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household craft

It is summertime which means warm evenings and fruits are aplenty. Going to the farmers market on the weekends is a favorite family tradition of mine so I was excited to transform a handful of fresh oranges into a set of nifty, natural burning candles. Orange peels naturally contain an essential oil called limonene, which is flammable (you may have encountered flaming limonene as a garnish for fancy cocktails). The pith of an orange, however, contains very little limonene, and also tends to be drier than the rest of the peel or sections of juicy orange. These qualities make the pith a slow burner and ideal for a candle wick. Always be careful when using candles and fire. Be sure to only light the candles on a safe fireproof base. Never leave lit candles unattended or unsupervised by an adult.Want to explore more kitchen science experiments? Explore the tastier side of learning with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/science-of-cooking-mini-cakes/4794" target="_self">Science of Cooking: Mini Cakes</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Take your orange and slice it in half horizontally. Have an adult help or carefully supervise any cutting necessary for this project.

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Remove (and eat!) the middle portion of the orange while leaving the white stem intact. This step can get messy so we recommend doing it over the sink. Carefully cut along the perimeter of the orange to loosen it up. Then use a spoon to scrape out the insides. Be very careful not to poke a hole through the peel. Remove all of the fruit from the inside so that only white remains on the inside. The pith is now your natural wick!

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Pat the inside with a paper towel. Then fill the orange with oil until just below the top of the white stem. 

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Carefully light the stem with a lighter or match until it starts to burn. An adult should perform or carefully supervise this step, if needed. You now have a natural burning candle! The wick will continue to suck up the oil in the base of the orange and keep the fire going.

If you have trouble lighting the wick, it may be too wet. Try to dry the wick with a paper towel and then let the candle sit for a few minutes so that it can soak up the oil before lighting again.

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To make it a bit more unique, you can hollow out the top half of the orange and place it over the base to create a soft orange glow. Just remember to cut out enough holes so the fire can breathe. You can continue to experiment with different oils and citrus fruits. Do some citrus fruits last longer than others? What oil seems to burn better?  Enjoy lighting up your evenings with these beautiful natural candles!

What's going on? Candle wicks are designed to do two things: burn very slowly, and draw up fuel (either wax, or, in this case, vegetable oil) to slowly feed the flame. In the case of your orange candle, the dry pith burns slowly at its top, and heats up oil below it. The now-heated oil flows up the pith via capillary action and keeps the flame going. Because the pith burns so slowly, your orange candle should stay lit for many hours. To experiment with the more combustible side of oranges, save a bit of your extra orange peel, and after you've lit your orange candle, carefully spray some orange zest through the flame (keeping your face and hands away from it). You should be able to see a small but exciting explosion - that's the orange's flammable limonene in action.

oranges (1) (halved)

oil (vegetable or olive)

lighter (matches)

knife

spoon

paper towel

Natural Orange Candles

food play

Make Lego inspired Jello as a special treat. 

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Wash and dry your Lego blocks. Make 4 boxes of Jello (same flavor) according to the instructions. 

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Pour your Jello mixture into a rectangle pan. Begin putting your Lego Duplo blocks on top of the Jello. 

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The top of the block will be touching the Jello and the blocks will be floating on top of the mixture. It was fun to fit the pieces in like a puzzle. 

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Here is another view of the blocks floating on top of the Jello. Put it in the fridge and wait for the Jello to set. Ours took awhile so we let it stay in the fridge over night. 

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Now here is the tricky part. Carefully take off each Lego. Start at the corner and wiggle it so that air gets underneath the block and makes it easier to remove. Some Jello will still be on the block (I had a sink of soapy water and just tossed them in it as I removed them.). After you remove a block, cut out that rectangle of Jello and remove it from the pan. The holes will actually be indented into the Jello which is the opposite of how a Lego really is, but it still looks just like a Lego. He was so excited that he got to eat a "lego". Quick tip: There were several pieces that didn't turn out because I removed the block wrong or didn't get out of the pan right. I used the extra Jello to make mini desserts by layering the Jello and whipped cream into small dishes. 

