Conversation starter

It's amazing how one conversation can lead on to another.

My google search history for today goes something like this:

Horses skeletons

Little horse skeletons
My little pony skeleton¹
Octopus facts for kids
Swimming dinosaurs
How did plesiosaurs breathe under water?
Why is my hair getting long?²
Do baboons eat vegetables?
Ladybird facts
What is hibernation?³

1. http://viz.dwrl.utexas.edu/content/inner-life-toys-art-jason-freeny page has a couple of interesting images of 'The Inner Life of Toys'.

2. This followed on from B2 accidentally pulling B1's hair.

3. Which turned into a conversation on migration.

Both B1 and B2 love to paint. It's messy, it's chaotic and apparently I am slightly mad for allowing them to paint in the house (which is a comment I always find odd) but it is so much fun. The only issue is the drying time. Patience and 3 1/2 year olds don't always go hand in hand, so trying to get B1 to understand that she can't run off and show everyone her picture for a while tends to result in a melt down.

In an effort to find a quick drying paint, I discovered cornflour paint! Take one box of cornflour, a few small containers, a little water and whatever colours of food dye you may have hiding in the back of a cupboard. Put a little cornflour in each container, add a few drops of food colouring to each one, then add a little water and mix. If you'd rather not use food colouring (it's not really clothing or furniture friendly) you can mix it with different coloured fruit juices instead.

Black paper tends to work better than lighter coloured paper. It goes on watery, but within a few minutes it starts to dry and begins to look more like chalk than paint.