Photo Safari

One of my favorite activities to do on an almost-sunny day like today is to go for a photo safari.  In the age of digital cameras it is great to take an older one, empty the memory card, load the batteries, and hand it to a child.  The pictures are often not exactly what we would embrace as artistic, but sometimes seeing the world through the eyes of a child can only be done through photos.  To keep your camera as safe as possible, be sure to go over a few of the rules for using a camera.  This should include using an arm strap that can be tightened around your child's wrist.  Also, show the child where it is okay to touch and where to not touch showing them how to wrap their hands around the camera.  I have found they often find it difficult to find the button to push while looking through the camera so practicing this would be great.

We often give the kids a purpose to their photos.  One day we went out looking for items that looked like letters.  When we were done we created an inexpensive photo book with their picture on one page any my middle child wrote the letter on the other page while my oldest wrote a word that started with that letter.  Another day we went geocaching and found landmarks to take photos of as we travelled.  Flowers can make great subjects along with insects, words, and pets.

Take some great props with you, too.  Maybe a scarf could add a pop of color or play a game of hide-and-go-seek.  Bubbles are really fun to use to capture a moment.  When I was younger I heard of a goose statue being "goose-napped" from someone's front yard then slowly the family received pictures of the goose from different areas of the world.  You could use this idea in a slightly more legal way and take an action figure or Barbie doll our for an adventure around your every day world.

A child's confidence will soar when you step back and allow them to take the pictures.  Even if the pictures are blurry or miss the shot it is not hard to see how much fun this can be for your child and how much they can grow from a photo safari!

Valentine's Day Menu Options

One of my favorite things about Valentine's day is making the day special by sneaking in little notes in lunch boxes, leaving messages around the house, and making Valentine's-themed food for everyone to enjoy.  Here are a few ways that you can make the day a little extra special:

* Make heart-shaped ice cubes.  Many places sell ice cube trays that can be used (IKEA was my favorite and affordable).  If you really want to make it creative you can use a red or pink juice such as cranberry juice or pink lemonade.

* Use a cookie cutter to cut a heart-shaped sandwich.  This is great for school lunches.  Even a bunch of little hearts are really fun, too!

* The Dollar Tree often sells small, shaped Reynolds foil bowls that come in a variety of shapes including...you guessed it...a heart!  Mini pot-pies, dessert pies, or even casseroles, pasta dishes, and less traditional meals are great in these individual serving-sized containers.

* Heart shaped pancakes make a really fun breakfast!

* An easy to make treat is heart shaped rice crispy treats.  Use strawberry flavored marshmallows or food coloring for a pink tint to your treat.  You can also add some extra sweets to your sweets by adding the cinnamon candies, sweethearts, M & M's, or other candies.

* Check out our blog on the Sweet Heart Pops from January's edition of Family Fun magazine.

Sweet Heart Pops

This is an adorable idea for teacher gifts or gifts for friends during Valentine's celebrations.  This recipe will make 6 lollipops and you can present them nicely using lollipop bags that can be found at craft stores such as Michael's or JoAnn's and tied off with a ribbon.

Ingredients:
12 mini candy canes
6 paper lollipop sticks (6 inches long)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Red, white, and pink nonpareils or sugar sprinkles

1. Heat oven to 235 degrees.  Use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place the candy canes together so they create a heart shape and bake them for 10 minutes.

2. Quickly slide the parchment paper and the candy canes onto a working surface.  Use your fingers (this is a job for the adult) to pinch the candy canes around the lollipop stick.  The stick should start at the top of the heart where the two candy canes meet and go through the bottom in the middle.

3. Use the microwave to melt the white chocolate chips and oil together.  Microwave in 10-second intervals and stir in between heatings.

4. Once the chocolate was completely melted, spoon the mixture into the center of each heart, then top with the nonpareils or sugar sprinkles.

Let the pops cool completely before serving or wrapping.

Yarn Ornaments

This craft is great and easy for children of all ages.  Create a glue mixture using 1/4 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan.  Stir until the mixture is smooth then heat the mixture over medium heat until it is thick and translucent.  Remove from the heat and allow it to cool to the touch.  This mixture can be stored in the fridge for a week.  If it gets too gelatinous, then stir in 1/4 cup of hot water.

Cut yarn into pieces of about a foot long.  Use a cookie cutter to create a desired shape or you can free form it but cookie cutters are great ideas for smaller children.  Put the cookie cutter down on the shiny side of parchment paper.  Have your child coat a piece of yarn in the cornstarch glue so it is coated.  Run the yarn through their thumb and forefinger to remove excess glue and then place the yarn inside the cookie cutter.  Repeat this process until the cookie cutter has a thin layer of yarn throughout the entire shape.  Clean hands then come back and push the yarn flat.

Gently remove the cookie cutter (this is probably best for an adult to help small children with) and allow the yarn ornament at least a day to dry completely.  If you need to speed up the drying process you can place the parchment paper and ornaments directly into the oven set on "warm" for an hour or two.

You can use these for many different occassions.  Use red, white and pink yarn and a heart-shaped cookie cutter for Valentine's Day.  Green yarn with a christmas tree cookie cutter can be used for Christmas.  This can also be used for mother's day, birthdays, or even general decoration.

