Blog Favorites: Crafts requiring minimal materials

• 4 Crazy Kings shows how to make Easy Toilet Paper Tube Stamps. Materials used: toilet paper tubes and paint. Haven’t got paint? See the post for some substitution ideas.

 

• Make a nature collage using a lint roller as described at the Frugal Family Fun Blog. You can even turn your collage into a placemat! Materials used: a sticky lint roller and plants from your neighborhood.

 

• Make your own foam bath toys as seen at Pink and Green Mama. Materials used: craft foam (and scissors).

 

• Looking for outdoor water play ideas? Try this aluminum foil river from Filth Wizardry. Materials used: aluminum foil.

Sidewalk paint

Inspired by posts on several of my favorite blogs, we decided to try out sidewalk paint. We didn’t have corn starch, so I substituted flour. That worked pretty well, but flour doesn’t wash out of paint brushes as well as corn starch, so we’ll be buying some corn starch to use in future sidewalk chalk adventures. The paint was really easy to make (equal parts flour/corn starch and water, add food coloring and stir), and this activity kept both kids entertained for the better part of an hour.

They started off painting daintily with paintbrushes. I offered them larger brushes (which I still think would work better), but they wanted to use these little tiny ones.

Next they experimented with drip painting, followed by finger painting.

Finally, Johnny decided to use the sidewalk paint to give himself a foot mask, as well as to deep condition his hair. When they were done I carried them straight from the patio to the tub for a much-needed bath.

Here is their final masterpiece, fully dried:

Blog Favorites: Fourth of July Crafts

 

• The picture above is our version of the 4th of July Firework Pom Poms from Make and Takes. Visit the linked post for instructions and much prettier pom poms. We didn’t have any blue yarn, so we used blue pipe cleaners for the handles. My kids have no clue what pom poms (or fireworks) are, and I think they’re both a bit perplexed by this craft. Maybe they’ll get the point after our local parade on Saturday.

 

• The Frugal Family Fun Blog shows how to make a patriotic wreath using a paper plate, glue, and punched out stars. Sticker stars would work great also.

 

• No Time for Flash Cards shares Letter F Flag and Flag Place Mat crafts.

 

• Make a Handprint American Flag as shown at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Blog Favorites: Father Day Crafts

• Make a water color resist silhouette for Dad using the techniques described at 4 Crazy Kings.

• Turn your child’s artwork into a bookmark following this tutorial at No time for flashcards.

• Make and Takes shows how to turn a tie into a snake – looks like a craft the kids would love to help make for Dad!

• We made this card for Valentine’s Day, but it would make a great Father’s Day gift as well (thanks, Just For Fun blog, for the inspiration!)

Blog Favorites: Spring Crafts Part II

No time for Flash Cards has a very cute hand cut butterfly craft. There’s a great song to go along, as well as a couple of book suggestions. I love the Japanese Cherry Tree craft from this site, too – also with book suggestions to go along!

I love these footprint ducklings from Just For Fun – and Sandy has a book to go along with this project too! I love all of the hand- and footprint activities on Sandy’s blog – her footprint butterflies and hand- and footprint lobster are a couple other favorites of mine.

Kiddio shares a set of adorable fingerprint bugs made using a stamp pad and pen on paper

What better spring table centerpiece than grass? See how beautiful a shallow pot of grass can be at Chasing Cheerios (just follow the instructions on your grass seed packet to plant)

Easter Eggs!

Most of our planned Easter activities this weekend were cancelled, first by rain (Saturday) and then by both kids coming down with a stomach bug (Saturday night and all day Sunday). Luckily everyone seems to feel a bit better this morning, although I wouldn’t say either child is completely healthy. The one activity the kids did enjoy was coloring Easter Eggs. We skipped on messy food dye, and instead used crayons.

First, they melted crayon  shavings on hot, freshly-boiled eggs.

MATERIALS:

• Freshly boiled eggs (still hot)
• crayon shavings
• plastic wrap or wax paper or parchment paper

Lay the crayon shavings out on the plastic wrap/wax paper/parchment paper.

