Play dough

Cooked.

2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
2 cups of water
2 tbsp of oil
2 teasp of cream of tartar
Food colouring

Put flour, salt and cream of tartar into a saucepan and mix. Add water, oil and, if wanted, colouring. Mix then cook over a low heat stirring continuously, until the dough is a
very lumpy consistency and isn't runny.
Turn out and knead, adding colouring if not added before. Beware it is very
hot.
Store in a plastic bag or plastic container.

Papier-Mache Paste

1 cup water
1/4 cup flour
5 cups lightly boiling water
Large saucepan

Mix flour into 1 cup water until mixture is thin and runny. Stir this mixture into lightly boiling water. Gently boil and stir 2-3 minutes. Cool before using.

Paste

Cooking paste:

1/2 cup flour
cold water
saucepan
food colouring (optional)

Add cold water to flour until mixture is as thick as cream.
Simmer and stir in saucepan for 5 minutes.
Add a few drops of food coloring, if desired.
This wet, messy paste takes a while to dry.

Non cooking paste:

Bowl
1/2 cup flour
Water
Salt

In bowl, mix flour with enough water to make a mixture that's gooey, but not runny.
Add a pinch of salt; stir

glue

2 cups flour
1 cup cold water
1 cup hot water
Mix well. Put in a glue type bottle and allow to sit for one hour.

Glue
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoons white vinegar
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup cold water

Mix water, syrup and vinegar in small saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. In small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water. Add this mixture slowly to first mixture. Stir constantly. Let stand overnight before using.

Windtalkers

Last night we watched the film Windtalkers. This is about a piece of history that I wasn't taught anything about in school.
It was mentioned that there was war in Japan as well during WWII, but the main focus was Europe.
Therefore I found it quite important that the girls watched it with us, even though it was not for their age. It was very interesting to see how the Navajo language was used to make sure the Japanese didn't understand.
What was furthermore very striking was that Ben, one of the Navajo speakers explained how in missionary school he was not allowed to speak Navajo and therefore ended up chained to the heater for 2 days and then in WWII he had to speak Navajo to help his country.
Some of the racist bits were also very clear and educational.
Hope others will watch it as well.

Legoland continues

We have annual passes to Legoland this year. Its one of those places that I am not a fan of but all kids seem to love. So therefore we did it for one year on Tesco vouchers. So, we have them, we go in and of course the whole world of Legoland is plastic, didn't expect it to be different. But it did make me wonder what the carbon foot print of Legoland is. Doubt its a good one.
But then we found out that while thinking that we could go into everything and do everything with annual passes, that was a dream. There is sooooo much that you need to pay for still. I do have a problem with that. You pay entrance fee, which is high and then you still need to pay for quite a few things. That just bugs me.
I wonder if I am the only one.
The kids have enjoyed quite a few trips and we have done quite some things there which are linked to our education, like looking at all the houses built there, checking out the water flows and stuff like that, anything is educational I found out.

As Sandra Dodd also said, everything is educational. She used Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley and yes, totally educational.
How are shoes made, where does suede come from, what treatments does it need to get blue, etc. etc.
Its just wonderful to take that path with your children. I love it. And its a way of life, not a chore.

Tales of the green lands

Recently we bought the DVD of this former TV-series. It is about life on a local farm in the times of James I, around 1620.
There are some historian and archeologists living like they did in those times.
It is very interesting to watch. Very educational.
One of the really very interesting things is how the celebrate christmas for 12 days.
Furthermore how they used almost every piece of a butchered animal.
The building of the animal shed to give them shelter for the winter is also wonderful.
We have watched it several times now and it keeps bringing us new things that we can discuss.