Kid Baltimore | Family Activities with Children in Baltimore, Maryland

Recycled Magazine Christmas Trees

We've been folding Christmas trees from old magazines. These are so much fun to make. Dave remembers making these as a kid from old TV Guides. You can spray paint them green, or gold, but I think they are rather nice plain. Little flecks of color show through, and since this one is made from last year's seed catalog, it's especially good. Little bits of spring, poking through the winter.

Crisp folds are important for this project, but some of us had a slightly more...organic approach. 

Grab a thick magazine, 200 pages or so and let's get started! 

First take a moment to break the spine, so the magazine lays flat. You may also want to remove the cover if the paper is thicker than the rest of the magazine.

1. Fold the top left corner into the spine of the magazine to make a diagonal fold. Crease neatly.

2. Fold in again to the spine. The shape it makes will look sort of like a neck tie.

3. Turn the magazine over and fold the bottom triangle up. Remember the tree will have a flat base and this is the fold that levels the bottom.

4. Tuck the triangle inside the fold.

I prefer to do folds 1 and 2 for the entire magazine, and then turn the magazine over to do the remaining folds. Pretty soon you'll have a table full of recycled (and recyclable) holiday trees.

 

Happy folding!

Kid-Decorated Dishes

Every year I try and fit in a project for the kids to make as Christmas gifts. Here's what some (I think rather lucky) family members got this year — hand-decorated dishes. I bought a stack of serving trays from Target. Mugs work well too. And some Porcelaine Paint Markers from Dick Blick. After cooking, the drawings will be permanent and, fingers crossed, dishwasher-safe.

1. Wipe down the surface of the dish with rubbing alcohol.

2. Draw on the dishes to your hearts content. These are paint markers, and they take a little gentle coaxing to get them started. I had one or two that wouldn't flow, but generally, they were very easy to work with. The manufacturer of the markers does recommend keeping your design from areas that will touch the food, so while I did not let them draw on the inside of the mug, I'm not too concerned about a serving tray that will be used for cookies, etc.

The kids picked a theme for each piece (cats, kites, flowers, whatever), which I think helped keep them entertained. The other rule we decided on was to limit the number of colors on each plate. We used two colors plus black. Hey, it's never too soon to discuss color theory. Am I right?

3. Place the dishes in a cold oven, and set the temperature to 300 degrees. Once the oven reaches full temperature, bake for 30 minutes.

And don't forget to make an extra one to keep. Enjoy!

Milkshake's Valentine Spectacular

WHERE: Ram’s Head Live, 20 Market Place, Baltimore, MD 21202

WHEN: Sunday, February 13^th – concert at 2pm  (doors open 1pm)

TICKETS: $15. Under age two, free. Family four pack: $50

Lisa Mathews, from the band Milkshate, just sent me this lovely recording of one of their latest songs, from their Grammy-nominated album Great Day. So appropriate for Valentine's day, and what a voice.

 Milkshake | I Love You

Their Valentine Spectacular show is coming to the Ram's Head Live in downtown Baltimore February, 13th at 2pm. Doors open at 1pm with lots of fun kid activities before the show. There will be chocolate kisses from Moo, face painting, balloon art, cartoons, videos, flowers and more. Sounds like a perfect way to celebrate Valentine's day with the kids!

Part of the proceeds from this event will go to Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks is an organization that funds research and raises public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society.

Tickets are available at the Ram’s Head box office 410-244-8854, or online.

 

Good Things From My Inbox

 

My inbox has been filling up lately with lots of good ideas of things to do/buy/make and I wanted to share just a few with you.

123 Baltimore: A Cool Counting Book by Puck is a counting board book for the toddler set. It takes little ones on a cool trip through Charm City. And while your little ones may not yet fully understand the significance of pink flamingos or blue crabs, or all things Baltimore, Hon, it's never too soon to start.

I really appreciate the simple san-serif type and clean design.

 

 

 

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Here's a great offer from the American Visionary Art Museum for free admission to the museum if you donate clean jars. This offer is good through September 2011. You can email to arrange for your free passes. If you haven't taken your kids to AVAM, it is positively one of my favorite art places to go, and worth every penny. But free is even better. Here is a letter from their Education Assistant, Beka:

I am writing to ask if you could possibly assist us in collecting jars for our Educational programs. In exchange for your readers donating 10 jars, we can give them 2 passes to the museum. We are looking for jars to use in a workshop we currently offer for students coming to the museum on field trips called "Wire Whimsies" ( I have attached a photo !) Any jars with a lid work for this project, including jam jars, baby food jars, salsa jars etc.

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Baltimore International College has some wonderful sounding Food Enthusiast Classes. These are non-credit (in other words, no pressure) continuing education cooking and baking classes that are taught by experienced chefs at the Culinary Arts Center in Little Italy.

You can get gift certificates too, which might make a pretty nice Christmas present, hint, hint.

In the meantime, they sent this delicious looking gingerbread house recipe. I'm slightly terrified that it calls for 13 cups of flour. Am I building a city? I'm tempted to cut it in half, but I might just go for it because I really don't think there is such a thing as too much gingerbread.

Gingerbread House or Cookies

Ingredients:
6 cups Sugar
4 cups Butter (soft)
3/4 cup Molasses
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
13 cups Flour
3 tbsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Cinnamon
2 tbsp Ginger
2 tsp Allspice
2 tsp Cloves


Procedure:
1. Beat the sugar, butter, and molasses together.
2. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated.
3. Add the milk and continue beating.
4. Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves). Add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

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And finally, Faces iMake, an app developed in conjunction with Hancoch Piven. I've been familiar with Hanoch's illustration work for many years, and I think this app is a fantastic adaptation of his playful style.

The app comes with a collection of collage objects that include musical instruments, food, hardware, letters and tools. You can combine them to make just about any face you can imagine. There is a lite version available for free, but for the full collection of 2000+ objects, I would recommend the premium version.

Office Supply Easter Eggs

Our Easter eggs this year were wrapped in rubber bands and dotted with some file folder stickers I found in an office drawer, then dunked. It made for some nice surprises, don't you think?

Oh, and if you are missing any office supplies from your desk drawers, I have them.

They are now pink.

 

 

For another Easter egg idea, take a look at our naturally dyed eggs post.

The Nutcracker Ballet at Baltimore School for the Arts

photo by Joe Rubino

WHEN:
Fridays, December 4 and December 11, 7:00 PM
Saturdays, December 5 and 12, 11:00 and 3:00 PM
Sundays, December 6 and 13, 2:00 and 6:00 PM

WHERE:
Baltimore School for the Arts
712 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
                      
TICKETS:
$15.00 for adults
$10.00 for students
                      
INFO:
Call 410-624-2110 or visit www.bsfa.org

The Nutcracker Ballet ranks high on my list this year for must-do activities to get into the holiday spirit. And I can't think of a better place to take the kids to see it than Baltimore School for the Arts. I took my oldest daughter when she was 3 years old, and heavily into her pink ballerina phase. With the twins at age 5 now, they are past due, but I am sure they will be delighted to see it. I am also sure that at least one of them will be begging for ballet lessons afterward... and I will probably cave.