Roll the eggs around in the crayon shavings. Depending how hot the eggs are, you might want to use a spoon or other utensil to do this. The crayon will melt onto the hot eggs.

Move the eggs onto a sheet of paper to dry, and then transfer them into the fridge.

More hardboiled eggs were cooling in the fridge, so when the melting activity was finished Mike pulled the cooled eggs out so the kids could draw on them with crayons. 

They had a wonderful time decorating their eggs.

And they were immensely pleased with the end result. I don’t have a good picture of these because the kids’ crayon lines were too faint to photograph with my camera, but I thought they were very pretty :)

Bunnies and Sheep

MATERIALS:

• Bunny and/or sheep pictures printed on paper
• Cotton balls
• Glue stick

This is another library craft. There’s nothing spectacularly original about it, but it was one of Emma’s all-time favorite crafts, and I remember enjoying it when I was around her age. She loved using the glue stick all on her own, and she enjoyed arranging the cotton balls on her sheep and bunny.

Emma’s finished sheep and bunny

Johnny’s finished sheep and bunny

You probably noticed that Johnny’s sheep and bunny are a little bare. He loved putting glue all over them, but he had no interest in the cotton balls. I even put a few on, and he angrily tore them off…

Toddler gardening

This activity is courtesy of my local library’s wonderful free toddler craft series. We did this activity last year and this year. Emma really enjoyed it both years, and this year the grass even survived Emma and Johnny dumping out the cups of newly-planted grass seeds and then throwing everything back in topsy-turvy.

MATERIALS:

• Cup (clear ones are nice since you can see some of the roots)
• Soil
• Grass seeds
• Water

STEPS:

1. Fill cup with soil, leaving at least 1 inch of clearance at the top.
2. Add a thin layer of grass seeds.
3. Cover the grass seeds with a small amount of soil.
4. Water.
5. Place in a sunny area.
6. Wait for seeds to grow.

Here is the poor destroyed grass plant (I thought it was out of Emma’s reach and I was wrong)

Surviving five days later

And thriving two weeks later

  Emma really enjoyed giving the grass a “haircut” this morning.

Blog Favorites: Easter Crafts

Crafts to make with your tot:

• Make a textured Easter egg using pom poms, buttons, scissors, glue, and construction paper in this craft from No Time for Flash Cards.
• More Mom Time shows how to make cute wibbly, wobbly egg friends using plastic eggs, Play-doh, googly eyes, craft foam, and glue. Also, check out her educational letter matching eggs post – all you need for this one is paper, scissors, and a pen.
• Looking for Easter card ideas? Try these handprint bunnies from Just For Fun!
• Lucky Me! shares how to make a pretty Egg Sun Catchers using card stock, contact paper, tissue paper, a hole punch, and cording or yarn.
• Dollar Store Crafts shares how to make animal masks for your Easter eggs using pipecleaners, googly eyes, cardstock, and glue.

Crafts to put in Easter baskets:

• Tired of plastic Easter eggs? Check out this fill-able fabric Easter egg tutorial from One Inch World!
• Craftpad has a tutorial for adorable, Easter-themed felt finger puppets.
• For bookworms, check out these felt paperclip bunny bookmarks from LollyChops. While you’re there, be sure to admire the gorgeous dyed eggs she creates using painter’s tape, freezer paper, scrapbooking punches, and – of course – eggs and dye.

Still need something to use as an Easter basket? I like this tutorial for a felt spring basket from maya*made.

Finally, be sure to check out Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile’s list of 75 children’s Easter books!

Toddler Friendly April Fool’s Day

Those of you who know me in real life know that I once lived (and attended public schools) in France. French public schools can be a bit austere (at least they were a couple decades ago), but April 1st – Poisson D’avril  - was always a fun day.

Poisson D’avril means “April Fish”, and the traditional prank for this day is to tape paper fish to your friend’s back without their noticing. Then you yell, “Poisson D’avril!” and your friend spends the rest of the day trying to get you back. It’s the sort of humor that young children adore, so spend some time today with your kids making paper fish and let them see how often they can put a fish on your back without your noticing :)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

Blog Favorites: St. Patrick’s Day Activities

• Cute toilet paper roll leprechaun from Just For Fun.

