As you probably already know, Kid Crafts Magazine is the publication for several different children's websites. Over the years, we've found a lot of different resources and written many reviews for children's products that appear on our other websites. This section is intended to compile those resources together into one master resource file to help you find whatever children's product you're looking for.
Reviews and Articles
Hooked On Phonics Review - Read my review of Hooked on Phonics, and see why I think this program may not be right for a child who doesn't have the reading basics down yet.
How To Have A 3 Year Old Construction Party - This is how I successfully pulled off my son's 3 year old birthday with a Construction Party theme.
How to Give Your Child a Puzzle On ANY Subject For Pennies! - Read my review of the most innovative, creative, and inexpensive product for children of all ages that I've ever seen...
A Mom's My First LeapPad Review - Don't buy My First LeapPad for your todder until you read my review... you may want to re-think your options.
Tips for Building A Great Child's Library On a Small Budget - Buying children's books doesn't have to be expensive -- Read my special article 'Tips for Building A Great Child's Library on a Small Budget.'
Frontline Phonics - Read my review of Frontline Phonics and find out why I think it is the best reading program available for young children and beginning or emergent readers.
Princess Birthday Party - You can read here about how I successfully pulled off a 5 year old Princess Birthday party and what resources I used to help me.
A Mom's LeapPad Review - Read my review of the LeapPad Learning System to decide if this educational toy is right for your child and to discover what the best package option is for you and your budget.
Kid Crafting and Learning - Crafting provides a unique opportunity to educate your children in a fun, relaxed, and nurturing environment.
Is My Child Ready To Read? -
If you have a preschool or kindergarten age child, you have probably asked yourself this question: Is my child ready to read?
How To Encourage Early Reading - Learn how to encourage early reading in your preschooler now, even though they are too young to start reading.
Daycare Articles - You'll find a large group of daycare and preschool related articles designed to help those who are currently running or plan to run a daycare center. Many of the articles are also very helpful for parents.
Favorite Parent Tools and Kid Craft Resources
Here is a list of my favorite idea books, children's music and videos, and the books that I read to the kids over and over and over and over (you get the idea!). These are the tools that get me through the really tough parenting days!
But First... A Little Shameless Promotion
Thematic Book Resources for Parents
These are some of my favorite resources when it comes to developing my own themes. There is a lot of good ideas here. In addition, I also use these resources to reproduce pages for the kids like mazes, dot to dot, cut and paste, etc. These are really as much teaching resources as they are crafting resources.
The Giant Encyclopedia of Theme Activities for Children 2 to 5 - This book is a reliable and well-used part of my kid craft library. I didn't discover it until after I had already started developing my own themes. If I had, it would have saved me a lot of work in the beginning.
Theme-A-Saurus Series - I've found a lot of good ideas in these books. They contain very simple craft projects, finger games, other games, etc. This is a good theme resources.
Teacher Created Materials
- This site is full of theme based materials for all age groups -- some I have used and others I haven't. The great thing about these books is that they are inexpensive and you can also download them as a ebook and have instant access to the materials. If you're interested in their products, make sure you download a sample first!
Non-Thematic Book Resources for Parents
These are some of my favorite inspirational kid craft resources. There are tons of ideas here, and you can use many of these ideas to come up with your own craft ideas if you use all these up. These are very good resources purely for crafting with your kids.
Preschool Art: It's the process, not the product - This is absolutely the BEST book I've come across for crafting with young children. It's full of free-play projects that will keep kids engaged for a long time. The ideas are simple, there are no templates, and it will encourage the imagination of any child. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
The Toddler's Busy Book - This book is full of inspirational ideas for keeping little ones busy. Some of the activities are craft projects, others are games, songs, etc. It's more of an activity book than a craft book, but it's got some great ideas in it.
The Little Hands Big Fun Craft Book: Creative Fun for 2- To 6-Year-Olds - This book is full of ideas that can get your little one crafting. Some of the project are pretty original, and they are already somewhat divided up into themes that you can use.
The Little Hands Art Book/Exploring Arts & Crafts With 2-To 6-Year-Olds - This is another really fun book that I refer to often. This is another excellent choice if you're looking for kid craft idea books! I think this one is more craft oriented than the one above and a better choice for pure crafting.
Science Play!: Beginning Discoveries for 2-To 6-Year-Olds - There are very few resources for science for very young children. The activities in this book are easy to do and give you a lot to talk about with your child. You can also use many of the activities in this book to supplement your kid crafts.
FamilyFun Crafts: 500 Creative Activities for You and Your Kids
- There are more fun craft ideas in this book than you can shake a stick at! Some of the projects will need a little adult help, but it's still a great resource book. It's one of my favorites because it has full color pictures of the projects instead of just drawings.
LeapPad and LeapFrog - When you don't have time to do a project or read a book, LeapPads are a great way to go. Each of my kids have their own, and they have played for hours with them. LeapFrog puts out some of the best learning toys on the market today!
Phonics Programs - If you are considering starting a reading program with your child, you may be confused about which one is right for your child. I may not be able to clear up your confusion, but I can tell you which one I think is best for younger children and why.
Music Resources for Parents
We play a lot of music at our house... I have found that music is a natural energy burner and those inside days, and it helps my kids be more creative. Music is often running in the background when we are doing other things, instead of the television, making me feel that we are getting the most of our time together. Aside from all that, my kids love to dance to anything and everything!
