Magic School Bus and the Earth

We visited my husband's parents in Oklahoma last week. They had a wonderful dry erase easel and the children were having a blast playing with it. The adults were sitting in the living room talking and when we looked up Michael had drawn a picture on the easel that looked just like the following photo except that his was done in carefully chosen colors.

He explained that this was a picture of the earth and showed us the crust, mantle, outer core and inner core and explained that it got hotter as you went further in. I was so proud of my four year old.

I knew exactly where he learned it. He's recently become obsessed with the Magic School Bus books. This is a series of books about a class of children and their teacher who has a magic school bus. The teacher takes the class for field trips in the magic school bus that cover a wide variety of non-fiction topics. His diagram of the earth came from the "Magic School Bus Inside the Volcano" book we had recently gotten from Scholastic Book Clubs. We've read it about 10 times since we got it.

The Magic School Bus books come in three varieties. The original picture books are aimed at ages 4-8ish and include some humor I find inappropriate for my younger children. There are also magic school bus chapter books aimed at older children. The version of the series we like are simpler picture books adapted for younger children by Scholastic. These feature the same set of eight children in each book so the kids get to know the characters. The humor is appropriate for younger children and school and classrooms are treated as fun places to be. You can find several of them on Amazon by searching for "Magic School Bus Scholastic Level 2."

I highly recommend these books. Michael (4) and Ava (almost 3) both really enjoy reading them over and over again and they're learning great facts at the same time.

How to Make a Light Box Tutorial and Light Box Activities

Here is a detailed explanation of how we made our light boxes along with activity suggestions.

Making a Light Box – Tutorial

Materials:

• clear bin with lid
• masking tape and paper
• white spray paint (the kind designed to adhere to plastic)
• battery powered florescent lights
• semi-transparent paper (like pattern paper or tracing paper)

Procedure:

1. Purchase clear bin with lid. We chose fairly small bins because we wanted each child to be able to play on their own pulling the box into their lap if desired. If you want children to be able to work on larger projects or work in groups, choose a larger bin.
2. Purchase white spray paint designed to adhere to plastic. We used two cans and multiple coats for two small bins. Be prepared to use several cans. The thicker the coat of paint the less light you'll have leaking through the sides. You might even try a metallic silver or mirror style paint to get maximum reflectiveness, but I can't swear that'll work since we didn't do it that way.
3. Purchase battery powered florescent lights. We bought something similar to these. We started with two 6" lights per box, but ended up exchanging them for two 12" lights per box for the extra light.
4. Spray paint the inside of the box. Use at least 2-3 coats letting the paint dry according to directions between coats.
5. Use masking tape and paper to protect the areas of the lid you want paint free and then paint the inside of the lid. Again use at least 2-3 coats of paint.
6. Cut semi-transparent paper to the size of your lid and tape over clear area to diffuse the light coming through giving a light table effect and functionality to the box. We used pattern paper I had on hand that I had purchased from a fabric store. You could also use tracing paper or possibly even white construction paper.
7. Place battery powered florescent lights in box.

Using a Light Box – First Activities

So far, we have just played with translucent items on top of the box. Once they get bored with that, I'll start to introduce different art and sensory activities using the light box. So far we've used glass gems, mosaic shape tiles, translucent letters, and some translucent duplos on the box. The gems we sorted by color. The shapes can be sorted by color and shape. You can also use the shapes to make pictures. Two triangles make a diamond. Two squares make a rectangle. You can make a house or flower or anything else you can imagine. The translucent letters can just be sorted by color or letter or used to spell simple words. We didn't have enough translucent duplos to do much with, but the children thought they looked really cool on the light box.

Using a Light Box – Additional Activities

Here are some additional activities for the light box:

Art on the Light Box - Fingerpainting and Prints
Science on the Light Box - Oil and Colored Water
Science on the Light Box - Baking Soda and Colored Vinegar
Sand on the Light Box - Pre-Writing
Sand on the Light Box - Storytelling
More Light Box Activities - Sand Art and Silly Spheres

Lovely Indulgence - Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

I'm not a coffee drinker. I enjoy something with a little mocha flavor, but straight coffee as a beverage is too strong for me. On the other hand I love hot tea. I enjoy the seemingly infinite varieties of types and flavors. I love the ritual of wrapping my hands around a warm teacup and taking my first sip. I find it instantly relaxing.

My husband also enjoys hot tea, yet since we became parents we rarely indulged. We make tea from loose tea leaves and with the little ones around there never seemed to be enough time. Then we discovered the Breville One-Touch Tea Maker. It is the tea equivalent to a fancy coffee maker. It is expensive, but due to the generosity of my husband's parents, we were able to get one for Christmas.

You fill the glass kettle with water and the stainless steel basket with loose tea. Then you push a button to tell the machine which type of tea you are making (black, green, oolong, herbal, white...). The machine automatically determines the best steeping temperature for the type of tea you are making. Then you push a button to tell the machine whether you like your tea mild, medium, or strong determining the length of time the tea will steep. You push the "Tea" button and walk away (or, if you're like me, you sit there and watch the magic). The water is brought to the correct temperature and the basket is lowered into the water for just the right amount of time. A quiet three beeps tells you when your tea is ready.

You can choose to have the tea kept warm at just the right drinking temperature for up to an hour (you can even customize this temperature if you like yours warmer or slightly cooler). You can also choose to have the basket oscillate up and down during the steeping to gently circulate the water through the tea leaves increasing the intensity of the flavor. There is also a timer and you can set the machine up to have hot tea ready for you first thing in the morning. All of the settings (temperature and time) can be customized).

I've been completely amazed at this machine. I love it and I always have a pot of hot tea handy now. The tea tastes wonderful. I've completely given up soda and I don't even miss it. I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone who enjoys drinking hot tea made from loose tea leaves.