Clay Play

Yesterday it was raining and I wanted the kids to take a break from playing with the PS2, so I had to appease them in some way after hogging the TV to watch The Biggest Loser.

I had some flour that had some weevils in it, so I decided to put it into good use.
We decided to play with homemade clay.

To make homemade clay:
2 cups flour + 1 cup salt, mix thoroughly in a large bowl
rub in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Add 3/4 to 1 cup water bit by bit, till it reaches a clay like texture, i.e. it's not crumbly, it's pliable and it's not too soft.

We laid the picnic carpet by our sliding door and laid a plastic mat on that, and I gave the kids a chopping board each where they can shape their clay.



At first the kids made simple stuff: balls, flat discs , snakes and stuff. When I got Izani to take a nap, I got a chance to show them the 'possibilities'. I made a rose, then a starfish and an octopus. I helped Anis with a snail and she made another two of them (one daddy and a baby). She made a heart, a worm, another snake and i coiled it up for her. Ilham made 2 dinosaurs and spelled out his name. He also made a gingerbread man. Ihsan made a dead fish, a person and another coiled snake.



We layed them all out on a cookie sheet and put it into a 250 degrees farenhite oven and baked it for an hour.

Today we went to the art store and bought some acrylic paint and spent the afternoon outside in the backyard on our picnic carpet to paint the figures, till Izani woke up. (Notice that the rose in unfinished and the octupus and starfish are unpainted)



They're not really masterpieces, but what the heck, it got the kids occupied and out of my hair for several hours, so I'm happy. I told them that I'm gonna keep the nice ones in our display cabinets. They are so proud of themselves!

Ilham is brimming with ideas.. he wants to make his own chess set someday. I think that's a brilliant idea! :D