A couple of weeks ago, I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw @toysaclock traced her child’s hand onto cardboard and let her paint the finger nails. This got me thinking. My daughter loves to paint but is always waisting paper. She paints one thing on a page, doesn’t like it, and wants to start over. Sound familiar to anyone else? So…I thought if I drew different scenes onto cardboard, put tape over it so that she could erase the paint and start over, then my daughter could paint the same scenes over and over again without waiting paper. If she messes up, no big deal, just erase it!
Thankfully, my daughter was all about this idea. She loves that she can paint the same picture over and over until it looks just the way she wants. If you think your child would like this activity too, keep reading.
What You’ll Need
Cardboard
Sharpie
Heavy Duty Scotch Tape
Paint
Paint Brushes
Paper towel
How To:
Use your sharpie to draw a scene onto the cardboard. Cover the entire cardboard with tape and starting paining and erasing and painting again. We haven’t been leaving the paint on the cardboard for too long to make sure we can erase it easily.
Have you tried this or are you planning to try this? Comment down below!
*Adult supervision is required*
My husband and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary today. Wow does time go by fast! We met 17 years ago (holy cow) in a WAWA of all places. I was 18 at the time, and when he called me up and ask me on a date, I agreed immediately. I remember our first date like it was yesterday. We went to Home Depot because I had to pick up some styrofoam balls for a project (always crafting), and then we went to a coffee shop and played chess. When he didn’t complain about driving me to get styrofoam balls before our date, I knew he was a nice guy, and as I expected, our first date was lovely.
So today, since it is our anniversary, we decided to watch our wedding video. My daughters LOVED the video, especially our sand ceremony, and asked if they could mix sand just like we did. I didn’t have any sand in the house, but I did have a bunch of colored rice they could mix together, and a box filled with cut up toilet paper rolls. Is that unusual? Let’s go with no , no it is not unusual. Not in a house with a crafty mom that is. Anyway… I am so glad we did this activity. It was so much fun and kept my daughters busy for hours. They kept coming back to pour more rice! Scroll down to see how we made this activity.
What You’ll Need
Poster paper
Rice (uncooked)
Food coloring
Vinegar
Zip lock bag
Paper towels
Construction paper
Toilet paper rolls – A LOT of them
Scissors
Paint
Sponge
How To:
The first thing you will need to do is dye the rice. Put 1 cup of rice into a ziplock bag. Add 1/2 tsp of vinegar and food coloring to the bag. The more food coloring you add, the more vibrant the color. Squeeze the bag and mix the rice until all of the rice is colored. Let the bag sit for 10 minutes and then pour it out onto a paper towel. Leave it to dry. Repeat based on how much rice you want. Because I am all about safety, I am going to say this. Leave the rice where your children can not get to it until you are ready to sit with them to complete this activity. Rice can be a choking hazard, and I would not leave children alone with it.
While you are waiting for your rice to dry, cut your toilet paper rolls in half. Place them on the construction paper in a heart shape.
Cut 2 hearts out of construction paper. Tape the heart windows ( is that what they are called?) to the poster paper.
Cup up a sponge ( we used a new one) and sponge paint inside the heart shape. Remove the constrcution paper.
Once your rice is dry, you can transfer it all into some bowls, grab some spoons, and start scooping and dumping the rice into the toilet paper rolls.
To see a video of us completing this activity, visit @thiscraftygirlmom on Instagram. To see another toilet paper roll/ rice activity, visit @sensory_with_florence. She made an amazing turtle out of toilet paper rolls which inspired me to make my heart. I hope you liked this activity, comment down below with your thoughts. Until next time.
*Adult supervision is required*
I just can’t with these craft stick people. My daughters and I are obsessed! Their crazy hair is our favorite part. We have been trying out different hairstyles on them all day. Our favorite so far is rainbow hair. Besides being adorable and fun to play with, they are also educational. You can use them to review so many skills. We are going to review odd and even numbers with our new friends, but there are so many other possibilities. You can review numbers, colors, patterns, addition, and subtraction, just to name a few. If you’d like to make these craft stick dolls too, scroll down.
What You’ll Need
People Craft Sticks
Markers
Pasta
Food Coloring
Vinegar
Zip lock bag
Measuring cup
How To:
- Pour two cups of pasta into a zip lock bag, add 1/4 cup or vinegar, and several drops food coloring and shake the bag until it is fully mixed in. Let the bag sit for ten minutes and then pour the pasta out onto a paper towel to dry.
- While you are waiting for your pasta to dry, you can color in your craft stick people.
That’s it. They are so simple to make and so much fun to play with. My daughters didn’t even mind doing math with their new friends. As long as they got to play with the pasta hair, they were happy as can be.
Comment down below and let me know what you think. Until next time.
*Adult supervision required*
My daughters and I spent a great deal of time making this Father’s Day poster for my husband. A GREAT DEAL OF TIME! I really hope he loves this poster. I mean LOVES. I want him to want to frame this poster that is how much he appreciates and adores it after how much time it took us.
Now… it should not have taken hours. It should have been a relatively quick project. BUT, I couldn’t find our sticker letters so I had to cut little strips of washi tape and form the letters myself. If that wasn’t time consuming enough, I kept leaving letters out of one word and would have to remove the washi tape and start over. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to spend hours making this poster. Doubtful, but that is the only theory I have for why I kept leaving letters out.
Anyway, I finally had all the letters right (or so I thought), and we painted our poster, let it dry, and removed the sticker letters to reveal our sentence. And what do you think I see? Did you guess correctly? I left out a letter! AGAIN! Are you kidding me! I then gave up on the washi tape and searched my house from top to bottom and found our sticker letters.
