Well, I’ve FINALLY done it!

I’m proud (and a little nervous) to finally be able to offer you Little Kid Halloween Crafts!

The kids and I have put a lot of time and effort into creating a really high quality Halloween craft book for younger children, full of high quality photographs, whole page templates, and simple directions. The digitally delivered book has a pretty large file size (32 MB), but we think it’s beautiful!

We hope you like it too!

Click here to read more about it!

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It’s a craft project that includes pictures, very good directions, and templates for creating dogs out of empty potato chip cans.

I think you could use this basic idea on paper towel tubes, or other tubes that are longer than toilet paper tubes. I also thought this might be cute to create with a small box.

The faces are just precious! You can get the complete directions if you click here.

Another Quick Note…

I forgot to mention yesterday that I’m putting the finishing touches on Little Kid Halloween Crafts and it should become available some time next week.  It’s something that I’ve been meaning to put together for a very long time… especially since I love Halloween so much.

I a lot of people have asked about it over the last few months, so I thought I’d give you a heads up about it.  I’ll let you know when it becomes available.

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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…

Paper Plate Sunflower

Paint the back side of a paper plate yellow and let dry. Tear small strips of yellow paper and glue around the outside of the plate to make petals. Glue sunflower seeds to the center of the plate. You can also make a stem out of green construction paper.

TP Sunflowers

I think these are really neat… mostly because I just never looked at a toilet paper tube that way before!  Little ones might have a little trouble with it, but they should be able to make these with a little help.

Sunflower Flier

We haven’t actually done this sunflower craft, but it looks fun and has a lot of good reviews!

Sunflower Seed Estimation

Although this isn’t a craft, it’s something that’s always great fun to do with the kids… especially younger ones.

Sit down with your child (or children) and show them a great big sunflower head with the seeds still attached.  My kids were absolutely amazed to watch the heads grow and develop all those seeds.  Have them guess how many seeds are on the sunflower head, then have them remove all the seeds and count them.  It’s great fun and an activity that they will remember!

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Enjoy!

Paper Plate Watermelon Craft

Cut a paper plate in half. Paint the outer rim of the plate green and the rest of the plate red. Let dry. Cut out several tear drop shapes from black construction paper to make seeds. Glue seeds onto plate.

Watermelon Seed Collage Craft

Next time you eat a watermelon, save all the seeds for use in a collage. Just make sure that you put the seeds in a colander and rinse off all the stickiness first! My kids thought this idea was great fun… even my oldest!

Watermelon Slices Craft

Cut a cheap white paper plate into four equal pieces. Each piece will make the watermelon slice. Cut several squares of red and green tissue paper. Glue the tissue paper onto the paper plate wedge so that it looks like a watermelon slice. Let all the glue dry completely, then go back with a black marker and draw in the seeds.

Watermelon Napkin Holder - A very cute idea for doing something a little different with the basic watermelon craft. Younger kids might need a little help with this, but when they’re done they will have something that they can actually use. I love that!

Watermelon Beaded Safety Pin - My oldest is really getting into creating beaded safety pins and found this pattern online to share.

Here is a great website we found online about watermelons too:

http://www.watermelon.org/kids_facts.asp - This site has great information about knowing when to pick watermelons… something we needed to know for our little garden this year.

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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.

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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.

Today I came across the article below and thought it serves to lay out some more specific guidelines for knowing just when to hang on and when to let go… I hope some of you find it helpful as well!

I Can Do It! 7 Tips for Teaching Your Children Self Reliance

by: Dr Robyn Silverman

Most parents are trying to stay clear of the label “helicopter parents,” because they don’t want to be seen as the type of mother or father who hover and “overprotect.” The most powerful parents have realized that when their children have the opportunity to make mistakes, they gain an invaluable opportunity to learn from those mistakes.

It’s developmentally appropriate for children to become more and more independent, self reliant and responsible as they age. It can be challenging for parents to know when to step back and let their children try something on their own. After all, from the time their children were babies, parents have spent years meeting many to all of their child’s needs.

Striking a balance between allowing your children to do tasks for themselves and helping them when they seem to need or want is a talent of very powerful parents. This balance allows their children to thrive because they feel more confident in themselves while still feeling supported and properly mentored.

How can we instill self reliance and responsibility into our children?

(1) Allow your children to make some decisions: Even young children can make sound decisions if you give them a few select choices. Do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt? Would you like a peanut butter sandwich or a cheese sandwich? As children get older, you can allow them to make more important decisions with little to no guidance. They can determine things like which Fall sport they’d like to play, if they need a tutor for math, and which friends they’d like to spend time with each day without needing much, if any, input from parents. While it’s tempting to make these kinds of decisions for your older children, they need to stand on their own two feet—after all, their decisions are often correct!

(2) Encourage your children to try tasks on their own: While it’s often quicker and more skillfully done when we do it for them, children need to engage in tasks on their own if they’re ever going to learn how to do them well. Laundry, shoe-tying, and making the bed are great places to start with young children. Older children can handle more complicated tasks such as cooking, preparing their own lunch, and doing their own homework.

