Recently we found a good hangout in our neighborhood where there are many rocks. And of course the next thing PK and BB did was to put them in their Easter baskets. (Yes, Easter is two weeks away and they already have their baskets ready!) A good thing is, I bought them the plastic kind (cheap was the reason for my choice) and it turned out to be the right choice because rock and floral collection at the park is a messy activity. With the plastic basket, I could easily rinse it clean after every walk. But of course PK wasn't pleased with just a plastic basket. She insisted I let her hang ribbons on it. And yes we did. As you can see from this picture here:
Anyway, sorry, I got distracted. So because of all the rocks we have collected, I decided to paint them into dominos. I remember seeing this post about rock dominos a while back. I didn't follow the instructions to use a tape in the middle, obviously, but I think my rocks turned out fine.
I was teaching a St. Patrick's Day theme for APG this week, so this set of rainbow colors dominos came in handy as one of the games we played.
To make the dominos, you need a bunch of rocks. Whether you buy them from the craft store or pick them off the streets, choose rocks that are smooth and curved and no bigger than the hand of your child.
Since our rocks came from the backyard, I washed them and baked them for 15 minutes at 350 degreesF. Cool the rocks before painting.
I figured 7 colors work for a simple game in our family for up to four players. We used acrylic paint.
Steps:
1. Paint seven rocks in one color. Paint it til the midpoint of each rock. You can choose to paint front and back as I did or you can just paint one surface.
2. In another color, paint one rock from step 1 and six other rocks til midpoint. You have one completed rock now.
3. In the third color, paint one rock from step 1 and one from step two and five other rocks.
4. You repeat til you reach the seventh color. Each color appear seven times in your rocks and no rock has the same color pair.
5. You should get a total of 21 rocks.
Although BB doesn't know how to play, we have been including him in our game. I will give him the right piece and asked him to match it. I think one day he will get the whole concept of colors and matching. :)
And he absolutely loves these rocks!