Week Seven - Travel - Craft Time

Today we are going to have fun with some car art, juice box boats, a straw car, and (for the intense at heart) an actual rolling car (plus bonus links to build your own paper planes).

For the "car art" all you will need is the toy cars found in your home (if it is anything like mine - found EVERYWHERE in my home), some washable paint, markers, paper and masking tape. You will want to do this in an easily cleanable place (outside is best). Put the washable paint into a paper plate, ride the cars through the paint and make tire track art. You can also tape markers to the back of cars and roll them across the paper. Use different surfaces under the paper for different results.

Inchmark has step by step instructions for juice box boats. You will need an empty juice box with tape over the straw hole, a small wooden skewer, and a water resistant paper (or paper covered in tape - you can decorate the paper and then cover it with clear packing tape for a pretty and waterproof solution).

No Time for Flash Cards has a great fine motor truck craft. You will need straws, paper, marker (for the outline) and glue. You can make this easier (and last less time) if you just cover the outline with straws instead of the whole truck.

The very adventurous will want to try the Marvelous Motor-Car. Brought to you by the folks at SolidWasteDistrict.com (what??!! Seriously, when I first saw this I was stumped as to what was going on over in Indiana - but it is all about recycling and they apparently reprinted a craft found in Creating by Recycling). This car actually rolls - but is probably above the attention span of a pre-schooler. It might be a great option for a dad/kid project.

Last, but not least paper airplanes. Here is a resource that has step-by-step instruction of literally 50 different paper airplane models. Alex's Paper Airplanes has videos on paper airplanes and helicopters.

Week Six - Dinosaurs - Craft Time

Three great options today; a faux relief drawing of a dinosaur skeleton, a dinosaur fossil made of pasta and a hatching baby dinosaur. I have added a few bonus options, because the web is a wealth of ideas for dinosaurs - obviously Little Man is not the only obsessed four-year-old.

I found the great idea for a faux relief dinosaur print on The Do It Yourself Mom. She took a easy fossil printable (here's one) and had her boys trace it with a white crayon on a different piece of paper (one on top of the other). Then they brushed over the white crayon tracing with water colors (use dirt colors for the biggest impact). The end result was a super cute final product. Get all of the details here.

Two options from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. First, dinosaur bones pasta style. You just need glue, paper, the printable provided on the site and some pasta - penne worked great! Little man loved crushing the pasta, so that got a little out of hand, but he was very proud of the final product.

Second, a hatching dinosaur egg. You need paper bowls, paint, other options for decorating (use your and your child's imagination), a paper fastener (if you don't worry about it sliding open you can use a staple or poke through with a twisty tie), and either a dinosaur toy or the free printable found on the site for inside the egg. This is too cute! This would make a great extended play day - hide and seek with the egg, what else fits inside, what other animals lay eggs, make nests outside - the options are endless.



Bonus - here are some fun dinosaur gems I found while searching for ideas for this week.

Here is a set of dino flash cards. My two cents - print two and play memory, print several and write easy word foundations (-ed, -at, -up, -ast, -all, etc) on the bodies with letters that would create words on other same bodies to work on sounding out words. Tons of options, and these are so cute!

This is a set of worksheets and educational files some of which may be a bit above the preschool age range, but sweet and useful now and in the future.

Week Five - July 4th - Crafts

Hello from the beach! I hope you are enjoying your holiday week.

Here are some simple crafts to celebrate Independence Day.

First, make a noise maker for the parade. You will need a drinking straw, 2 craft sticks (popsicle sticks will work), and a wide rubber band.
1. Cut two 1 1/4 inch pieces from the straw
2. Stretch a rubber band over one of the craft sticks length wise.
3. Put one of the straw pieces under the rubber band at one end and the other straw piece over the rubber band at the opposite end.
4. Put the other craft stick on top of the craft stick you were working on sandwiching the straw pieces in the middle
5. Put the sticks together using rubber bands around each side
5. Decorate and enjoy

Tip: Give this to your child out of doors for sanity!

Second, create a shirt for the 4th activities. The involved version and the not-so-invovled version. Both come up with adorable final products that the kids can be a part of helping you make. These would be perfect if you have a bunch of friends and family getting together as gifts for the kids.

Last, firework art! Paint, water, paper and another straw make a craft that your kids will love creating.

Also, tons of patriotic printables from Disney Family Fun. Enjoy!

Week Four - Beach - Craft time

This weather has me inspired to offer a few more easy options for indoor fun.

