Paint Covered Kids
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Gallery
  • DIY
  • Mommy Camp
  • Freebies
  • Subscribe!
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Gallery
  • DIY
  • Mommy Camp
  • Freebies
  • Subscribe!
Paint Covered Kids

​

Mommy Camp Around the World: The U.K.

7/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Wow! I've been ridiculously busy with all sorts of things that have kept me from posting for a bit. We listed our home for sale and sold it within two weeks! We then had to find ourselves a new home that met the needs of our growing family. We've been dealing with all of the technicalities involved with selling and buying homes along with packing and planning. Oh, and my husband dislocated his shoulder being a big kid with our son. He decided to head down a tube slide on his belly and the end result was a hefty bill, pain meds and three doctors who worked for forty-five minutes to put everything back where it belongs. So now, we're quite a pair with him having only one functional arm and me being almost 7 months pregnant. But, we've hired a moving company and are actually moving in today!

Between all of those things going on, I did manage to complete two weeks of Mommy Camp but have unfortunately fallen behind my goal and will probably not make it to the last few countries for a bit. But, in the rest of this post you can find out about all of the fun we had learning about The U.K.!
Picture
We kicked off the U.K. on the week of the 4th of July which I thought fit nicely in regards to gaining our independence. After a very fun evening with friends, fireworks and ribs, we began our week with a trip in the chunnel, the underground and water tunnel connecting France to Great Britain. To simulate the Chunnel, I covered our dining table with a blanket and had them board the Chunnel and take a ride under the water. Being clever kids they even devised a way to store their luggage in the "overhead compartment" using the clamps for extending the leaf of the table. We also watched a bit of the show Modern Marvels about the building of the chunnel and a few videos of people riding it.
Picture
Picture
Upon arrival, the kids had a blast playing in a diy cardboard castle that I managed to whip up in only 15 minutes! I was really pleased with the result and am excited to share it with you!
Picture
15 min. DIY Cardboard Castle!
Picture
Picture
After cutting one fold of the box rendering it flat, make slits from the top of the box and fold them over to create the classic castle shape.
Picture
Draw your arch and then cut it out to create the entry.
Picture
Reinforce joints with popsicle sticks and hot glue. Then add silver duct tape that is taped to itself to create two non-sticky sides to the entryway.
To create the diy cardboard castle all you need is a large box (I purchased a new one from home depot for about $2.), some scissors and/or an exacto knife, some silver duct tape and large popsicle sticks. To begin, I cut one fold of the box all the way down so that it was no longer a box but instead, a large flat piece of cardboard. Then, I cut about four inch sections down from the top to the first fold all the way across and folded down every other one to denote the stone structure found at the top of many castles. I used hot glue (you could just use duct tape) to secure the folded flaps. Then I drew an arch shape across the center part of my cardboard and cut it out to create the entrance. Afterwards I realized that cutting the entrance compromised the stability and had to reinforce sections with popsicle sticks to make it sturdy enough to stand on its' own. I then took the silver duct tape and taped the sticky sides of two pieces together to create a metallic looking hanging gate at the arch entrance. That's it! It stands on its own, folds flat and the kids love it! I placed it near a corner to create a closed feel and added some prince/princess dramatic play items, table and chairs and tea set to complete the play area. Later that day I even made cucumber sandwiches and we had afternoon tea inside the castle. It was pretty awesome and definitely kept both kids busy for a while. 
Picture
Picture
Because the U.K. is comprised of multiple, distinct places like Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain, we focused on a different one each day. We started with Great Britain by discussing the role of a king and queen and watching a short video about visiting London and read the book "Katie in London". We also listened to The Beatles for a while and I did a small reading activity using the lyrics from the classic song, "Here Comes the Sun" to analyze and find sight words.We also talked about double decker buses and completed a bus craft. After that we learned about Big Ben by watching this great video and drawing a picture. We ended the day with some fish and chips!
Picture
Lillian's depiction of Big Ben. I provided her with a "How to Draw" sheet of the whole tower but she wanted to make her own version of just the bell after watching the video.
Picture
Crafting double decker buses.
Picture
After learning about Great Britain we journeyed to Scotland by watching this video and reading about castles in the book "Castle Life". After reading about and looking at castles, we drew our own using black construction paper and white crayon.  Then we listened to some bagpipe music and created our own bagpipes using a ziplock bag, tape and party blowers. To make them you cut the tip off of each end of the bag, insert one party blower in each corner (one blower in and one blower out) and taped them to seal it. These were a huge hit but didn't stand the test of time and were quickly destroyed. 
Picture
Lillian with her bagpipe.
Picture
Arthur with his bagpipe.
Picture
Arthur was really proud of his "castle" otherwise known as scribbles. But, whatever works.
Picture
Lilly wasn't very pleased with her castle. Hence the yuck face.
After the bagpipes we learned about the legend of the loch ness monster and watched this cute video after reading the book "Nessie the Loch Ness Monster". Then we created our own Nessie's with this free printable. For dinner I made shepard's pie. The kids wouldn't touch it but my husband and I were both pretty pleased.
Picture
Picture
Picture
We ended the week discussing Ireland. (I had plans for Wales but there wasn't much and the kids were not interested in the few activities I had so, fail.) We read an Irish folk tale called "Finn Maccoul and His Fearless Wife" and I made potato pancakes for breakfast. As usual, the kids had zero interest in eating them but my husband and I thought they were delish. After breakfast we watched some Irish dancing and a tutorial on a few basic steps. Then we made Irish harps out of cardboard, duct tape, and stretchy string. (It called for rubber bands which I thought I had. I was wrong and had to come up with a substitution.)
Picture
Picture
Picture
It was a fun week and I hope you found something inspirational to do with your kiddos!
0 Comments

