The Preschooler’s Busy Book (20 page)

Once you get going, you’ll come up with your own ideas.
Here are just a few to get you started.

Saucepans, 1 for each color

Water, ½ cup for each saucepan

Various food and plant items

Strainer

Hard-boiled or blown eggs

Slotted spoon

Cooking oil

Soft cloth

Pour half a cup of water into each saucepan and add cut-up fruit, vegetables, or plants (try carrots, blueberries, grass, and coffee).
Bring to a boil and simmer until the water turns the color you want.
Remove from heat and strain; reserve the water.
When the water cools, add eggs and allow to sit in the water until they turn the desired color.
Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to air dry.
Polish dry eggs with a small amount of cooking oil and a soft cloth.

Crepe paper, variety of colors

Hot water

Small bowls or cups, 1 for each color

Hard-boiled or blown eggs

Slotted spoon

Cooking oil

Soft cloth

Soak crepe paper in hot water in a small bowl or cup, one color of crepe paper per container.
Add eggs and allow to sit in the water until they turn the desired color.
Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to air dry.
Polish dry eggs with a small amount of cooking oil and a soft cloth.

Small bowls or cups, 1 for each color

Food coloring, ¼ teaspoon for each color

Hot water, ¾ cup for each color

White vinegar, 1 tablespoon for each color

Hard-boiled or blown eggs

Slotted spoon

Cooking oil

Soft cloth

For each color, measure a quarter teaspoon of food coloring into a small bowl or cup.
Add three-quarter cup hot water and one tablespoon white vinegar to each color.
Add eggs and allow to sit in the water until they turn the desired color.
Remove with a slotted spoon and allow to air dry.
Polish dry eggs with a small amount of cooking oil and a soft cloth.

Grater

Wax paper or newspaper

Crayon stubs

Large glass jar

Hot water

Hard-boiled or blown eggs

Slotted spoon

Empty egg carton

Clear acrylic spray (optional)

Grate peeled crayon stubs over wax paper or newspaper.
Fill a large glass jar with very hot water.
Drop pinches of grated crayon into the water and add an egg as soon as the crayon begins to melt.
Twirl the egg in the water with a slotted spoon; the wax will make a design on the egg.
Carefully remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon and set it in an upside-down egg carton to dry.
Spray with clear acrylic when the wax is dry, if desired.

Newspaper

Hard-boiled or blown eggs

Egg cups

Tempera paints, liquid

Paper cups, 1 for each color

Small pieces of sponge or foam

Spring-type clothespins, 1 for each color

Clear acrylic spray (optional)

Cover your work surface with newspaper.
Place eggs in egg cups.
Partially fill paper cups with liquid tempera paint.
Clip pieces of sponge to clothespins and dip them into the paper cups, using the clothespins as handles.
Lightly dab the sponges over the top half of the eggs and let dry.
Turn the eggs over and repeat.
Let the eggs dry completely.
If you use blown eggs, spray them with clear acrylic for a permanent finish.

Hard-boiled eggs

Masking tape

Egg dyes in a variety of colors

Slotted spoon

Cooking oil

Soft cloth

Stick a pattern of masking tape on hard-boiled eggs.
Dip them in a natural or commercial egg dye and leave them until they reach the desired color.
Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and allow them to air dry.
Remove the masking tape when the eggs are completely dry.
Leave the masked areas white, or dip the eggs again in a lighter dye.
Polish the finished eggs with a small amount of cooking oil and a soft cloth.

Hard-boiled eggs

Clear crayons

Egg dyes in a variety of colors

Slotted spoon

Oven

Paper towel

Cooking oil

Soft cloth

Draw a heavy crayon pattern on hard-boiled eggs and dip them in a natural or commercial egg dye in a dark color.
Leave them in until they reach the desired color.
Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and place them in a 200-degree oven for a few minutes to melt the crayon.
Wipe with a paper towel and dip again in a lighter color to fill in the pattern drawn with the crayon.
Polish the finished eggs with a small amount of cooking oil and a soft cloth.

The Fourth of July celebrates the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and so this holiday is America’s birthday.
Whether you celebrate with a patriotic parade or a picnic at the park, a day at the beach or a traditional family barbecue, be sure your child knows why the nation celebrates this day.
Fly the flag proudly, decorate and dress with a red, white, and blue theme, bake a birthday cake and sing “Happy Birthday, United States.” Your family’s Fourth of July traditions and celebrations can help your children feel proud of their country.

Use your imagination to adapt some of the activities in this book for your Fourth of July celebrations.
Make a birthday card for the United States.
Bake star-shaped sugar cookies or cupcakes and decorate them with red, white, and blue icing.
Join layers of strawberry and blueberry Jell-O with whipped cream to make red, white, and blue star-shaped Finger Jell-O (
page 85
).
Make a fireworks painting (see Air Painting,
page 188
).
Sing “Yankee Doodle” and march around your house or yard with a homemade drum.
Have fun!

As you work to make this United States flag, tell your child what the colors and shapes represent.

Red and blue paper

Scissors

Glue

Large white paper

Star stickers

Dowel

Tape

Help your child tear or cut a large blue square and strips of red paper.
Glue the strips and square onto white paper to make a flag.
Stick stars on the blue square.
Tape the flag to a dowel and fly the flag proudly!

This one your child can do himself very little help.

Strawberries

Blueberries

Bananas

Wash and hull strawberries, wash blueberries, and peel and slice bananas.
Mix all the ingredients and serve.

While many people choose to celebrate Halloween without its traditional ghoulish emphasis, this holiday still provides an excuse for a good costume party.
Our children dress in fun, nonscary costumes, and we carve a pumpkin with a big, happy face.
We attend a party with a “Fall Carnival” theme where we eat, play games, and come home with enough candy to last six months.

Regardless of how you celebrate this occasion, here are some fun activities for you and your child to try.

Scissors

Black and orange construction paper

Glue or paste

Here’s a variation on the traditional Christmas tree decoration.
Cut strips of black and orange construction paper, three to four inches long and one-half to one inch wide.
Have your child form a circle with one strip, gluing the ends together.
Take the next strip and loop it through the first circle, again gluing the ends together.
Tell your child to continue looping and gluing to make a chain as long as he wants.
Use the chain to decorate doorways, walls, windows, and so on.

Pumpkin seeds

Cookie sheet

Salt

As you prepare your Thanksgiving or Halloween pumpkin, save and dry the seeds.
Spread dried seeds on a cookie sheet, salt, and quickly broil them until lightly browned.
Have your child count them into groups of two, three, four, and so on, before eating them.

Black yarn

Small square of cardboard

Scissors

Black pipe cleaners

Googly eyes (optional)

Red construction paper (optional)

Glue (optional)

Wind black yarn around a small square of cardboard, top to bottom, until the cardboard is very heavily and snugly covered.
Tie a small piece of yarn securely around the middle of the yarn and the cardboard.
(This piece should be tied fairly tightly, but not knotted, as it will be tightened after the cardboard is removed.) Using scissors, cut the yarn horizontally at both ends of the cardboard.
Remove the cardboard, then tighten and knot the piece of yarn in the middle; it now forms the center of the pom-pom.
Insert three pipe cleaners into the knotted center, and bend to form legs.
You may have to trim the yarn to form a nice, even ball.
Glue on googly eyes, if you like, or cut eyes out of red construction paper and glue them onto the pom-pom.
Use thread or yarn to hang your spider from the doorway or in the window.