Paper Weaving

This is a great craft for kids and it is totally affordable.  You can use many different types of paper or even fabric.  Paper bags work great but so does construction paper.  If there is a theme or holiday around the corner you can paint the paper using colors that bring the theme or holiday into your craft.  When using paint, you can add a little bit of water to the paint so when it dries it doesn't tend to flake and it spreads easier.

You will want several panels of paper (it really depends on how many strips of paper you need and how many varieties of paper patterns you want to use).  Pick one paper that will be used as the base.  fold this panel into half and mark a line one inch from the edge of the unfolded side.  Make slits from the folded side to the line on the unfolded side at one inch intervals.

Take the other papers to be used and cut one inch strips (make sure you cut the paper so the strips are long enough to fit  from side-to-side on the base paper).

Weave the strips of paper through the slits in the base.  Using a glue stick or tape, secure the ends of the strips to the base.

Enjoy your beautiful cloth-like craft!

Finger Alphabets

This is a great way to get your children to practice writing their letters.  Set up a cookie sheet or pan with edges (shorter edges are good but you don't want a flat cookie sheet unless you have a really awesome vacuum) by placing a thin layer of cornmeal on the bottom of the pan.  Show your children how they can use their fingers to make letters or pictures, then roll up their sleeves and let them go!  If you want to try other materials such as flour, sand, or rice you can do so but cornmeal is a cheap option that works really well.

Kitchen Play

I understand how frustrating it can be trying to get dinner ready with little ones underfoot.  They want to know what you are doing, what that pan is for, why you're doing that, and can they help?  A great way to get them out of the kitchen while keeping them involved is to give them one or two pans with dried rice or dried beans and some kitchen utensils.  They can use the utensils to practice their measuring, make a pretend dinner, or just dig around.  If you are brave enough to give them two pans, they can scoop from one pan and pour into the other pan.  This will normally buy me enough time with my 2 1/2 year old that I can finish dinner with a shred of sanity left!!

Painting Easel

I have always wanted to buy an art easel for my kids but it takes up too much space, there's a huge waste of paper, and the paint makes a mess all over the house when the little one is not supervised.  I think I have stumbled across a solution: use a window, door, or other glass pane.  Using washable paint, this will be easily cleaned.  It can be set up outside (if you are really brave you can use your own back door!).  The only expense becomes the paint and brushes which you can purchase nice jars for paint at Lakeshore Learning or Learning Palace and it will help keep the paint a little more contained.

While visiting a children's museum in Seattle I saw this idea in use and I immediately thought of going to ReStore and finding a used window at an affordable price.  It would be easy to add a base of some sort (depending on the base you find.  Also, a picture frame might work if you hung an old frame on your fence your children could use that to paint.  The frames would have to be weatherized but there are stains or sprays that make that really easy.

Supply Storage

We live in a small house and I have tried to be pretty inventive on storing things so that our stuff is easily used but also not super cluttered.  I have by no means mastered this skill but I am slowly working on improving the systems in our home.

Craft supplies have been difficult to store because my youngest likes to color on everything with any type of pen or paint she can find.  I don't know how she does it but there always seems to be some sort of writing utensil that she finds!!  This means I don't want to keep the craft supplies accessible to the kids all the time but I do want them to be usable.  Also, I have a hard time with the idea that sometimes we don't get them all picked up before we move to the next craft adventure.  With all of this in mind, I decided that keeping craft supplies out of reach of the kids was the best idea for our family.

While our house is small, one thing we do have is storage above our kitchen cabinets.  I just found great baskets at Michael's on sale.  These baskets are fun and cute but also very practical because each basket has a small chalkboard on the front.  They come in different sizes and are easy to use with handles.  This is a very practical use of space above our cabinets and it will help us keep our craft, play dough, and other less used supplies in good condition.

Paper Dresses

One of my favorite parenting magazine is Disney's Family Fun.  They offer all sorts of great advice and share a lot of advice from other parents.  This month, one mom wrote in and shared and idea that I love because I have a princess who refuses to wear anything that isn't a dress.

The idea is simple: take a large piece of white paper, fold it over and trace your child's outline.  Cut the pieces out for your child then let them decorate.  Use paint, markers, curling ribbon, stickers or anything else you (or your child) desire.  When the dress is decorated, use a hole punch along the sides of the dress and string the two pieces together with yarn or curling ribbon.  The dress is now ready for your child to wear.

This can be done with two pieces of large colored cardstock found at Dollar Tree stores or you can purchase a roll of butcher paper at IKEA or we found one a few years back at Albertsons.

The thing I love about this is it would be a great play date or birthday party idea.  If you had a few helpers you could pre-cut the paper and have a few helpers oversee decorating while all of the girls made dresses and maybe even crowns for a tea party birthday.

Pen Pal Project

So I had a friend the other day complain about having to throw away (or recycle) her daughter's artwork.  Her daughter was distressed every time any paper she drew on had to disappear.  This gave me an idea.  I'm going to be setting up folders for different members of my family and friends who live out of town.  The folder is going to have a few letters stamped and addressed to that specific person.

I can now have my kids write a letter (or for the little ones draw a picture) to one of these people.  When my kids are done with an art project, they can select an envelope from a folder and mail it to a friend or family member.  This will help buy me enough time to get dinner done, a load of laundry folded, or anything else I need to do in 15 minutes.  My friends and family will be so excited to receive their letters, and my kids will have time to practice their writing (or drawing).