Today's crafts include making a boat (it floats!), a sun catcher (I would love to catch ANY sun after all of these days of rain), and sand dollars.

All of these crafts involve items you see at the beach. While you are making these crafts, ask your child to tell you what they see at the beach. What items did they forget? What things do you only see at the beach? Work on letter sounds, and see if you can come up with one word for each letter for things at the beach (example: animals, beach ball, crab, etc.) Here is a list of some beach words to give you some ideas (good luck with q).

Make your own sand dollar. The link takes you to Disney FamilyFun where they have very detailed options that involve glueing to circles together and using clothespins so they dry well - which is great but a little to much for my four year old. I suggest you use two white paper plates (the cheap kind), a stapler, a q-tip, glue and barley (if you don't have barley on hand [what's wrong with you??!!] use tan construction paper and tear it into little pieces and ball them up).

First, tear the tan (or brown) construction paper into little pieces and make them into little balls (this does not have to be perfect - just give them the 3D look). This was a highlight for Little Man - he was a paper tearing champion. We had a lot of fun with jet this step (in fact the rest was really for me). You can skip that first step if you were able to put your hands on some barley (go you!). Next, take the back of one of your paper plates and using the q-tip draw a star that reach almost the the end of the plate in glue (these look best if they are thin stars). Put the balled construction paper (or barley) onto the glue - let dry. Once it is dry staple the other paper plate to the back of the first, back side out to give the 3D feel (you can skip this step). If you are really a perfectionist cover staples with white out or white paint. Tah Dah! Sand dollar.

Create a sun catcher. You will need heavy paper or card stock, a push pin, yarn or thread (something to hang it - tape work too), something to put underneath the sun when using the push pin, and crayons or paint if you want to decorate after you are done. Cut out a sun shape (template for those of us who are not born artists), if you did not use printed paper - decorate it with crayons, stickers, paint, etc, let your child create a decoration with the push pin by placing it on cardboard and pushing it through the paper. I was nervous about this but Little Man loved getting to use the "big boy" tool. Attach thread and hang by a window (I taped it to our sliding glass door). Enjoy!

Make a paper boat that really floats - perfect for the beach! Use the link for step by step directions with pictures. This is a little complicated for preschool hands but Little Man was good at following me step-by-step. The look on his face when a boat he made launched was priceless. I would suggest if you are going to bring the boat to the beach that you waterproof the bottom of the boat with clear plastic tape.

Finally, in case you are stuck in the house like I am here is a free online game the encourages kids to help pick up the beach. It is a great opportunity to talk to your child about keeping our world clean and doing our part to make sure the places we love are kept for the next kids that want to enjoy them.

Week Three - Weather - Craft time

I don't know where you are, but this week is coming at the perfect time for Florida. We are full on into the every afternoon showers, and it is so nice to have something planned to do while we are stuck indoors.

Today is craft day, and I love the little weather mobile I found at Education.com. This is great because it gives you some freedom to let your child's inner artist roam. Do not feel that you have to include only the snowflake, sun, rain, and cloud. There are plenty of other options - hail stone (balled up piece of grey construction paper), tornado (cut a funnel shape and paste on yarn), hurricane (cut a hurricane shape - use the internet! - and glue down cotton everywhere except the center eye), wind (a leaf you find outside, plastic wrap with blue waves inside, use your imagination) - the choices are endless.

Talk with your child first to see what four items they would like to make. Use Weather Wiz Kids (left side bar) to find the weather choices made by your child and explore the science of it together. I love the pictures, and animation and Little Man loves it too. Then using your inspiration (and in some cases newly acquired knowledge) get to crafting. I have to say I am surprised at how much I don't know. As a note - Little Man LOVES it when I don't know, so I make sure to tell him. I think it makes learning that much easier because he isn't doing it on his own.

Speaking of learning about weather, this is a great time to talk with your kids (and spouse) about disaster preparedness. There are great options online for kids, that help them be ready without being terrified. Sesame Street, one of my personal favorites, does this better than anyone (in my very biased opinion). Go to their site and find a video, printed step by step plan, and printable activities. The Weather Channel has a more adult focused information that can help make sure we are all ready.

Enjoy!

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Week Two - Night Sky - Craft Time

I have a bunch of crafts to choose from today. I will start with the ones for father's day and move to the space/night sky theme.

Father's Day:

I found some great free printables for a superhero themed gift for dad. This can easily be personalized, and if your house is anything like mine your kids will get a kick out of talking about superheroes. All you will need is card stock (thick paper - but it can be regular paper if you don't have any), a printer, and if you want to add a gift - some of Dad's favorite snacks.

