Kid's Activities & Crafts Archives - Page 2 of 3

Innovative Kids’ Storage Solutions

May 6, 2013 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

How often do you find yourself telling your children to tidy their bedroom? Why is it that children seem to continuously manage to create a bomb site of their room?

Is it because they pull out every toy under the sun? Or could it be because they never put dirty clothes in the laundry or clean ones in the wardrobe? Well, all these things are factors, but perhaps the main reason behind messy rooms is a lack of storage.

As adults, we find all sorts of nooks and crannies to stash things away making it difficult to find them again! Children always need access to their clothes, toys, books, homework, pens, computer and so on, so they find it easier just to leave it where it is.

With innovative storage solutions, you could make it a whole lot easier for your child to tidy up after themselves and you to keep on top of the mess.

Kids’ storage should be colourful, fun and useful. If your child’s bedroom is packed full of dull brown and grey drawers or wardrobes, they won’t engage with it. Just picture the bedroom of a three year old – I imagine serious and dark furniture isn’t what first springs to mind.

Use Colour

By incorporating bright colours into the room, you’ll immediately make it more interesting and engaging. Of course, colour alone isn’t going to lead to a tidy bedroom. When installing furniture in a kid’s bedroom it needs to be safe and durable. Some key things to look out for include rounded edges, the construction material and just how much storage it really offers.

There are loads of pieces of furniture you’ll need to make up a kid’s bedroom, including the bed itself, wardrobes, drawers, desks, study units, shelving and so on. With this in mind, many parents avoid going down this route for the fear that kitting out a bedroom packed with kids’ furniture will cost an arm and a leg.

Fortunately, that’s no longer the case, as it is possible to get stylish pieces for less than you think. For example, Kidspace furniture available at Woolworths.co.uk manages to incorporate colour, style, durability and remain at a relatively low price – so why not take a look today?

Extra Curricular Activities: How Soon is too Soon for your Kids?

January 17, 2013 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Participating in extracurricular activities is enriching for the development of children and teens. It’s a great way to get them interested in healthy hobbies, stay in shape, and practice social skills, outside of the school environment. Studies show that participation in extracurricular activities leads to healthier, happier, and well-adjusted children. In addition, the challenges of mastering a skill, healthy competition, and needing to work with others as a team teaches children imperative lessons that help them throughout their entire lives. For these reasons, many parents are eager to enroll their children into classes and teams as soon as possible. However, there’s been a growing concern that perhaps children are overstressed or starting out too young, foregoing much-needed time for creative play and relaxation. It’s important for children to start young so they become habituated to the active lifestyle that extracurricular activities provide, but a balance needs to be met between engagement and an appropriate environment for children to explore and play.

Choosing the Best Extracurricular Activities:

The age of your child is not as important as their skill level and temperament. Assess if your kids are at a stage where they are ready to interact with peers and participate in an activity. Some children may be more comfortable in foreign social environments sooner than others. Certain activities also require motor skills, memorization, and the ability to follow directions that your child has not developed yet. Regardless of skill level, there are a variety of activities to choose from that can suit children of all ages.

Gymnastics:

Gymnastics is a great sport for young children, as they love to tumble, climb and crawl. Children’s bodies are still flexible and limber, making it much easier to execute gymnastic forms. There’s also a high level of personal instruction for children still learning the nuances of rules and procedure. Finally, the padded floors and walls make gymnastics an incredibly safe sport for toddlers.

Swimming:

Swimming is also a great sport for young children. The buoyancy of the water eliminates any impact with harsh surfaces, presenting fewer risks for kids. Swimming classes can also be taught as a group, or in a one-on-one environment. The personal attention received in one-on-one lessons can be helpful for children that are nervous or anxious in unfamiliar environments. Swimming classes also aren’t as competitive as other sports and provide ample opportunity for your child to focus on learning a few simple strokes while having fun in the water. As swimming lessons are offered to toddlers and infants, you can begin classes as early as you like.

