Selecting The Best Modeling Dough Compound for Your Child

Selecting-The-Best-Modeling-Dough-Compound-for-Your-ChildCreative play with modeling dough can be an enjoyable activity for children but can cause problems if parents aren’t careful. Knowing how to select the best dough compound for your child’s age and skill level is important. This list of factors will help you make that decision:

How Much Time Does Your Child Have to Work with The Modeling Dough Compound?

When choosing a modeling dough compound for your child, another important factor is how much time you are willing to spend working on the sculpture with them. Some children may need constant supervision when working because it can dry out or break apart if they leave it unattended. Many modeling dough compounds dry out after a certain amount of time, so the most important thing is to make sure you choose one that allows plenty of time for your child to work on their sculpture uninterrupted.

Flexibility/Brittleness

Certain compounds are very flexible while others are much more brittle; if your child plays with her compound on a hard surface and squeezes it with her teeth, you may want to choose a less flexible compound.

Staining

Although all dough compounds should wash off easily, some are more likely to stain skin or clothing, so consider which compound you’ll want to use if your child wears clothes immediately after playing with his dough.

Color

All dough compounds are available in different colors; however, some are brighter than others and will be more noticeable if they’re on your child’s hands or mouth. If you don’t want to see bright coloring every time you look at your child, this may not be the product you want to choose.

What Is Your Budget?

Finally, your budget is another consideration when choosing a modeling dough compound such as Mad Mattr. There are ranges of compounds available for purchase at any price point, and some require baking after they’ve been used to allow them to harden.

Durability

Almost all dough compounds are very durable; however, some are more likely to leave residue on your hands after use than others. If your child frequently likes to rub his work in his eyes and mouth, this may be a factor you want to consider (if you’re not sure whether your child will do this, talk to his daycare provider or preschool teacher to find out).

Temperature Resistance/Sensitivity

Some compounds contain ingredients that soften when exposed to warm temperatures while some do not; if your child typically plays with his dough outside, the heat may make it tacky and difficult to mold (but this will go back to normal as it cools down).

The use of modeling dough compounds has been used for some time now to assist in instilling creativity in kids. Various artistic disciplines use modeling dough compounds. You can choose the best modeling dough compound based on the above factors, but if you’re not sure there’s enough time or money to complete your project, you may need to re-evaluate your approach and compromise on one of your chosen factors.

Four Daycare Art And Craft Projects You Can Do At Home

 Four-Daycare-Art-And-Craft-Projects-You-Can-Do-At-Home.Craft and Art Projects at Home

Do you remember getting excited about art class back in school? How about the beautiful craft projects you worked on at home along with your parents? Recalling your memories related to arts and crafts, you can probably understand their importance. Arts and crafts have a significant impact on the overall creative development of a child. 

From birthday parties to summer camp activities, arts and crafts are a must-do in terms of events associated with kids. So why not have art and craft dates with your child at home? After you agree to the idea, you need to do some homework to determine a project’s safety, availability of materials, and ease of construction related to the child’s age and ability. But before you start worrying, we have got you covered on some starter project ideas. 

Here are four daycare art and craft projects that children can easily take part in:   

  • Stone Monsters

What could be better than using simple stones to make pretty little monsters? Using stones is a great option in terms of utilizing something easily available in nature. You also get to experiment with colors and patterns to create different characters.

Here is all you need to make these simple and adorable stone monsters: 

Smooth Stones
Acrylic Paints
Colored Markers
Googly Eyes
Glue
Paintbrushes
Newspaper 

Now that you have all your materials ready, let’s get to work!

Spread the newspaper over your work area to prevent the paint and glue from spoiling the surface. Then take a stone and paint it with your desired color. Use the marker to draw patterns and a mouth. You can stick one, two, or three googly eyes on your monster, and it is ready to make your child smile whenever they look at this cute little creation. 

Source: Pinterest
For young kids, working with small stones to create art can be a great activity. You can easily teach your child how to create these
characters from stone and help them create as many monsters as they like. To make their experience even more fun, you can name the stone monsters you create with your kids and encourage them to play with the characters. 

  • Sock Puppets

Sock puppets are a classic craft project for homes, daycare centers, and schools. These puppets are not just creative but also engaging for your child’s learning and cognitive growth. 

