Tell me you're not going to try this when you get a chance :)  How do you fold your undies?

I haven't made many videos, so my YouTube channel is pretty bare. I'm contemplating starting a little vlogging soon. Would you please visit my YouTube channel and show it some luv? Please and thank you?

Coming from a mixed cultural background, I want to expose our daughter to her heritage. Yes, she's Canadian, but she's also got Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, Caribbean, Scottish, and English roots.  With Chinese New Year just around the corner, I would like to celebrate! I've been coming up with some Chinese New Year activities for kids.

Since it's the Year of the Snake, here's an adorable and easy craft to do with the kids.

For details on how to make your own Chinese New Year Snake craft, visit the Craftiments blog.

Last year, for our very first Chinese New Year celebration on "the Island", my friend made gluten-free fortune cookies with her daughter. They were amazing! I found a basic fortune cookie recipe online that I may give a try.

Apart from each guest bringing one Chinese New Year dish, we're also going to be lighting Chinese lanterns and having the kids release them into the night sky! I found these great photos on the Lido Gallery site and some info on the symbolism of the lanterns.

 Buddhists believe the sky lanterns are symbolic of your problems and worries floating away. They are offered to temples and monks in return for enlightenment, as the flame of the lantern symbolizes wisdom. The lantern’s light shows them to the ‘right path’.

During the Yuan Dynasty in the 13^th century, Chinese Lanterns became a symbol of hope and good wishes.  Citizens used them to bless their crops and to pray for what they needed. The belief was the sky lantern would float up to the heavens to be closer to the god’s ears.  The more lanterns used, the greater chance their wishes and prayers would come true. Today during the Chinese New Year, millions of sky lanterns are released over a two week period with a wish for good luck and prosperity in the coming year.

I hope you enjoy these Chinese New Year Activities for kids!

Will you be celebrating Chinese New Year with your family this year?

At our home, we love science experiments!  I'm not talking about making penicillin/growing mold by leaving food in the fridge for too long (although I'm embarrassed to say that may or may not have happened in this house before)!  I'm talking about learning about why things are the way they are or how to create or manipulate matter. We love hands on experiments!

Kids learn by doing, so why not make it fun?!

One of my friends teaches in public school and she has got to be one of the coolest teachers around! I'd LOVE to be a student in her class. She always has lots of fun experiments to do with kids. When we have play dates with our kids, we always have fun projects for our 3, 4, and 5 year olds to do. For example, making our own polymer (aka: Goop!), making stained-glass with wax paper and melted crayons, and baking gluten-free cookies.

Recently, we grew our own crystals!

How cool is that?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• string
• wide mouth pint jar 
•  pipe cleaners (we used sparkly, shiny ones)
• Borax 
• pencil, stick or BBQ skewer
• boiling water
• scissors

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To make borax crystal snowflakes we need to first make the snowflake shapes with the pipe cleaners. Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections. You need to then twist the sections together at their centers, forming a six-sided snowflake shape. It doesn't have to be even because you can cut and trim the sides. Because our kids are so young, my friend and I did this step for them. Make sure the snowflake can fit inside the jar.
2. Next, tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake 'arms'. Then, tie the other end of the string to the pencil, stick, skewer. Make sure the length is so that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar. Not touching the bottom of the jar, but enough that the snowflake is fully immersed in the solution.
3. ADULTS, this is where you need to come in. Fill the wide mouth pint jar with boiling water. 
4. Now, add  one tablespoon of  borax at a time to the boiling water. Stir to dissolve after each addition of borax. The quantity: 3 tablespoons of borax per cup of water. 
5. Hang the pipe cleaner snowflake in the jar. Rest the pencil, stick, or BBQ skewer on top of the jar.  Make sure the snowflake is completely covered with liquid solution. Ensure that it hangs freely and doesn't touch the bottom or sides of the jar. If doing more than one experiment at a time, make sure none of the snowflakes are touching.
6. Let sit undisturbed overnight.
7. Presto! As my four year old will tell you, "It's like magic, but it's science!" You can now admire all the pretty crystals and hang your snowflake as a decoration or in a window to catch the sunlight. We're using ours as Christmas tree ornaments!

Looks like some kind of wacky science experiment, doesn't it? The water turned pink because of the purple pipe cleaners. We used some sparkly silver, blue, and purple pipe cleaners just to see what the effect would be. You can use regular pipe cleaners, but the sparkly ones really do add to effect and make the crystals look even more brilliant!

Important Notes

1. Borax is available at most grocery stores in the laundry detergent aisle. The one that is readily available in our local grocery stores is the 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster.
2. Parents and adults required to not only supervise, but assist with this experiment. Boiling water is used and Borax is not meant to be eaten. Please make sure that there is an adult to supervise!
3. If you don't have Borax, you can also use sugar or salt. It may take longer to grow the crystals without the Borax, so be patient. Add sugar or salt to the boiling water until it stops dissolving. Ideally you want no crystals at the bottom of the jar.

These are so beautiful! My four year old was AMAZED to see the crystals form right before her eyes! We left the solution and the pipe cleaners overnight and within a short time we saw crystallization begin. By morning, the crystals were bigger and fuller. Truly amazing!  

The crystal snowflakes and stars make gorgeous decorations for the holidays! Try it! I'm sure your kids will love doing this fun "science experiment".

As a kid, I remember one of the most exciting things to do was to be able to bake cookies or create edible goodies in the kitchen with my Mom. I don't recall this happening too often, but every once in a while we were able to do fun stuff in the kitchen with Mom.

Now that my daughter is three years old and loves helping in the kitchen, I am inspired to have her create some edible treats for Grandma this Mother's Day.  I've been letting her help in the kitchen since she was two. She already helps me with baking cookies, cakes, and bread. She loves putting on her little apron and chef's hat that a friend of mine made for her birthday. Little One even helps me measure out the flour and sugar. She helps crack the eggs and beat, mix, blend, and incorporate all the ingredients. It's a lot of extra work for me (the clean up is ten times more than if I would have just done everything myself), but the process is what is important. Ha! I must remember to keep telling that to myself when there's flour all over my counter, table, and floor!


 I've found for Little One, if she creates something in the kitchen and makes it with her own two hands, she will definitely eat it! We don't have issues with her and eating (the kid eats everything from okra, seaweed, tofu, eggplant to fish, liver, and even things Mommy doesn't eat!). However, I love showing her what food is before and after you prepare it. The amazement in her eyes is classic!

I'll be the first to admit that I always seem to have too much on my plate. I somehow always put myself in positions where I get "voluntold" to do things. I have issues with being able to say NO to people.  I'm also the kind of person who sees things through to the end if I've given my word. As a result, I can often be found running around like a crazy person, trying to get everything done.  If my head weren't attached to the rest of me, I wouldn't know where to find it!