(3) Model responsibility and self reliance: Parents have many responsibilities—let your child see them and hear about them! Say out loud; “This screw seems a little loose, I’ll go get the screwdriver and tighten it” or “I have to plan our weekly menu for dinner; let’s see…Monday night we’ll have…” When children see you making decisions, taking initiative, and displaying self reliant behaviors, they will engage in similar behavior.

(4) Be your child’s coach rather than his sage: When your child asks you questions about how to do something or what to do in a certain situation, sometimes asking questions is more important than providing answers. “What do you think you should do? How would you feel if you chose X? What would happen if you did Y instead?” These questions can unlock the answers in your own child’s brain so the next time he’s in a similar situation he’ll be able to call on his own experience and judgment to make a decision.

(5) Be a good support system: Sometimes this means cheering them on from the sidelines and other times it means encouraging them to try again. Of course, when children truly need your help, they should know that they can count on you. If you teach them to ask for help when they really need it (when something seems unsafe or too challenging), they should know that you will be there to assist them. Children who know that they can count on their parents when they really need it feel better about taking risks and the possibility of making mistakes.

(6) Provide them with responsibilities: Chores are great for teaching children how to be self reliant as well as how to work as a team. After teaching them how to do the chore properly, let them give it a try with some assistance, if needed. You can even work on a checklist together which helps to break down the task into easy, age-appropriate chunks. For example, (a) Take the clothes out of the dryer, (b) Separate the clothes by family member, (c) Match up all the socks…and so on. When we provide children with ways to help out the family, we give them opportunities to build responsibility, self confidence, and self reliance.

(7) Encourage healthy risk-taking: Assure your children that making mistakes is OK. The most important thing is that s/he tries! Most things are not done perfectly the first time—even when you’re an adult. It doesn’t mean “the end of the world” and there is no reason to be embarrassed. Watching our children make mistakes can be challenging. We may want to rush to their aid to shield them from impending failure or disappointment. However, when parents do this, they rob their children of some very powerful tools; self confidence, stick-to-itiveness, and of course, self reliance.

Your children are relying on you to teach them how to approach the world. Sometimes that means they have to watch you to learn how to approach the task. But other times that means, you must watch them from the sidelines and encourage them to figure it out on their own.

About The Author
Dr. Robyn J.A. Silverman is a success coach, parenting expert and child development specialist who is praised for her helpful tips-based style. Known as “The Character Queen,” she’s the creator of Powerful Words Character Development which helps parents and educators teach children everything from respect to discipline and self confidence. For more information or to contact Dr. Robyn, please visit her Powerful Parenting Blog at http://www.DrRobynsBlog.com or her website at http://www.DrRobynSilverman.com

I think I’m doing pretty well most of the time… but this article certainly gives me some things to think about!

How about you?

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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…

What You’ll Need:

• A clean, empty cereal box (or something similar in shape)
• Construction paper, wrapping paper, shelf liner, fabric, etc.
• Fun foam sheets with adhesive backing
• Glue
• Scissors
• Any stickers, foamies, or decorations you choose

What to Do:

1. Cut the top flaps from your cereal box.
2. Measure about an inch from the left corner of the box and make a mark.  Measure two and a half inches from the right bottom of the box and make a mark.  Use your ruler to draw a straight line between your two marks.  Do this on both sides of the box.  I know this part is a bit confusing, so look at the picture for clarification if it doesn’t make sense.
3. Cut on the lines that you’ve made to reveal the basic shape of the organizer.  It should look like one of those magazine holders that you can buy.
4. (Optional) Cover the inside of your box with paper, shelf liner, fabric, etc. and glue in place.  You can use the discarded pieces of the box as a template for part of this.  This makes the organizer look more finished, but it’s not necessary.
5. Use fun foam to cover all the outsides of the box.  I highly suggest that you use the fun foam that comes in sheets and has a self adhesive backing.  The way we measured for each side was to simply hold it up to the side you want to cover and use a pencil to trace it onto the paper backing.  Then cut it out, remove the backing, and stick it on.
6. Decorate the organizer anyway you want.  My kids liked using self adhesive foam shapes because they stick very well and look great… plus it’s a lot easier for me, especially with my younger kids.

Once you get this basic organizer done, you can use it to put extra papers, small books, magazines, etc. in it… but don’t expect it to hold up to anything too heavy.  Cereal boxes just aren’t that strong.

If you need something more heavy-duty, you can try to fit one cereal box inside of another or use a heavier box altogether.  I’ve also seen people glue three boxes together in a row to make a triple back to school recycled cereal box organizer that looks like it would be more sturdy.

By the way… if you’re doing this project with your kids or a class, don’t expect them to look nearly as neat and tidy as the ones in the picture above.  Those were clearly done by a “Martha Professional.”  I just used the picture so that you could see what it was supposed to look like.

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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.