 

• Shamrock garland from No time for flash cards. Allie also shares St. Patrick’s Day treats here.

 

• Teaching Tiny Tots has several St. Patrick’s Day activities in this post. My favorite is the Green Pea Shamrock. You can also follow directions on this site to create a St. Patrick’s Day sensory tub.

 

• I love the texture of this tissue paper shamrock from Lucky Me! The same blog has a great post on making shamrock stamps.

 

• A slightly older child would enjoy making these pretty shamrock lanterns from the Frugal Family Fun Blog.

Blog Favorites: Spring Crafts

• Follow this tutorial from Filth Wizardry to help your child create a beautiful flower bouquet out using paint, cardboard, and pipe cleaners.

 

• Check out this cute rainy day craft from Lucky Me! made using paper plates, scissors, markers, colored paper, and glue.

 

• Ally from MommyLove shows how to make some adorable handprint chicks using paper, paint, and your child’s hands.

 

• Michelle at Her Cup Overfloweth shows how to make a baby chick collage using some colored paper, paint, glue, one googly eye, and yellow collage materials of your choice (she used pompoms and a feathers).

Valentine’s Day

Here’s my final gift for my Week of Valentines. The felt heart is filled with 14 heart cards, each with a memory from our dating days. And I added some Hershey’s Kisses, just for sweetness :)

I really enjoyed our “Week of Valentines”. I think I’ll do it again next year, so if you have any ideas of what I should do please let me know!

For Valentine’s Day (the night before if you want to get technical), Mike took me and the kids to the “Bring your Baby” night of a community theater production. I was a drama junkie in high school, and it was really fun to see a live stage production for the first time in a while. The kids even watched the entire two-hour play quietly in their seats! I think it helped that the show ran 7:30-9:30, so they were feeling very sleepy in the nice dark theater…

Valentine’s Day Crafts for Kids

The photo above is our version of this craft from Just For Fun. This was a card we made for Mike as Day 11 of our Week of Valentines, and on the front we listed 11 reasons Mike is the Best Dad Ever. The list (compiled by Emma):

1. You give the birds food (Mike refills our bird feeder)
2. You play with Emma and Johnny
3. You bring home treats
4. Roughhousing
5. Cuddles
6. Hop on Pop (inspired by Dr. Seuss, Mike lets the kids jump on his stomach)
7. You let Emma play with your [wedding] ring
8. You fix things (Mike was credited by Emma for restoring power after our recent blackout)
9. You put Emma and sometimes Johnny to bed
10. You love Emma and Johnny and the baby in Mama’s tummy
11. You love Mama

As for other crafts…

First, an easy way to spice up a simple construction paper valentine. Instead of cutting out hearts or other shapes out of construction paper for your child to glue onto the card, cut the hearts out of felt. One of Emma’s little friends gave her a simple construction paper valentine with little felt hearts and kitty cats glued on. Emma loved feeling the soft shapes, and she’s been carrying the card around nonstop.

And now, a few Valentine’s Day crafts from other blogs that look like fun:

• Simple to make and very cool Valentine Stamps from Lucky Me!
• Paper Hug from No Time for Flash Cards
• Envelope with Heart Closure complete with PDF templates from Chocolate On My Cranium (this craft is probably best for older children)

And finally, three projects that require some sewing and could make fun Valentine’s Day gifts for kids:

• Valentine’s Day Busy Book from Lavender and Lime
• A very cute Play Valentine Mail Set from Frugal Family Fun Blog
• Tic Tac Toe Hearts from Alpha Mom

Too cold to go out? Bring winter in!

I’ve been feeling frustrated by this winter’s constantly-well-below-freezing temperatures that have made it hard to have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old outside for more than a couple minutes.

