COLORING FLOWERS: Science experiment for kids

My daughter thrives on coloring books and pages, she can just finish bundles of paper and hours together just coloring her heart away. 

So, why not color real flowers, it would be a fun and magical activity for a 4-year-old.

We brought home some beautiful white roses but they were so pretty that we needed some convincing to carry on with the experiment :)

What do we need??

• Oodles of patience. :) May take 2 days to more than a week depending on type of flower and color used.
• White or pale flowers. Roses, carnations, daisies, etc.
• Transparent cups/ glasses/ vases
• Food color. We used them, But I would still test the experiment with other colors like water paints.

So here we go:

Place the cut flowers into the cups of colored water and wait. It may take at least 24 hours for the colors to start showing. And may be wait even more for the colors to show up well. The depth of the colors depend on how fresh the flowers are , the type of flower, the length of stem, the type of color etc. 

Things we discussed as we colored the flowers:

• What colors had we used- primary or their combinations
• How plants or stems uptake water. My daughter thought the flowers drank the colored water. They drank the colors they liked best :) which was red and yellow.
• The pattern by which the color spread through the petals
• Which color came up most
• For older children it would be fun to repeat the experiment with different flowers and colors from different sources. 
• We could split stems to get a flower to take up two or more colors at the same time
• The capillary action (also for older kids)

Along the experiment, there were constant updates from the little one and umpteen questions.
It was a fun activity and to her little mind I guess a little bit magical too.

Catch our other activities involving color.
Magic-milk Color experiment
Rainbow Pinwheel

FARZ

This post has been linked to:

Link and Learn @ No Time For Flash cards
STEM Saturday

World Book day: Sharjah Children's Reading Festival: 2015

Happy 'World Book Day' Everyone!!

There's a day for everything these ages, but this is one I don't mind. 
I still remember the day when I was around 6, and we were taken to a huge library to pick our own book at school. Since then this love affair with books has stood the test of my growing years and adulthood. 
We started books with our daughter when she was pretty young, may be six months or so. From board books, picture books, quiet books she has always had her own favourites, which she always asks us to read again and again. 

Today, they celebrated books day at school where she had to donate a book to her class library and also dress up as a story character. She was pretty excited about it in the morning. 

We added up to that excitement this afternoon by heading off to the SHARJAH CHILDREN'S READING FESTIVAL .

There is so much to do there Story telling, meeting Authors, Science and Maths workshops, Jewellery making, a 3D dinosaur exhibition, cake icing competition, they can make their own book, theatre.

There even is a competition for schools to decorate their school buses to mark the event and parade around AL Majaz.

Glimpses of the event:

Rows and rows of books, reminded me of  Sharjah Book fair. We picked up quite a few books the little one fancied!

I love that quote on the reading nook. It sums up all, isn't it?

As we walked up to the 'Creative Kids Café', I was in love with the decor, upcycled cardboard boxes made cars and huts for play. How amazing is that! Tiny little huts for many activities.

This was an amazing art work in progress, Canvas, felt, yarn, fabric, crayons... she used it all. I guess she was making a collage of children from all over the world.

My daughter colored herself away here. The giant pencils are so cute. I could steal them for my daughter's room:)

Stations of art and science work. Workshops for handicrafts like woven baskets and hand held fans. Check out that cute miniature majlis in the upper left corner.

Cooking stations, wonderful learning areas on healthy food and fitness for the kids.

An extensive exhibition of children's book illustrations. That girl and her mom on a swing was our favourite.

 

These upcycled cardboard dinosaurs were arousing our curiosity and we couldn't wait to see the last exhibit. So we followed those huge dinosaur footprints and look how amazing it was!!

 
My daughter refused to enter the hall in fear, and so were many other children. These dinosaur exhibits were so lifelike , the chewing and munching their food included :)

A reminder to the huge Dubai Dino we saw at Dubai Mall.

We wouldn't want to mess with this dino or her brood :)

We spent the longest time here, seeing and hearing the dinosaurs chomp their food down. Brought to UAE in collaboration of UK Natural History Museum, these are life sized T Rex's in robotic 3D form, simulating both their sound and eating mannerisms.

