Beltway Bambinos

(re) discover Washington DC through the eyes of your children

Fun from home: 3 ingredient sidewalk chalk paint

Our fun from home series has given you an easy and quick slime recipe, directions to make a bird feeder with a milk carton, a recipe for homemade ice cream without a machine as well as a mesmerizing cloud dough recipe. Last week we showed you a quick, 5 ingredient healthy and refreshing popsicle recipe for our hot summer afternoons. Today we give you a new way for your kids to use chalk because if they’re anything like mine, they are bored with just going outside to use typical sidewalk chalk. We present you with a 3 ingredient quick way to make sidewalk chalk paint!

Supplies:
1/2 cup corn starch
Food coloring (as much as you want)
1/2 cup water
Paint brushes
Cupcake/muffin pan
Masking tape (optional)

Directions:
Mix equal parts of corn starch with water in a bowl. Once the consistency isn’t lumpy (it will be thick), pour into the muffin pan. Add food coloring to each cup. This is a way your kids can experiment with mixing colors also. Use paintbrushes to paint your sidewalk or driveway. Optional: Use masking tape on your sidewalk to create designs to paint, once the paint is dry remove the tape and see a stained glass design.

Fun from home: 5 ingredient healthy popsicles

Our fun from home series has given you an easy and quick slime recipe, directions to make a bird feeder with a milk carton, a recipe for homemade ice cream without a machine as well as a mesmerizing cloud dough recipe. Today we will give you a quick, 5 ingredient healthy and refreshing popsicle recipe for these summer afternoons.

Need popsicle molds?
Silicone molds with various shapes (zombie, penguin, tiki, monster, dino and sword)
Stainless steel mold
Ice cream cone mold
Standard mold with wooden sticks

Popsicle molds linked above

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup of a liquid (for a creamier popsicle use yogurt or fruit juice for a more traditional popsicle)
  • 2 1/2 cup of any fruit (berries, pineapple, mango, peaches, pineapple)
  • 4-6 tablespoons of honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions:

Step 1: Mix ingredients in a blender until smooth
Step 2: Pour into six popsicle molds and secure the sticks and lids
Step 3: Freeze for 8 hours or overnight
Step 4: Release from the molds by running warm water over the mold. Do not keep the popsicles in the mold.  To freeze for later, once the popsicles are removed from the molds place them on a baking sheet to flash freeze them for 30 minutes and then store in a container or ziploc in the freezer until you are ready to eat them.

Recipe makes 6 popsicles

Fun from home: cloud dough

This cloud dough cupcake is not be confused with an edible cupcake

Our fun from home series has given you an easy and quick slime recipe, directions to make a bird feeder with a milk carton and a recipe for homemade ice cream without a machine. Today we introduce you to cloud dough! We did not measure so when you are making this, you want a consistency that is a bit crumbly but also moldable.

Supplies needed:

  1. Flour
  2. Baby oil
  3. Color (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Pour flour (we started with a cup and later added much more) into a large container. Then gradually add baby oil and mix with hands!
  2. Get creative– give kids spoons, bowls, little toys, silicone cupcake cups

Recent posts:
Toys and games that are educational
Subscription boxes for children

Fun from home: make a bird feeder

Who tried last week’s fun from home project of making ice cream? With warmer temperatures on the horizon, it may become a go-to sweet treat for your family as you can make it any flavor you choose and it’s a fun activity. This week’s project is an easy one that took my kids about 15 minutes to create and now we have happy birds out front. We now have very happy birds that wake us up early as they enjoy their meal.

Supplies needed:

  1. Milk or juice carton (plastic or cardboard work)
  2. String
  3. Bird seed
  4. Wooden dowel or a twig
  5. Paint (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Start with a clean carton
  2. Cut openings into the sides of the carton
  3. Add a perch below the openings you cut by poking a pencil into the carton
  4. Poke two holes into the sides of the carton near the top and tie string around the top by the spout
  5. Pour seed into the feeder and hang in a tree

Recent posts:
Toys and games that are educational
Subscription boxes for children

Visit Washington, DC virtually

Some of your favorite child-friendly destinations have pivoted and are trying their best to reach kids virtually! We’ve listed some ways you can continue to explore DC below and you can also visit here for a list of classes that are now virtual! This link from the Smithsonian has been a favorite of ours.

Hirshhorn Kids programs have always been a favorite of ours. Now it’s time to get creative at home! You can experience the joy of HIRSHHORN KIDS even when you’re not actually at the Museum. Keep kids of all ages engaged and interested in exploring art and making with unique hands-on projects inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn artworks. New projects are released every week.

National Portrait Gallery offers Young Portrait Explorers. Join every Tuesday on Instagram stories to start with a close look at a featured portrait, then dig deeper with some discussion questions and finally get moving with fun and engaging activities on the day’s topic. Full activity guides will also be available on Facebook. For children ages 3 and up and their families.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History are doing some great Zoom webinars. Natural History at Home programs for families are on Saturday’s at 11am. Last week as joined and followed along with two of the world’s top paleoartists, Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger, as they taught us how to sketch our own dinosaur drawings.

