'Wind of Change' wind socks

(Goblin is 28 months)

February is Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) history month. Its a great opportunity to celebrate how far our society has come in acceptance of diversity. But its also a chance to reflect on how far we still have to go. I have no idea what sexuality Goblin will have when he is older but I hope he will be accepted and loved by those around him regardless of it. And more importantly I want to teach him to be accepting and tolerant, so that he can love and be kind to those around him without prejudice. But those messages are a bit heavy for a two year old so we celebrated LBGT history month by making rainbow coloured wind socks.

 We started by doing some bubble painting. I have tried this before and made the paint far too watery so this time I put equal measures of ready mix paint and washing up liquid in a bowl. But it was too think and when we tried to blow bubbles they just popped straight away. So I added a dash of water until the bubbles held (you really don't need that much water though).
 Goblin blew the bubbles - he loves blowing bubbles and its much better for my sanity that he does it in the paint than in his milk! I showed him how to gently lay the paper over the bubbles and give them a chance to soak onto the paper. This took a few attempts as Goblin kept pushing the paper into the bowl and getting the soapy paint all over the paper.

 He was really pleased with the effect it made. You can do it in a larger bowl so you don't get the ring effect but I quite like the rings. They look a bit like you've kicked a football at the paper - it would be good football (soccer) art except Hublet disapproves of football (being a Rugby fan). We repeated the effect with several colours on top of each other and this is what the final result looked like.

 While the paintings were drying and Goblin was napping I used double sided sticky tape to stick tissue paper streamers to the inside of a Pringles tube which I had cut in half - you can use a tin can but I thought this would be safer for toddlers (no sharp edges). 

 I made a couple of holes in the tube at the other end and stuck a string through. Then I cut the painting to the depth of the tube, stuck one end on with double sided sticky tape (glue would do fine but I am lazy) and wrapped the painting round the tube and secured it with more tape at the other end. The painting covers up the holes you make for the string.

We hung out wind socks on our indoor tree (because it was very windy outside and the tissue didn't look like it would hold up to being outside longer than it took to get the photo at the top of the post). I'm glad I have something to hang on the tree because I haven't got round to doing any spring stuff yet and it was looking a bit sparse. 

If you'd like to know more about LBGT history month you can visit  http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/

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