Fun Activities To Enjoy With Your Kids

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For many parents, fostering creativity in their kids is important. It helps them to become more imaginative thinkers when they're older, helps them work independently, and teaches them how to follow directions and clean up after themselves. 

Finding age-appropriate creative activities is very easy. Some crafts might need a little supervision, but many, especially for older kids, are great for your children to sit down and get on with on their own. But even if they can do them alone, it doesn't mean you don't want to join in and spend some time with your kids. Try these crafts that you can enjoy with your children, whether they're three or thirteen.

Baking

Older kids can get baking on their own, when they're responsible enough to be safe in the kitchen. But even little ones as young as two or three can help you make cakes or cookies. There are plenty of tasks that small children can get involved in, from measuring ingredients to stirring batter. If you want to bake with little ones, choose some easy recipes for things they can decorate once they're baked. Cupcakes and plain cookies are fun to ice, and the simple recipes are easy to measure out and mix up, and then either pour into molds or cut out with cookie cutters.

Jewelry Making

Both boys and girls can enjoy making jewelry, with different levels of difficulty for various ages. Younger children will have no problem stringing beads or uncooked pasta onto a chord and tying it off to make a necklace, bracelet or even belt. When they're older, they can try some things that are a bit more fiddly, or get out a hot glue gun. Clasps and jewelry fittings might be a bit too small for tiny fingers, but a proper jewelry making kit is an excellent present for older children. You can also get easy to use kits for younger ones, where items can be clipped together.

Candle Making

Candle making is an easy thing to do, although you'll need to supervise young kids. As long as everyone knows to be careful with the hot wax, melting it down and adding colors and scents is like creating a special potion and your own unique scent. You can do this craft on special occasions, making Halloween or Christmas candles to give to people as gifts.

Scrapbooking

As any parent who's found one of their favorite magazines cut into pieces can tell you, kids enjoy cutting things out and sticking them down. If your children like making collages, they'll probably enjoy scrapbooking too. A pair of safety scissors, a glue stick, and a scrapbook is all they need to get started. They can stick in anything they like, from photos and artwork to birthday cards and magazine cutouts. It's a great way for both you and your kids to preserve memories from their childhood.

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CLOSED {Giveaway} Green Kid Crafts Food Adventures Discovery Box Craft Kit

Green Kid Crafts is the maker of the original kids craft subscription box. For $19.95 per month, you receive a Discovery Box each month with 3 different and original crafts for children ages 3-8. Or each kit can be purchased individually without the purchase of a subscription.

Green Kid Crafts is a mom-owned, green company that provides sustainable crafts for kids. With Green Kid Crafts, both parents and kids can enjoy crafts and activities for children that spark creativity and cultivate respect and love for the environment. I love them because as a busy, working mom, I want the time that I have to spend with my children to be quality time filled with quality activities. Green Kid Crafts allows me that opportunity while providing my children with safe and eco-friendly craft items ad materials.

It's difficult to find green craft materials in most craft stores. Many craft materials are made with toxic materials. The earth friendly ones are available online, but who wants to go through the trouble of ordering individual items and waiting for them to arrive? That’s where Green Kid Crafts comes in.

One subscription. One new Discovery Box each month. No scrambling or scurrying on my part. And I've got 2 happy kiddos in the end.

Would you like to see for yourself how fun and unique these kits are? Pieces of a Mom is giving away one (1) Food Adventures Discovery Box to a lucky reader.

To create this very special Food Adventures Discovery Box, Green Kid Crafts partnered with Purple Asparagus, a nonprofit educating children about eating that's good for the body and the planet. The result is tons of (wholesome) fun: four fun craft projects, kid-friendly recipes, and over $20 in natural food samples and savings from our friends at Mambo Sprouts, Annie's, Stonyfield, Honest Tea Kids and more! 

The craft projects* include:

1. Create a fishing game
2. Grow an organic basil garden
3. Create your own tile coaster
4. Grow a sprout garden

The Food Adventures Discovery Box has a retail value of $25.50.

*All projects meet the Healthy and Happy Child Criteria and are earth friendly.

