Winter is notorious for being dark and dreary. Well, not when Jean Vant Hul from The Artful Parent gets a hold of it!
While scrolling through Jean’s newest ebook, The Artful Winter, I saw her Stained Glass Ice Wreath project and knew it would be the perfect one to do with my boys. They love to experiment with freezing water (I find all kinds of things in my freezer!), and with temps hovering in the single digits lately, our whole back yard could be used as our freezer.
We started by filling various containers with colored water and taking them outside, much like the Colorful Ice Scultptures Activity. Checking on them became a favorite pastime. It was a perfect hands-on exploration of changing states of matter.
By the time they had frozen, we’d actually had another dusting of snow to add to the existing two feet or so. We piled the ice into a bundt pan and….well, this is where I should have read the directions.
You want to pour water into the pan to freeze it all together. I got that point, but it wasn’t until I was pouring in the water that I realized my water should have been colder. And not so deep. That’s why I need people like Jean to write these ebooks! So the bottom of our wreath got a little ruddy, but I think it still looks great. More importantly, my boys do too. With the way winter’s been around here, we might have this beauty around for quite a while. (Though the boys are already excited about watching all the colors melting out…)
Because she’s awesome, you can get Jean’s book The Artful Winter for 30% off with the code ART30. There are so many great activities in the collection, including a dozen Valentine themed projects (check out a sampling at her site here). It’s a wonderful resource for making your family’s winter magical and memorable!
On Friday I’ll be talking about winter time again as I roll out the first thematic unit for this year. Let me know if you have a theme in mind that you want me to consider for future months!
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