Camping Craft

August 15, 2008

Well, since we just got back from camping this craft is fresh on my mind. It was such an easy craft and fun for a wide range of ages to do.

However, don't you feel like Paper Bag puppets can seem a little drab or boring sometimes, well, we added some fun extras to make them a little more exciting for the kids and a little more fun to make.


We used:
Pipe Cleaner
Googly Eyes
Construction Paper
Brown Bag
Crayons
Glue

It was an easy craft and perfect for camping. When you don't want to lug around a ton of crafting supplies.

Days Of The Week

July 28, 2008

Have you ever tried to teach your children something? Well, lately I have just decided that I want to really start teaching my son something once a week. I am starting small, but thought I would share my idea. I am taking one item a week and then working on it. My son might be a little young for this, but I decided that I wanted him to understand the days of the week, so that he can start understanding when events are going to take place.

I am 100% positive that this will take more than a week to master, but you have to start somewhere and then I will just keep asking and asking and working and working until we get this one down.

Our August calender is FULL of events, so this afternoon I am going to do a small introduction into our schedule. I have a wall claneder that I use to keep track of events, but we are going to draw pictures of the events on the days that are important to him and then let him help me color them in.

Below: I took our July Calendar and made quick drawings (no making fun of the artwork) of what our July calendar would have looked like. I would have the child color the pictures in or if they are old enough to draw them, let them draw the pictures too.

I am planning on looking at the calender often and pointing things out to him. I am also going to hang it a little lower so that he can see it.

Then on Playhouse Disney, I heard them sing this song (a while back), I thought it was cute song and if sung often might help a child start to place the days of the week in their place.

Sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping/ Frere Jacques"

Today is [name of day].
Today is [name of day].
All day long, all day long.
Yesterday was [name of day].
Tomorrow will be [name of day].
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!
© Disney

I am thinking I will just keep singing and filling in a calender with him like this every month. I am SURE it will take a while to master this skill, but I am hoping it will start to give him an idea of what is going on. :)

Kids Crafts For July

July 7, 2008

My sister-in-law and I decided to plan a week of fun for the Fourth of July. We planned several fun crafts for our kids. It was a huge success and a great break from the normal day to day blahs of life. I thought you might enjoy hearing about some of them, most of them could be done anytime of year, just by changing the stars to another shape or the colors to non-red, white, blue.

Bracelets...
VERY easy....we used elastic and red, white, and blue beads. We let the kids string their own. They had a lot of fun. Plus isn't this a great motor skill building activity. :)


Tie Dye...
So, so, so fun! Okay, so the kids are probably a little to young for this one, but the adults loved it! All of my siblings made a T-shirt and the kids loved watching and playing in the hose. We are thinking it is going to be an annual tradition, but next year we are going to do a little better research to make sure we find the best dyes and best techniques for washing so our white doesn't turn to pink.


Star Batons...
These were really cute. My sister-in-law and I did all the cutting, but the kids helped us stick them together with glue and tie the ribbon on. We used felt for the stars, a wooden dowel, and ribbon. This could be done with any shape or any colors and the kids had latched on to these things. They are never too far from them. They love waving them around.

Sugar Cookies...
Always a fun one, but can be a lot of work or time consuming, so we bought the already made dough (Pillsbury dough) and then simply rolled it out and cut star shapes. We sprinkled them with read, white, and blue sprinkles. It was great fun and tasted good too! As you will notice there is no picture of this one! They were eaten faster than I could remember to grab my camera. :)

Paper Pinwheels...
We decided to make large ones, just fun fun. They looked so awesome large, but these are seriously SO easy! Square your paper (whatever size you want it, just make sure it is a perfect square) and then cut 2/3's of the way into the center from each of the corners. Then pull every other corner to the middle and put a map tack in the center for holding it and attach it to a wooden dowel. We used scrapbook paper...already the decorated and has fun colors on the back too. Ours didn't even up spinning very well, but they sure looked cute and the kids enjoyed carrying them around.

Have fun crafting!