Here is what you need to make your sock friend:
A sock
Googly eyes or buttons
Glue
Marker

Gather all these materials and roll up your sleeves to initiate the project.

Start by marking the locations for eyes and mouth. Glue the buttons on the spots marked for the eyes. Allow the child to mark the points.  You can use the glue for them to make sure the buttons stick well. Depending upon the child’s age, you can decide whether or not they can be allowed to handle the glue themselves. Now, with a marker’s help, make the mouth of your puppet. You can use ribbons, colored markers, bows, and other creative additions to enhance your sock puppet’s appearance. 

When your sock puppet is ready, you can use it for story narrations. As your child completes this art project, you can encourage them to use their puppets and conduct a puppet show, which could be a lot of fun.  

  • Paper Plate Fish

Paper plates are easy to find and make an excellent supply for art and craft projects. Paper plate fish is one of the easiest craft projects you can make with a class of young students. 

To make your paper plate fish, you will have to dive into your ocean of creativity and find the following materials:

Paper plates
Paints
Paint Brushes
Scissors
Googly Eyes
Glue
Marker

What next? Here’s what you do when you have everything in place: 

Start by painting the entire plate with your favorite color. When the plate dries, cut a thin triangle from the center towards the ends of the plate. Now use the triangle as the tail and stick it to the rest of the colored plate. Use another plate to cut the fins of the fish and attach them to the plate. For young children, it is advised that you do the cutting for them to avoid any accidents.

You can use a different color paint to color the fins of your paper fish. Now take a different color to make the scales of your fish. You can make different patterns and decorate your fish. Stick a googly eye on your fish and make a smile with a marker, and now your paper fish is ready to show its tricks!

Ice-cream Stick Pen Stand

As parents, you are constantly looking to participate in wholesome activities with your kids. Creating art and craft projects can be a great experience that triggers your child’s creativity. You can use these projects to teach them the art of making the best out of waste. One such helpful project is an ice-cream stick pen stand. 

To make your pen stand with ice-cream sticks, you will need the following: 

Ice-cream sticks 
Glue
A piece of cardboard
Paint
Paintbrushes

Keep all your materials ready and get started with your project. 

Use a square cardboard piece to make the base of your pen stand. Now paste a few ice-cream sticks on it to cover it up. Once your base is ready, place the ice cream sticks in a square frame position. Stick every layer and go on stacking them until you reach your desired height. When your stand structure is ready, you can use different colors to paint and decorate it. 

Some more art and craft ideas for creative young minds

Here are some more art and craft projects that children can try at their home, daycare, or school: 

  1. Paper caps
  2. Shoe-box aquarium
  3. Ice-cream stick octopus
  4. Bottle bees
  5. Paper Plate butterflies
  6. Egg crate flowers
  7. Thumb painting
  8. Cartoon masks
  9. Leaf painting
  10. Paper fans

Arts and crafts are a part of almost all academic and recreational curriculums. Encouraging your child to engage with art is one of the best ways of promoting their creative skills. 

Creativity is a never-ending stream, and introducing young students to the practice of thinking, imagining, and creating is an excellent way to trigger their cognitive growth.

Sandra Chiu works as Director at LadyBug & Friends Daycare and Preschool.” 

Tips to Help You Excel in Your Cornhole Game

Cornhole games will make your time fun and competitive, whether you are just playing with friends or family or in a high-stake tournament. You will enjoy the adrenaline rush as you will have to think quickly and be more creative throughout the game. Whether you are an expert player or you are just looking forward to a game with loved ones, these playing tips will help you excel in this game. Tips to Help You Excel in Your Cornhole Game

 Ensure your bag is flat

If you keep the bag bunched up when holding it in your hands, it will tumble all over, making it difficult to go through the board. You should avoid wadding the bag up like a ball when tossing it. This is because you will have challenges trying to get it through the board’s hole. Make sure the bag is flat on your palm, with four fingers at the bottom of the bag and your thumb at the top.

Fling four ways

Every cornhole player should master four crucial shots: the slider, push, air mail, and blocker. The slider involves landing the bag on the board front approximately 6inches from the hole and then sliding it in. Blocker is just dropping the bag close to the hole to prevent your opponent from using the slider. Air mail is sending the bag directly through the hole. And the push is just nudging the bag into the hole or knocking a blocker out of your way.

