Crayon Muffins

Here is a recipe that will please kids and recyclers equally. It requires that you and your child save bits of crayons, those that break or get worn down. Keep them in a coffee can in the kitchen. Then one day, when you are spending time in the kitchen and the can is at least a third full, you can make crayon muffins.

Have your child remove the paper from the crayon while you line an old muffin tin with silver foil. Fill the tin half with crayons, and place it in a 300 degree pre-heated oven for about five minutes. Let the tin sit until cool. The colors will blend together and your child will be able to create multicolored art with only one crayon.

Lacing Patterns

Give your child a hole puncher and let him punch holes all over a sheet of cardboard or heavy paper. Using a long shoelace or a string of heavy yarn that is knotted at one end, your child can have fun weaving through the holes, zigzagging in and out of the paper. Help him tie a knot in the loose end of the string when he is finished.

Several different colors of yarn make the end result even more fun. Another variation is to let your child bind together a collection of his artwork by punching holes along the left-hand margin and sewing the pages together.

Play Dough

Put an apron on your kitchen kid, and set him to work whipping up a fresh batch of play dough. Spread some newspaper or a large plastic bag (or grocery bags cut down the side and opened flat) on a table and provide your child with a large bowl, a wooden spoon, and a measuring cup. Help him measure the following ingredients and blend them together gradually:

1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of water (add slowly), 1/2 cup salt, 1/4 cup vegetable oil (add slowly)

When the consistency looks right, he can knead the play dough with his hands. For variety, add food color to the water before mixing. FRESHNESS TIP: The play dough will keep for weeks tied securely in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Pat a little salad oil on the outside to keep it pliable if it feels dry.

Vegetable Patch
Paste, paper, and some supplies from your pantry are all that is needed for this kitchen art. Provide your child with a supply of various dried foods, like beans and peas, rice, macaroni, popcorn kernels, spaghetti, and whateer else inspires you. Let him spread paste all over the paper and arrange whatever designs strike his fancy. He may then want to use one of the items to create a border all around his work.

Imprints

This is a project that lots of parents find absorbing themselves. Organize some drawing paper and paints-tempera, poster, or watercolor paints will all work.

Have your child round up some small objects with different shapes and textures: a piece of sponge, a bottle cap, a seashell, a margarine top, and some pencil erasers are good starters. Now let her dip the object into the paint and use the wet object as a stamp to print designs on the paper. She can experiment with repetitions and with different shapes on the one page.

After she has experimented with these objects, try some new ones. A citrus fruit cut in half and dipped in paint makes a beautiful effect on paper. Cutting a potato in half, and gashing holes and gullies in it will also produce interesting designs. Improvise with what you have on hand and see what else makes good imprints.

Imprints

Strike up the band with musical instruments you've created out of ordinary materials you have in your home. For example, to make your own maracas, you will need cardboard cylinder from inside a toilet paper roll; aluminum foil; dry beans (or buttons); and two rubber bands. Help your child cut two circles or squares (about four inches across) from the foil. She covers one end of the toilet paper roll with a piece of foil and puts a rubber band around the foil to close off the end securely. Then turn the roll over, carefully drop some beans inside the roll, and cover the other end in the same way. Now she has a maraca for shaking and dancing to.

Collected pebbles, buttons, or marbles inside a metal salt shaker or tin tea canister are also good for shaking. When the tinny sound gets to you, set your child looking for bits or wood or wooden objects around the house (for example, a wooden spoon, a small cheese board, wooden molds, clothes pins). Striking or scraping two of these wooden objects together slowly or quickly, hard or soft, will add some interesting beats to her dance music.

She can have a rhythm band by putting on a record or tape and using her homemade instruments to play and sing along with. If the noise level exceeds your tolerance, challenge your musician to see how softly she can play her instruments.

Treasure Hunt

Children love the excitement of hiding and searching, so play hide-and-seek or have a treasure hunt with toys or household objects. When you are ready for a change, add a learning component to this activity.

Choose one letter of the alphabet for a child just learning to recognize letters. Send her from the room while you hide several pieces of paper too well, or your child will become frustrated.) Now call your child back and announce, "I have hidden six T's in the hiding places in the room. See how fast you can find them. "If she has difficulty, call out "hot" or "cold" to give her clues as she moves closer to or farther from the hiding spots.

For an older child, write the letters of her name or a new word on paper and cut them out like a puzzle. After the pieces are found, make fitting the pieces together (with help if necessary) part of the game.

Still older children can go on a scavenger hunt in the house, looking for six objects that start with T, or a list of specific things you have made up. Make returning all the objects within a certain amount of time another game, afterward.

What's Missing?

Place five objects on a tray-a key, a ball, a spoon, a block, and a crayon, perhaps. Have your child look carefully at all the objects and name each one she sees. Then have her close her eyes while you remove one object and put it in your pocket. She reexamines the tray and decides what is missing. Gradually add more objects to the tray, and when she gets really proficient, remove more than one object to make the game especially challenging. The whole family can enjoy taking turns playing this game.

A variation is to blindfold a guesser and have her feel all the objects on the tray and determine which one is missing by her sense of touch. To prolong the game, hide the object you remove in the room and play "hot and cold" (calling out "hot" when she's near the object, and "cold" when she's far away) while your child hunts for the missing object.