I am so excited to welcome the lovely Melissa from Julia’s Bookbag here today as a guest writer. I’ve mentioned before just how much I adore Melissa’s blog. Melissa has a knack for finding the most delightful children’s books, she shares wonderful family recipes, and sweet musings on motherhood and family life. My Pinterest boards are full of images from Melissa’s gorgeous blog. You can also find Julia’s Bookbag on Facebook and Pinterest. Thank you so much Melissa for being here today!
I’m excited to share an activity that my 6 year old daughter just adores. Magic soup! Potion making! Fairy Stew! Monster muck! A Very Interesting Science Experiment! Whatever you want to call it, this very simple idea is the same ~ take whatever household ingredients you are willing to let your child dump into a bowl of water and let them go to town. It’s one of the easiest projects you will ever ever do, and I kid you not, this activity always holds my child’s attention for a minimum of an HOUR. She loved it when she was 3 and 4 years old, and she still loves it!
What I would encourage you to use, if you are comfortable with the idea, is any and all spices in your spice collection! I always encourage my kiddo to “sprinkle” rather than “dump”. To be honest, she has so much fun asking for different ingredients and smelling them, very little spice total ends up going into the ‘soup’ from any one bottle, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting terribly much spice.
What she really likes stirring into her creations is glitter, but the spices really are fun for the sensory element they add to the activity. We make a bit of a game from smelling all the different varieties and trying to identify each spice.
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These last bowls of ’stew’ were made by my daughter with one of her best friends, and they spent ALL AFTERNOON making their salad stew creations! They had a glorious time.On the one hand, I feel a bit silly talking about this activity like it’s some kind of Fancy Art Project, because it really is just the simplest and easiest enterprise in the world. But yet, it’s so much fun for my kiddo. With Halloween coming next month, I think our soup making endeavors will turn into potions filled with glitter and tinted green or purple…Ness, thank you so much for having me over ~~ I hope our bit of silly fun gives you all a bit of inspiration to get a bowl, make a (tiny) bit of mess, and have a good time dumping and stirring, mixing and blending!
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Thank you darling Ness for your kind words and for allowing me to share your space here today ~~ it was such a delight to create this post for you! What loveliness and inspiration you share with us on a daily basis
Thank you so much for this wonderful post Melissa! I LOVE this idea. R often gets mixing with water but it’s usually food colouring or glitter. We’ve never tried natural items like flowers and the spices are a brilliant idea. I can’t wait to try this.
Love the idea of using the spices! We all have spices that never get used and even some that lose their potency. What a great way to use them and create a fun sensory experience. Pinning this now.
The spices were my favourite part as well. I’m always throwing spices away because they have passed their use-by date. Thanks for pinning!
So fun to see Melissa here! Love this activity- it’s one of my mom’s major go to games when my kids go to her place. Often she’ll encourage NON wet creations that involve ingredients such as oats, raisins, brown sugar, nuts & a variety of spices (aka whatever she’s got on hand). Then they can eat and create at the same time. Though adding liquid is SO MUCH FUN!
Thanks for stopping by Robyn! Oh, I love your Mom’s idea. I might try that next time I need to keep R happy while I’m trying to cook dinner.
Such gorgeous fun pics…and a lovely post…thanks for sharing with us Melissa! Our weather is warming up here and i know my twins will enjoy getting a bit more creative with their ‘cooking’ outside!
Thanks so much Jode! I hope your kiddos have a ton o’ fun!!
Jode you and the twins are always getting up to such fun messy play I bet you would have a brilliant time with this!
Hi Ness! Just found out your blog from Melissa’s link
My kid is always excited to play with water. This is a really great idea!
Welcome to the blog Cherie! This is a fabulous idea isn’t it? Melissa is so creative. I hope your little one has fun with this.
This is so much fun! I remember this was my favorite game as a child. I need to let the girls do it sometime before it gets to be too cold outdoors!
vanessa
Isn’t it so wonderful when we share the same activities with our little ones that we enjoyed ourselves as children? It’s spring here now and the weather is already warm so we’ll be heading outside for a few “cooking” sessions.
Love this post! My 3.5 year old is all about trying to help mom stir. She gets so angry if it’s not her turn to stir when we are cooking or baking! I am totally going to steal this idea for the nights I need to hog the stove or oven without her right there wanting to do everything and let her go to town!
That’s what I was thinking too Kendall! R (my son) loves to help in the kitchen too but what a brilliant way this would be to keep my son happy in the kitchen with his very own creations at those times when I’m in a rush and need to just get dinner done.
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