After a not-so-fantastic summer here in Sweden, it seems that autumn has arrived. The last few days have been mostly grey and chilly and wet and fall is in the air. After his first three days of “schooling in” at nursery school, Little A came home with his first nursery school cold and had to be kept home (instead of attempting his first day solo, without Dad there by his side). So we had to think of a new indoor activity to keep us a bit busy.
I made these colored pasta pieces several weeks ago and since we were stuck inside, we brought them out to play.
They were pretty easy to make – just let pasta soak in vinegar and a few (ok, quite a few) drops of food coloring (I use Americolor’s bright shades) in glass jars overnight and then allow to dry on paper for another night. Some tips: don’t overfill the jars – 3/4 is max, and don’t leave the jars too long before opening them. I learned the hard way. Also, I would recommend having the pasta dry on newspaper instead of paper towels – we had some stickage of paper towels to pasta.
Once they are dry, you are ready to play! Alec enjoyed threading the pasta onto twine. He also did a lot of color sorting. I brought out some colored jars for him to sort into. The pasta has also been brought out for play several times since and will probably end up as some sort of artwork in the end.
One Comment
Brilliant idea! Just the right splash of color for the dreary, wet, cloudy days!