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WIN IT!

HOW TO ENTER TO WIN THE FOOD ADVENTURES DISCOVERY KIT:

(4 possible entries permitted per person):

You have several options, and each will count as one entry (as long as you've followed the specific instructions listed below). This giveaway is limited to residents of the United States, 18 years of age and older. All entries must be submitted by December 17, 2012. One winner will be chosen via Random.org and notified by email. Winner will have 24 hours to respond to claim the prize. If winner fails to do so within the allotted time frame, a new winner will be chosen. 

1. {Required} Leave a comment stating why the child(ren) in your life would enjoy this kit.

2. {Optional} Follow Pieces of a Mom on Twitter. Leave a comment stating that you do and include your Twitter handle.

3. {Optional} Follow Green Kid Crafts on Twitter. Leave a comment stating that you do and include your Twitter handle.

4. {Optional} Tweet the following: "Enter to win @PiecesofaMom's #giveaway: @greenkidcrafts Food Adventures Discovery Box (4 eco-friendly crafts): http://bit.ly/UtodIm"

You can find Green Kid Crafts on Facebook. 

Disclosure: As part of the Stonyfield Farm Yo-Getter brand ambassador program, I received a complimentary Green Kid Crafts Food Adventures Discovery Box.

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100 Things To Do This Summer

School will be out for the summer starting tomorrow. I'm hoping to stave off a favorite summer saying, "I'm bored", with this list.

Filled with all things small, large, and in-between, this list contains lots of fun things to do when you've got a few minutes to spare or a whole day to play.

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25 Days of Christmas: Day 19 ~ Handmade Ornaments from the Kids

Seriously. Who can resist an ornament made by your child? Just the thought of those little hands and fingers gluing and creating is enough to melt my heart. And the effort that goes into it, and the pride that results from it? Forget about it. I turn to mush.

I look forward to receiving these ornaments every year. They aren't perfect, but that's what makes them perfect. Every single one of them is dear to me, and I'll never throw them away. But I have collected a few favorites over the years.

Any ornament with a picture ranks high on my list of favorites.

I love the ornaments with a scribbly little signature.

The following ornaments are all-time favorites because 1) I collect snowmen, and 2) I love anything with a seaside theme.

 Emma made the snowman in her last year of preschool. Isn't he the cutest?

Harper made the shell ornament last year in her final year of preschool. I love how it kind of looks like a face, but not really. It's so imperfectly perfect.

Do you have favorite, handmade ornaments given to you by your child(ren)?

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25 Days of Christmas: Day 13 ~ Gingerbread Houses

I'm not gonna lie. Making a gingerbread house frightens me. Talk about setting myself up for failure. I love to bake, but baking something that requires that much precision is daunting.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've resorted to the next best thing to a made-from-scratch gingerbread house: a kit. There are some fantastic kits on the market, and to be honest, we've had just as much fun with a kit as we would've had baking it from scratch, with a lot less frustration, I might add.

If you are looking for a last minute holiday activity, give a gingerbread house a try this weekend. Here are my picks for best kits.

Wilton Gingerbread House Kit $25

Includes the pre-baked panels for the house, icing mix, decorating bag and tip, decorator candies, and complete instructions for assembly.

2. Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread Mini Village Kit $20

The pre-baked gingerbread houses come ready to assemble and decorate. This kit makes five festive houses. Contains five easy to assemble sets of gingerbread house panels, colored candy, white icing mix, red liquid color packet, two decorator bags, and two tips. Also includes cardboard bases for each house and instructions for assembly. You really can't go wrong with any baking item from Wilton.

3. Gingerbread Tree Kit

If you are looking for the gingerbread experience but want something a bit different, try the Gingerbread Tree Kit from Wilton. This brightly decorated tree would be the perfect centerpiece for your table. Stack 14 ready-made gingerbread stars by securing them with icing. Finish off the tree with icing and decorator candy for a beautifully trimmed tree that almost too good to eat! I said almost!

4. Gingerbread Train Kit $25

This one is always a big hit with the boys. Includes 16 pieces of pre-baked gingerbread for the train, plenty of decorator candy, one white and one green pre-mixed icing.