We thoroughly enjoyed the show.
An amazing day of books, dinosaurs and all kinds of learning.
A not to miss event- the children will love it there.

As much as we loved the books, I guess it was the dinosaurs that stole the show:)

Don't miss it.
FARZ

SPRING INSPIRED: D-I-Y Multi-color frock for kids- Tutorial included.

Spring in UAE seems a misnomer to me. It probably just alludes to the oncoming heat of the summer.

Saying that, it is still pleasant in the evening though the daytime has become rather hot. We are not great fans of summer, being outdoor people. But two good things about summer is we can pack away our winter woollens and get more closet space and I can sew cute summer clothes for my little daughter :) 
I thought that my daughter deserved a cute little cotton frock to welcome the change in temperature. I love the way this beautiful dress turned out and it looks amazing on my daughter.

So here is a tutorial, of a fully lined, sleeveless, embellished, lightweight cotton frock with  button enclosures at the back. The in detail steps of drafting the bodice and skirt pieces and the basic sewing steps are here: DIY Girls Dress Part 1 and DIY Girls Dress Part 2.

Some things I really love about this dress:

• Light-weight and fully lined
• The pop of color against a white background
• The detail of the embossed cotton fabric
• Completely soft and smooth on the inside. Even the trims have been stopped short of the full arm hole, to prevent discomfort as the little one moved her hands. I had to really work hard on this, because of my daughter. She is fussy and would refuse to wear any prickly and poky dress, no matter how much she loved it. There was even a stage where I was picking off tags from store bought dresses. This was one of the reasons I was motivated to start sewing cute little dresses for my daughter, keeping her preferences, needs and liking in mind.
• The yoke- lovely blast of color
• The pom-pom- such a cute little thing
• The assorted buttons 
• The gathered ribbon tie-back
• The lining of the skirt short of the main fabric revealing the embossed pattern on the main fabric beautifully

STEP 1: IDEA, FABRIC, EMBELLISHMENTS, and BUTTONS.
This idea of multiple colors colliding and complementing each other on a neutral backdrop was looming in my head for a long time. Finally I got some free time to get things going. I went to my local sewing supply store and picked up some cute and colorful stuff, yokes, trims, ribbons, buttons and an embossed cotton fabric in white. I thought that the embossed floral pattern provided a pretty little detail to the white fabric.

STEP 2: PATTERN, BODICE and SKIRT PIECES, LINING
Went about with the same way of drafting the pattern for both the bodice and skirt part as in my tutorial DIY dress part 1 and DIY dress part 2.The tutorials for the little additions like adding the yoke, the button placket, and the sash are up here.

The only change is, in the front bodice and lining fabric the neck has not been cut. We will be doing this as we place the yoke, so that it matches. 

STEP 3: YOKE, SHOULDER SEAMS
1.Place the yoke on the bodice and lining fabric and mark and cut off the neck following the curve of the yoke applique, leaving 1 cm as a seam allowance.
2.Separate the bodice fabric and attach the yoke to it following the pattern and simply sewing it down using a straight stitch. 
3. Join the shoulder seams of the bodice fabric. Join the shoulder seams of the lining fabric separately.

STEP 4: BODICE, NECK and ARM HOLE
Keeping the right sides of the bodice and lining fabric together, sew along the neckline matching up with the yoke. Sew along the arm holes too. Turn the bodice inside out through one of the shoulder straps.

STEP 5: TIE-BACK, EMBELLISHMENTS and BODICE SIDE SEAMS
1. Attach the side seams of bodice and lining individually. The tie-back will be attached to the bodice fabric at the side seams.I hand sewed the pom-pom trim around the arm hole, leaving the lower end where the arms meet the body. The stitches all lie only on the main fabric and are completely hidden from the inside of the bodice.
2. This shows a clearer picture how the tie-back (here I've used multi-color ribbons) is attached on the bodice fabric alone at the side seams.
3. This is the finished bodice with lining. It has no seams or sewing showing on the inside. Completely soft on the delicate skin of children!

STEP 6: ATTACHING MAIN SKIRT FABRIC TO THE TOP BODICE FABRIC ALONE
Gather the main fabric for the skirt, and sew it to the bodice fabric. Do not join it to the bodice lining. 

