Showing posts with label cheap craft for kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheap craft for kids. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Easy Craft for my Daughter to Give to New Baby
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My daughter loves babies, whether real or pretend, so she is thrilled that she will be getting two baby cousins this Spring! I'm really excited too (especially since I won't be the one having to get up for midnight feedings haha!)
We traveled to the joint baby shower last weekend and Munckin Girl (3.5 years) was excited to help me wrap the presents so I decided to come up with a cheap craft so that she could give a gift that was just from her. I mixed up a little bit of Elmer's glue and a little bit of water with a small drop of food coloring. Then I cut hearts out of tissue paper. She simply used a paintbrush to "paint on the glue", then it stuck the paper:
Even the little guy was able to participate without making too much of a mess (22 months)
After we finished the hearts portion, we even snuck in some work on letters. First, I traced in pencil and then I gave her a nice fat marker so she could trace over my writing and work on her letters. She was very proud of being the one to write on the gift.
And finally, our finished product...we made two of these and I put them inside our gift bags. During the shower, they let Munchkin Girl help unwrap the gifts and she was so excited when they opened our present and saw what she'd made for them!
Friday, February 17, 2012
A Game for Kids to Play Together
Poor Little Buddy. He's done crafts about butterflies, caterpillars, ponies, etc, and he does enjoy them but they aren't very manly. I am always trying to think of an easy craft that a two year old boy will enjoy.nnThomas the Train is very popular in our house and we have dozens of books but I haven't been able to think of a craft for him....until now!
I put out some long butcher paper on our wood floor in the kitchen. Then I drew a "racetrack". Munchkin Girl sat on one end and Little Buddy sat on the other. Once I showed them what to do, they spent almost all day (on and off of course) pushing Thomas back and forth and back and forth...to each other. If I'm being honest, being two years apart is rough. They do spend a lot of the day fighting and screeching over toys so I was thrilled to find something they could actually play together, without fighting.
Then later, we turned it into a picture game:
My babysitter is very creative and a few days after we drew the original track, I came home to find this...an entire city! Trees, a school, a swingset, a church, all kinds of things! She said the kids sat with her for over an hour and watched her draw the city onto the street. We finally had to pull the paper up because it started ripping, but this turned out to be one of the most fun games we've played and home and not only was it an easy craft, it was a cheap craft...All we needed was butcher paper and and masking tape!
Monday, February 13, 2012
My Little Pony Craft
I love re-using toilet paper holders. I know. I'm a giant nerd. Munchkin Girl has been really enjoying playing with her My Little Pony toy lately so we decided to make some of our own. We simply wrapped pink construction paper around the outside, then we got out our googly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc.
A few things really surprised me...Little Buddy isn't even two yet so I didn't think he would really enjoy this project, but I hate to leave him out so I told him he was making a monster and gave him a tube as well. I was really focusing on Munchkin Girl and it didn't look like he was doing much over there but he was quiet so I just let him do it thing. I figured he wasn't coordinated enough to really make anything.
When I finally went over to inspect his work, I was shocked to see this:
He was holding one of those tiny eyes in his hands and using the glue to put a tiny dot on the eye! Honestly I'm not even sure Munchkin Girl could hold that little googly eye herself. Then he was coordinated enough to actually glue it on! Look at all those eyes!!
I guess I don't give him enough credit sometimes. After he finished his monster, he kept yelling, "Grrrrrr" and was so proud of his creation. When Daddy came home, he yelled, "Loo ut I did!" (Translation: Look what I did)
The other thing that really surprised me was the stickers that Munchkin Girl put on the ponies. I had seen something on Pinterest that I tried to re-create. I know that putting stickers on a page is very good for fine motor skill, so I tried to draw a star and have her put star stickers all around it to work on fine motor. Putting stickers on a page is one thing, but to try to keep them in a straight line requires A TON of concentration. However, she wasn't at all interested in that. Some kids probably would have been, but Munchkin Girl just wasn't interested in it.
My friend and author Susan Case from Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents has explained that children learn best when doing something that is interesting and meangingful to them. This was really clear to me this day because she was suddenly interested in putting the stars in a straight line...as the mouth of her Little Pony! She worked hard and it took her all of about ten minutes, just to get the stickers on, but she finally did it and was so proud!
After we finished the first pony, she wanted to make a "baby pony" and we got to do it all over again!
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Making Mountains From Egg Cartons
We LOVE going to Colorado on vacation. We go every year and the kids have been several times so the other day we were looking at family pictures ( a favorite activity of the kids) and they saw the mountains and it occurred to me that I could use an old egg carton and they could "make mountains".
First, I cut up the egg carton and then I glued a green piece of paper to some cardboard (for the grass). You wouldn't really need to do this, you could just use the egg carton, but I had the cardboard and green paper so I figured why not?
Then I gave them some paint and they happily painted their "mountains". Although I personally HATE to craft, I have found that this sort of thing really directs energy in a positive way and the kids are so proud of their creations so we try to do something like this every day. I use the small paint containers to minimize mess and they usually don't even get paint on themselves since they're now so used to doing this kind of thing. Plus, I like to keep it cheap and easy and that's why I like to re-use things like egg cartons and things I find around the house.
When they were finished, they glued some "snow balls" to the grass. Again, this part isn't really necessary, but they thought it was fun and were very proud of their mountains!
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Monday, January 9, 2012
Cheap, Easy Craft: Painting with straws
I like craft projects to be:
1. Simple
2. Cheap
3. Fun
It doesn't get much simpler, cheaper, or more fun that painting with straws. First, start out with a little bit of paint, mixed with water in squeeze bottles. You can buy these for just a couple dollars from Walmart or Hobby Lobby and I use mine a lot so they're a good investment. If you don't have these, you could probably still make it work by pouring water and paint into sippy cups with lids or even just regular cups. It's important to mix with a little water so that it's runny enough.
Then, squeeze a little of the paint onto the paper.
Next, show your child how to blow air through the straw to make the paint fly around the page. Be sure to tell them not to suck back in or they'll get a mouth full of green paint! (Not that we know this from personal experience or anything. This did NOT happen to Munchkin Girl I swear. Well okay, it did). It's best to keep the straw ABOVE the paper for maximum air movement, until they get the hang of it. You might want to set out a plastic tablecloth to avoid spattering. Luckily, our table is finished so everything wipes right up.
Once they get the hang of it, watch the magic happen. Look at that huge bubble!!
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Voila! The finished product!
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