National Museum of American History has a page full of resources designed to help children of all ages explore topics in American history. The majority of the resources on this page are for school-aged children.

National Gallery of Art has an iPad app! The NGAkids Art Zone app contains eight interactive activities inspired by works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, plus a sketchbook for freehand drawing and a personal exhibition space where users can save and display art created with the program. The NGAkids app provides an immersive experience as children visit a virtual art museum and explore a variety of works spanning more than 300 years of art history.

National Postal Museum has an entire page dedicated to kids exploring the postal system, coloring pages, games, quizzes and more fun!

Tudor Place allows you to stay connected with Education at Home featuring activities, crafts and lessons about history, nature, decorative arts and more!

Port Discovery Children’s Museum is here to help. Find activity ideas, tips and virtual programs designed to help you with this adventure called parenting! From art activities and musical programs to science experiments, theater, storytimes and more, you’ll find fun and easy activities that children can follow along with alone – or that you can do together. Check back often for new information! 

People Animals Love (PALS) formerly brought to kids at local libraries is now on Zoom! They are having virtual sessions during the pandemic to serve hundreds of kids per month who are practicing reading to animals.

National Children’s Museum has virtual programs which premiere everyday at 2:30pm on their Facebook page. Themes are: Sunday: sensory play, Monday: climate action challenge, Tuesday: science exploration, Wednesday: storytime, Thursday: design + build, Friday: nature spotlight and Saturday: community connection.

Enjoy live theatre from your own home through Imagination Stage!  Join for a virtual performance of one of our most popular Theatre for the Very Young shows, Inside Out. They also offer Brain Breaks on Facebook for children. Upcoming breaks are: May 19 at 3:30pm for an Active Storytime Brain Break best for ages 3-6  and May 26 at 3:30pm for a Creative Drama Brain Break which is best for ages 5-10.

DC Library has fun for the whole family to enjoy including story time. Join on Facebook Monday – Friday at 10:30am for a live video story time. 

Kojo for Kids shows have been popular in our house with the below few ranking up there! Kate DiCamillo and Bill Nye the Science Guy

National Museum of Women is offering NMWA@Home where you can find story times among other great things and also has created this coloring book.

Gala Hispanic Theatre brings a new performances each week and interviews with artists through their website, e-newsletter, and social media platforms. For children, there are fun stories to delight and discover… And it all is in Spanish!!

Get kids birding from the Audubon!

Fun from home: making ice cream

Last week we started our new blog post series; ‘fun from home’ with slime making. Hopefully your Bambinos tried it and enjoyed making it at home with the easy recipe. This week we are giving you a recipe for making ice cream as the temperatures heat up tomorrow, we thought it’d be a perfect treat to make AND eat!

Supplies needed:

  1. Mason jar with lid {we used a Ziploc bag and it turned out}
  2. 1 cup heavy cream
  3. 1 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
  4. 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  5. A pinch of salt
  6. Optional: add in mini-chips or a teaspoon of peanut butter or a teaspoon of jam to add a flavor!

Instructions:

1. Pour the cream, sugar, vanilla and salt into the jar, and screw on the lid tightly.

2. Shake vigorously {this was the fun part– each family member did a dance for a minute or ran around the house shaking}, until it thickens and almost doubles in size, which should take about 5 minutes.

3. Time to add in the toppings or flavors if you want. Give it another quick shake.

4. Freeze for at least 3 hours. At first it is a bit icy but once it defrosts for a few minutes it will be creamy.

Recent posts:
Toys and games that are educational
Subscription boxes for children

Fun from home: making slime

We are launching a new blog post series; ‘fun from home’. Each week we will send an easy recipe, game or activity for your kids to make at home! We are starting off with a kid favorite and one that is surprisingly easy to make– slime.

SLIME— Believe it or not, it’s not as messy as you may think. We find the Elmer’s glue slime recipes to be super easy and work great. Elmer’s also sells starter packs, we have not trie these though.

Supplies needed:

  1. Clear glue or sparkle glue
  2. Contact solution
  3. Baking soda
  4. Or the slime kit (pictured & linked above)

Instructions:

  1. Pour out entire contents of the 5 fl oz Elmer’s Color Glue into a bowl.
  2. Add ½ tbsp of baking soda and mix thoroughly.
  3. Add 1 tbsp of contact lens solution. …
  4. Take the slime out and begin kneading with both of your hands.
  5. If it’s too sticky, add ¼ tbsp contact lens solution and knead.

Recent posts:
Toys and games that are educational
Subscription boxes for children
Flex Academies ONE Giveaway!!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

logo design courtesy of New Leaf Design