Creativity In A Box

This year for Christmas, the kids asked for "projects." They know I'm not particularly crafty and don't come up with creative, fun things for us to do at home. Field trips to museums, zoos, aquariums? Love them. Hiking, going to the beach? You betcha. But pulling out the paint/glue/scissors/stuff when we're at home? I crinkle my nose and come up with a great idea like leaving the house and going for a bike ride.

However, we've discovered one way that I'm willing to let the kids be crafty at home is if we have a kit. A creative project in a box.

This past weekend, Dan and Henry made soda pop. Henry thought it was wonderful and said it tasted like Cherry Dr. Pepper. To my knowledge, he's never tasted Cherry Dr. Pepper, but who knows?

Last week, Henry invited two friends over and they made bubble gum. Sour berry. It was sour, indeed. I enjoyed my piece for about three minutes. All the kids kept chewing theirs for close to an hour. It was chewy, I'll give it that. Some other projects for future rainy days include creating Crystals.
Experimenting with Electricity. I think that one might need Dan's assistance. Spiral Art. We already tried this one and it's pretty cool. We need some practice though. Press-on nails. Aren't they pretty? Alice got an owl pellet and she had fun disecting that when Grandpa was here. Henry received an Alien Shrinky Dink kit and has shrunk about half of the aliens so far. Alice also received a bead necklace kit and a mosaic jewelry box kit. More good stuff for all those rainy winter days we have coming our way.

Today, Alice and I broke out one of the kits she's been dying to try. A Soap Design Kit.
A couple months ago, we went to a soap design store and made some beautiful bars of soap. So, we tried it at home.
It was fun to stir the fragrance, cucumber melon, and the colors into the melted soap cubes.
Then we poured the first batch in to the chosen cut-out designs.
Leftover, hardened soap. Fun stuff!
After the cut-outs hardened, then we poured another layer of soap over the top and let the whole bars harden. And the finished product...

A little messy, but we were pleased with the final product.
Who knows what we'll discover in the coming weeks as we continue to explore with our ready-made boxes of creativity.