Kits can be purchased from amazon.com or from your local craft supply store.

If you decide to make a gingerbread house, tree, or train, have fun!

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Turkey Trot Kindergarten Party

Do you recall the holiday parties from your elementary school days? I can remember only one. It was my 5th grade Christmas party. I don't know why I can't remember ANY holiday parties other than this one.  Maybe they just weren't as fun as my 5th grade Christmas party.

My 5th grade teacher was so cool. She drove a red Triumph TR-7. It was a sports car that I thought was uber cool, which added to my teacher's overall ultra coolness. But anyway, I think I can still vividly remember the party because my teacher made such a positive impression on me. Plus, we made a really awesome tree ornament out of pretzels and crushed hard candy. I loved that ornament.

So, when I volunteered, way back in September, to organize Harper's Turkey Trot party for kindergarten, I knew I wanted the kids to think it was super fun. I wanted the craft to be something that was long remembered after the party had ended, and I wanted to play a game that would be fun for everyone, children and parents alike.

I knew the exact craft that I wanted to do with the class. It's one that I've been doing every year with my girls since their very first Thanksgivings; a hand print turkey. I thought it would be perfect for the children to give parents, grandparents, godparents or a special aunt or uncle as a keepsake.

I prepared the construction paper with the personalization ahead of time so that the only thing we had to in the classroom was paint the hands and stamp them onto the paper. The children then glued googly eyes onto the turkey, drew legs, a beak, and a gobbler. Lastly, I bought some foam stickers so the children could add a final touch to the hand print.

I was worried about the whole painting the hands and clean up factor involved. I thought that maybe the craft was a bit overzealous, but Harper's teacher told me that she loved it and thought it was a fabulous idea. She was even going to do it with her twin sons!

After the craft, it was time for our feast. We had mini corn muffins, pumpkin bread, cranberry nut bread, mini bagels and cream cheese, munchkins, and cupcakes. I love how the little kids just love the simple things. They were so happy to sit with their friends and enjoy some treats.

Lastly, after stressing about which game we'd play, I finally decided on the Pin the Gobbler on the Turkey!!! I drew the turkey on a piece of poster board and cut out red gobblers from construction paper. I labeled each gobbler with the child's number so that we knew who came the closest.

It was Harper's turn...

What a fun and special way to spend the morning with my baby girl and her kindergarten friends.

Did you attend a Thanksgiving classroom party for your child? What was the highlight of the party?

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Back-to-School Printables

I love putting little notes in lunchboxes and backpacks. But I often feel that they aren't cutesy or creative. Tip Junkie to the rescue {again}!!!

Tip Junkie has a wide variety of back-to-school printables, including "This Book Belongs To" stickers, door hangers, schedules, and more. Check them out here.

In the meantime, print this one out for fun and colorful lunchbox love notes!

{To print: Right click image and save to your computer. Open the file on your computer and print as usual.}

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Handmade Heart-Shaped Crayons

After racking my brain for an idea for Valentines to give to Harper's class, my girlfriend saved my cerebral cortex from a meltdown. She made these heart shaped, melted wax crayons last year for her daughter's class. They are super cute and incredibly easy. Oh and inexpensive, if you're anything like our household and just happen to have about 4 million crayons lying around! If you don't, go to your local dollar store to stock up.

Items you'll need:

Crayons (and lots of them), naked (wrappers removed) and broken into pieces
Heart shaped baking molds (I prefer silicone molds)

After peeling and breaking the crayons, fill the baking molds about halfway with crayon bits.

Bake at 250 degrees F. for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the sizes of the bits. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool before removing from mold. Placing them in the refrigerator will speed the cooling process.

Using a glue dot or a glue gun, place a small amount of glue along edges of your heart shaped crayons and attach to a piece of card stock. Add a "colorful" sentiment for your Valentine!

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Valentine's Day Craft: Stained Glass Hearts

After searching for an easy and inexpensive Valentine's day craft for kids, I finally found one. Surprisingly, it was one of Martha Stewart's ideas...easy and inexpensive? Doesn't sound like Martha, but I'll try it.

