Outdoor Fun: Ice Blocks

My kids love being outdoors and I feel that it is so important to get plenty of sunshine.  With these hot summer days, I am always looking for new, cooler ideas for things we can do outside.  They love swimming, playing in the sprinkler, going down the slip and slide, and getting each other wet with water guns.  When I came across the idea of Ice Blocks from, www.stayathomemom.blogspot.com, I knew it would be an instant hit.  All you need is water, any type or size of tray to freeze the water in, and kool aid or food coloring.  I put the water in small, disposable baking tins, but let the kids add the kool aid.  They thought it was so cool!  For one, they have never seen kool aid before because I try to avoid all things with dye, and two, they loved watching the water change colors.  We put them in the freezer overnight and it was the first thing they asked about in the morning.  (I also added small figurine animals in them so they had fun trying to get the animal out.)

 There are endless possibilities with these.  First the kids tried stacking them.

 Mason thought it was fun to pick up an ice block, throw it, and watch it break into different size pieces. 

Haiden enjoyed watching it melt and turning the concrete a different color.  You could also give them "tools" to break the cubes, use this time to identify colors with the younger ones, or count the blocks.

If you try these, let me know how much your kids enjoyed them!