STEP 7: SASH
Attach the sash at the bodice and skirt joint of the main fabric only. In this case I had to hand sew the entire thing down as the pompoms wouldn't feed well through the sewing machine. But in simpler sashes machine sewing would do.

STEP 8: ATTACHING THE LINING SKIRT TO BODICE LINING
Now gather the lining fabric for the skirt and sew it to the bodice lining, such that the seams lie towards the main fabric. The whole idea is to have all the rough seams ( neck, armholes, waist) in between the main fabric of the frock and its lining. Also the yoke, tie-back, sash and any other embellishment are added to the main fabric of the bodice, so that none of the sewing shows through the inside of the dress. The dress turns out pretty smooth and comfortable in the sweaty months to come. 

STEP 9: FAUX BUTTON PLACKET, BUTTON HOLES and BUTTONS

1. At the back seams for the button, double fold inside for about half an inch and sew down on both edges, till the length the button plackets are needed. Repeat same on the other side. 
2.Now overlap the edges and sew them together at the lower end till where the buttons are required. Mimic the stitching that is usually seen on button plackets 'X'.
3. Attach the skirt seams together sewing all four layers - two layers of bodice and two layers of lining together.

STEP 10: BUTTON HOLES, BUTTONS

Mark the button holes, and sew the button hole openings. Align and attach buttons on the other side. 

There you go this was the perfect end result. 

I promise to get better with the photos :) Those taken a little later in the day have turned orangey:/
I would love to hear your opinion on the dress. 

Cheers to spring and the spring inspired dress!
Happy Sewing.
FARZ

This post has been linked to
Threading my way
Sew cute Tuesday-47
Craftastic Monday @Sewcando
Wake up Wednesday-Linky party-64
Hand Made Tuesdays @LadyBug Blessings.com
Sew+Show #25 @straight-grain.com
The Best of the Blogosphere
Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party 55
Merry Monday Link Party 51

An amazing experience to be featured at Threading my way by Pam, yet again..

I would suggest if you are into sewing or designing anything, please do hop over to her blog. She has got amazingly huge collection of tutorials for almost anything under the sun in her ongoing linky party. 

RAINBOW PINWHEEL: Endless Color Fun

A gust of wind,

And off they go,

Round and round;

A sweet pinwheel

In a whirlpool of colors.

My daughter loved the colourful milk experiment a lot. I guess its time for some more color activity. What's better than a colourful pinwheel?

I got hold of a nice pinwheel template from here:scrapbooking.about.com
Its a very creative site with many free templates and scrapbooking ideas.

A simple paper pinwheel would have been crushed and non-usable in a day's time. Why not try acrylic sheets? I have used water-based glass paints for coloring up the pinwheel, but coloured sharpies or permanent markers would do too.

Its easy to make. If you have used glass paints you need to wait for them to dry a bit.

ALL YOU NEED:
Acrylic sheets
Glass colors/ Color sharpies
Pinwheel template
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Drawing pins/ Buttons and jewellery wire
Dowels/ Pencil/ Straw
Transparent contact sheet-optional

Print out your template on a A4 sheet of paper.

Use the template to cut out the acrylic sheets.

Color up the sheets. I used glass colors, You need to wait up for it to dry, making sure its left on a horizontal surface undisturbed. You don't want the colors to mix up, as we have not used a glass liner to demarcate the colors. Also pop up those tiny bubbles that form. Which I obviously missed out :/ Next time I'm going to use color sharpies, May be they will be lighter and less messier.

Once the colors have dried. Apply a transparent contact sheet over the colored side. Just as a safety measure to seal the colors as they were water-based.Cut up along the lines again.
Hot glue the petals to the centre of the pinwheel.

Attach pinwheel to a dowel or straw or a pencil. I experimented with quite a few, before settling on using a button and jewellery wire. The pinwheel must be able to rotate freely, so enlarge the hole in the centre a bit.

Now all you need is a little bit of breeze. Or keep blowing :).
Love how the colors blend in seamlessly and with the light passing right through, it looked amazing, much better than these pictures have captured.