Once we had those, we were able to complete the project quickly and I didn’t misspell the word OFISHCIAL. In my defense, this is not a real word. I shouldn’t know how to spell it. Anyway, you must be so excited to make this project now, so scroll down to see how it’s done!
What You’ll Need:
Poster board
Spong
Paint
Sticker letters
Coffee filter (6)
Markers
Pipette or spray bottle
Water
String
Tape
Scissors
Googly eyes
How To:
The first thing you will need to do is place the sticker letters down on your poster to form your sentence. Look it over and make sure everything is spelled correctly before moving on.
Next, cut up a sponge (we used a new one) and choose your paint colors. Sponge paint the entire poster.
Now it is time for the coffee filter fish. You will need six coffee filters to make three fish. Stack your coffee filters, two in each group. You will have three groups. Color three of the coffee filters with markers. Spray them with a spray bottle, let them sit for a bit, and then separate them and allow them to dry fully. Once the coffee filters are dry, cut a triangle out of three of the coffee filters to form a mouth. Add the googly eyes. Take your other three coffee filters and cut out three tails. One from each to match the fish. Glue on the tails.
If the paint on your poster is fully dry, you can remove the letters. Go slowly. Sometimes part of the sticker stays behind.
Time to hang the fish onto the poster. Cut three pieces of string. Tape one end of the string to the back of your fish by the mouth. Tape the other end of the string to the back of the poster. Because this poster has string I wouldn’t leave it within reach of children.
You’re all done! Despite the amount of time this took us, I am so please with the result and think my husband will love it. Comment down below and let me know what you think. Looking forward to hearing from you!
*Adult supervision required*
My husband and I regularly discuss with our daughters how to recognize, manage, and express emotions. It is really important to give children the proper vocabulary to express themselves. At times, children may not fully understand what they are feeling, or why they are feeling that way, and this can leave them feeling extremely frustrated. To help strengthen my daughters emotional vocabulary, I created a feelings board for them.
When introducing the feelings board to my daughters, I asked them to describe a time they experienced each emotion on the board. We then discussed different strategies we have used in the past, and strategies we could use in the future when experiencing specific emotions. We wrote each of these strategies down on popsicle sticks, and put them in a mason jar right by the emotions board. This way, they are easily accessible when we need them.
How To Use The Feelings Board:
Each morning my daughters will put a clip with their name on it, on the emotion they are feeling. If I see a shift in behavior, I will guide them over to the board and help them figure out what they are feeling, and we will move their clip to that emotion. We will then discuss why they are experiencing that emotion and if needed, we will pick a strategy from our mason jar. Once we have worked through whatever it was they were experiencing, they will get to move their clip back to the emotion that reflects how they are now feeling.
What You’ll Need:
Cardboard ( we recycled a box)
Markers
Ribbon
Tape
Scissors
Corkboard
How To:
Cut out your feeling faces out of cardboard. Draw different faces to represent whatever feelings you are working on with your child. Curl the ribbon and tape it to the back of the head and pull a piece over to the front to show the hair.
I would like to share that the inspiration for the look of my little characters comes from @mummyandthebears. I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that she made these adorable smiley faced “hairdo heads”, as she calls them, and I knew I had to find a way to recreate them for our feelings board.
I hope you found this helpful. If you give this feelings board a try, comment down below. I would love to hear how it is working for your family.
*Adult supervision is required*
Our family goes on a lot of walks. Especially now that we have an adorable 2 year old dog. On these walks my daughters often find things that interest them and ask me to hold on to it. It could be a leaf, a little flower that fell, or even a wood chip! They love nature and never want to leave anything behind. We’d get home and I would have a handful of things that I didn’t know what to do with.
I wanted to encourage their exploring nature, so I made them magnifying glasses that would allow them to keep their little treasrues safe. They love looking into the magnifying glass to see what they can find as we walk around, and get so excited when they find something to stick to it.
What I really love about this magnifying glass is that it is a great way to teach your child about nature. They may see things through their magnifying glass that they can’t collect, but may be curious about. They will be full of questions as you walk around.
Here’s how we made our magnifying glasses.
What You’ll Need:
Cardboard
Sharpie
X-ACTO knife
Press’n Seal
Scissors
How To:
- Draw a magnifying glass onto the cardboard.
- An adult can use the X-ACTO knife to cut it out.
3. Place the magnifying glass onto press’n seal. Sticky side up.
4. Cut the press’n seal so that it is only behind the circle.
5. Cut a small circle in the middle of the press’n seal so your child can peek through to find their treasures. ( Look at the finished magnifying glass at the top of this post to see how to make the little circle)
That’s it! You can write on your magnifying glass, color it. Whatever you would like. I hope your little one enjoys playing with this as much as my daughters’ do.
Comment down below with your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you.
*Adult supervision is required*
Summer is coming, and while I can not wait to put away our homeschool schedule and turn off zoom, I do want to find a way to sneak in some learning over the next couple of months. This tie dyed paper towel activity is one way I plan on sneaking in some academics this summer. My daughters love this activity because they think they are just playing around even though there is learning happening.
I’ve used this activity in the past to review letters, numbers, shapes and sight words. And now, even though they are older, I still use it to review other skills. Today, for instance, we got out our pipettes, markers and paper towels, and worked on fractions. Every time I said a fraction, they would find it on the paper towel, and use their pipettes to drip water on it. Their favorite part was watching the fractions disappear into a mess of blended colors. It really is fun to watch.
They didn’t complain once about doing math because they were having so much fun. AND they actually asked for me to draw out more fractions so they could continue blending the colors together. WHAT! More fractions? Mom win for sure. Ok… I really don’t think they realized we could just draw any random picture and get the same results, and thats why they asked for more fractions, but hey, I’ll take it.
That’s it for today. If you want to see a video of us doing this activity, head over to Instagram @thiscraftygirlmom. Until next time.
*Adult supervision is required*