Click here to read Simple Wipe-Clean Ice Painting for Kids! on Hands On As We Grow®
Mix up an artistic science experiment from our Activity Room MOTM, Eleni! Her three boys love ice painting!
Search, find and get overwhelmed with ideas. Our Member of the Month, Eleni, was swamped with tons of cool ideas she wanted to try with her three boys.
“It was always ‘love this, gotta do this,'” Eleni explains “And it never happened.”
Before The Activity Room®, Eleni was constantly finding neat activity and project ideas. But getting everything organized, even for this teacher, was kind of a lot.
“The biggest struggle was just an overload of information,” she shares. “So many ideas out there, different ways of doing them!”
It’s a common theme with Activity Room® Members: feeling overwhelmed with choices, but not being able to clearly see how everything could fit together.
“(It was) just not being able to organize it on my head, on paper,” Eleni says. “It would just be too much for me and I would just basically give up.”
ROOM Members Love Simplicity & Organization
Since joining The Activity Room®, Eleni feels so much more confident with her slimmed down, simplified activity schedule!
“I love how each day’s activity is laid out. So simply put and doable!”
As a teacher turned homeschooling mom, Eleni really values the built-in learning and developmental aspects of all Activity Room® activities.
“A lot of the activities incorporate letter recognition, number recognition – the educational stuff,” she explains. “Organizing myself and getting some kind of curriculum set in place for me.”
She’s so confident in her ability to adapt and create a structured, child-focused learning environment. The Activity Room® has given Eleni the format and filled in easy activities!
“For me, it was kind of giving me the ideas that I could do with the boys without it being overwhelming. Even activity ‘fails”‘are wins!”
Let’s Meet Eleni
How many kids do you have and how old are they?
3 boys. 4.5 years old, 2.5 years old (3 in June) and 10 months old
How long have you been in The Activity Room®?
11 months
What is your favorite activity you’ve done in The Activity Room®?
There have been so many amazing activities but my personal favorite is the one where we used painters tape to make roads. Then the boys created a town.
What’s your favorite thing to do with your kids when you get a few moments?
I love reading to the boys but they prefer to be more active. So whenever the weather is nice we either go outside to our backyard and play ball or go to the park.
What’s your best tip for doing activities with your kids?
The best tip I have is to not worry about the activity turning out the way you want it to or how “it’s supposed to” turn out.
If you were to tell a friend about The Activity Room®, what would you say to them?
The Activity Room® is life-saving to me!
Before The Activity Room® I would find and want to do all these different activities I would find on the internet but would never get around to.
Now with The Activity Room® I actually do the activities! It provides a sense of responsibility and accountability which is exactly what I needed.
Share your favorite quote
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
Simple Wipe-Clean Ice Painting for Kids!
I love a good, creative art project. This ice painting idea combines a novel painting surface with cool science-y “what will happen” thinking!
To do your own wipe-clean ice painting, you’ll need:
- water
- disposable brownie or baking tray
- water color paint
- paint brush
First, freeze water in a baking tray overnight. It should freeze all in one big piece.
The next day, take out your water paints and invite your child to make art. Try different techniques:
- paint without extra water
- paint with extra water
- use hot water for dipping
- use different painting tools
Find more cool ways to paint with 50+ ideas for kids!
Turn Ice Painting into a Science Experiment
As your child works, pop in every so often to ask questions about the process or their art. This gets them thinking about those “what if…” experimental ideas.
“What are you noticing happening with the ice and paint the longer you work?
“What would happen if you use XYZ tool instead of a brush?”
“Do you think using a different type of paint would give you different results?”
“Let’s talk about what your art might look like if we stuck it back in the freezer right now and pulled it out tomorrow!”
The best part is you can wipe it away and start over. Or not!
Stick the ice as is (see our predicting conversation starter above) to let it freeze the design into the ice. Pull it back out another day to see what happened and keep creating!