This summer “beat the heat” quite literally means “ staying at home” for us. We don’t have any vacation time or plans to take one. Living on a budget here people . So, we came up with an idea to do some “journey to the beach” from right here at home . Sounds crazy ? Well that’s just what we did !
A trip to the library and we were well underway on our project. A few books about sea life and oceans got Big S all excited.
Big S : ( Squealing….) Mooooom look , an Octupus lives in the ocean ! There are some yucky plants too ! ( well, can’t say I disagree that seaweed picture was ‘yucky’)
Me: (All Excited Tone) Lets make an Ocean . We’ll call it ‘Ocean in a Bottle’
Big S : ( Disappointed face) In a bottle??? What are you saying? You are a silly goose !
Now, what do you say to that? With Lil’ S down for her afternoon nap, we found some good backyard time just for ourselves.
[box title=”Here is what you need” color=”#b11616″]
- An empty Gatorade/any plastic bottle .
- Blue food coloring
- Glitter
- Duct tape
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A couple of drops of blue to the water to make it look like ocean blue. Now watch out moms, those little fingers can’t stop with just a couple of drops !
Don’t throw away the extra batches you made, freeze them up in sand toys or any containers with different shapes for a new activity. Coming back to our Ocean adventure, with the ocean blue in the bottle now its time to fill it up with ocean stuff.
Big S : Set sail ! we are going to our backyard. ( She pulls out a day lilly ) Does this go in the bottle?
Hmmm, well , lets see ! We read the book again! Walking around the house, Big S collected stones, pebbles, grass and some leaves to mimic what she read and boy it was fun.
Big S : Mommy this is so much fun. This rock dosen’t fit in.
Now, we just stumbled upon that. What a neat way to talk about shapes and sizes.
The idea is for them to find objects that they think belongs in the ocean. A few stones to mimic rocks, sand and grass for sea weed . She drew pictures of fish and stuck it to the outside ! Called it her big Whale.
Mission accomplished.
A few sprinkles of Glitter to give a shine, close the bottle and tape it to avoid splills.
Well, now I really need a beach vacation !