Hot Rocks!

So, this was #28 on my unrealistic list of all the things I wanted to do last summer. I am so NOT a super mom. Maybe you could have done them all, but I'm starting to see that it was a great list of things to do all year!

I have since seen this idea in a couple of places, but originally I found it at eighteen25. This is something that I would suggest only doing with kids who are 4 or older. And, maybe 4 is still too young in your house. You know your kids. Just be safe because the rocks and the melting crayon are both very hot.

Basically, you just buy or find some river rocks. (My goals was to collect them on a fun adventure near a river, but that didn't happen.) Set them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. (I lined mine with foil. This may not be necessary.)

Have an adult or super-duper responsible child take them off the tray with an oven mitt (or something like the sweet "Ove Glove" that my in-laws gave me for Christmas). I set them on paper plates that had place mats under to protect the table. I'd suggest leaving the other rocks you are not using at the moment in a warm oven - like 200 degrees. I turned my oven off and the rocks didn't really stay warm enough by the time we got to the last ones.

Now it's time to just draw! The crayons melt pretty fast on the hot rocks and turn really runny like paint. 

Make sure to remind the kids to keep their sweet little fingers up higher on the crayons than they might normally have them so that they avoid touching the rocks and wax.

My boys and I had so much fun making different designs and watching to see what happened as the colors bled together.

My older son who has a very active imagination starting drawing this cure snowman face and it quickly turned into a blob of colors all blended together as it melted and Bowser attacked it (or something like that).

It was fun to compare the rocks with the wet glossy wax on them and see how smooth they were once they had dried.

We should have made more and I guess we still can. The son I mentioned above has named all of his rocks and he has tested me, my husband and my mom on which Mario character each rock represents. So, it's not just a project around here; they've become play things!