Once I hit the third trimester but especially when Maggie was first born I turned to Ye Olde TV to babysit and entertain Evie. But lately we've noticed the days she watches a lot of TV are the days she is the most defiant. Certainly there is a time and place for television, but Eric and I knew now that we're a bit more adjusted to life with Maggie it was time to cut back on singing animals and normally inanimate objects.
Evie's preschool learned about the Earth, Water, Space, Beaches the last month of school. The teachers made "Cloud Sand" as a sensory learning activity. The kids LOVED it. In fact they made it each week for a month.
On the last day of school the teachers gave us the recipe for this beach in a box. You mix 8 cups of flour to 1 cup of baby oil. It makes a sand-like texture that's moldable. Noted. I stocked up on supplies, ready for a rainy day.
One of the afternoons after VBS I was totally and completely done with Dora Dora Dora the Explorer and decided to give the Cloud Sand a try.
Evie was SO excited. We found a bin I wasn't using. She helped pour in the flour and then she used the whisk as I squirted in the baby oil. I was so proud of myself that I decided to take pictures and blog about how awesome of a mom I was.
Evie had a great time mixing up the sand and then molding it. We even built a snowman (he likes warm hugs).
Evie built a castle. And I patted myself on the back for being Mom of The Year making one of her school activities at home.
It was Thursday afternoon. We had a dinner party Friday night. Crap. My rug smelled like a Cabbage Patch Doll threw up. Good grief.
I knew if I had any chance of getting this cleaned up it was going to be a bit of work and take a while to dry. I rolled up the rug and took it outside. We swept off the big chunks. But then I was trying to figure out how to get the flour AND the greasy oil out of the rug.
We needed to pull out the big guns. Blue Dawn. Seriously, if OxyClean or Blue Dawn can't clean it, you should probably just throw it away. I gave the rug a good squirt of soap and brought out the scrub brush.
We scrubbed and sprayed and scrubbed and sprayed. It took a solid 30-45 minutes but we finally got it all cleaned out. I left the rug outside to dry.
What I didn't factor was the summer humidity. Or rain.
Guess where the rug is now?
I started by getting it wet. But water + flour.... IT MADE A PASTE! IT MADE A PASTE!
We scrubbed and sprayed and scrubbed and sprayed. It took a solid 30-45 minutes but we finally got it all cleaned out. I left the rug outside to dry.
What I didn't factor was the summer humidity. Or rain.
Guess where the rug is now?
We did it once (trying to replicate the stuff at the children's museum.). But it was all on the tile floor (no rugs) so I swept it up when they were done. Still it was way more annoying than play dough or rice or flour.( sometimes I just give them a big bowl of rice or flour and let them go to town). Your story is funny though. Like the time I believed Pinterest that you could substitute bean purée for oil in brownies and it tasted the same
ReplyDeleteThat's nuts! I don't know where the preschool plays with it, unless they have a tarp? I should probably ask, huh?
ReplyDeleteAnd here I was thinking rice was too messy! Haha! Glad you find it less of a mess. We might give it a try soon :)
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