Spreading Love with Valentine’s Day Crafts

Valentine’s Day is coming soon! Children will pass out valentines to all their friends and classmates, and couples will exchange flowers and candy. It’s the perfect time to remember the importance of love in our lives. The holiday also presents an opportunity for making adorable heart-shaped crafts with your child. Here are a few Valentine’s Day crafts that we love.

Bird Feeder Hearts

Crafting projects often end up stashed away and eventually thrown away, despite your best intentions. What if you could make an adorable craft that could be put to use? These bird feeder hearts can do just that, making them more sustainable and fun than the average craft. They’re easy to make, especially with the help of older children. 

Recipe

• For the hearts

• ¾ cup of flour

• ½ cup of water

• 1 2.5 teaspoon envelope of unflavored gelatin

• 3 tablespoons of corn syrup

• 4 cups of birdseed

• Other items needed

• Heart-shaped cookie cutter

• Cooking spray

• Pieces of ribbon

• Gift tags 

Instructions

• Spray a spoon with cooking spray.

• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. 

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

• Spray the inside of a heart-shaped cookie cutter, place it on the parchment paper, then fill it with birdseed, packing it down as you go.

• Spray a second spoon with cooking spray to pat down the heart, making sure it’s really packed in. 

• Make a hole near the top center using a chopstick or similar object

• Remove the cookie cutter, fixing up the edges, then let them sit overnight

• The next day, put a ribbon through the center of each heart, and tie the ends together

• Tie a gift tie to each ribbon 

Perler Bead Valentines

Who says Valentine’s cards need to be made from cardstock? Playing with perler beads will bring you right back to the days when you were making cards for your classmates. It will also show your child a fun, easy form of crafting. For this project, you will need to use an iron, so you may need to help a younger child.

Items needed

• Perler beads

• Perler bead pegboard

• Parchment paper

• Iron

• Small 2.75-inch glassine envelopes

• Washi tape

Instructions

• Arrange beads on a pegboard into a heart shape, and build a square around the heart. Make the overall size 12 pegs across to fit into a 2.75-inch envelope. 

• When the design is complete, lay parchment paper over the beads

• Set the heated iron on the parchment paper, holding for 10-15 seconds

• Allow plastic to cool

• Once it has cooled, remove the square from the pegboard, and place into an envelope. Seal the envelope with washi tape. 

Yarn Heart Art

A staple of crafting, yarn can be used in many ways to create works of art with a homemade feel. You can dive into crocheting or knitting with your child, create a design using a board with nails, or do this simple project. These pieces of 3D art make wonderful decorative gifts despite how simple they are to make.

Items needed

• Red yarn, preferably in multiple shades

• Flat wooden hearts, various sizes

• Small canvases, around 6” x 6”

Instructions

• Wrap the wooden hearts with yarn, forming the round shape as you wrap. Be careful to make sure it holds the heart shape. 

• If you are using multiple colors, be sure to alternate between the two colors when you’re wrapping. 

• Tuck in the loose thread.

• Hot glue the hearts to the canvas.

If your child loves to paint, consider having them paint the canvas, making sure it fully dries before sticking anything on it. A bright solid color like yellow or blue can make the red hearts pop and add another dimension to this simple project. 

Crafting for Valentine’s Day gives you a chance to spend quality time with your child and allows your child to spread love through homemade gifts. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

How to Talk to Your Child About Bullying

Talking to your child about bullying can be difficult. However, the difficult conversations are often the most important ones to have. Your child needs to know about bullying from an early age so they know what to do if it happens to them. Talking about it early on can also help you avoid a situation where your child becomes the bully. Here are a few recommendations we have for talking to your child about this tough subject. 

Start Broad

If you dive right into different types of bullying and how bullying may impact your child, you may end up scaring them more than helping. Start the conversation by bringing up bullying and asking what they know. Talk about different types of bullying, like cyberbullying and in-person bullying. Ask questions. See what they think, and see if there’s anything you can teach them before going into a deeper conversation. 

Listen to Your Child

Being bullied often makes children feel ashamed. There’s a strong chance that if your child is being bullied in school or online, they won’t tell you until the situation escalates. That’s one reason why it’s important to listen to your child intently when they tell you how they’re doing. Check up on them often to make sure they’re in a good place. If you notice signs of bullying, like withdrawing, sleeping less or constantly looking stressed, ask what’s going on. Letting your child know you’re there for them when they need you can make a big difference in their lives.

