Do you take time at the start of a new year to reflect on the year that just passed? It’s amazing to me how much you can change in one single year; that goes for kids and adults alike! 2015 was a huge year of growth and discovery for my blog and I wanted to share some highlights and the new things ahead in 2016.
Best Discovery of the Year: VIDEO
2015 was the year I started making videos. I can 100% say that discovering a love for making videos is the reason for every single one of our top posts this year; without videos these posts may have been gone in the blink of an eye but video brought the projects to life.
I made my first video last year about this time. You can see it here:
My husband is a videographer and had been prodding me to incorporate video into my blog so one day on a whim I decided to try it. And I was hooked. I loved the way video, sound, and music could be put together to tell a story. Pretty pictures are enticing but the delightful screams of children make a project must-try in my opinion. And so I stared making more videos, loads of them in fact. And a few went viral thanks to some friends who shared them with their HUGE followings.
A big THANK YOU to PBS Parents Crafts for Kids, Red Ted Art, The Artful Parent, Tinkerlab, Playtivities, Happy Hooligans, Meri Cherry, What Do We Do All Day, Art Bar, Lemon Lime Adventures, Inner Child Fun, Kids Activities Blog and One Crazy House for sharing our videos with your audience this past year!
Most Popular Post: FLEXTANGLES
This post astounded me. It was developed for a series and I hemmed and hawed on ideas before finally saying what the heck, maybe I’ll do a project that combines flexagons and zentangles and call it something like FLEXTANGLES. Well I’m happy to say YOU GUYS took this project and ran. I have never seen more amazing projects produced by YOU GUYS as I have with Flextangles. You must check out the hashtags #flextangle and #flextangles on Instagram to see what I mean. Every time I pop over I’m floored by the designs made by kids, adults, scout troops, students, grandparents and more. It’s been probably the highlight of my entire blogging journey, seeing this post capture the imagination of others.
Instructions and template: Flextangles
More Top Posts in 2015:
#2. Wizard’s Brew
This post is actually a part of an older post 20 Science Projects for Preschoolers that I keep updating each year with new information. I decided to try making a video of one of our favorite projects, Wizard’s Brew, and apparently you guys like it as much as my kids did!
Get the recipe here: Rainbow Wizard’s Brew
#3 Discovery Tubes
It’s true I have an obsession with industrial tubing. I love the fact that it is clear and flexible. To see more ways we’ve geeked out with tubing hop over to Tubing Telephone, Totally Tubular Bracelets and Siphon Water Coaster.
Get the instructions here: Discovery Tubes
#4 Lemon Volcanoes
So easy and they smell so good! A fun twist on the classic vinegar and baking soda eruptions, substitute lemon juice for the vinegar
Get the instructions here: Lemon Volcanoes
#5 Tiny Dancers
I first spied a simple homopolar motor at our school science fair and was hooked on the idea of turning it into a dancer. This is a wonderful project to introduce kids to electronics and engineering.
Get the instructions here: Tiny Dancers
What’s ahead in 2016
And now a sneak peek at what I’ve got in store for you guys this year! I’m excited to announce two new ventures:
CREATIVE BASICS
Later this month I’ll be debuting a weekly You Tube Series called Creative Basics. Each week I’ll be sharing a video with classic art, science, and play ideas every parent and educator should have in their toolkit. I love creating unusual and out of the box ideas for you all here but I’m also thrilled to get back to basics! If you want to see the series be sure to subscribe to our You Tube Channel and you’ll get a notification every time we upload a new video.
PLAY PACKS
I debuted our very first digital product last fall, Paper Toys Play Pack, and have been thrilled with the response to it. Look for more activity pack sin 2016, roughly one every other month. Here are the topics we are going to cover:
- Science Art
- Engineering with Straws
- Math Games
- Classic Art Projects for kids
- Engineering Sampler
- Brain Teasers
THANK YOU
And last but not least I want to say THANK YOU to all of YOU! Your readership and support is what makes this blog possible and I appreciate every single comment and connection we make here or on our Facebook Page or Instagram Account. I may not always be able to get back to you in a timely manner (yes that is one of my new year resolutions!) but I want you to know how much hearing from you and seeing your thoughts and comments means to me. Here’s to a wonderful and exciting 2016!
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