Kids Crafts
My son loves gardening. This is something that makes me teary eyed as it was something that my brother and I learned from my grandfather who died about 6 months after I got married. Watching him love it as much as I do is just exciting. So for the last couple of years we have made some sort of garden craft for Grannie and Nana for Mother's Day. This craft can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be, and really is a great way to teach kids of all ages about recycling, sustainability, and growing your own food.
We have an issue in my house where one of two scenarios takes place. 1) Socks get holes immediately, or 2) one of the socks disappears into the vast black hole of the unknown. Most charitable organizations will not take lone socks, believe me I tried.
My four year old son is soon turning five, and has FINALLY found my love for crafts. We spend many weekend hours cutting and gluing and glittering just about anything we can get our hands on.
Let me just state at the outset that I love scrapbooking. I have created photo albums as far back as the 70s. My first album was a pink paisley album where I put the photos in the album in no particular order. This particular album brings back memories to me of (1) doing the album myself, and (2) not recalling my mother telling me how to do the album. Surely, she must have wondered why I was placing my First Communion photos at the back of the album while my later in the year Brownie photos were front and center. My mother let me do the album any way I wanted to...because it was my album.
Jello is one of those treats that most of us pretty much lose our taste for by our teen years, but for children, that fruity, colorful and wiggly concoction is a real treat. It would be tough to make jello more fun for kids, unless you turned it into rainbow jello and let them help you make it! On a rainy afternoon or when they just need a little something to brighten up their day, your children will enjoy watching a rainbow form, right in the kitchen.
One of my biggest challenges when I want to do crafts with my preschooler is how to keep his toddler brother occupied. The older one is ready to move on to slightly more complex arts and crafts projects, while the baby is still too little. I have been trying to come up with some ideas that will help to keep the little one occupied so I can give my bigger boy the one-on-one help he needs to start to learn new skills. Here are a few of the things that I came up with to keep my toddler busy.
Like many, we have a massive pile of socks with mates that have mysteriously gone missing. Around my house, the Sock Monster takes the blame for this, and anything else that might happen to go missing from the dryer. These socks sit around in the lone sock bag for a while, and then once all hope is lost that its mate will show up in a later load of laundry, they become dust rags or craft projects.
If you have visited the craft store lately, you likely know just how easy it is to spend piles of money on cool things that will allow your children to get creative. Filling up your craft supply box can get very expensive, especially if you want to have things on hand that will allow you and your children to start a project whenever the mood strikes. While some supplies must be purchased, there are dozens of things that you can collect in your home, for free. You just need to think outside the box.
Now that the holidays are
over, the kids should be happily occupied for weeks with all of the gifts they
received from family and friends, right? While this is a pretty picture, if
your kids are like most, within a day or two, boredom is going to set back in
and they will be looking for something new and fun to do. This is a great
opportunity to find a few crafty and creative activities that will give your
children a chance to exercise their creativity, rather than playing mindless
video games or fighting amongst themselves.
Read more: Five Activities That Will Help Mom Survive Winter
This year, I am spending my first holiday season without my
mom. While nothing will seem the same without her shining presence, I have the
memories that have been created throughout my life to draw from and some
wonderful traditions to carry on. In our family, holiday traditions were always
pretty simple. New pajamas and one family present - usually a game - to open on
Christmas Eve. Certain ornaments were put on the tree by certain people. I love
these little things, and will continue to do them with my own children, but I
plan to add some more creative traditions with my own kids.
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