Bouncy Ball DIY (Alphabet Summer)

It's B day which means we are doing a Bouncy Ball DIY. Bouncy balls are a favorite toy in this house. On any given day you can find all 3 boys crowded in our little kitchen watching half a dozen balls bounce all over the place. I knew that making their own would be a huge hit.

I followed the directions as I found them on Free Fun in Austin. Our ingredients included Borax, clear Elmer's glue, food coloring and craft sticks. Since I use Borax to make my own laundry detergent, I was able to do this project without really spending any money (I had to buy the clear glue but that was about a dollar).

Even though they looked pretty good, this project ended up being a bust. We bounced them once or twice and they started crumbling. Reading up on this more it looks like recipes with cornstarch work better. Oh well, it created a good opportunity to teach the kids that not everything is always going to go as we expect and that it is more important to enjoy the process than the final product. And it gives us an excuse to try it again soon!

Our memory verse today came from Acts. I found this great blog that has scripture verses to correspond with each letter so I will be using that for the rest of our Alphabet Summer.

Jeremy was home today so he and the boys tackled a Baseball Stadium for our Alphabet City structure today. Lots of fun!

We also did two different B worksheets today. One came from education.com and had a butterfly inside of a large B. The other came from 1plus1plus1equals1.com and was a color by number of a bat on a B. I am going to try and mix these up and I will keep sharing where I find my printable worksheets so that you can use them too if you want.

Another Alphabet Summer activity is in the books! Want to see what we still have on our list? You can follow our Master List here.

Alphabet Summer 2012 - Master List

I have been telling my husband for awhile that I needed to sit down and make a plan for this summer. I really wanted to find a way to be intentional about our time together during this season where everything slows down and commitments get put on hold. I know how easy it is to let the time slip away and wonder what happened with it all.

Considering this, it seemed only appropriate that on the last day of school I was browsing Pinterest and came across the idea of an Alphabet Summer. The gist of it is that you spend the summer doing activities based on the alphabet. It is a great chance to make memories, have fun and learn while doing it. So I used the hour an a half between dropping Nathan off and picking him up to come up with my list (why do they even bother with that last day anyway?). I then made it into a permanent list to display and mark off as we go this summer. Want to see?

Here's how I did it. I started with some basic supplies (most are pictured here):

I then painted the borders around my chalkboards just to make them more sunny. This is a summer thing after all! On the back I added strips of magnets so that they could easily be attached to the side of the locker we have in the hallway for school/kids craft supplies. I am going to use these to write what letter and activity we are doing each day.

Finally, I created the list using a large strip of freezer paper. I wrote on the waxy side using different colored markers. The kids had fun reading each activity to me as I wrote them down, all while asking a million questions about what each idea entailed. This helped them get really excited about our summer, which was the ultimate goal after all!

I also added magnetic strips to the back of the wax paper so it could hang below the chalkboards. Way too easy!

Isaiah noticed the new addition as soon as he got up from his nap!

Want to see what we have planned for the summer? Here's our list from A to Z:

Alphabet Summer Activity List

A. Build an Alphabet City

B. Bouncy Ball DIY

C. Camp Out AND Cousin Sleepover

D. Dinner and Dessert for friends

E. Extra Chore Day

F. Felt Puppet Show

G. Grandparent's Day

H. Hand Print Art

I. Isaiah Day AND Ice Cream for Dinner

J. Jordan Day AND Jet Packs

K. Kite Flying

L. Lunch with Dad at His Work

M. Movie Theater AND Minute To Win It Game Night

N. Nathan Day AND National Holiday

O. Obstacle Course

P. Pottery Bug

Q. Quiet Books
R. Race Track out of Masking Tape

S. Silverwood AND Science Experiments

T. Tea Party for Little Men

U. Under the Sea

V. Vacation Bible School

W. Water Balloon Pinatas
X. X Marks the Spot

Y. Yellow Day

Z. Zipper Pouch Blessing Bags

 

Some letters have more than one activity because I had multiple ideas and couldn't narrow it down. I am looking forward to sharing these things with you in more detail as we do them. As I write about them I will link them back here so that there is one big master list. Here's to our first Alphabet Summer!