Great Ideas Journal (Leonardo DaVinci Activity)

The kids have loved learning about the amazing ideas of Leonardo DaVinci.  One of the things they found interesting was that he was constantly writing down his ideas in journals.  They could be random ideas or sketches.  They were partial thoughts...not plans for a complete invention.  We talked about how we all get neat ideas for things but then never go back and finish thinking them through or doing anything about them.  Having a journal to put down your great ideas on paper is a fantastic way to encourage creativity and inventiveness.

So the kids made their own Great Ideas Journals.  Leatherwork was a common art form in the Renaissance times so I picked up some leather book cover kits at Tandy Leather.

The book cover kit is all put together and ready to go but it allows for creativity in decorating and customizing the look of their journals.  First you use a damp sponge and moisten the leather.  This makes it softer and easier to use the leather stamps.  We have lots of leather stamps and a mallet so I let the kids do their own thing with those.

Nicholas made a border around his then wrote "Great Ideas" in freehand on the cover.

He added some swirls on the cover as well.  Then he used a leather stain to really bring out the beautiful color of the leather.

Here is his finished journal cover.  I bought some plain sketch books for their journal.  They just slide into the pockets on the inside.  The journals can be replaced when they get full and they can still keep the same leather cover.

Rachel used a more tropical theme for her journal.  I love the sea shells and hibiscus flowers together.

She added a title and a few other decorations to her cover and then stained it as well.

Here are a few ideas from Rachel's Great Ideas Journal.  A huge multi-level tree house.

I like this idea below.  It is a robot that does her homework for her.  I think it might could be adapted to do housework too so I'm really encouraging her to pursue that idea a little further!

A journal is a great way for kids to get their thoughts on paper.  Kids should be encouraged to use the journals however works best for them.  Some kids might choose to draw sketches of their ideas to tinker or plans for the future, Others might want a journal with lined pages to write out their thoughts and feelings in words.  However they choose to use it is fine.  And they don't need a fancy leather cover.  A cute notebook from the dollar store works great too.  They can decorate the cover with markers and stickers and make it personal.

DIY Mason Jar Night Light {with Water Beads!}

We love DIY projects in our home and the kids are no exception.  They decided to make their own night light using a mason jar, submersible lights, and water beads.  They turned out really cool!

We bought a small pack of 4 submersible lights in the floral department at Michael's craft store.  We also bought 2 packages of their Ashland water beads (purple and clear).  But the kids wanted more colors so we went to Hobby Lobby and bought their DecoBeads water beads.

The water beads start out as little bitty hard pellets.  Be careful if you pour them out.  These suckers can really roll....right off the table and all over the floor!

You soak the water beads in water and they will grow as they absorb the water.  In just an hour or so they had grown about 3 times their size and were starting to get squishy.  The kids loved just running their hands through the beads in the water.  It is a fun sensory experience for their sense of touch.

I did not like the Ashland purple beads because a lot of the color bled off into the water which means that the color will stain hands and anything the water touches!  This didn't happen with any of the other beads (see the blue ones in the picture).

We had lots of different colors of water beads soaking.  They were fun to play with as they grew in size.

The clear water beads were especially neat because sometimes they seemed to completely disappear in the water.  But Rachel loved putting her hands down in them to watch the neat effect it made on her hands.

Once the beads stopped growing in size, the kids started making their night lights.  They put some beads in a mason jar and added the submersible lights.

Once the jars were filled, they put the lids on them and took them to their rooms.  They are not very bright but they add a beautiful glow to their rooms at night.

Jungle Theme Party Invitations

Rachel is having her birthday party at Indoor Safari Park play area so she wanted some really cute jungle theme party invitations.  We had some plastic jungle animals to put on top of her cupcakes and to decorate her party table so it only made sense to somehow incorporate these into her invitations.

For her big brother's party this year, we made some fancy knight themed invitations in a scroll to go with his Medieval Times birthday party.  So Rachel expected the same level of over-the-top invitations for her party.  She actually helped me come up with this idea of putting one of the little jungle animals in a cage.  They turned out really cute and they weren't hard to make at all.

We found the little boxes for sale in the gift wrap section at Hobby Lobby.  They worked well with the size of the animals we had.  We also used some gift basket filler, markers, scissors, and an invitation with all of the party info on it.

I used my sharp scissors to start the holes for the cage.  I had originally thought of cutting holes in all four sides to make a more realistic cage.  However, I realized that would make it more time consuming plus the box would loose a lot of its structural integrity so I decided to just cut holes on one side.

Then we put the basket filler in the bottom of the box along with the jungle animal and the invitation.

It looked cute enough like that but I thought it needed more color so I added grass, flowers, a "Do Not Feed The Animals" sign on the back and a "Handle with Care" sign on the top of the box.

The only down side to these invitations is that they can not be sent through the postal service so we drove around to her friends' houses and left them on their doorstep for a fun surprise!