Wood Blocks for Baby Z / Drvene kocke za bebu Z

Last year, when baby Z turned two, V and I made these wooden blocks for her as a birthday present. V enjoyes participating in such projects with me, and also likes the idea that he is actually making toys for his little sister.
Prošle godine, kada je beba Z punila dve godine, V i ja smo joj napravili ove drvene kocke kao rođendanski poklon. V voli da učestvuje u ovakvim ,projektima' samnom, i takođe mu se dopada ideja, da zapravo, na taj način pravi igračke za svoju malu sestru.

 

I have two dear contributors in most of our projects of this kind, who help me, and who I started considering my friends during time. One is a carpenter, who is always curious about my new requests and ideas, and the other one is a bookbinder, who also makes boxes of all sorts. 

Imam dva draga saradnika u većini ovakvih akcija, koji mi pomažu i koji su mi vremenom postali čak i prijatelji. Jedan je stolar, uvek radoznao da čuje moje nove zahteve i ideje, a drugi je knjigovezac, koji ima jednu divnu starinsku knjigovezačku radnju, i koji takođe pravi i kutije svih vrsta. 

 

So, here's how we made the blocks: my friend, the carpenter made four wooden blocks, about 8 cm x 8 cm x 8 cm, and the bookbinder made a cardboard box with a lid for them. V made six different drawings on each of the connected surfaces of the 4 boxes. Papa V. photographed these drawings and we developed the photos - six of them. So, baby Z has to take one photo and try to assemble the drawing with the blocks. It's an old toy, you probably all know how to play!

Evo kako smo napravili ove kocke: moj prijatelj stolar je napravio 4 drvene kocke približne veličine 8x8x8 cm, a knjigovezac je napravio jednu kartonsku kutiju sa poklopcem za njih. V je nacrtao 6 različitih crteža permanentnim flomasterima na 6 spojenih površina - koje se dobijaju kad se spoje 4 kocke. Takvih površina ima ukupno 6. Tata V je fotografisao sve crteže, i razvili smo ih. Beba Z se igra tako što uzme jednu od 6 fotografija, a onda sklapa isti crtež pomoću kocki. Stara igračka, svi verovatno o čemu je reč.

 

Iskopavanje dragog kamenja iz rudnika / Excavating diamonds from the mine

A few days ago we played a game after the fairy tale ,,Snowhite and the seven dwarves". Kids were the dwarves who were excavating diamonds from the mine.
This art technique is called scratch-art. And here is how I prepared the base for scratching:
 I took a sheet of plastic transparent foil, and glued some diamond-shape pieces of colored transparent foil to one side of it. Then, I turned the foil and painted the whole surface with black tempera mixed with some egg-yolk. The egg-yolk prevents the tempera from cracking.

A base prepared this way represented the mine with hidden diamonds. And then, the little hands came to digg (scratch) in search for diamonds.

The kids had so much fun scratching the surface in search for diamonds...
And since the scratched surface was transparent we hung it on the window as a stained glass, and the light shined through the colored transparent foil as they were real diamonds!