Model Magic and Magic Paint Board

Arjun and I have been home sick for two days.  I've been sick, that is, and Arjun has been home with me since I've not felt well enough to drive him to school.  Yesterday I was too sick to feel guilty about watching movies all day.  Today I have my wits back about me and we have only spent half of the day watching movies.  Keeping a three year old engaged when one doesn't feel well is challenging.  We came up with two projects that helped us get through the day.  The first one we started last week when we found ourselves with some over-the-hill Model Magic.

I guess that if you keep the stuff for a few years, even in it's foil wrapper, it eventually begins to dry.  Usually Model Magic is soft, squishy and very, very moldable.  Ours was still pliable enough to make impressions in, but definitely not fresh enough to use as the manufacturer intended.  I thought it would be fun to make soft foamy letter stamps with it.  We pressed some blobs into Arjun's letter blocks and set them aside to dry.  I had thought we could use paint on them, or markers.  We haven't tried that yet since Arjun had other ideas. 

 

We received this most excellent "Buddha Board" as a holiday gift.  We use it almost every day.  Arjun loves to practice making letters on it with the brush.  Mostly he likes to make "A"s.  I had the stamps we'd made drying on the table when he decided to paint them with water and stamp them on the board.  It worked! 

We love this board.  It's particularly great for us right now since Arjun is so into writing.  This way he can practice and practice and practice without generating tons of difficult-for-me-to-throw-out documents.

AND I just came across this tutorial.  I wonder if this paper comes in larger sheets.  It would be fun to make a huge disappearing drawing board!
The stamps also make excellent boulders for dumping.