Art Classes:

Art classes can be a lot of fun for small children. Introductory art classes leave ample room for your child to have fun and be creative with minimal pressure. As budgets for art programs decrease in schools, it’s important that we as parents encourage the arts in extracurricular activities. Creative arts are more than simply aesthetics; they can help your child develop the skills to creatively solve problems and they are also healthy venues of self-expression.

Important Things to Remember:

Although parents are free to enroll children at any age, to avoid overwhelming and stressing your child, there are few things to keep in mind:

Keep it fun and relaxed: The objective for young children is to stimulate interest in extracurricular activities. In the beginning, it’s important to allow your child to have fun and associate positive feelings towards active pursuits. You don’t want to risk frightening him or her from the experience with something too difficult or boring. Choose an activity that will allow your child to experience fun and enjoyment.

Choose activities with low pressure and competition: Introducing your child to a highly competitive environment too early can be very stressful and unhealthy. Choose activities that allow for more collaborative play with less emphasis on achievement and competition.

Be mindful of risk and injury: Young children are very vulnerable to injury and lack the skills to protect themselves. Choose an activity that is safe and has minimal physical contact.

Ultimately, it’s important to allow your child some room to pick and choose something they like and they’ll be more likely to continue participating. When children are very young, it’s important for them to associate positive emotions with healthy hobbies than it is for them to master them or compete. Thrusting children into overly demanding, stressful, and foreign environments prevents them from obtaining the benefits of extracurricular activities. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to gradually increase challenges or pick more strenuous activities when your child becomes older. For now, keep it light and fun and your child can begin reaping the benefits of extracurricular activities at any age.

Guest Post Bio: Brett Callan is an instructor at murraycallanswimschools.com, where their Escondido swim lessons offer customized support for children throughout San Diego. He loves to enjoy the San Diego weather whenever he can, whether from the beach or at a pool.

Games that Teach Children How to Read and Count

November 12, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

If you are looking to buy a game for your child, what about getting an educational game? There are educational games that can teach children the letters of the alphabet, how to read and spell words, how to count and much more.

For preschool children (below the age of 6), we recommend phonics games. There is a wide range of phonics games that can help children learn the alphabet and acquire early reading and math skills. Leapfrog has great phonics games such as the Phonics Learning Desk, the Phonics Radio and the Friends Phonics Bus. Our favorite, the Phonics Learning Desk teaches children the ABCs, how to count, how to write (children use the pen provided) and even how to add numbers.

For school age children, there are many games that can help kids acquire skills and knowledge. For example, board games can be a great way to learn about history and geography. If your child has difficulty memorizing countries and cities, there are geography board games such as Brain Quest Around the World that help children memorize continents, countries and cities all while having fun.

If your child is not doing well in history class, there are also history board games that have children learn about history. There are board games such as American Trivia that are just focused on US history and that teach kids about the history of the United States and historical periods such as the Civil War.

There are also board games that cover the history of the world. We recommend a board game called This Day in History. In this game, players learn about historical events that they have to put in order in order to move their chips forward and eventually win the game.

If your child is struggling in math, we recommend dice games. Our favorite dice games include Bunco, Farkle, and Yahtzee. These games are fun because they combine strategy and math. Children practice addition and multiplication and they also have to strategize in order to win the game. Another positive aspect of dice games is that they are great travel games as they can easily be carried around.

There also educational games that enhance literacy skills such as word board games. One of our favorite word board games is Scrabble. There is also a junior version called Scrabble Junior which is more appropriate for children ages 8-12. There many other fun word board games that the family can play together and enjoy. And by playing these games, children enhance their literacy skills.

For more information about phonics games and other educational games, please visit: Smart-kid-educational-games.com

Fun Christmas Crafts for Kids and Parents

November 2, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Christmas is such an exciting time for children, it is not just that one day of the year where gifts are given and received. It is the anticipation and the preparation as well. Any part of Christmas that you can include your children in will make it that much more memorable and exciting. I have found a lot of great ideas for including your child in decorating this holiday season which I am going to share with you.