Mommy Camp Around the World: France

7/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Our trip to France was full of art projects and fun! We learned about three major French artists, ate a little French fare, attempted a few ballet moves and had fun with our dramatic play bakery!
Picture
As with each week of MC Around the World, first we had to "travel" to our focus country. Last week we ended our travels in Rome, Italy so, we looked at the map and discussed how we would travel from Rome to Paris. We decided to fly and then looked at the weather in Paris to make sure we had the right clothes. Then we went through airport security and boarded our plane. Upon arrival they each handed their passports over for checking and stamping. Once we arrived we took a quick tour of the city by watching this video and then visited the main attraction, The Eiffel Tower. We learned about it by watching this video and then we did some tape resist painting art to create our own mini Eiffel Towers. 
Picture
Navigating airport security.
Picture
There was a bit of confusion over who should fly this week. Immediately after this photo there was a meltdown. Arthur ended up taking a much longer plane trip than Lilly as he was happier flying after Lilly disembarked and he had the controls to himself.
Picture
Lilly with her passport stamps so far!
Picture
Lilly and her Eiffel Tower.
Picture
This was an easy project to set up. Using fingerpaint paper, I applied painters tape in the shape of the tower and then let them paint the paper however they chose using only red, white and blue; the colors of the French flag. Once they were dry I removed the tape. Voila!
Picture
Arthur mixed his colors and ended up with a purple tower painting which gave us the opportunity to discuss color mixing. :)
After the long flight and fun at the tower, we needed a break and stopped for a baked treat at a French café. The kids played with this forever and loved taking my order using free printables from here, here and here that I laminated. We used things we already had from the play kitchen and I pulled out the diy doctor's window that I made last summer to be transformed into the bakery storefront. To add to the fun we made some play dough using this quick recipe (and used some store bought I had on hand) and created custom play dough cupcakes complete with their own cupcake liners! 
Picture
Picture
The bakery stand was made from a three panel science fair board that I made for health week last summer. It's an easy project and you can get the how to at the link above.
Picture
In the café I placed a bunch of items from their play kitchen including a coffee maker, desserts and utensils. I also placed the laminated recipe cards, some pretend euros I made and books for the week.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Making the play dough was super quick and easy!
Picture
Picture
Picture
I had a hard time finding French food that I thought the kids would even attempt to try. So, I ended up making crepes for breakfast one day. We actually make them quite often so my kids are not strangers to them. Lilly enjoys peanut butter on hers and Arthur likes jelly/jam like me. The only other French item that was made was for breakfast over the weekend. My husband made Croque Madam which is kind of like a ham and cheese breakfast sandwich with a super yummy mustard based cream sauce and it was fantastic. The kids outright refused and had cinnamon toast crunch instead.
Picture
Crepes, eggs and fruit.
Picture
Little toot with cinnamon toast crunch.
Picture
Little toot #2 with his cereal.
Picture
Croque Madam
Picture
Even though they may have had limited exposure to French cuisine, they learned a lot about art! We discussed the Impressionist art movement which began in France and learned a little about a few major players including Van Gogh and Degas. To begin, we read a book about each artist for Van Gogh we read "The Starry Night" which was a made up story but gave some great info about the artist, his style and his art. For Degas we read "Chasing Degas" and I really enjoyed this one! It followed a ballerina in search of Degas throughout the city of Paris where she ran into many other famous Impressionists. We also read "Katie Meets the Impressionists" which gave more great info using a fictional tale.

In addition to reading about the artists, we also watched a few videos including more "Art with Mati and Dada" about both Degas and Van Gogh. We also watched this cute video of a 5 year old teaching how to paint like Van Gogh. Lilly was really into it and then created her own version of "The Starry Night". I was super impressed. For more Degas knowledge we watched this short video and also had a mini ballet lesson using this video to get us in the ballerina spirit before learning how to draw our own ballerinas.
Picture
Creating her own version of "The Starry Night"
Picture
Picture
Lilly's version. I didn't help her at all!
Picture
Lillian participating in a mini ballerina lesson.
Picture
Learning how to draw a ballerina.
Picture
In addition to the focus on learning about art, we focused a little on the French language by reading an adorable book called "Everybody Bonjours" and watching several videos that taught a few key French phrases like hello, thank you, please and numbers as well as some classic French songs like "Alouette" and "Frére Jacques".

As always, here are my horrible but fun photo shopped pics of our trip!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
We had fun and are ready to visit the U.K. next week! See you soon!
0 Comments
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    meet rachel

    Rachel is a mother of three, elementary Spanish teacher and part-time blogger who loves crafting, creating fun and engaging activities for her children and students and hanging with her friends and family. She blogs about what she's doing and her interests at any given time which vary. She's a little OCD and always looking for her next project. Her husband calls it, "focusing her crazy", but she just calls it fun. 

    Archives

    June 2023
    May 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Baby
    Beauty
    Clothing
    Crafts
    Decor
    DIY
    DIY Gifts
    Dramatic Play
    Freebies
    Free Wallpapers
    Fun With Paint
    Holiday
    Inspire
    Kids
    Kid Snacks
    Mommy Camp
    My Thoughts
    Organize
    Parenting
    Party Time
    Photography
    Science Stuff
    Sensory Play
    Silhouette
    Toddlers
    Whole 30

    Picture
    Picture
    Mom Buzz Media
Proudly powered by Weebly