Snow Art Like Simon Beck

I've always admired snow artist Simon Beck ever since I read about him a few years ago.  Whenever the snow falls and leaves a fresh coat of snow he is always on my mind.  Simon Beck creates amazingly intricate snow art by walking with snow shoes and then later photographing his work.  You can read more about him here. (And see his amazing work too!)

We tried our hand at some Snow Art after a recent snowfall.... Mostly using sticks and our fingers.

This was our stomping, which you can't get a great overview shot of, but still cool.  We've created hearts and words by stomping in the snow too.

We also enjoyed creating some tiny snowmen and adding scenery with tree branches.

If there is no snow where you are,  why not try mud or sand art?  Artists use what is around them to create their work.

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!