Jello

Lego Duplo Blocks

Jello Legos

food animals

When it's time for back to school, it's time to start planning my kid's lunches. I must admit that most of the time, I barely pull something together! But every once in a while, I get inspired to do a little something special.

I thought I would share a lunch inspired by an "Under the Sea" theme. Here, I packed everything in one lunch--but you can definitely spread things out so that your child can look forward to an "Under the Sea" week with an item per day from the menu:

* Fish Pita
* Egg Boat
* Fishy Snack -- Gone Fishin'


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First, I created a fish pita. You simply need pita, a knife, a raisin/olive/piece of fruit or vegetable for the fish's eye, and filling. I used tuna salad, but you could use anything. (I've made these sandwiches before with leftover rotisserie chicken, turkey and cheese, etc.)

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To make your fish, cut the pita so there's a tail and a body. Also, cut a little divot out of the top of the pita so you can slot in the eye. Where you made your cuts, stuff the pita with your filling.

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Unless your kiddo is super hungry, I suspect you won't need to make both a small and a large fish pita. I wanted to make one for myself. So, here you see mommy fish with her little fish. They're almost too fun to eat!

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The egg boats are super simple. You need a hard-boiled egg, a couple of toothpicks, and small post-its (or paper and tape).

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Make the sail with the toothpick and post-it. I just folded it over a couple of times. Or, you can use paper and tape to make the sail. Then, stick it into the egg. Happy sailing!

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I added a Fishy Snack to this lunch. You need celery (or pretzel rods), peanut butter (or other nut butter or sunflower seed butter), and Goldfish crackers. It's so fun for the kids to "go fishing" by dipping their celery in the peanut butter and then picking up the Goldfish with the sticky peanut butter. They get a bite every time they fish!

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Finally, I thought that a band to decorate an apple could be pretty cute, and look what our designers at Kiwi Crate made for me! It's a scuba mask for the apple. You can download it here.

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Just print and cut out the mask. then tape it around an apple. If you'd like, you can even draw some eyes on the mask to give it a little personality.

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My kids love their scuba apples. They've insisted on scuba peaches, scuba oranges, and scuba kiwis. We even tried to make scuba bananas!

Pita Bread

raisin

Filling: Tuna Salad, Chicken, Turkey and Cheese

eggs

toothpicks

Post-it notes

Celery or Pretzel Rods

Peanut Butter, or other Nut Butter or SunFlower Seed Butter

Goldfish crackers

Under the Sea Lunch

Play with your food? Yes, please! That's how my kids feel. I always thought how neat it would be to make a "real Mr. Potato Head"--and today we did! We built, laughed, ate, and got silly. (You can't help but to get pretty silly when you're adding mushroom ears onto a potato.) 

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This first step is for a grownup or older child: Break some toothpicks in half and place them in the potato to hold veggie face features. 

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Next, pull out any veggies and fruit you have on hand. Really, anything will work in some way. My five-year-old is in the kitchen with me a lot. (We have a great set of little chef knives that are wonderful for little hands.) She loves to cook and has been practicing her cutting skills so I used this as an opportunity to let her practice. 

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Once you get your produce sliced, you are ready to start dressing up your potato. Both my two- and five-year-old loved adding to the potato. 

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I planned this activity for right before lunch so that we could cook up our veggies after--but with how much snacking they were doing during the process, I didn't know if I would even have to make lunch. A project that gets my kids eating lots of raw veggies and fruit...I am liking this activity even more! 

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Oh yea, the silly bug hit them. We had a lot of Mr. Potato faces being demonstrated throughout this craft. Glad I got this one on camera...she will appreciate it one day, maybe.

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Well, what do you think? We thought they came out just darling and you guessed it, they got names....because everything in our house gets a name. Meet Oliver and Sir Cucumber. 

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With lots of veggies still on the plate, we did what any family would do around lunch time and brought out the ranch. Yum! 

large potato

produce

Real Mr. Potato Head

art project

What do a bike wheel, a starfish, and a cake have in common? They all have a special kind of symmetry – a symmetry in circles!