First the card. From Kiki & Company and featured on Today's Creative Blog comes an adorable plaque for dad. It reads: "The most incredible, powerful, strong & daring superhero lives here. We know him as dad."Suggestions for making this personal: Have your child draw a picture of "Dad the Superhero" either on the back or a separate piece of paper. If you do a separate paper frame both together either with actual frames or paper ones. If you are doing it on the back, add a piece of yarn or ribbon to hang on Dad's door. If you have access to it, laminate it! Kiki & Company has a whole adorable set that you can get free for signing up for her newsletter.

You can also ask your child some great questions and help them write their answers. I have provided a sheet for Dads (below), Papas, and Grandpas. If you would like another version - leave a comment and I will post.
My Superhero Dad

For the gift: Alpha Mom has a great printable to place on all of dad's favorite snacks. You will need a printer, glue or tape, and nice bags (if you want them). Alpha Mom also suggests a wooden box to keep the treats, but I think they are cute enough to stand alone, or go in a gift bag. Combine this with the Superhero craft above and I think you have a sweet gift. You could also theme the snacks and add a movie (Sherlock Holmes 2 just came out and might be a dad fav) or a TV series. Have fun!

Crafts for the Night Sky:

I have two great options this week, all from Busy Bee Kids Crafts.

This is a great time to talk about traveling to space. Here are some great resources to explain the solar system and space travel from KidsAstronomy.com. The site is interactive, so have the kids nearby and ready to help navigate. I love the questions below to help me answer little man's questions.

First option, create a space shuttle. This is a super simple way to create an eye catching rocket to the stars. Kids will love launching these - and how often do you have a craft that they can play with?  Suggestions: set rules on how high it can fly - if it is a concern perhaps a toilet paper role would be better (and lighter). This would make a great indoor activity on a rainy day, especially with high ceilings. If you have several rolls - make a couple of rockets. "Race" them - see how far the go, launch them together, etc.

Second option, help them make a planetarium you can hang on their window. Construction paper, glitter glue, and wax paper are all that is needed to create a very cool discussion piece. I love how the sites planets look perfect ever though they are created from construction paper - but lets be real - not all of us are that artistically capable. Feel free to print out your planets after running a quick google search. If nothing else you can use them as guides (especially if you find your inner artistic paper goddess) or be like the rest of us and use the printed version - card stock for those will probably be best.

This is a ton to do, but I didn't want to wait until the last minute to give you Father's Day options. Hopefully this can help reduce stress instead of causing it. Enjoy the time with your little ones!

Week One - Summer - Craft time

Are you ready for a craft project that turns into a game, and just so happens to be adorable?

created by Eat Drink Chic

Over at Eat Drink Chic she has created a Do It Yourself popsicle memory game that is as fun to look at as it is to play. My little man got a kick out of the different popsicles and loved playing the memory game. The best part - you need a printer, popsicle sticks, glue (or double sided tape) and scissors - simple. Eat Drink Chic has more detailed directions if you want your game to be perfect, and possibly used as a cute gift - but we got along fine with folding and cutting. She also is kind enough to include the memory game directions, if you need a refresher.

In order to do this with your kids (and give them all the educational benefits) here are my tips:

1. The popsicles need to be cut out reasonably well - kids just learning to cut will not be able to accomplish this. Draw a square around each popsicle and let your child do the cutting work on the straight lines - then you fold and take care of the details. Although you do not need me to remind you - supervise carefully. Children with scissors can be a danger to themselves, others, and everything near them including pets, drapes, etc. Seriously - those little buggers are quick - keep your eyes open :)

2. Make sure you have the child count each of the pieces you are using (sticks, popsicle papers)

3. Ask them to guess the flavors based on the pictures - no wrong answers, play along if they use their imagination. Ask leading questions: What makes you think it is ____ flavor? What flavor would you pick to eat? What are silly flavors of popsicle? Make sure you add your thoughts. The more you are out there - frogs toes and peanut butter, princess kisses and poison potion - the more they will stretch their minds and the more fun you will have.

4. If you are using glue - let them squeeze (it will make a mess - embrace it)

5. While they are drying, have a popsicle - or make your own :) Popsicle ideas here!

6. Play the game you just made, and enjoy!

Tomorrow the focus will be on movement and songs. I will also put together another way to review this week's site words. I hope you are having fun - and adapting to the new summer schedule. We are getting into the new routine slowly - I am hoping for easier days coming soon! Thanks for reading.