Always aim for the middle of the cornhole board

This may seem obvious for most people because the hole is located in the middle of the board. Whether the bag is going into the hole or not, to win this game, you need to consistently aim at the middle of the playing board. This way, the bean bag toss replacement bags will not be on the opponent’s side. This is a defensive strategy called a blocker shot and is mainly used in professional games.

Practice

If you want to excel in a game of cornhole, you should keep practicing consistently. This is because you will only get better at this game if you practice consistently. This will help you learn new strategies that you can use whenever you play and you will also become better with continuous practice. So get out there and keep playing.

Relax

When playing cornhole game, it is crucial for every player to relax. Just like any other sport, the major obstacle for winning this game is usually in your head. Most players will lose different games because of a mental breakdown and not lack of skills or energy. Whenever you think too much about the game or winning, you will get nervous. Relax your body and mind and have fun with your friends or family.

To increase your chances of excelling in cornhole game, you should utilize double-sided bags when playing. These double-sided bags are mainly used by professionals and they will feature a suede side for better sticking shots on to the board and a canvas side that boosts speed. With a double-sided bag, you will be able to counteract most of the things that can block you from winning and you will have a higher chance of excelling in this game.

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4 Great DIY Family Arts And Crafts Activities
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4 Great DIY Family Arts And Crafts Activities

Finding fun arts and crafts ideas that you haven’t done with your family before is difficult. Especially when each new idea you find requires buying more supplies. Which is why we thought these 4 DIY’s would be a great way to utilize the things you already have laying around the house or garden. 4-Great-DIY-Family-Arts-Crafts-Activities

We’ll take a look at:

  1. Making games with sticks and twigs
  2. Cloud dough
  3. Swishy gel bag
  4. Treasure sensory instrument

Making up games using sticks and twigs

Other than the obvious sword fighting games, you can use sticks and twigs to create new games that are more fun for every family member. A great example of this is making stick sculptures with the help of elastic bands to hold them in place.

Resource-Pinterest
Summer Star Twig Ornaments

Get creative with this and ask your kids to design their own games – they’ll come up with much more imaginative ideas than us adults will.

Another idea using natural objects from the garden for arts and crafts, is to design pictures with leaves, flowers and other flat things. You can then place the end result in a frame, pressing them together with plastic panes from Simply Plastics.

Colourful cloud dough

Resource-Pinterst
Making Cloud Dough

An idea from pbs.org is to cook up a batch of coloured cloud dough. As the recipe says on their site, you’ll need:

  • Flour
  • Oil
  • Oil or gel-based food colouring
  • Glitter or any additional decoration

Your end result should look a little like this image from their website:Colourful-cloud-dough

Squishy gel bags

Resource-Pinterest
Making Sensor Squishy Bags with Buttons

As strange as this one sounds, creating squishy gel bags are a great way for your kids to explore a new world of sensory play. For those of you who haven’t heard of sensory play, it’s exactly what you’d expect!

Sensory play is all about letting your kids explore their senses; smell, sound, touch, taste and sight. Hence, a squishy gel bag is perfect for your kids to explore touch, sound and sight. Maybe even smell, if you added some essential oils to the mix.

Hands-On-As-We-Grow-Nature-Sensory-Bag-Suncatcher
Source: Hands On As We Grow / Nature-Sensory-Bag-Suncatcher

What will you need?

  • Leak-proof sealable, see-though plastic bags
  • Gel, washing up liquid, oil or paint (keep in mind paint will dry)
  • Glitter and any other additional textures

All you need to do, is get your kids to stick all your chosen ingredients into the bag and seal it up. It can prove handy when they’re bored, just get out their squishy gel bags and let them have fun squishing it as much as they like! As long as they don’t squeeze it so much it bursts.

You can find the full guide on making squishy gel bags here.

Treasure sensory instrument

Yet another sensory arts and crafts idea. Taken from Mumstown, you can learn about how to make one here.

Treasury-Sensory-Instrument
Image Source: Mumstown

In brief, you’ll need a jar and some objects to fill up the jar. All you’re going to be doing here is filling it up with seeds, rice and anything that makes a noise when shaken.

Do you have any ideas?

If you’ve got some interesting arts and crafts ideas for the rest of our reader, please don’t hesitate to tell us all about them in the comments. Anyway, have fun creating these with your family!
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