Quick and Easy Sunflower Crafts
September 2, 2008
Where I live, the sunflowers are hitting their prime… full of seeds and ready for harvest.
What more perfect time to do a few sunflower crafts?
One of my all time favorite sunflower crafts is to simply do a collage. Collect a bunch of sunflower seeds and let the kids glue them onto construction paper in any design they choose. The reason I like this craft so much is because just about any age child can enjoy doing it… even really big kids like me!
Here are a few more sunflower crafts you might enjoy… Read more
Watermelon Crafts You Can Sink Your Teeth Into
August 28, 2008
We have been waiting and waiting for our first crop of watermelons to come out of the garden and they’re finally here! In honor of our first successful crop of home grown watermelons, we thought we’d do some watermelon crafts too!
Enjoy!
It’s Time To Show Your Stuff… If you want to
August 25, 2008
Believe it or not, for years I’ve gotten requests to start a new area of either Kid Kid Crafts Magazine or FreeKidCrafts.com dedicated to visitors sending in their pictures.
So… I’ve finally done it!
Over the weekend I set up a new section of FreeKidCrafts.com so that people could stop by and submit their great craft pictures. Now these could be pictures of your child actually doing a craft, a group of kids in the middle of crafting, a child showing off their awesome creation, etc.
I’d love it if you’d tell us a little bit about your craft and how you put it together too!
The idea is to serve as an inspiration to other people who really want to start crafting with their kids and to provide a public place where kids can display their work and see themselves online… a VERY big deal with my kids!
If we get enough interest and participation, we may even start running some contests with real prizes (no monopoly money here!) We’ll just see how it goes.
Anyway, if you’d like to submit a craft picture, click here.
If you’d like to share a great new craft project, click here.
Teaching Children Self Reliance
August 24, 2008
I’ve always considered it my job as a parent to raise children that would grow up to be healthy, happy, and productive adults… although it’s not always easy.
I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know!
In my humble opinion, teaching children to become self reliant is one of the most difficult challenges a parent faces. When they’re little, it’s just so much easier to do things for them, make all their decisions, and pick them up when they fall. As a parent, it’s sometimes hard to know when it’s time to encourage more personal responsibility. Read more
Back to School Recycled Cereal Box Organizer
August 19, 2008
Thanks to Martha, you may have already seen this craft… although I remember making these when I was a kid - looong before Martha was doing her thing.
I even helped the kids make a couple of these for Father’s Day a couple of years ago. We covered them in fake leather that we made from paper bags.
Anyway now that the kids are a bit older and we’re doing the homeschool thing, we are in dire need of organization… so the recycled cereal box is coming back out at our house! Here’s how to make it…
We’re goin’ to the zoo, zoo, zoo… How about you, you, you?
August 7, 2008
My youngest is sooo excited that we’re going to the zoo next week that she keeps singing that song over and over again… bless her little heart. Sorry if that title was a bit annoying, but I though that if I shared it maybe I could get it out of my head!!!
We’re planning the picnic lunch, mapping out the zoo, planning out each animal stop… you’d think we’d never been to the zoo before. I think the kids are just excited because we’ve planned our homeschool field trip to be the same day that public starts in our area.
Anyway, I thought I’d post some fun zoo crafts today in case anyone else could use them. Read more
Making Math Fun
August 4, 2008
As a lot of you already know, I began homeschooling my children this year. In fact, we actually started playing around with some things this summer (before the regular school year starts) to try to figure out exactly where the kids were at academically and emotionally.
It didn’t take very long to figure out where their real weak spots were… Math.
The funny thing is that they’re all actually pretty good at math - they just hate sitting down and doing the work… and nobody does their best learning when they’ve decided that they hate the subject.
So I started getting creative… Read more
Magnetic Pencil Pockets as a Back to School Craft
July 30, 2008
Here in our area the stores are now full of all those Moms and kids scrambling to get their school supplies ready for the next school year. (Since we’ve decided to homeschool this year, we’re lucky enough not to be part of the back to school pandemonium.) All those back to school supplies can cost a fortune, so here are some back to school recycling crafts that might help take some of the edge off!
What Do You Think About Webkinz?
July 28, 2008
I have to admit, a year ago I didn’t know what Webkinz were. I had heard of them, my kids mentioned them from school, but they really weren’t something that our family is into. Them my oldest daughter had a birthday party and guess what did nearly every friend give her?
You guessed it… Webkinz.
She received 14 Webkinz, which opened up a whole new world for our family… a world of commercialism, trends, collecting, and marketing messages aimed at my kids. In case you’re not aware of “Webkinz World,” here’s an article that will give you the lowdown.
Can You Ever Have Too Many Butterflies?
July 22, 2008
According to my five year old, there can never be too many butterflies. In fact, she saw a commercial for one of those butterfly kits where you grow your own butterfly and begged me for one so she could add to our local butterfly community.
Her little face looked so sad when I had to explain to her that those butterflies would die when we released them because it was so late in the summer now (But maybe we could try it next year, I told her.) Then I found out that she wasn’t sad because she couldn’t grow her own butterflies this year… she was sad because other people would buy the kits this year and their butterflies would die. “Those people shouldn’t sell butterfly growing kits when the butterflies will die. Poor butterflies!”
We opted to make some clothespin butterflies instead!
