Keepin' 2 Boys Busy

I bought Hasan some oil pastels a while ago and I've been lost on what to get him to do with them.  I'm surprised that I even bought them because oil pastels were my least favorite thing to do in school...they were so messy.  But now I have them so I should use them.  After some googling I came across this idea on ehow.com .

When we started this craft we were supposed to be making these ladybugs  but I didn't exactly remember how they were after we started the project.  So this is what we ended up.  Bilal made the three on the left and Hasan's are on the right.  Bilal loved dipping his brush in different colours and making each one very colourful.  Hasan stuck to one colour for each one.  They both needed some help sticking the pipe cleaner in for the antennas.  After they were all done Bilal loved scratching the googly eyes off and pulling out the pipe cleaners.  Hasan's are still intact and sitting on the TV with his butterfly and octopus .

Bilal's on the left, Hasan's on the right. Before Bilal was born I used to take Hasan to the Ontario Early Years Centre.  We would go to a session called Messy Play which when I first read that title I thought this was not for Hasan.  Hasan hates getting messy...as soon as something gets on his hands he has to clean it...finger painting was never his thing.   But everything wasn't "messy" and he really enjoyed the time he spent there.  Once when we were there they had corrugated cardboard laid out on a table.  The activity was to dip a toy car in paint and run it back and forth on the corrugated cardboard to make tracks.  Since I was having both the boys do this I had them use oil pastels.

I saw this craft a long time ago and thought it would be good to do with Hasan.  It's pretty simple and I've seen it on numerous websites .  The hardest thing for Hasan was waiting for the paint to dry.  We completed it in two days because Bilal woke up early from his nap after Hasan was done painting.

I was very hesitant to put up this post.  It seemed like a very obvious activity to do with kids but sometimes the most obvious things don't always come to mind.  Also this blog is a record of the things my boys do as they grow up...and this is something they love to do.  When Hasan was around 2 years old I had him start to use scissors.  My cousin Sameena told me how her son loved to cut paper with scissors and it was great for developing motor skills.  So I started having Hasan cut up paper into small bits.  I got the scissors pictured above and was really disappointed.  They are made by Melissa and Doug and their products are usually very good quality.  Hasan always had trouble cutting with them.  And now Bilal (pictured above) also has a tough time although he claims that he is doing everything just fine.

I saw this craft on Crafts by Amanda .  Hasan made the ones pictured above and although they don't look as good as the ones Amanda made, he had a lot of fun making them which is the goal of any activity we do.  In the original craft you are supposed to paint the styrofoam half which would look really good.  I didn't do that because then I would have the boys start the craft and then have to make them wait for the paint to dry before they could continue.  I wanted to complete this craft in one sitting.  I was also lazy to get the googly eyes so Hasan just drew them on with a marker.  Bilal had a hard time with this craft and in the end just played with the pipe cleaners.

It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog.  I've had a few posts to do but just never got around to doing them.  I had Hasan make these flowers for my mom on Mother's Day.  I had taken Bilal to the library one day and they had a program going on.  One of the crafts they were making were these flowers.  It was hard to get Bilal interested in it but I knew it was something perfect for Hasan to make.  They are very simple to make.

With spring here this is a great picture to make with your little one.  I had Hasan make this picture but it was nowhere near spring when we made it.  We used the method from the Cotton Ball Snowman to make the clouds.  To make the petals on the flowers we used the method from the Scrunched Tissue Paper Flowers .  Hasan used a dot marker to colour in the grass but you can use crayons or paint.  I drew the picture with a pencil and had Hasan do the rest!

Recently I saw this activity at Teach Preschool .  When I saw this I knew it was something Hasan would love to do.  It's very simple and uses household items.  I used apple cider vinegar but I would recommend using white vinegar.  Apple cider vinegar is pretty stinky.  Hasan loved this activity and it kept him occupied for awhile.  Near the end he was complaining that his eyes were burning.  I waited for Bilal to go down for his nap so Hasan could play undisturbed.

It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog.  Things over at  Chocolate & Chillies have been keeping me busy.  I wanted to share with you this activity I did with my boys.  A while ago my friend was visiting from Louisiana and she had her kids doing this activity. It's very simple and kids love it.  It is kids banging golf tees into a piece of styrofoam.  I wouldn't do this with a large group of kids because it can get dangerous.  I had trouble pulling out some of the pounded in golf tees.