Crafty Ideas March 2010

July 7, 2016 admin

Springy Activity

Spring break is upon us, which means five fun-filled days of having the kids all to ourselves. If you’re staying close to home during the break, you might want to have a few clever activities in your back pocket. Here’s our list of ten fun things you can do with the kids at home!

Ten Springy Activities for Spring Break

	1. Sprout Some Seeds – fold 2 paper towels in half. Moisten towels. Place one on a lunch plate and sprinkle your seeds (such as snowpeas, beans, or squash) on top. Place second moist towel on top of seeds, and move plate to a draft free location. Keep towels damp by spraying with water when necessary. Your seeds should sprout by the end of the week. If you’ve chosen snowpeas, you can plant them directly in the ground once sprouted!
	2. Wash the windows – this may be work to us adults, but it’s child’s play to the kids! Minimize the spills by giving them wet cloths and rewetting when necessary, instead of leaving them to their own devices with the water bucket!
	3. Make rainbow footprints for a treasure hunt – trace footprints in all the colours of the rainbow. Number them and take turns laying them out to lead to treasure!
	4. Decorate a pot and plant something – a great way to play in the dirt without getting TOO dirty! To decorate, consider markers, sidewalk chalk, stickers, sparkles, paints, etc.
	5. Roll some coins – kids love sorting, and the bigger ones can learn about coin value. Plus, they’d be helping mommy and daddy with the finances!
	6. Make and send a card – Grandma and Grandpa or that special relative or friend will be thrilled by an unexpected, handmade surprise in the mail! Get the ball rolling with our selection of Card making Kits
	7. Make a bird feeder – we repurposed an orange peel into a feeder. Simply scoop out half of an orange, let it dry slightly, poke some holes with a skewer, and fill with seed. String the feeder up in your yard
	8. Build a fort – blankets and chairs and kids, oh my!
	9. Paint something unusual – water on tiles, diluted food colouring on bread, or WITH something unusual, such as spring flowers dabbed in paint, toy cars rolled through paint, or bubble wrap as a paint stamper
	10. Go on an ‘I Spy’ walk around the neighborhood – in search of new buds and spring flowers. Take sketch books in case you feel inspired to draw what you see.

Crafty Ideas December 2009

July 7, 2016 admin

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December is spent planning family festivities, baking, decorating, and carefully selecting thoughtful gifts for friends and family. The kids can get involved with lots of the tasks on your seasonal ‘to do’ list – decorating cookies is always a crowd pleaser, and we’ve got lots of great craft ideas for the family to try!

Five Crafty Ways to get the Kids Involved in the Holiday ‘Bustle’

1. Family Picture Christmas Cards – your child’s artwork can take centre stage in all of your Christmas cards. Ask them to draw your faimly and then scan or colour-photocopy the picture to include in the cards you send out. If you want to get really fancy, use the scanned image as the cover of your printed cards!

2. Paint some pinecones – use brightly coloured paints, and sprinkle some glitter while the paint is still we. Let paint dry and arrange in a bowl or vase to display

3. Make a wreath – cut a wreath form from an old piece of cardboard, and then trace and cut out lots of green hand prints. Glue handprints around the wreath form. Add other decorations – find some holly or small pinecones to bring the outside in, or use pompoms, bows, stickers, and ribbons to accessorize.

4. Make a garland – popcorn on string is a classic, but you can also do a beaded garland, paper chains, or even cheerios looped through a piece of yarn or string

5. Make gift tags and bows – repurpose images from old Christmas cards by gluing them onto cardstock gift tags, and make gift bows by cutting newsprint into strips, laying the strips in a star formation, and folding (& gluing) the ends of each strip into the centre of your star

Did you try any of these craft? Send us your comments and photos!

More Christmas Craft Ideas

We’re sharing a multitude of Christmas craft ideas on other web sites this month. Check out the links below for more great ways to get crafty for the holidays!

Christmas Crafty Fun

Tree Ornament – Baby Footprints

Dangling Christmas Bell Craft

Felt Tree Card Holder Craft

Did you try any of these crafts? Send us your comments and photos!

Kitchen with Kids – Grandma’s Shortbread

This has always been my favourite shortbread recipe – maybe because it’s the one my mom always makes!

3 c all purpose flour
1/2 c cornstarch
1 c icing sugar
1 lb butter or part margarine

Cream butter and add sugar, mixing until creamy. Add flour and cornstarch and whip together until fluffy. Drop from a spoon, roll, or use a cookie press. Bake at 325 for about 8 minutes

Tip: have cake/cookie sprinkles or coloured sugar ready for the kids to decorate cookies before they go into the oven!

Five Minute Fun – Reindeer Food

Santa’s flying force might get a little hungry on their trip around the world on Christmas Eve, so make sure you sprinkle some reindeer food in the snow or lawn for them to munch on while Santa fills your stockings! Simply add some sparkles to oatmeal, or use cake sprinkles if you don’t have sparkles. Mix in a bowl or zip lock bag, ready for Christmas Eve!