If They’re Being Bullied

When your child reveals to you that they’ve been bullied, a rush of thoughts may flood into your mind. However, you need to remain calm. Remember, your child has entrusted you with information that they may have been holding onto for a while. First, you need to reassure your child that this is not their fault. Children and adults are often shamed into feeling guilty for others’ bad behavior.

Ask for more details about the situation. Has this happened before? Do you feel unsafe? While you may be tempted to call the school immediately, you’ll want to ask your child first. If you talk to the school, they may have to as well, and they need to be ready for that. Finally, work on solutions with your child. See what your child can do to avoid these situations with the bully, and come up with an action plan for what to do if it happens again. 

If They Bully Others

The last thing you want to learn is that your child has bullied another child. As difficult as it may be, you need to approach the situation with an open mind. See if you can figure out the reasons why they decided to bully other children, and help them come up with better solutions for dealing with difficult feelings or situations. If you spend time processing this with your child and the bullying continues, consider sending your child to therapy. Your child may benefit from talking to a third party who is trained in areas like cognitive behavioral therapy. 

Look into School Programs

Some schools, like NTCA, have bullying prevention programs to address bullying that takes place on campus. If your child’s school has a bullying prevention program, they may have resources available for parents and children to help them deal with these situations. 

Bullying is a serious issue, especially when families don’t talk about it. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, we have a Bullying Prevention Program to address bullying from all sides. Our school allows students to thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

Student Driver Safety Procedures

Beginning Wednesday, January 18, 2023 approved student drivers should follow the following procedures

• Park in the front parking lot near Building 1

• Check-in at the Welcome Desk, turning in your keys and signing the Daily Key Log.  Keys will be stored in a locked cabinet during the school day.

• Check-out at the Welcome Desk when leaving campus at dismissal, signing the Daily Key Log and receiving your keys.

• Student drivers who need to leave Campus before regular dismissal time, should have their parents set up an early dismissal request in Pikmykid and contact the office – office@northtampaca.com  Students who are finished with classes, and whose parents have not made arrangements for early dismissal will remain in study hall until regular dismissal time.

4 Science Projects to Try at Home

Some of the best education happens at home. Teaching your child about science doesn’t have to mean buying a microscope kit, choosing a science camp to send your child to or taking trips to the science museum. Try these simple science projects with your child at home to make scientific concepts more relatable. 

Create and Play with Oobleck

Oobleck is a prime example of a non-Newtonian fluid. This means it acts like a liquid when being poured and like a solid when any amount of force is applied. Then, when the force goes away, it turns right back into its liquid form. Oobleck started out as a fictional substance that fell from the sky in the Dr. Seuss book “Bartholomew and the Oobleck.” The real-life version makes for an easy, fun science experiment. 

Here’s how it works:

• Slowly mix 1 cup water with 1.5 - 2 cups of cornstarch together. 

• You may need to add more cornstarch. Do so slowly until you reach the desired consistency, liquid yet solid. Due to the texture, you should mix it with your hands. 

• When you reach the solid/liquid consistency, add food coloring as a finishing touch. 

Try squeezing the Oobleck, making it into a puddle and dragging your fingers through it, or shaking it up in a plastic container. If you have older kids (and aren’t afraid to get a little messy), consider putting more Oobleck into a plastic kiddie pool and having your child run across it. You and your child won’t be able to help participating in this experiment together.  

Put an Egg in a Glass Bottle

Playing with food always makes for fun science experiments. The idea of this experiment is watching an egg peel itself to fit into a container. It will require your help or supervision, as it requires fire. Pick a glass bottle with a small opening, one that’s at least half the diameter of an egg. Birthday candles will make this experiment more visually exciting, but you can use matches if you have them. 

Here’s how it works:

• Start by boiling and peeling an egg. You may want to boil and peel a few just in case something goes wrong. Worst case scenario, you have a snack for later! 

• Next, stick one or three small birthday candles in one end of the egg, pushed in firmly, not deep enough to make the egg fall apart. 

• Light the candles. 

• Place the lit end of the egg/candle into an upside-down bottle, letting a little bit of air in for a few seconds. 

• Then, lower the bottle early, and watch the egg shrink to fit as it falls in. 

This experiment shows how liquid, solids and gasses work together to cause pressure as they react to one another. 

Homemade Lava Lamp

Some of the most fun home science experiments are done with items you can find in your kitchen. The homemade lava lamp experiment also uses an ingredient that most people have in their medicine cabinets: Alka-Seltzer. 

Here’s how it works:

• Grab a clean transparent PET water bottle or clear cup, vegetable oil, water, Alka-Seltzer and food coloring. You’ll also want a funnel to make it easier to pour in all the ingredients. 

