Dissolving Gobstoppers

10 / 11 / 1310 / 11 / 13

This week, Miss G and I have been participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins. The goal has been to experiment with candy and come up with several fun and uinique ways to creat, play, and explore with the Halloween treats that will soon be making their way into our houses. On Monday we created beautiful glossy paint using Skittles, on Tuesday we created mouldable and edible candy clay, on Wednesday we sorted, counted, and graphed SweeTARTS. and yesterday we used our goodies to make fun candy jewellery.

This is by no means an original idea… In fact, I’ve seen it around the web several times before {like here and here}. But cool? YES. Soooo cool. Like magic milk paint, I think it’s just one of those things you have to try yourself and see in person. It’s that cool. Plus, when teaching I’d always fret about the teeth of my munchkins who seemed to get multiple backs of Gobstoppers each year around Halloween. Well, this is the perfect way to enjoy them without having to worry about your little one’s teeth or sugar consumption.

Candy Jewellery

10 / 10 / 1310 / 8 / 14

This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins… On Monday we created beautiful glossy paint using Skittles, on Tuesday we created mouldable and edible candy clay, and yesterday we sorted, counted, and graphed SweeTARTS.

Gracen and I have been having so much fun coming up with interesting ways to play, learn, and create with candy this week. Since we almost never have it around, she thinks being able to play with candy is really cool, and with Halloween coming up, I’m thrilled to have some tried and true ways to put her candy stash to good use without it going into her belly or the garbage can. Today’s activity was crazy simple {in a good way}, and we had a ton of fun with it. Not to mention that it was perfect for my little lady who adores dress-up, jewels, and crafts.

SweeTART Sorting and Graphing

10 / 9 / 1310 / 10 / 13

This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins from around the world… On Monday we created beautiful glossy paint using Skittles, and yesterday we created candy clay that is fun, mouldable, and edible.

After yesterday’s homemade candy clay recipe, I decided that today we’d get back to finding creative ways to put Grae’s soon-to-be Halloween candy stash to good use. One of the treats that always seems to be popular during the month of October is small coloured candies, whether they’re SweeTARTS, M&Ms, Smarties, or something else. The good thing about these types of goodies is they lend themselves perfectly to all sorts of fun math activities – sorting, counting, comparing, and graphing included. So that’s what we did – we used a few individual-sized bags of SweeTARTS to develop some basic math skills, all in a way that just seemed like regular fun and games.

Candy Clay

10 / 8 / 1310 / 8 / 13

This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins from around the world… Yesterday’s theme was painting – check out our glossy Skittles paint here.

It’s no secret that we absolutely love homemade play dough around here… In fact, we usually have 2 or 3 batches on the go at once, and most often, we pull at least a batch out a day. It’s hard to choose a favourite, but out of all our go-to recipes, I think the marshmallow dough we made this summer was one of the most enjoyed. So when I stumbled upon this recipe for homemade candy corn, it got me thinking… Would the dough be similar? How much of a ‘play window’ would it allow for before it started hardening? Would it easily mould? Well, there’s only one way to find out, now isn’t there?

Glossy Skittles Paint

10 / 7 / 1310 / 7 / 13

Halloween is quickly approaching, which as a mama of a sugar-free kid, means it’s time to get extra creative. Creative with the goodies we make to hand out to trick-or-treaters, creative with the candy alternatives we have for Miss G, and creative with the mass amounts of treats she’ll inevitably come home with after Halloween night here at The Dunes.

So while we’re still not ready to let Miss G chow down on the sugary sweets she brings home from candy collecting with her little friends, we are more than happy to help her put it to use with art projects, learning activities, and science experiments, and that’s just what we did a couple of days ago. Using a bag of Skittles, a couple of other things we already had on hand and some inspiration from this post, we created a thick, sticky paint that smells delicious and dries with the most beautiful glossy finish.