you take one grandchild, siblings of different ages or cousins of similar ages? Where will you go? Best choices include: somewhere you and your grandchildren want to go, you’ve been there before, you think your grandchild would like to visit, and you can afford to travel there.

Planning

 What will you do? Research activities to create a list of options within your budget and common interests. 

Research and Plan Your Trip Activities

Ask your grandchildren and their parents to narrow it down after discussion and looking at websites or travel materials.  Besides amusement centers, many museums and parks offer interactive learning with costumes, scavenger hunts and educational play areas. This selection process involves critical thinking, self-awareness and consideration for the grandparent. 

 Is it a trip goal to explore diversity? One advantage of metro areas is sampling foods from a variety of cultures at one time whereas visiting a region allows more in-depth discussion on a specific culture and life-style. If understanding travel options is a goal, try varying types of lodging within the trip – hostels, bed and breakfasts, and high-rise hotels in a city center, suburban chain hotel, rented cottage or vacation home.

New  Travel

  Is it possible to travel in a new way? Even a young child can 

Travel in a New Way - Why Not??

compare trains, planes and cars: trains are better because you can walk around and the windows are bigger,” “Planes get you there faster,” “You can stop when you want in a car.” 

 Long trips often produce the “When are we going to get there?” question. In an airport, give a child a copy of the flight information and show them how to navigate from check-in to the gate. In a car, it helps if a child knows where you are going and can track your progress on a map. Before you leave, point out the starting point, routes and end points. Map reading, whether paper or digital form, requires spatial reasoning. Explain the map annotations for roads and exits and compare them to the roadway signs . There are several ways to apply math skills on a driving trip --compute gas mileage, estimate time based on distance and speed. Ask, what does 60 mph mean? If we have 120 miles to go, how long will it take to get there? What if we stop for gas? 

For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos