>Water Theme Challenge!!! Water Guns With A Twist

>We had a blast doing this project! I didn’t get to do one but I enjoyed watching the kids do it.
The first pictures didn’t come out that great as we put too much water in the paint but after we omited some of the water the pictures had a lot more pop. This project is easy but very messy so make sure you do it somewhere that is easy to clean up and put up a drop cloth like we did. I sent before and after pictures so that folks could see that my wall did not end up staying a permenant work of art by the little kiddies:-)

You need:
Water guns
water color paint
water
poster board or any heavy paper appropriate for painting
drop cloth (we used a plastic bag cut open)

Instructions:
Mix the paint with water but not too much or your paint will loose it’s vibrant color. You may not need to add water if your paint is watery enough to slide easyly into the water gun. We used the paint bottles to squirt the paint into the water guns but I think it would be easier to use a small funnel. Cut open a plastic grabage bag and tape it to the wall. As you see in our pictures we didn’t cover the whole area and then put the paper on top but I think that would have been a better way to go as we would have had less clean up. Once you tape your paper up your kids are ready to shoot! This project is fun for all ages. All my kids had a lot of fun from my 2 year old to my 15 year old.

-Jamila Alqarnain

Jamila Alqarnain is the author of the book The Muslim Family Guide To Successful Homeschooling and she also has a facebook group by the name Successful Muslim Homeschooling. This mom is full of advice, wisdom, and help. We are honored that she took the Habeebee Homeschooling Challenge.

>Water Theme Challenge!!! Homemade Aquarium

>My children and I recently visited the National Aquarium in Washington DC, and they just loved the fish and turtles and all the different things they had a chance to see, masha’Allah.  So, they were excited at the idea of making an “aquarium” of our own. 
 
We used felt to cut out the fish and seaweed shapes, blue tissue paper for the water and pink construction paper for the starfish, glitter glue for decorating and lots of craft glue!
 I cleaned off a big plastic jar (the type pretzels or snack mix come in) and we glued the tissue to the outside of one side of it (this would then be the “back” of the scene).  We used a little green glitter glue to make some small strands of seaweed directly on the tissue paper, this helped make it stick and then we glued the edges all the way around to completely adhere it to the jar. 

Then we put the glue on the felt seaweed strands and the girls reached into the jar and placed them around the background, we were kinda going for a 3-D look. 

I drew the shapes of fish on the felt and let the kids go crazy with the glitter glue to decorate them, then I cut them out, they tried, but the felt was a little difficult for them to cut with the kiddie scissors, so I cut it with my scissors.  They also cut several strands of yarn to use to attach the fish to the lid of the jar, so they would look like they were floating.  We cut out a front and back for each hanging fish, and just one side for a couple of other fish, which were glued to the inside of the jar near the seaweed. 

To hang the fish, they glued one end of the yarn in between the front and back sides of the felt fish,  when that was semi dry, the other ends of the yarn were attached to the inside of the jar lid with tape, then when the lid was screwed on, the fish looked like they are floating 

They wanted a starfish too, so I drew a star shape and my daughter cut it out and her sister decorated it, then they glued it to the bottom of the jar (the ocean floor).  Then we set it up next to the table so we have a beautiful aquarium to look and and enjoy while we have our meals together 

Masha’Allah, this was fun and easy, and I am glad to have taken this challenge, Jazak’Allah Khair for offering this to us and May Allah bless you with success in your endeavors, Ameen

~Kalimah

Kalimah is our guest writer who took the Habeebee Homeschooling Challenge. Kalimah is no stranger to getting active with her children, it wasn’t a surprise when she said she would join us in promoting a more hands on approach with our children!