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What could be more lovely than the soft blending of waxy colors in a picture frame? It's as if you are looking out the window at a flower garden on a rainy day. Melted crayon pictures are a great indoor project for slightly older kids (not quite as good for preschoolers, but still fine) and parents to do together. I remember making these melted crayon pictures when I was in elementary school, so that shows you how effective they are in making kids happy and keeping everyone busy for a while. It pays to have a little bit of advanced preparation on these, such as grating up the crayons, so you don't have impatient kids bouncing around you. As always, safety is important, so make sure the iron is set up in a location slightly away from all the activity. Bigger kids can iron on their own with supervision, too.

What you need:

• Wax paper
• Old crayons (grated or shredded)
• Paper cups
• Old bath towel or clean rag (may get melted wax on it)
• Iron

What you do:

1. Before the activity begins, grate crayons on to pieces of paper towel. Place each color in a separate paper cup.
2. Place a sheet of wax paper (waxed side up) in front of each person.
3. Let children sprinkle crayon shavings onto the waxed paper.
4. When children have finished, place another sheet of waxed paper on top of the shavings (wax side down, this time).
5. Carefully lay out the bath towel and place the wax papers on one half of the bath towel.
6. Gently cover the wax sheets with the other half of the bath towel (folded over like a book).
7. Press the hot iron over the top of the bath towel, making sure the heat penetrates to the wax papers. Move the iron back and forth as needed.
8. After about 2 minutes, check to see if the crayon shavings have melted. If not, continue ironing. If so, remove waxed papers and let cool.

Now you have a beautiful picture where no two are the same. We like to cut "frames" out of construction paper and hang them in the window.

For an excellent book that teaches your children how wax is made into crayons see Wax to Crayons.

15 Minute Moment
The next time you read a book together, decide on a counting word. This is a word that appears a lot in the book that you will count each time it is read. For example, in "Green Eggs and Ham" you can count how many times the word "Ham" appears.