Did you ever leave your crayons in a hot car or on the back patio when you were a kid?  I accidentally melted down an entire 64 pack of Crayolas (with the built-in sharpener in the box) after an afternoon of drawing landscapes in the backyard.

Now Danny Seo has come up with a way to recycle those melted down crayons — or those tiny, broken-off nubs that seem to accumulate at the bottom of the crayon bucket.  Get full instructions at his blog: LINK (via BoingBoing)

Ice Cream Sundaes

[ under $5 | 30 minutes or less | easy clean-up ]

When my son is reluctant to take a bath, all it takes to get him to comply are those three sweet little words: “Cookie Monster Foam.”  This wonderfully rich and creamy soap comes in a “no-tears” formula that doesn’t stain tubs, tile, or kids.  (You might not want to have your best towels out, however, as the blue in particular tends to linger on fabric.)  It has a texture similar to whipped cream or shaving foam, and the Cherry and Berry scents are light and fruity.  I found the Grape fragrance to be a bit heavy, and it lingered in the bathroom for an unpleasant amount of time, but that’s my opinion, and your mileage may vary.

You can do a lot with a simple can of foam.  Give your child a toy razor and let him pretend to shave his face.  Put it in her hair and give her a faux mohawk.  The foam is quite versatile and you can use it in conjunction with whatever your child’s favorite bath toys might be — get some plastic trucks and pretend you’re plowing snow, or give your child’s favorite rubber duck a beehive or pompadour.  In the photos above, you can see that  we took some toy ice cream cones and pretended to make soft-serve sundaes.  For a real indulgence, empty the entire can into a dry bathtub and let your child cover himself with “monster fur.”

We pretended the foam was fur, and sang a song called "We Are the Monsters in your Neighborhood."

The main problem I have with this product is keeping my closet stocked with it.  I initially found it at Toys R Us, but I can seldom find more than a few cans at a time, and more often they are out of stock completely.  So I placed a sizeable order with Amazon.com seller Cosmetic Solutions.  The product doesn’t qualify for free shipping, but Cosmetic Solutions charges a flat fee of $5.39 per shipment to U.S. addresses.

Verdict: A fun way to bring some sensory play into the bath, with lots of potential for an imaginative child.

Score: 8/10

Rainbow Spaghetti

[ $5 - $10 | 30 - 60 minutes | moderately messy  ]

Next time you cook spaghetti or linguine, toss an extra serving of pasta in the pot and set it aside to make rainbows.  To prepare, mix the red, blue, and yellow food coloring with water to your desired intensity.  Line a cookie sheet with an old towel or a few paper towels to help contain spills and make cleanup easier.  If your child is able, have her mix together different combinations of the primary colors to make secondary colors.  Experiment, and let her try to guess what color each combination will make.  In case you’ve forgotten your color theory, here’s a table to help remind you:

Red + Blue = Purple
Red + Yellow = Orange
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Yellow + Blue = Brown

Then, have her put some spaghetti in each cup with the colored water.  It takes several minutes for the spaghetti to absorb the dye, but you can keep your child’s interest by asking her to help you stir the pasta in each cup.  Keep checking the spaghetti, and when it has reached a shade you like, remove it from the dye and let it drain on a paper towel.  Then help your child make rainbows on a plate.  You can follow the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) or let your child express her creativity by choosing different patterns.  You can also practice basic geometric shape recognition or twist the pasta into letters or words.

You can use this project to teach color identification to younger kids, or help preschoolers and older kids understand basic color theory.  You can stretch out pieces of red, yellow, and blue spaghetti half an inch apart and have your child fill in the spaces with the secondary color that is “between” each primary pair. You can also use this project to help kids with sensory problems that might keep them from eating certain textures of foods.  If your child is sensitive to texture, she might not want to touch the cold, cooked pasta with her bare fingers.  Let her stir the spaghetti with a spoon or fork, or help her develop fine motor skills by showing her how to use tweezers (or chopsticks!) to manipulate the pasta.  Once she’s engrossed in the project, she just might forget to be squeamish and abandon her tools in favor of her fingers.

Crayola ReColoritz

[ $5 - $10 | 30 minutes or less | easy clean-up ]

Crayola Recoloritz is yet another product designed by Crayola to give kids another way to fill in line drawings of licensed characters from Disney.  As is common these days, it comes in a “boy” version (Cars) and a “girl” version (Princesses).  It is not, as you might think at first glance, a mess-free Color Wonder clone.  Rather, it essentially consists of six overhead projector markers, five preprinted opaque plastic sheets, and a sponge.  You could put together a similar kit with a couple of overhead transparencies laid over the image of your choice and a dozen transparency pens.  (And with a black sharpie and a basic understanding of how animation cels work, you could give a lesson in how cartoons are made while you’re at it.)

While the markers will mark on surfaces other than the coloring sheets — including clothing, faces, hands, and carpeting — they seemed to wash off at least as easily as Crayola’s regular washable markers.  And the re-usable nature of the product is a definite plus, assuming, of course, that your child doesn’t get tired of coloring the same pictures over and over.  (Mine doesn’t.)  The wet-erase nature of the pens ensures that your child won’t be frustrated by smearing the portions she has already colored, as is sometimes a problem with dry-erase pens.  And at  just $10 per set, it would be difficult to find a cheaper re-usable alternative.  Yet, in the end, ReColoritz offer no experiences or skills that can’t be learned just as easily through traditional crayon-and-paper coloring sets.

Verdict: Nothing inherently wrong with the product, but doesn’t adequately encourage expression, creativity, or sensory play.

Score: 5/10.

A puzzle on a yoga mat.

[ $10-$25 | 30 minutes or less | no mess ]

Put your yoga mat to work when you’re not in class by letting your kids use it as a backdrop for jigsaw puzzles. Even over carpet, the surface is firm enough that the pieces lay flat, and it has a little bit of grip so that they don’t slide around and fall apart.

If you don’t have a yoga mat lying around, you can get one for under $20 at any sporting goods store. They also make great play surfaces for babies just learning to crawl. The extra traction helps keep little knees and toes from sliding around without causing rug burn.

What do you do with your yoga mat when you’re not doing Sun Salutations? Post your ideas in the comments.