Being a stay at home mom to an energetic toddler, I need to be well-prepared with lots of activities and crafts that we can do at home to keep his little hands busy and out of things that he isn't allowed to be in! :) I've found some things that he loves doing that I want to share with all you moms out there looking for crafts and activities to keep your children entertained. I realize that a lot of moms don't have the opportunity to stay home every day with your children, but most of these things are very easy and don't take a lot of time, so it can be something done in the evenings or weekends with your kids. And not only are these fun things for your children, but they are very inexpensive for the "thrifty" mom and also safe, eco-friendly things as well, for all of you earth conscious mommies like myself! :)
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One of the staples of our daily activities is PLAYDOUGH! What kid doesn't love to play with Playdough?? I have fond memories of my childhood at home with my mom, playing with her ever so special homemade playdough. So, of course, that's the first thing I would like to share. There are many variations to homemade playdough recipes that can be found online, but the one I use is what I got from my mom.
"Mom's Homemade Playdough"
Materials
- Bowl
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 cup salt
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- food coloring
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- if you feel like getting really crazy with your playdough, you can even go as far as to add glitter, confetti or other fun additions to it!
Directions
- In bowl, mix water, salt, oil, and enough food coloring to make a bright color.
- Gradually add flour and cornstarch until the mixture reaches the consistency of bread dough.
- Store covered. (I reuse clean plastic peanut butter jars to store it in...but a ziploc bag would work too)
And there you have it...easy as that! I know it's convenient to just go to the store and buy playdough, but I really love this, because it's something your children can help you make, it's free of chemicals, and it's so much more fun for a child when they have a hands-on experience in making it, then getting to play with it! And while I don't recommend letting your child eat playdough, it is safe if ingested!
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The next thing I would like to share is a great thing if you have a little explorer like I do who loves the outdoors and all of the creepy crawlies that come with it! I've found that with just a few simple items, we could make a fun "bug jar" to put all of the little insects and bugs into that he finds out and around the yard.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Bug Jars Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Materials
- clean jar with lid (I reused an old baby food jar, but any jar would work...peanut butter jars, mason jars, spaghetti sauce jars, etc.)
- colorful bug stickers (I had foam bug stickers on hand, so that's what I used)
- ice pick or screwdriver (for punching holes in the jar lid)
Directions
- Let your child place stickers onto the jar.
- Poke holes with ice pick/screwdriver into jar lid as breathe holes for bugs. (I don't recommend letting your child help with this step for obvious reasons...ice picks are dangerous in little hands!!)
And that's it! It's a fun, inexpensive item to give to your child for a day of outdoor exploring and bug catching! (I even made up a little "buggy quote" and put it on a piece of paper and glued it to the front for a little bit more fun!)
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The next thing is a favorite of my little guy! He has a fascination with animals of all kinds and loves to look through books with pictures of animals. After searching for and buying numerous animal books for him, I decided to take it upon myself to come up with a way to make a book of his most favorite animals. So, after just a few easy steps, I managed to make up a fun little book for him that he adores.
Animal Book
Materials
- small picture album book with plastic insertable pages
- pictures of animals printed from computer
Directions
- Print pictures of your child's favorite animals from your computer's clip art or from pictures online
- Cut pictures down to size of pages of the photo album
I let my son pick out the pictures of the animals he wanted, and I then let him help insert them into the pages. If your child loves animals as much as mine, this will be a huge hit! My son sits and looks through this book for extended amounts of time! It was a simple, cheap way to get a book full of the specific animals that he adores and it was a fun way for mommy to give him something that he loves! :)
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The next thing is a fun craft that I shared just recently with the children at our church, after trying it out here at home with my son. Being a devout Christian family, we instill Christian values in our son's life. Among these things is saying at blessing at our mealtime. With my son being such a young age, it's hard for him to say too many blessings, but we have found one that he loves. In our church, we have taught the children to sing the Johnny Appleseed song before snacks, so that's the song we chose to teach our son for his mealtime blessing. In an attempt to remind him of his blessing as he grows older and learns to read, but in the meantime, just give him a friendly reminder of singing his blessing, I decided to come up with a craft we could make that included his blessing. Below is a picture of what he and I made.
