Deconstruct a Camera

I had forgot we had done this and my daughter reminded me about it recently: "Hey, Mom remember when we took apart the camera?" It is always amazing when your child references back to something you hoped would be a memorable experience.  It was.  A lot of the things that we have done on The Chocolate Muffin Tree have proved that when we do things with our children they remember whether it is reading to them, sitting with them, listening to them, or whatever. We took apart a camera...a broken camera.  It was a very sad day that this Canon Powershot fell into the salty oceans of Maui, but the vacation was fantastic! Once a camera falls into the ocean it will soak up all the salt water and salt does damage,  but the memory card was fine which had all our great memories so at least those were not lost.  As time went on I thought about how it would be cool to deconstruct this camera and see all the parts that made up this Digital camera.

So with the loss of my camera we gained a new experience to put under our belts. Here is the camera before:

We gathered some simple tiny screwdrivers and other tools that might help a long the way. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I had to recruit my dear husband to help with this process. Be careful if you ever end up doing this because my husband shocked himself when he had to detach the flash reserve....ouch! (just a little shock) The shock was not really painful, just surprising because he didn't see it coming. So with anything you decide to deconstruct....be cautious!  Here are the parts and pieces again.  Amazing to see all the pieces.

Why would you want to do this? Why not?  By taking things apart you are learning about what makes up something. Also, if you are able to put it together (we did not!) you are learning all about construction and how things work.  Ironically, my Fathers favorite thing to do is put things together.  Give him a broken item or something in pieces and he will be so happy.  By doing this, you may be appealing to a whole side of a child you never knew. Happy Deconstructing!

Heart Shaped Pretzels

We wanted to make pretzels the other day and they managed to become Heart shapes along with other shapes and letters. These pretzels would be perfect for a Valentine's day treat or just to say I love you. This recipe is one my daughter did in school so it is a very doable process to get your kids involved. Keep reading to find out how we made Our Heart Shaped Pretzels.

Ingredients Needed for Pretzels:
1 Package Yeast
4 cups of flour
2 cups warm water
1 egg white
1 TBS. Sugar
1 + TBS Salt
Cookie sheets
Foil

-In a big bowl, mix together, yeast, water, sugar, and salt.

-Stir in flour.

-Knead dough on floured  table until dough is smooth. Add more flour if too sticky.

-Line cookie sheets with foil and spray with oil.

-Shape dough into Hearts or whatever shape you choose.  We did letters too.

-Brush pretzels with egg white and sprinkle with salt

****For Cinnamon Variety,  brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. 

-Bake in oven set at 425 F for 15 minutes or until browned.

-Enjoy!

As you can see we made some of the pretzels into letter shapes and traditional pretzel shapes.

These are really YUMMY!
(We've been nibbling on them all week for breakfast and for treats!)

Celery Printed Rose Wrapping Paper

In my last post we created Celery Printed Rose Valentines and they turned out really beautiful. The process is based on using the cut off bottom of celery to print with and create a rose shape. The natural progression was to create wrapping paper next. So that is what we did.  We used large sheets of tissue paper for printing on instead of paper. This is how they turned out:

Here are the celery bottoms dipped in paint that we used for printing.  Check out the post here to find out how our Valentines turned out.

Here is more of our Celery Rose Printed Wrapping Paper.  We put one of the Valentines on top for a gift tag for decoration. This project is a great lesson on teaching kids about all the different ways you can use one idea.

We experimented with using larger bottoms of celery too.  I loved how they looked and tried them on wrapping paper with great results too.

Happy Printing!

Celery Printed Rose Valentines

We made printed roses from the bottom ends of celery stalks.  I think these turned out so lovely.  I've been wanting to try this for ages and finally did. Keep reading to see how we made these Celery Rose Printed Valentines.

To Create Roses from Celery you'll need:

Bottom ends of celery stalk cut off

Dish or paper plate for paint

Red, Pink, and Green tempera paint

Pink and White Construction Paper (any color you choose!)

scissors

First cut off the bottom ends of celery stalks as straight as you can to make a good printing surface. We only had small stalks, but you could use larger stalks for bigger roses too.

Prepare your paper,  cut hearts, use folded paper to create cards, or use plain paper too.

 Get your paint ready on a paper plate or dish and smooth out to print more easily.

Then print however you like.  I like the more random look to create overlapping rose shapes.

We added other cut out hearts to frame and accent the hears.  You can also use green paint for leaf accents on the roses too.

I think we'll be doing more of these. Please share your results with this process.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Science Experiment: Borax Crystal Hearts

This is fun experiment with very cool results.  Our inspiration was from The Scientific Mom.  She created Borax Crystal Ornaments as part of her 12 Days of Science Series with her daughter.  Be sure to check out her blog here to find out about all the amazing excursions and experiments that she does with her daughter.  We decided to make borax crystal hearts for Valentine's day and a few snowflakes for Winter.  Keep reading to find out how we made these.

To make Borax Crystal Hearts You'll Need:

Pipe Cleaners

20 Mule Team Borax (found in the laundry section  of the grocery store) (5-6 Tablespoons or more)
***Borax is not-edible and should be handled with care when using with children)

Water (2 Cups or so)

Jar or Glass Container

Pencil or stick

The first step in making these is to shape a pipe cleaner into a the shape you desire.  Make sure to form a hanger or add one to the shape using the pipe cleaner. Then boil about 2 cups of water (depends on how big your glass container is), let cool a little and pour into your glass container. Then, take about 6 Tablespoons of Borax and stir into the water until dissolved.  Then hang your pipe cleaner shape from a pencil. Place the pencil on top of the glass container.  Make sure it is submerged.

You can add more Borax which will create more crystals.  Let this sit over night, and the next morning  you'll have beautiful crystal shapes. ***Keep the pipe cleaner submerged over night! It was fun to experiment and check them the next morning.  Here are some of our results:

Close-up Crystals

Red Metallic Heart

Silver Pipe Cleaner Snowflake

Swirls

We had a lot of fun experimenting with this idea. We tried adding food color, but the colorful pipe cleaners really brought out the color too.  Have fun with this experiment and let me know your results!