Handprint Christmas Tree – This is a wonderful craft to do with younger children. You will need green, brown, and yellow construction paper, pencil, scissors, glue stick, and decorations for your tree. Decorate the tree using glitter, stickers, crayons, paint; small craft store pom-poms would be cute as well. They recommend that you trace your child’s handprint and then cut it out and use it as a template for nine more handprint cutouts. You glue the handprints in an overlapping pattern, four at the bottom, three above that, then two, then one on the top. Fat at the bottom and narrow at the top just like a real tree. The addition of a yellow star on top and a brown trunk on the bottom and there you have it. Now let your child decorate their very own tree! Craft Idea found here.

Cotton Ball Santa – What fun your children will have making a Santa with a beard of cotton balls! You start with a paper plate and then add some paint, googly eyes, a pink pom-pom from the craft store for the nose, red craft foam for his hat, and cotton balls for his beard and hat tassel. Younger kids may need some help cutting out his hat but other than that it is something that kids of all ages will enjoy and it is also super cute. You could even give them away as gifts to friends and family members. Craft Idea found here.

Sugar Cone Christmas Trees – Here is a decoration that is really sweet! I imagine there will be a lot of finger licking going on while making this Christmas tree. This is a fun project for younger children. You will need sugar cones (the pointy ice cream cones) and ready-made or homemade icing colored green with food coloring. Start with a paper plate or something to catch the excess decorations and spread the icing on the cones. Have the children decorate with candies of your choice. M&M’s, licorice ropes, sprinkles, gumdrops, and any candy you think will look festive. You can get really creative with it and your kids will have fun eating the decorations too. Craft Idea found here.

Coffee Cozies – These are so cute and can be used as gifts for teachers or neighbors from you or your children. Using inexpensive woolen, colorful socks cut off the ends of the socks and use the middle part. Make sure you get a sock large enough to go over those nice disposable cups with lids. You can use buttons and felt glued on for a snowman or you can get self-adhesive felt stickers from the craft store. What a neat idea and so very festive and Christmassy! Craft Idea found here.

Button Ornaments – These are the cutest ornaments for older children to make. The younger ones would need help with this one but it is really adorable. Using pipe cleaners and various sizes of buttons you can make several different types of ornaments. You may need a little felt, glue, and thread to finish these off but basically they are buttons! The site offers the detailed instructions for these but they donot sound too hard at all. Craft Idea found here.

Crystal Snowflake – This one is a cross between a terrific Christmas decoration and a science experiment! The snowflake is made from pipe cleaners and suspended down into a jar or glass container large enough so that it doesn’t touch the sides. You combine a mixture of Borax, blue food coloring, and boiling water and let your snowflake hang in this overnight. As the water cools it creates the crystals! What fun to get up and discover what happened to your plain pipe cleaner snowflake over night! Craft Idea found here.

Button Wreath Ornament – Another sweet button ornament which calls for using copper or floral wire, satin ribbon, seam binding, and some needle nose pliers. The site says not to worry if you don’t have that many buttons around at home because the craft or fabric stores offer them up by the bag full. This is such a sweet ornament for your tree; it has a nostalgic feel to it for me because it reminds me of my Great Grandma’s button jar that we played with when we were young. I am going to give all these button ornaments a try! Craft Idea found here.

Light Up Christmas Tree – This Christmas Trees lights come on in the sunlight. Cut out a Christmas tree from green construction paper and use a hole punch to punch out a hole everywhere you want a light to show up on your tree. You will need a multiple color pack of tissue paper which you can easily get at the dollar store. Have some kid safe scissors on hand for your children to cut out small squares of tissue in all colors and then using a glue stick, glue them on the back of the tree over the holes you punched. After it dries you can hang it in the window and let the sun come shining through and watch your Christmas lights glow! Craft Idea found here.