Simple Science for Kids – Spring Break Volcano Eruption

June 18, 2016 admin

There are sure to be at least one or two eruptions in your household over spring break, so why not make your own!! Here’s a great way to pass the morning with your kids while on spring break. Once the volcano is built, you can make it erupt over and over again – we kept ours around for a few days!

To make your volcano, you will need:

Salt Dough:

3 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons oil
~ 1 cup water

Volcano form & lava:

warm water with a few drops red food colouring
2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 cup to 1 cup vinegar
large baking sheet with a rimmed edge (could use a 9×13 cake pan instead)
Clean, empty soup can (10 oz) You could use an empty pop bottle instead, but we liked the can because it was easy for my son to manage building around it and pouring ingredients in the wide opening without any help, and it’s small enough to get a quick ‘eruption’

Mix the salt dough:

Make salt dough home made play dough Measure Dry ingredients

how to make homemade playdough

Add the wet ingredients

making home made play dough

Stir to combine, then knead until smooth. You may need to add more flour or water if too wet or too dry

making a play dough volcano

Play Dough ready for modeling our volcano

To make the volcano:

Kids science experiments how to make volcano

Place clean can in centre of baking sheet. Form dough around can in a cone shape

Kids Science experiment - volcano eruption

My guy decided to carve some flow lines into his volcano (from where it had previously erupted, he explained)

Science for Kids - Making a volcano

Fill can with warm coloured water to ~ 3/4 full

Volcano experiment with kids

Add 2 tbsp baking soda and stir to mix. Now for the fun part:

ADD VINEGAR!

Simple Science experiment for kids volcano eruption

Watch the lava flow over the volcano! You can add more vinegar once the eruption settles down. We did this over and over again! Might have to dump everything out and start with more baking soda if your volcano no longer erupts.

Power Outage Activities: Ten Activities to do with the kids

June 16, 2016 admin

The power was out at our house this morning, and it stayed that way for several hours. Luckily it went out after I had heated food for the kids lunches, but I had to skip a few other daily-routine tasks, like drying my hair or boiling water in the (electric) kettle to make tea. It got me thinking about the things we do during the day with our kids – some of which rely on power. Here’s a list of power-free activities that you can do during an outage, or if you’re out camping or just want to go “old school” for a day.

1. Make some Music:

You can’t listen to music without power, so make some!! Practice singing, even if you’re tone-deaf. The kids will be quick to join in. Sing kid favourites or teach them some of your favourites. Start harmonizing or sing in rounds – this can be really tricky for kids! Our favourite is ‘Don’t Throw your Junk in My backyard – here’s a classroom full of kids doing a demo! Or make a marching band with ‘instruments’ from pot lids, wooden spoons, and containers full of dried beans or rice.

2. Do Crafts:

Low-tech creative play that we (of course!!) love love love. Pull out the glue, scissors, and craft supplies, and start creating. Don’t forget to check the recycling bin for any hidden crafty gems! If you want to work to a theme, ask kids to build a battery or generator that would give you power, or draw pictures of how power is made. If they’re not interested or too young for that, do crafts that feed off of their current interests or calendar themes (such as winter or spring, for example)

3. Go Outside

Always a good alternative, whether the power is on or not.

4. Water Play

If your windows need cleaning or the floors need wiping, turn the kids onto the task! They’ll be happy to help as long as it feels like part of a game. And if everything is already scrubbed, then get paintbrushes out and put the kids to work with water on an old tile or chalkboard – they can make water patterns that dry quickly. And of course they can extend the water play by having bath time – but remember that the heat won’t come on as long as the power is out, so they’ll need lots of snuggles to stay warm is their hair is wet afterwards!

5. Do A Play or Skit:

A happy alternative to watching TV is to create a drama (or comedy!) of your own. Be inspired by ‘Jillian Jiggs and the Secret Surprise’, a wonderful book about Jillian putting on a show – it even has a fun script at the end!

6. Build a Fort:

In the living room, with blankets and chairs. This would especially be fun in the dark!

7. Make Wall Shadows:

You might need to close the blinds during the day, but flashlights against a dark wall are always a favourite way to entertain!

8. Make Simple Snacks and Meals:

Cheese sandwiches without the grill, wraps, or anything you’d usually send in a bag lunch. Snack can be apples spread with peanut butter and sprinkled with raisins. Yum!

9. Build Something

Stack blocks or (non-breakable) cups. Try making a tower out of paper (!?), make a marble maze out of toilet paper rolls, build a ‘sculpture’ from playdough, or use popsicle sticks to make a teepee frame or other structure.

10. Read a book, play a game, or do some sports

Anyday, anytime, anywhere.