1. Cover your work surface with a paper towel. Place the coffee filter on top and fold it in half.

2. Fold it in half two more times. It should look like an ice cream cone when you're done. 

3. Spray the front and back of the coffee filter a few times. Both sides should feel damp.

4. Use markers to create a dot pattern on the coffee filter. Count to three as you make each dot. This will let the color soak all the way through the filter. (Try making dots in different patterns, like rows, arrows, and other shapes!)

5. Flip it over. You should see the same pattern as on the front, but paler. Go over the dots again on the back to make them darker. 

6. Open the coffee filter to reveal the pattern. Let your design dry for about 15 minutes. When it's dry, hang up your starburst art!

coffee filters

washable markers

spray bottle

water

paper towels

Starburst Symmetry

decorations

craft

cardboard crafts

homemade craft

easy craft

recycled craft materials

Create hair tie lollypops for party favors, present toppers, or make a bouquet of them for a table centerpiece. 

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Trace and cut out two circles from thick cardboard. 

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Tape or glue the two cardboard circles together with the candy stick in the middle. We used packaging tape, but any tape will work. Remember the hair ties will keep the cardboard together too. 

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Start placing the hair ties on the cardboard in groups of 2 or 3. Alternate the direction of each bunch. 

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Keep overlapping the hair ties and covering the cardboard. This is great for finger and wrist muscles that are essential for developing handwriting and scissor skills. 

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It took about 1 1/2 packages of hair ties (from a dollar store) to make this lollipop. It turned out so cute and they are easy to make. 

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Make them for party favors, as a decoration to put on a gift, or make a bouquet of them for a colorful centerpiece!

hair ties

cardboard

candy sticks

Tape

Hair Tie Lollypop

dessert

birthday

sweet snacks

quick craft

I created these cute little toppers for the dessert table at my daughter’s birthday party. She asked for a bunny theme, so I created white pom-poms as miniature bunny tails! Of course, for parties that don’t involve 7-year-olds and bunnies, you can create these in any color you like. I love that these little toppers are such a quick and easy way to dress up any store-bought dessert.

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Using a small pom-pom maker, create some pom-poms. If you want to add a little extra sparkle, you can add a few strands of tinsel in with the yarn.

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Using a hot glue gun, add a small dab of glue to the end of your bamboo pick, and stick a single pom-pom to it.

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Pop them into the tops of your cupcakes, and they’re ready to serve!

yarn

bamboo picks

pom pom winder

hot glue gun

Scissors

Pom-Pom Cupcake Toppers

jewelry

rainbows

These bracelets are so colorful and fun to make and wear, for both boys and girls! You can make these rainbow bracelets after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kiwico.com/s/project/index/p/798">dying your pasta in Kool-Aid</a>.

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As I started gathering the materials, my two-year-old V had fun sorting the beads by color and type.  Along with sorting, this is also the perfect activity for talking about colors.  V loves to do this; sorting is a popular pastime in this house!

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I started V off with a loop fastened at the bottom of the pipe cleaner so she had an end to catch the beads as she beaded.

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Now the fun part: Have your kiddos bead the pipe cleaners to make their bracelets!  This activity also works on fine motor skills too: fitting the beads on the pipe cleaners.

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When V got about 3/4 of the way up the pipe cleaner, I took the end of the pipe cleaner through the hole to latch them together and wove the excess pip cleaner through the last bead.

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And there you have it: some beautiful bangles to adorn your wrist! 

pipe cleaners

pasta

pony beads

containers (to sort beads)

Pasta & Beads Bracelets

fall

pumpkin

My girls and I love pumpkins. I look forward to fall just so I can get my fill of pumpkin crafts, food, and fun. While we thoroughly enjoy crafting together, I try to give my girls a process they will enjoy and leave the end result up to their interpretation. These pasta wheel pumpkins were a perfect activity for them. They enjoyed working with the colored pasta and each made their own unique pumpkins. This activity is perfect for some fall fun.

57 fun food decoration projects for kids

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