My idealistic views never came about; as soon as I set out the bowl of cranberries floating in water, Carter asked me if they were Carter berries. In his language, that means can I eat them. I should have said not yet. I should have said touch them and feel them first. Instead, I said yes. And that is all it took. I don't have "normal" children. My children eat onions like apples, they love sour, and Pierce loves spicy. So, instead of playing, both of my boys ate an entire bag of cranberries in one sitting. And there went that idea. However, Pierce did notice that they floated in water. I guess he learned something, right?
About a week later, I decided I needed to do something with the second bag of cranberries I had in our fridge (if the sale tag says 2 for $5, you have to buy 2, right?). I pulled them out to make some fresh cranberry bread, but became side tracked and walked away. Pierce found the bag, and asked if I could please open it for him. Of course I can, and I did. Then he asked how we could play with them. Score!
I quickly put out our scales, plastic eggs, and an ice cube tray.
Carter decided he needed to weigh sweet potatoes and onions as well. So he went and gathered those for me. I loved seeing Pierce figure out how to balance the weights, and try to have the cranberries weigh as much as one potato. I also loved seeing Carter scoop and pour. Pierce came to the observation that just because you have 3 of something on each side, it does not mean it is equal. Some are larger than others, some are smaller than others. :) Have I mentioned that Pierce is destined to do something with math and music?
Carter reminded me that he had no tweezers, so I retrieved those for him as well.
We then made a counting game with the plastic eggs and ice cube tray. Pierce would fill up the eggs, match up the other half, and then dump the cranberries out. He would then count them one by one into the individual ice cubes. He was very systematic about it, and loved that every time he shook the eggs, it was such a dull noise compared to rice.
After the cranberries were man handled enough, I set up water for Carter. He has been all about figuring out what sinks and what floats in the house. Luckily, I caught him before he put my phone in the water. :)
I decided that the cranberries were probably man handled enough to not make bread out of them, and quite a few were consumed so I would no longer have accurate measurements. I also remembered my friend making this vibrant, beautiful play dough out of the water she boiled her cranberries in. She had also made this awesome paint as well.
Pierce helped me boil the cranberries, and was delighted when they started popping. He thought that was awesome. Then, I made an epic mistake. Forgetting what I was taught in science class, I decided to make a corn starch play dough with the cranberry water, instead of a salt dough. In my corn starch recipe, it calls for an entire box of baking soda...and I ended up making a beautiful volcano in the pan. Along with my volcano, it completely ruined the color.
But, I do not like to throw anything away, so I added some lavender oil, and the boys have had lavender play dough to play with this week. And I do not mind giving it to them before bed either, ;)
With the mushed up cranberries, I added some corn syrup to make a shiny finger paint. I was thinking Christmas cards, wrapping paper, etc.
While the paint started out being a beautiful color, it quickly turned grayish purple like the play dough, and lost its appeal for Christmas wrapping paper. However, the boys had a ton of fun painting with it, and I eventually convinced both of them to surrender the brushes and paint with their hands.
We had a blast with cranberries. I may need to go to the store and pick up some more, just so we can have more fun, and also so we can maybe have cranberry bread for breakfast on Thursday. Have a great day everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment