Coloring Wooden People With Kool-Aid

Toddler child has speech therapy once a week and then on our own time we constantly work with him. It's a daily battle to master communication. He's very verbal, but he might as well be speaking Klingon. The boys and I have learned to decipher most of his words, but there are still times where we smile and nod. There are many more times when we try to make him slow down and enunciate and in these  moments I'm most certain he thinks we are either deaf or stupid or BOTH. His pronounciation doesn't change he mearly repeats the "word" he was saying only he says it slower and places emphasis on the syllables, much like we do to him. "Riley say cookie, coo-KEE" "Boooo-dee" I still have yet to figure out what "bo-ar" means and this leaves us frustrated and it's no wonder he chooses to stand at the door way to a room and just squak at us.

Some of our activities involve sorting colors and sizes and working on the words associated with them. The more he talks about anything the better it will get overall. So we decided to make him sorting families. I keep these little wooden people on hand.

We used them to make sink handles on the play kitchen and painted little ninjas for the boys to use while playing "angry birds" with their blocks. They build towers and then fling things at them. But only if they are faster than baby-zilla. Just saying these make a good addition to your craft supplies.

Now I wanted them to be colored. I had painted the ninjas, but I always cringe a bit when the bean decides to nom on ninja heads. Most of the ones you see for sell have been painted with water colors. I know watercolors are non-toxic, just in case a kindergartener drinks the pink rinse water, but I don't have watercolors on hand and figured surely there could be another option. Plus it's no fun if EVERYONE is doing it. Then I remembered all the little Kool-aid packets I picked up to try my hand at dying yarn with Kool-aid. That still hasn't happened, but maybe one of these days.

So I busted out my little Koo-aid packets the kind without sugar. Now I know there is nothing natural about Kool-aid and I don't let the kids drink the stuff, but if the kids chew on them I feel slightly better about Kool-aid over paint. Some might disagree with me, but oh well. I dumped each color in a jar, added about a cup and a half of warm water and a glug of vinegar.

The blue was kinda weird.

I plopped in the little people and was surprised they floated. I should've seen it coming (wood floats afterall), but went "oh poo" so everytime I walked by I gave them a little shake and twirl to try to make sure we got all the sides. Now at the end of the first day the red ones were a bit pink, the orange ones a tad yellow and I was sure the green and blue weren't going to change at all. I thought my little experiment had been a fail. But I left them sitting in the jars anyway and several days later I actually have little colored people.

The green and the blue are still not as solid and vibrant as the red and orange, but I'm happy with them. I do need to seal them with coconut oil and the fruity smell will probably increase the likelyhood that they get taste tested by the babe, but I consider this a success.