• Start by filling the water bottle halfway with water and adding in a few drops of food coloring. 

• Fill the rest of the water bottle with cooking oil, giving the contents a little bit of time to settle and separate. 

• Next comes the Alka-Seltzer tablet. If you’re using a bottle, break the tablet into quarters before dropping it in if needed to make it fit. If you’re using a cup, drop the tablet in whole.

Then, watch the colored water swirl through the oil, creating a lava lamp effect! The Alka-Seltzer turned this basic water-and-oil project into a fascinating look into perpetual motion. This helps demonstrate what it looks like when multiple chemical reactions are happening at once. 

Sugar Water Density Rainbow

Creating a rainbow with sugar, water and food coloring will require a little bit of patience, but the end result will be worth it for an older child or teen. This experiment will show how different amounts of sugar and food coloring create different densities, allowing what looks like colorful water to be layered. 

How it works:

• For this experiment, you will need sugar, water, food coloring, five glasses, a tablespoon and a pipette or syringe. 

• Start by filling the first four glasses with water, leaving the fifth one empty. 

• Add two to three drops of red food coloring to one glass, yellow to another, green to the third and blue to the fourth glass. 

• Add one tablespoon of sugar to the yellow, two to the green, and three to the blue. 

• Stir the solutions in each glass until the sugar dissolves. 

• Fill ¼ of the empty cup with the blue solution using the syringe or pipette. 

• Then, fill with ¼ of the green, ¼ of the yellow and ¼ of the red. Do this slowly to ensure that the colors don’t mix. 

Then, voila! You have a liquid rainbow! This is because each of the liquids has a different density, which allows them to sit on top of each other as long as the experiment is done carefully. 

Our school encourages project-based learning in the classroom and at home. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.

Meaningful New Year's Resolutions for Children and Teens

When children make New Year’s Resolutions, they tend to be imitations of what they hear from parents (“lose weight,” “watch less TV”) or big aspirations that would take more than a year to accomplish (“save the world,” “make the world a better place”). There’s a middle ground of New Year’s Resolutions that are more meaningful and easier to achieve. Here are a few goals your child or teen can aspire to in the New Year. 

Always Be Honest

Being honest 100% of the time is easier said than done. Children can be especially prone to getting caught up in a lie. They start with one white lie that snowballs and becomes overwhelming. Help your child understand that it’s better to be honest, even if the truth is that they made a mistake. This doesn’t mean your child has to use “tough love” or be brutally honest to others. Weighing honesty and kindness may take some practice, but ultimately, your child will learn that it’s best to be honest with themselves and others. 

Become a Better Friend

Talk to your child about the importance of being present with their friends and family. This could mean taking out their headphones at dinner time or listening thoughtfully during conversations. It also means being there for friends who need help and telling a trusted adult if it seems like a serious situation. Nothing is quite as valuable when you’re feeling alone as having a friend who will listen. Forming deeper friendships and relationships with family members will also bring more meaning to your child’s life.

Eat, Drink and Sleep Well

People of all ages struggle to take care of themselves, though it’s typically for different reasons. A child or teen may stay up late talking to friends online or playing video games. They may skimp on water or food because they were too distracted by other activities. However, getting adequate sleep, drinking enough water and eating fruits and vegetables can do wonders for a child or teen’s wellbeing. When helping your child make healthier choices, make sure it doesn’t feel like a punishment. Make it clear that you’re doing this for them. 

Show More Gratitude

Part of living a fulfilling life is appreciating what you have and those around you. It’s easy for children, teens and even adults to forget the importance of showing gratitude. A simple way for a child or teen to start showing more gratitude is by saying “thank you,” even if someone does something small. Then, once they’ve gotten used to saying thank you, they can move on to small acts of kindness. Doing something nice for another person shows gratitude just as much as thanking someone for doing a nice thing for you. 

Bring Peace to Others

In a world where one of the most pervasive problems for students is bullying, your child can aspire to be a peacemaker. This can mean not getting involved in petty drama or not allowing themselves to be pressured into bullying others. They can also be an active participant in resolving conflicts, rather than fueling the fire. Another great way to be a peacemaker is by ignoring rumors and reserving judgment of other people. The peace they bring to others will come back around to them. 

As the New Year draws closer, it’s a great time to consider how you and your child can make meaningful resolutions. At North Tampa Christian Academy, a Tampa private school, students thrive creatively, academically and spiritually in a project-based learning environment. Faculty and families work together to inspire leadership through Christian innovation. Contact us today to learn more.