Sticks, Bugs, and Goo

Yeah, I have boys.  Two active little guys.  This was definitely a week we embraced the delight of sticks and bugs and mess that comes with boy world!

I hadn't discovered the wonderful author Julia Donaldson before living here with lots of British friends.  She writes great books for kids!  One of hers that I had seen at the school library to which we have a membership here is Stick Man.  My boys LOVE sticks!  Isaiah thinks they are the most amazing treasures on the planet and carefully collects the perfect sticks and can't bear to part with any of them.  So, reading this book was perfect for them, and they both loved it.  I hadn't planned for it to be a big focus for us, but they were enjoying the book so much that I decided we would make our own Stick Men from an idea I saw on Pinterest.  We chose some of the treasured sticks, collected some leaves for hair, and then used our hot glue gun to glue it all together, adding some wiggle eyes!

The boys absolutely LOVE their Stick Men and both were insistent to take them along to my husband's office where we eat lunch everyday.  The Nepalis all were very intrigued (and understandably confused and amused by yet another crazy thing the foreigners do!).

 Predictably, it didn't take long for Stick Men to turn into swords at snack time!

I found an idea on pinterest (where else?) for frozen gelatin fossil excavation that seemed really fun and a good connect with interests.  Isaiah had recently watched an episode of Dinosaur Train where the characters discovered bugs trapped in amber, and he has talked a lot since then about Jurassic bugs trapped in "hamber."  So, I thought I would add some food coloring to the gelatin to make it look more like amber.  I mixed up the gelatin and poured it into my muffin tin with large cups to set and then freeze.  Isaiah was so thrilled with the idea and could not wait to jump in.  I gathered some scoops, tongs, and a big bowl of warm water, and the boys literally dug right in.

It was not long before the mess and the heat led to shirtless (and very focused) boys!

Ezekiel didn't really care that much about the bugs, but he was super thrilled about playing, pouring, and then splashing in the super gooey mess as it melted!  Needless to say, a bath promptly followed since he was covered in yellow goo!

Linking up to some great Tot School ideas over here!