There you go. Take the pinwheel for a ride to the park :).It took a place of pride on my daughter's bicycle.

Learning a bit about colors and the direction of wind. The little one liked how the colors blended in when the pin wheel is in motion.

A little bit of learning and loads of fun.
Happy making :).
FARZ

This post is linked to
Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party-53
STEM Saturday: Blog hop and Link up
Work it wednesday-no-92
Best of the Blogosphere-Week-14
The Kids Co-op Link Party
Craftastic Monday @Sewcando.com
Link and Learn @notimeforflashcards
Littles-learning-link-up-september-22 @TOTS AND ME
Learning Kid Linkup- 8
Toddler-fun-friday-31 @My Bored Toddler

THE ZAHIR: Thoughts from real life

I had been filling up my time with books, COELHO, GIBRAN, lately. The most recent read was "The ZAHIR" by Paulo Coelho. I had picked up this book at an airport bookshop. I have read the book twice now.
Skimming the pages again, I wont dwell much into the plot or the characters or genre.

What I need to write is the journey of being a reader of "The ZAHIR".
As the story unravels, I cling onto portions of the written text, and my thoughts tumble on.

The word Zahir, a feeling or thought that refuses to leave our mind, may be even an obsession.
Very often, this does happen, in our lives  at certain points where we are fixed at a space, emotionally, mostly with no control of the situations leading to it. Why does it happen and for how long, no one can judge that. The Zahir may be positive or negative. The circumstances we find ourselves in, is largely because of the Zahir we decided to act upon or the ones we did not act upon. Sometimes we barely even realise it, the thoughts that lie in the depths of our heart, is the Zahir. It is never forgotten. Mind and heart are two very powerful mediums.

True freedom, stems not only being free of others control, but also one's own. If the Zahir in our lives is positive, freedom may not be the right choice. But it is the negative thoughts that grapple us, we deserve freedom from. The past, bad memories, our fear, our comfort zone, don't we deserve freedom from these?

Inspiration strikes our life at various junctures. Its so powerful and engulfs our thoughts and emotions, compelling us to act on it, fleetingly. Then it fades to procrastination. The first step to achieving a dream should never be taken tomorrow. No matter how big the task is, how huge the hurdles are, even if at the moment it all seems impossible, the first step should be taken today, because there is never a tomorrow.

Not 5 feet or 150 centimetres, why? Does it have to be constant? Something that may have been perceived the best for that time period, may not necessarily be the best when times have changed.

Humans are evolving beings. Everything about us is in a state of constant change. Our relationships, our likes, our circumstances, the very society. Is it not befit that we spend few moments often evolving our thoughts too. To adapt to the new change. And that change has to start with us, within us.

Misplaced souls?! Have you ever watched a child during play? They are mind, soul and body immersed in it. Something happens along in adulthood and we misplace our souls. It damages work, relationships, and one's own self. Is it too hard to keep one's soul where we are physically, without any distractions? To play with our child without fiddling with our smart phones, to be at work when working every moment. If our souls' find it hard to stay, it is probably an indication that we are at the wrong place doing the wrong thing.

Counting our blessings is becoming a dying habit in the present world. It seems easier to complain and grumble. If we can actually sit down and write two columns, one of blessings and the other of our complains, it is for sure that the list of blessings is far longer. But then why do we dwell more on our complains than our blessings. Is it not right to enjoy the graces and be thankful of them? Instead of channelling our energy to our meagre list of complains. 

Many things in this book, even devoid of plot and characters, made me think. What are my thoughts? Which of these would take me to a better place from today? Which were those that are better discarded? How free am I from the situations around me, from the webs of my fear? The present day should be my priority. What are the changes in me that I need to take with the change of a place, age, situations and relationships? I must remember to keep my soul where my body is and if my soul is happy elsewhere I need to take myself there. There is no halfway in between. Of  all, gratitude to God, to my loved ones and to every kind soul that passes my way. Is it that hard? Life is simple. It is we who complicate it.

So there it is, my ramblings from a book I just closed. These are a chain of thoughts, that struck me as a humble reader. The power of a written word is great...in no way is this a review of the book.

FARZ

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