Make a 3D town with trash from your house!

The other day I had to leave for work and Munchkin Girl was clinging to my legs and begging me not to leave.  Talk about kicking in the Mommy Guilt.  I worry all morning that they are at home, crying and feeling traumatized by my absence. Fortunately, when I walked in the door later that day, I realized that I should have stopped worrying minutes after I left my house because they had gotten along fine without me.  They spent the entire morning happily creating 3D town with their babysitter.




The town consisted of:

• 2 trees (made from green construction paper and a paper towel holder)
• A big house (made from a diaper box.  It's the one with the red roof)
• 3 stores (made from various boxes)
• A street where they drove cars
• A swingset and slide
• Several people, dogs, trains, etc

She took a bunch of old boxes from around the house, and took them to the garage.  They covered each box with a different color of paper and made each one into a different building and then decorated it.  She said this literally took the entire morning and they were happy and fully entertained for several hours, so if you're looking for something to do, this was a big hit!  My daughter (4) helped her make everything and Little Buddy (2) came over occasionally, but she also had the baby pool nearby so he went back and forth between the water and helping with the toy town.  Since they were in the garage, this worked really well.

The long box above is a Coke box, the big one is a diaper box, and the small two are cereal boxes. 

The details she did were amazing.  She wrapped a bunch of pieces of green paper together and taped them together.  Then they used scissors to cut a bunch of slits (great for fine motor) 



 They got to help decorate all of the houses.  They colored, they glued on stuff, they painted, they used stickers, all great fine motor and strength, not to mention concentration.



The finished product was quite a masterpiece. Now, I would never claim that I could do anything as creative as my wonderful baby-sitter.  She was born with a different creative geno-type than I was.  But if you're creative like her, you could consider using colored popsicle sticks to make a slide and a swingset.  For the swingset (below), she cut the tops off the sticks and then glued them to the horizontal one.  Then she wrapped some yarn around the top and looped it through a bead.  For the slide, she just cut up the sticks and glued them together. 


And for her final magic trick, she used a bunch of beads to make that little doll!  She used a pipe cleaner to hold them all together and glued a button to the bottom to make it stand up.  The hat is a small pink bead, the arms are beads, the face is a bead with a face drawn on.  WOW.  She is amazing.  And the kids adore their new little town, where they can play with their dolls and trucks, knowing that they helped to build it!







If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#10 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!).  My co-author and former Kindergarten teacher, Susan Case, gives dozens of ideas on how to introduce letters in meaningful ways and we have an entire chapter on preparing your child for Kindergarten.  We worked together to give a Mom's point of view and a teacher's point of view, so that we could give you activities that not only keep the kids busy, but also keep them motivated to learn and develop their natural curiosity. 

Did you enjoy my post?  PRETTY PLEASE click below so I get a vote for Top Mommy Blogs!  I really want to get back into the top 5!!     I really appreciate your support!!  Oh, and if you think of it, I'd love a G+!

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A Truly Easy and non-messy Way to Keep Kids Busy

The other day I picked my daughter up from preschool and when I got there, she was quietly coloring a castle.  I told her it looked beautiful and her teacher said, "Yes, she's been working on it for a really long time!"

I was a little shocked to hear this because normally at home I can't pay her to color with crayons.  We have dozens of coloring books around the house and she doesn't give them a second glance.  So, it occurred to me that maybe she would like to have a single sheet of paper instead of a whole book.  Thus, began a little experiment of mine.  I set out to find some free pages I could print and give to her.  Much to my surprise and delight, she loved this idea!  One afternoon we went into the office and I showed her various sites with coloring pages and she helped me pick out what she wanted.  Of course, she was thrilled about coloring Tinkerbell, Ariel, Strawberry Shortcake, etc.  We organized all her favorite pages into a big folder with her name on it, and her little brother got one too.

Coloring is such an easy, non-messy way to keep the kids busy and I'm thrilled to now be able to join the rest of society with a child who enjoys coloring!  It's amazing to me how one little change like that can affect the enjoyment of a project.  Think about it.  She is basically coloring the same thing.  Only now it's a single sheet of paper.  Yet she is thrilled.  Kids sure are strange.  In any case, I did find some good sites for free printables if you want to give it a shot:

Crayola
They do have some coloring pages, including some Disney-themed characters, but I found their site to be slow and a little difficult to navigate.
Coloring Castle
This page had mostly generic things like castles and unicorns, but was very easy to navigate and print

Educational Coloring Pages
This was by far my favorite.  They had every character you could imagine, both for boys and girls, and it was also very easy to navigate and print.  However, my tip is to make sure to click their printer button instead of the one on your browser or it doesn't print right. Here were some of our favorites from this site:

• Strawberry Shortcake
• Tinkerbell
• Little Mermaid

Even Little Buddy (2) enjoyed all the coloring pages!!


If you need more easy crafts like these, please consider buying my book!  I co-wrote it with former Kindergarten Teacher and best-selling author, Susan Case.  We worked together to give both a Mom and a Teacher perspective and we give hundreds of ideas on ways to keep your kids busy, but in a productive way, so that they're actually learning while you cook dinner in peace! Here is what a reader wrote after she purchased our book:

I'm about halfway through your book, and it's a true gem in my quest to figure out how to yell less and enjoy my boys more. I'm glad I found your blog. ~ Prickly Mom

You can purchase a copy on Amazon or B&N.  The Kindle version is $3.99 and the Paperback is $9.99.  Thanks so much for your support!





Now wait!!  Before you leave, will you vote for me pretty please?  I would sooooo appreciate your support!!



Thanks to the following bloggers for their ideas on this!  These ladies all have great sites!

Creative Family Fun
Make Do and Friend
Creative Play House
Jamie's Jumble
Hands on as We Grow

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