Here's what you'll need:

Required Supplies:
Crayons (varying shades of red, purple and pink)
A pencil sharpener
Snack size storage bags or small bowls/containers
Wax paper
Heart templates (for tracing) and a pencil
An iron
Paper towels
Newspapers
String or embroidery thread

1. Remove the wrappers from the crayons. Sharpen the crayons and place the shavings into bag or bowl. You can mix colors or keep them separate.

2. Place a few layers of newspaper on your work surface to make cleanup easier and to keep wax from being transferred to work surface during the ironing process.

3. Tear off a piece of wax paper making sure it is large enough to fold in half to accommodate the size heart you wish to make. Fold the piece of wax paper in half. Open it making sure the crease is visible.

4. Sprinkle the crayon shavings on one side of the wax paper. Fold the empty side of the wax paper over the shavings side.

5. Cover the folded wax paper with a paper towel.

6. With the iron set on the lowest setting possible, iron over the paper towel being sure to keep the iron moving so the wax paper does not burn. Continue ironing until all the crayon shavings are completely melted.

7. Remove the wax paper and place on a wire rack to cool for a minute or two. Once it has cooled, trace your template onto the wax paper, cut and hang by a window.

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Valentine's Day is just around the corner

It's not too early to start thinking about Valentine's Day. I can't bear the thought of giving those cheesy, store-bought Valentines to Emma's and Harper's classmates. Where is the creativity in those things? They lack originality. They're blah. This year, I'm raising the bar. Click here to see what I gave to the girls last year and what we gave to Emma's classmates.

I've gotten some super cute ideas from Skip To My Lou. Click here to take a look at some of the uber creative Valentine's Day projects, ideas and free printables.

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Thanksgiving Traditions

TwitterMoms and Target are hosting a contest, and I'm getting in on the action. A chance to win a $50 Target gift card...enough said!

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday. It's laid back, easy and there's absolutely no pressure. Plus, who can forget all the yummy food? In our house, we have several traditions that we take part in every single year, and it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them.

1. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Seriously. Who doesn't watch this parade? The girls and I look forward to it all year long. We gather together on the sofa with our comfy blankets and chatter about the balloons, performers and (mostly lame) commentary!

2. Cooking and Baking
On the day before Thanksgiving, we spend most of the day in the kitchen. Isn't that the best seat in the house for Thanksgiving? We make pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread. I also make a potato stuffing that is out of this world. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe that my mother and grandmothers made their whole lives. It's a lot of work, but one bite tells you it was worth every ounce of effort and every second of time.

3. Turkey Hand prints
Every year, we make the same Thanksgiving craft and we pull out the ones from previous years to reminisce. I paint the palms of the girls' hands with washable, brown paint. We stamp their palms unto white construction paper. At each finger we write something for which they are thankful. It's so fun to look at the crafts from years ago. Every year we laugh hysterically at one Emma made when she was 3...she was thankful for her Gymbo the clown hand puppet!!! It's fun, easy and not too messy.

Did I mention that I LOVE Thanksgiving???!!!

Check out TwitterMoms to see how you can participate in this fun contest!

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Fall fun!

Over the weekend, we attended a fall festival here. Plenty for the adults (Starbucks samples and wine tasting!) and for the kiddos (face painting, pumpkin painting, bracelet making). Who knew red wine and pumpkin bread make such a great combo!! :)

Painting pumpkins!Making Halloween key chains and bracelets!Plenty of photo ops in the pumpkin patch!

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More refrigerator clutter

If you're a mom, you're likely to have your fair share of refrigerator clutter. I, for one, can tell you that my fridge is littered with magnets, artwork (from years gone by), forms, inspirational pictures, coupons, reminder post-its, appointments cards, and more magnets. The last thing I need is more fridge fashion.