Since the song mentions apples, I decided to go with a cute apple design and just put the blessing words in the center. I keep this hanging in the dining room by the table as a friendly reminder for him to sing his blessings. Although, he loves to sing his blessings and we don't have to remind him very often, it's a cute way of having the words or the reminder available to him as he needs them! :) This apple design could be used for many different things...as a card for a teacher or just as a craft to make an apple! I simply used card stock papers, cut the red into the shape of an apple, cut out a stem and leaf, printed out the blessing and glued everything together. Simple as that.
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Next, we made a very fun craft at Easter time that was a huge hit with grandmas! Easter lillies are a favorite flower during Easter and spring, so we came up with a cute way to make them from some simple materials and my son's handprints!
Handprint Easter Lillies
Materials
- white constuction paper
- green and yellow pipe cleaners (I uses a thicker pipecleaner for the yellow to give it more of a "lilly" effect)
- scissors
- ribbons
- pencil or pen
- clear Scotch tape
Directions
- Trace child's hand on white construction paper and cut out.
- take pencil or pen and curl fingers of the hand outward.
- Connect one yellow and one grean pipe cleaner together at ends
- wrap handprint cut-out around the pipecleaners and the connection point and secure with tape
- Repeat steps 1 through 4 to make multiple flowers
- tie a few lillies together with ribbon to make a bouquet
These were a great gift to give to grandmas and aunts for Easter! And my son loved the hands-on experience in making these!
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Another fun craft we did for summer was a paper plate turtle. It's a fun way to make a turtle out of things you have around the house!
Paper Plate Turtles
Materials
- white paper plate
- green construction paper
- glue
- crayons/colored pencils
- googly eyes (these aren't required...you can just as easily draw eyes on the turtle, but I had them from another craft, so we used them)
Directions
- Cut green construction paper into shape of turtle head and also 5 small pointed pieces for legs and tail.
- Color any pattern for a turtle shell on the bottom side of the paper plate. (I chose a flower pattern since my son just made scribble lines for his "coloring")
- Glue head, legs and tail to the top side of the paper plate (the side you would eat off of).
- Glue googly eyes to the turtle's head (or color them on).
This was one of Jackson's favorite crafts...he plays with the turtle quite often!
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In addition to these crafts, there are so many fun and exciting crafts that we have made, including handprint turkeys for Thanksgiving, handprint wreaths for Christmas and lots more! But these were just a few I wanted to share at this time.
*Note- Be sure to check back in the future, as I plan on updating my blog with lots more fun, inexpensive craft ideas!
For the warp, cut 1-inch-wide loops from the bodies of one or two tees (we found a boy's large worked best on our 33-inch hoop), removing the hem and stopping at the sleeves. Ideally these loops should all be the same color; we used two colors for clarity in our photographs. You'll need a total of 11 loops. For the weft, cut at least 50 loops from the remaining shirts. Save the unused sleeves for the basket project.
Stretch one warp loop over the hula hoop, as shown.
Add and secure a second loop, perpendicular to the first.
Repeat, filling in the spaces, until all 11 loops are in place.
Push together two warp loops at the top of the hula hoop, as shown. This creates an odd number of warp spokes in your wheel, which allows the overunder pattern of the weft to alternate with each new row.
Secure the first weft loop to the center of one of the warp spokes (we chose the doubled spoke from step 5) by wrapping it around the warp and then looping it back through itself.
Begin weaving the weft over and under the warp spokes, forming a tight spiral. For now, treat both parts of each warp spoke as a single unit, weaving over or under the two together. As you work, push the weft material toward the center of the hoop and keep it just snug. If you pull the weft tight, the rug will develop lumps or bends. When you reach the end of the piece of weft, add a new loop by threading it through the end of the first and back through itself.
When your rug is about 8 inches across, begin treating each warp spoke as two individual strips instead of a single unit, weaving over or under each strand instead of going over or under the doubled spoke. This increases the number of warp spokes, improving the structure of the project. When you get to the two warp spokes that you pushed together at the top of the loom, separate them. Treat one of the spokes as two individual strips, but continue to treat the other as a single spoke. This maintains the odd number of warp spokes.
When the rug is the size you want, but no closer than 8 inches from the edge of the hula hoop, snip open your weft loop.
Tie the ends around a warp spoke, and tuck the ends into the rug.
Tie the ends in pairs, then trim them to make a fringe or tuck them back into the rug.