Yesterday I was tired (having been up with Johnny from 1:30-2am and mysteriously stayed awake ever since) and the kids were grumpy and feeling cabin-feverish. It was 11 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so not great weather for going out. Both kids were mildly sick, so I thought it would be cruel to fellow mothers to take them to the children’s museum (where they would have a blast, but would also infect everyone else). I decided to do what I’d seen done on a few other blogs (can’t remember which ones, feel free to comment if you’ve blogged about this) and bring the snow in to them.

I put a towel on the floor, loaded two IKEA food trays with snow, and gave each kid some play silverware to play in it with.

I wish I had a picture of Johnny’s face when I first brought the snow in – he thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 

We added some food coloring after a while, and Emma now knows that if you mix red and blue you get purple!

The snow lasted a long time, especially considering that our house is heated through our floors so the floors are always the warmest part of the house.

This kept the kids occupied for nearly an hour, cleanup was minimal (thanks to the trays and the towel), and they played with snow for a long time again this morning.

This is an activity with a lot of learning potential too – yesterday we talked about how the snow was cold and how it melted because the house was warm. Emma got to watch the food coloring disperse throughout the snow from initially being just a few drops of color, she saw how the color got lighter as it spread through more and more snow, and she learned a little bit about color mixing. Johnny learned about the texture of snow without crying because he was cold, and he learned what snow tastes like too (not something I was trying to teach him, but somewhat inevitable considering he’s 13 months old. At least recent research says dirt is good for kids…

Loving Hearts

 

Inspired by this post, I made the kids some differently-colored felt hearts of various sizes to play with on their flannel board today. Ironically, they started fighting over the hearts almost immediately. We worked out a compromise, though, and this evening after Mike got home we had a nice talk about love and how you show people you love them. Of course, when we talked about sharing with Johnny because we love him (notice the unequal distribution of hearts in the above photo that prompted this discussion), Emma said she wouldn't share. I asked her why not, and she answered, "Johnny no share with me." Sigh…

We ended the evening by making some paper valentines (very simple ones, just heart shapes cut out of colored paper). Emma loved making valentines, and she carefully wrote rows of "I"s and "O"s (the two letters of the alphabet she considers herself to be truly proficient at writing) on each one.

Groundhog’s Day

I hear that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, leaving us with six more weeks of winter. I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be true; we have loads of snow and ice everywhere, and haven’t seen the ground in months.

Still, I think groundhogs are adorable. One used to live on our neighbor’s property, and he really was cute. Our neighbor says his wife could even get him to come running for a treat when she called out “Chucky” (the name they gave him).

I LOVE this craft from Lucky Me! This little groundhog is all made out of hearts, and very easy to make out of construction paper, googly eyes and glue.

Groundhog.org (the official site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club) has coloring pages and activities for Groundhog’s Day.

Chinese New Year

Today is Chinese New Year!

2009 is Year of Ox. I love this 3D ox cut-out activity from Secret Agent Josephine.

No Time for Flash Cards has a cute, simple paper lantern.

Want a less-involved craft for your toddler? Try printing a few of these coloring pages from Activity Village.

Activity Village also has a brief explanation of Chinese New Year and several other Chinese New Year activities here.

Icicle painting

I got the idea this activity from Mom’s Marbles via Her Cup Overfloweth. It was a great way to use the icicles that currently adorn our house. I hope to do it again with a few more colors of paint/Kool-Aid.

1) Get some icicles. I was amazed at how quickly these melted on the counter (we keep our house at 67 degrees Fahrenheit), so you might want to stick them in the freezer.

2) Pour powdered paint/Kool-Aid/pudding mix onto a sheet of paper.

3)Use icicles as a paintbrush (I wrapped a cloth around the end so the kids’ fingers wouldn’t freeze, as well as to prevent dripping) and paint away.

Emma had a lot of fun, although I think the final outcome would have looked nicer with more colors to mix. I just used the red Kool-Aid we had sitting in our cupboard.

Johnny said he was too much of a man to use a cloth to protect his hand, and he preferred eating the icicle to painting. That’s one good reason to use ice cubes instead of icicles for this activity…