But on Saturday while we were at the Point Pleasant Beach seafood festival which included craft vendors, I inevitably came home with yet more magnets. While I was looking at some Halloween decorations, Harper wandered over to a basket filled with wooden stars with inspirational messages on them. Oh, great, just what we need, more stuff that will end up underneath beds. To my surprise, she had hit on some super cute magnets. They were $2.50 a piece or 3 for $6. We each chose one, and they are proudly displayed on our refrigerator!


How cute!

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Cheers to Mother Earth!

I'm not sure when it happened, but I was bitten by the "green" bug. Yes, I am a self-proclaimed tree hugger. I've been recycling for more than 10 years, but more recently, I've been absolutely fanatical about the 3 R's...reduce, reuse, recycle.

On this Earth Day, I am embracing my inner green and I'm proud of it. It's suddenly cool to be green. It's hip to use canvas bags at the grocery store or any store for that matter. I love that I've had an effect on family members, too. Emma is going green by recycling all of her unwanted school papers. She's also been very conscious about turning off her bedroom lights when she's not in the room. My sister Brenda rides her bike to work! How awesome is that? I've even been able to convince my sisters to start using environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Emma was so excited this year when she learned that the first graders were going to be performing an Earth Day concert on Friday for family and friends. As part of the concert, each child was given a paper plate and asked to design an earth on the plate. They'll be wearing these around their necks during the concert. She couldn't wait to do the project. Although I helped her draw the continents, she did the rest by herself. Take a look. Oh, that's glitter, by the way. Emma's all about the bling!!

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Spring Break: Day 3

Because it rained all day (again), we planned to stay in and work on Emma's birthday party invitations. I was very ambitious this year with the invitations. I've had every intention of making Emma's invitations, but until we settled on a theme, my hands were tied. Finally, last week, she decided on a theme. Phone calls were made and a place was booked.

She's having an indoor swimming party. She really, really wanted her party to be "at a place" this year. And if you remember a prior post about party planning, you'll recall that we've always hosted her parties at our home. This year she's excited to have her party somewhere other than our house.

For the swimming party, I wanted to make invitations in the shape of bathing suits. I googled "bathing suit birthday invitations" and found an invitation with a bathing suit. I created a template by enlarging the bathing suit to fit a 5" x 7" card and printing it. After I cut out the template, I traced the it onto card stock and cut it using various card stock prints.

I formatted the text using a word processing program in the shape of the bathing suit. I printed the wording on plain white card stock, traced the template and cut the wording out. I used double sided tape to adhere the wording to the back of the bathing suit.

Each invitation is different. Emma thinks they are adorable, and I think the recipients will love them too! Here is a sampling of the 8 out of the 15 that I made. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming. But worth every second of the effort!

After all of our hard work, I took the girls out for pizza!

For Day 4, we have lunch with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece planned...and maybe some spring/summer shoe shopping afterwards!!!!

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Rainy Days = Creative Expression!

Turn stormy weather into fun with these paint your own rain boots. How cute, cute, cute are these boots? I am totally in love with them.

These sturdy, waterproof pull-on boots come with a set of special paints for decorating with any design that inspires your little artist. The waterproof designs stay on until wiped off with the magical erasing pads included in your kit. Then the boots can be painted all over again. So fun, your kids will wish for rain.

The kit includes: 1 pair of paintable boots, 6 colors of water proof paints, 32 magical erasing pads, 2 paintbrushes, 1 mixing palette, and instructions. Children's sizes come in a light blue tote, while adult sizes are packaged in pink.

The kits can be purchased here and here for $40.

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ABC's & 123's

Any parent of a preschooler wants nothing more than for his/her child to know their ABC's and 123's. When I was teaching Emma her basics, she picked everything up quite easily and quickly. With Harper, I've had to add some extenders to help her relate what she's learned.

Now, there's a fantastic resource to which I can turn for help. ABC and 123 is a learning cooperative focused on giving parents and caregivers the tools they need to teach young children. The site is celebrating it's kickoff today and will continue for the next two weeks. If you are a parent of a young child, you need to stop by and check it out. Plus, they are offering the chance to win giveaways during their two week kickoff celebration. Fabulous teaching tools and ideas combined with good giveaways...it doesn't get much better than that!

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