Homemade Christmas Ball Ornaments – This is an easy decoration for a child of just about any age with a little supervision. According to this site you can purchase clear glass or plastic ball ornaments from craft stores. They recommend watering down your glue to make it thinner. Taking the top off of the ornament you can then pour the glue into the ornament and swirl it around to coat it and then pour excess glue back into the cup. Then do the same thing with glitter, pour into ornament, swirl, and then dump it out. After letting the ornament dry fully place the top back on and use a pipe cleaner for a child safe hook. This could be used as a gift for grandma and grandpa! Craft Idea found here.

Gumdrop Pops – I think these gumdrop pops are just precious! You can create them to put in cellophane packages and use as edible package decorations, stocking stuffers, or you can put them on display. They are made of gumdrops of course along with sprinkles and other small candies. There are step by step instructions on how to make Santa, a snowman, holly, Christmas trees, and even mushrooms. It takes a steady hand for those sprinkles I would think but what a cute outcome! Craft Idea found here. Craft Idea found here.

Pom-pom Christmas Tree – What a sweet, soft little Christmas tree this is. What a great decoration for the little ones to make. This tree is made using a cardboard Christmas tree cut out of a cereal box or other light weight cardboard. You will need some Elmer’s type glue and different colors and sizes of pom-poms. You can make your tree the traditional green adding the other colors of pom-poms for the lights or make a not so traditional tree. Or maybe your children are like mine and love the pink, purple, or silver artificial trees they see at the stores and they want to duplicate. They will have fun making these trees no matter what they choose. Craft Idea found here.

These are just a few of many holiday decorating ideas to create with your kids. It is a wonderful way to be with your children over the holidays and to create fun decorations and wonderful memories together.

Guest Post Author Bio:

Jack Meyer is a regular contributor for http://www.nannybackgroundcheck.com/. As a detective he wants to spread the knowledge of terrible things that can happen when people don’t fully verify the credentials of a caregiver or any employee. He also writes for various law enforcement blogs and sites.

5 Homemade Gifts Kids Can Make

March 5, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Guest Post:

Homemade gifts are often the best kind, especially when they are made by children. Making gifts takes time and effort rather than money, which makes them even more valuable. Have your kids try giving one of these easy homemade gifts today, and watch smiles appear.

1. Wind chimes – Almost anything can become a wind chime. Sea shells, a piece of driftwood, and some fishing line make a beautiful ocean-themed wind chime. Buttons, thread, and a wooden hanger make a cute wind chime for the quilter in the family. Even a mechanic will enjoy a wind chime made of a wrench, washers, and twine.

2. Pen holder/candle holder – Almost any tall, thin container can be made into a pen holder for the office worker’s desk. Just decorate with paint or material and voila! Instant character and panache. An old wine bottle or glass bottle can be decorated in the same way and used as a candle holder.

3. Bird bath/bird feeder – The easiest way to make your own bird feeder or bird bath for a gift is to find a clay pot and saucer. Turn the pot over and place the saucer, bowl up, on top. Then fill with water or bird seed. Super simple, light, and easy to clean, this makes for a great gift. Decorate with waterproof outdoor paint or markers.

4. Paperweight – Start with a rock and go from there. A simple stone can be turned into a beautiful paperweight by the application of latex paint, markers, or material. Little boys love ‘rock monsters’ and adding googly eyes to a green-painted stone make for an interesting conversation piece. Let the kids’ imagination run wild.

5. Soup in a jar – Almost any recipe can be made with just a few ingredients. To make this a fun gift, carefully layer the dry ingredients in a mason jar and accessorize with ribbon. Make sure you include the recipe card so that the recipient knows how to duplicate it later. No matter if it is soup or cookies, they are sure to love this tasty gift.

No matter what the children make, the recipient is bound to love it. Have your child create a homemade gift and remember what gift giving is really for- showing your love and appreciation for the recipient.

Photos from MorgueFile

Guest Author Bio: Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She is a frequent contributor of nanny service. Learn more about her here.