Paper Plate Monkey - Supplies: A paper plate, brown paint, brown construction paper, tan construction paper, glue, and this template. Directions: Paint your paper plate brown and let dry. Use the template below to cut out the ears and face of the monkey out of tan colored construction paper. (If you want, you could just paint on the face using the template.) Glue the ears onto the back of the paper plate and glue the face on the front. Use a marker to draw in the eyes, nose and mouth.

Giraffe Paper Bag Puppet - Print out one of the giraffe templates ( color - or - black and white). Color the giraffe, if necessary, and cut out the 2 parts. Glue the giraffe’s head to the bottom of a small lunch-sized paper bag. Lift up the fold and glue in the neck of the giraffe so that when you put your hand inside the bag it looks like the giraffe has a head on top of a neck.

Paper Plate Elephant - Paint the back of a paper plate gray (or any other color you choose) and let dry. Print out the black and white or color template. Color the parts, if necessary, and cut out the pieces. Glue or staple the ears onto the plate on opposite edges. Make sure you put the ears behind the plate so the tabs don’t show. Glue on the trunk and eyes.

Monkey Puppet - Print out the monkey template in color or black and white. Color the parts if necessary and cut them out. Cut out 4 strips of brown construction paper that are about 1 inch wide and 11-12 inches long. Take each of your strips of paper and fold them like an accordian so that when they are folded they are about an inch square. These are the monkey’s arms and legs. Glue a hand or foot to the end of each accordian strip. Glue the monkey’s head onto it’s body. Glue each of the arms and legs onto the right spot on the body. You can turn this monkey into a funny puppet by gluing a craft stick to the back.

Paper Plate Snakes - Paint both sides of a paper plate green. Let dry. Cut plate starting at outer edge and spiraling towards the center. Stop cutting when you get about 4 or 5 inches from the center. The center of the plate will be the snake’s head. Make eyes on your snake with a marker or glue on wiggle eyes. You can also glue on some red curly ribbon for a tongue.

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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…

That’s when I really started going out and looking for games and activities that would help them learn the concepts that they needed to learn while making it really fun for them… but I quickly ran into a huge obstacle.

Price.

Have you seen how much those math games cost? I actually spent $30 for one award winning board game that would help the kids learn to add, subtract, and make change. It’s a great game that I highly recommend, but it’s $30!!!

You can’t afford too many games like that, no matter how great they are, to help your children learn math concepts, gain confidence, and become more proficient in math.

So then I started looking at free resources.

Most of what I found was more full of advertising than good learning and practice. In fact, most of what I found wasn’t really that good or kept my children’s attention anyway. Most of it was junk.

Then I happened upon a great resource.

It’s called Making Math More Fun, and it’s a collection of printable math games. Well, I took a chance and purchased it for my kids last week and guess what?

They have absolutely loved every activity that we’ve done from the collection so far!!!

My son has gone from telling that he “absolutely hates math” to asking me every day if we can play a math game. I was absolutely amazed!

The other thing is that all three of my kids can do these activities even though their ages and abilities are different. There are some things that appeal to my youngest, some that work well for my oldest, and other things that they can all do together… without me having to sit right there and walk them through every step for the whole game (My favorite part… they can play independently sometimes!)

Okay… at the risk of sounding like a commercial I’m going to stop telling you how great this math game collection is.

After all, I don’t even know for sure how many of you out there are in the same boat as I am — either homeschooling kids who don’t enjoy math or even just looking for math supplements for your kids.

But if you’re looking for some easy to use, fun, inexpensive, and educational math games for your kids, than I can highly recommend the Making Math More Fun game collection.

In the meantime, if you know of some other great math resources to make math more fun for kids, then I hope you let me know!

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Pencil Pockets - These are a really cute idea and great for a locker… trendy, inexpensive, and cool.  My oldest thinks we should make some of these for her bulletin board in her room, so we’ll add some sort of ribbon or cord to hand the pockets from a push pin.  I’m all for anything that gets her a little more organized!

Cargo Pant Book Covers - When I was a kid, we always made our book covers out of brown paper bags using this same basic technique.  This craft idea cuts out a pocket from an old pair of cargo pants and glues it to the paper cover… I don’t see why you couldn’t make the entire cover with the fabric of the pants (along with a well placed pocket).  I’ve see people do this idea with a pair of old jeans, so it should work.  You can really cover your books with just about anything… just add imagination!

Custom 3-Ring Binders - Most kids have three ring binders on their school supply list each year… and they can be pretty expensive.  Here’s a cost-cutting idea… purchase one of those inexpensive binders from the office supply store, grab your glue gun, and create your own custom binder.  You can also purchase one of those binders with the clear-vue inserts and insert a custom photo page on each side.

Backpack Tags - Another really inexpensive and cute idea for back to school.  Use shrinky dinks to create your own personalized backpack tags.  In case you don’t know what shrinky dinks are… they are the plastic material that you color, cut out, and shrink in the oven.  We love this stuff!  It’s very versatile and you can create a lot of neat things with it.

We’ll continue to add more back to school crafts over the next couple of weeks, so if you have an idea that you think I should include, let me know!

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