Music For The Mozart Effect, Volume 1, Strengthen the Mind - My husband bought the Mozart Effect CD's for our first child when she was just a baby. I believe they had just come out at the time. We loved it then and still do. This particular CD often plays in the background when the children are doing their projects or practicing their letters.
Music For The Mozart Effect, Volume 2, Heal the Body - This is the one that all three of my "babies" listened to as they drifted off to sleep in their first few months. Now this is the music that the kids listen to when they are winding down for the night, or sometimes during story time.
Music For The Mozart Effect, Volume 3, Unlock the Creative Spirit - As with the other two, we often play this one in the background when we are doing something else. Believe it or not, this CD will sometimes pull my children out of one of their whiney moods... no guarantee that it will work on your kids though!
Singable Songs for the Very Young: Great with a Peanut-Butter Sandwich - We just happened upon Raffi one day at Walmart and my kids have been a fan ever since!
Baby Beluga - This is one of my son's favorite CD's... he will listen to it over and over again.
One Light One Sun - Raffi hits the mark again - my kids love this one too! I don't know why he is so magnetic to children.
The Singable Songs Collection - If you are just starting out with Raffi, I highly suggest that you get this 3-disc set. It has enough Raffi songs to keep your kids busy for a really long time, and you save yourself a little money over buying them one at a time. I didn't figure that out until we had already bought several.
La Vida Mickey - This is probably the most up-beat children's music we've found that doesn't drive Mom nuts! This is the one that I usually request because the songs are based on adult music with kids lyrics and I actually like listening to it.
Great Kid Videos
Many moms that I run accross think that it makes them bad parents if they let their kids watch television. I disagree. I think it makes you a bad parent if you don't monitor what your kids watch. We watch a little television most days, and once in a while we watch a lot of T.V. Sometimes I just need a break. I find the kids something entertaining, engaging, and often educational to watch long enough for me to get the kitchen cleaned or fold the laundry. Sometimes I even sit down with a cup of coffee and watch the new in the other room. I think I'm entitled to this little luxury once in awhile.
Muzzy - We started our kids out on Muzzy (Spanish) when my oldest was about three. They claim that a child will learn a second language by watching the tapes. I'm a big fan of Muzzy, but I haven't seen any evidence that my children are learning to speak Spanish. They have picked up some of the words, but I'm mostly hoping that it will help them later on when they seriously study other languages. They really like these videos, however, and they do provide a better alternative to pure cartoons.
Schoolhouse Rock! - It's hard to believe that Schoolhouse Rock is really 30 years old! I grew up on this and couldn't wait to share it with my kids. Now they love it as much as I do.
The Sound of Music - I absolutely love this movie and I put it in one Saturday when the kids were playing with their trains. To my surprise, they were glued to the television once the first musical number started (The hills are alive with the sound of music...), and they watched the entire movie. They request it often and we all sing the songs together. My two year old son even spontaneously breaks out in "Doe a deer."
Toy Story, Toy Story 2 (2 Pack) - My kids begged me to watch these every day for weeks when we first bought them. The first Toy Story is one of my son's favorites, but I found out that my daughter was getting tired of seeing it when one day she flopped on the couch and said under her breath "I don't want to see that damn Woody again." Needless to say, I was speachless... and she couldn't see the movie from her bedroom after she was punished for cursing. Now it has settled into it's regular spot in the video rotation (my daughter watches it too!).
Monsters, Inc. - We rented this movie when it first came out on video to see if the kids would like it and if it would scare them. They loved it... even my two year old laughed his but off. They cried when we had to take the movie back to Blockbuster. I think they'll get this movie for Christmas. It's costing me a fortune to keep renting it.
Disney, Disney, Disney - My kids are a big fan of most of the Disney movies. I don't mind them either, even after seeing them 20 or 30 times. We originally bought all our videos on VHS, but have decided it's worth the investment to replace them all, a little at a time, with DVD. Our VHS are actually wearing out and a few have broken. Some of my kids favorite Disney movies are: The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story I and II, and Bambi. The latest favorite movie is Tarzan, so I'm sure we'll be adding that one to our library soon!
Reading To Your Child
There are so many great books out there to read to your child, how could I ever choose just a few? There's no way that I could. The books I recommend below are the ones that we have gotten the most mileage out of, or they have offered something special to one or all of my children. I love reading to the kids, and it has instilled the kind of love of books in my children that I have always had. Reading is probably my favorite pastime.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - I believe that this story was single handedly responsible for teaching my son his letters. He was hooked on this book the first time I read it to him and he never gets tired of it. I started out by pointing to the letters as I read it to him, now he points them out to me!
The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury - This is THE bedtime storybook at our house. We read stories from this book nearly every night. My husband and I like it because it contains so many of the great stories we remember when we were growing up all in the same book. My kids love the stories, of course, but they are also mesmerized by all the great original illustrations. If you read to your children at all, this book is a MUST HAVE!
A Hatful of Seuss - To be honest, I used to dislike Dr. Seuss, but Seuss stories have grown on me immensely. Not a week goes by that we don't read something from Dr. Seuss. This is an excellent collection of stories and will keep you tongue-tied reading to your child for a long time. It's a good collection that I highly recommend.
My First Animal Board Book - We bought this book for my oldest when she was about 2 years old. When my son came along, she shared it. Now the baby is looking at it too. It is a little ratty, missing the front cover, very loved book. The kids still bring it to me from time to time and ask, "What's this called?" I expect the baby will be doing the same before too long. This is one of the very best book purchases I ever made for the kids.
