Crafts Archives

Fun Snowman Crafts for Kids

October 21, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I have to be honest. Winter is not my favorite season. There’s just something about cold weather that makes me want to curl up in bed and never get up. What I’m saying is that I’m basically a bear. 🙂

But I do love sharing winter crafts with my kids! Since we live in the South, we almost never see actual snow during winter, so we have to make our own. And these fun snowman crafts for kids are a simple way to do it! Check out these easy crafts you can share with your children this winter!

If you love these, don’t miss our All About Snowflakes Unit – a learning pack for kids in grades K-3! And if you have younger children, our Winter Sight Word Flashcards are an easy way to reinforce reading skills!

Fun Snowman Crafts for Kids

1. Borax Crystal Snowman – Science Kiddo

2. Cupcake Liner Snowman – I Heart Crafty Things

3. Snowman Factory – Buggy and Buddy

4. Melting Snowman Baking Soda Science Activity – Little Bins for Little Hands

5. Magic Foaming Snowman – Fun at Home with Kids

6. Build a Snowman Activity Tray – Happy Hooligans

7. Shredded Paper Snowman – Housing a Forest

8. Snowman Suncatcher – Craftulate

9. Squishy Snowman Sensory Bag – Mama Papa Bubba

10. Easy Snowman Footprint Craft – Teach Mama

11. Paper Snowman Craft – Easy Peasy and Fun

12. Tin Can Snowman – Hands On as We Grow

13. Snowman Stick Puppets – I Heart Crafty Things

14. LEGO Snowman – Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

15. Name Snowmen – Fun-A-Day

16. Build a Snowman Bottle – Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

17. Melting Snowman Slime – Little Bins for Little Hands

18. Egg Carton Snowman – Sugar Aunts

19. Paper Plate Snowman – I Heart Crafty Things

20. Cotton Ball Snowman – Easy Peasy and Fun

Make winter even more fun for your kids with these activities!

Plus, get more winter activity ideas on my Winter Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

Stop by and get more winter craft and activity inspiration from these posts!

Snowflake Printable Math Activity from Playdough and Popsicles

Exciting Children’s Reading List about Snow from Crafty Mama in ME

Board Books Celebrating Winter from The Jenny Evolution

Snow Science from iGameMom

Snowman Ornament from CraftCreateCalm

Melting Ice Science Experiment from Tales of Education at Home

Want to Build a Snowman? from Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading

Literacy Games for Kids: Outdoor Ice Scrabble from Schooling a Monkey

Snow Games for Kids Outside from FrogMom

25 Airplane Crafts for Kids

October 7, 2016 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

My three-year-old is constantly on the lookout for airplanes in the sky. If one of the other kids spots one, she has a fit until we show her where to look. Sometimes she doesn’t see it in time and then, well, let’s say she doesn’t handle that well. 🙂

Children of all ages love airplanes. There’s just something about the idea of flying through the sky that sends their imaginations soaring! So I rounded up 25 airplane crafts for kids that are fun, easy to make, and let kids “fly” just as high as they want!

If you love these, don’t miss our list of 25 leaf crafts or our list of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory crafts for kids!

25 Airplane Crafts for Kids:

1. How to Make a Paper Airplane – Tinkerlab

2. Paper Airplane Launcher – Frugal Fun 4 Boys

3. STEM Paper Airplane Challenge – Kids Activities Blog

4. Airplane Clothespin Kids’ Craft – DIY Inspired

5. Airplane Play Dough – My Nearest and Dearest

6. Airplane Coloring Pages – Itsy Bitsy Fun

7. Airplane Sensory Bin – My Mundane and Miraculous Life

8. Footprint Airplane Canvas – Glued to My Crafts

9. DIY Airplane Crayons – Nothing If Not Intentional

10. Star Wars Paper Airplane Comparison – Royal Baloo

11. Craft Stick Airplane – Pleasantest Thing

12. Make an Airplane Runway for Kids – Dirt and Boogers

13. Paper Airplane Races – Creative Family Fun

14. A is for Airplane Craft – Kidz Activities

15. Giant Paper Airplanes – Fireflies and Mud Pies

16. Wooden Toy Airplane Craft – Moms and Crafters

17. Stunt Paper Airplane – Craftulate

18. Design a Propeller Plane – Planet Smarty

19. Paper Airplane Hangers

20. Egg Crate Airplane – Schooling a Monkey

21. Easy Toilet Paper Airplane – Spaceships and Laser Beams

22. Make a Straw and Paper Airplane – Tinkerlab

23. Paper Airplane Canvas Art – Mom Endeavors

24. Toilet Roll Airplane – Your Modern Family

25. LEGO Paper Airplane Launcher – Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

Don’t miss these other crafts for children!

See more fun crafts for kids to make on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

This post is part of the Free Unit Studies blog hop! Stop by to read more fun airplane posts from these bloggers!

Styrofoam Cup Airplane Craft from Playdough and Popsicles

Exciting Reading List of Airplane Children’s Books from Crafty Mama in ME

Airplane Crafts for Kids from Look! We’re Learning!

Airplane Board Books for Toddlers from The Jenny Evolution

Airplane Travel from iGameMom

Learning Numbers with Airplanes from My Storytime Corner

Airplane Preschool Printables from Living Life and Learning

Airplane Color by letter Sight Words from Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading

Airplane High Frequency Words from Adventures of Adam

Clothespin Airplane Engineering Challenge from Schooling a Monkey

25 Leaf Activities for Kids

September 2, 2016 by Selena Robinson 7 Comments

Did I mention I love fall? I think that I say that every time I write about a fall activity.

But it’s true! Fall is my favoritest time of the year. Well, second favoritest after summer. (Also – is favoritest a word? It should be.)

We’ve made lots of leaf-themed activities before, including leaf flashcards, leaf garlands, and leaf snow globes.

But you can never have too many leaf ideas! These leaf activities for kids are a beautiful way to start discovering the season with the family!

25 Leaf Activities for Kids

1. Have some art fun with this Leaf Painting for Kids activity!

2. Learn about the special features that make leaves turn colors with this Leaf Chromatography experiment!

3. Try this How Do Leaves Breathe Experiment to find out how leaves get carbon dioxide!

4. These lovely Negative Leaf Impressions are a simple way to add art into your fall unit!

5. Gather the prettiest leaves in the neighborhood and make this Preserved Leaf Mobile!

6. Hand your smallest one some of these Fall Leaf Stickers and let them decorate a gift box!

7. Download this All About Leaves Printable Pack to talk about science and language arts with leaves!

8. This Autumn Leaf Threading activity is perfect for preschoolers!

9. There aren’t a lot of nature crafts that take my breath away, but this Stick and Leaf Butterfly Craft is downright gorgeous!

10. Let the kids set up an Autumn Leaf Investigation Table to encourage open-ended exploration!

11. Use those old toilet rolls to make this beautiful Toilet Paper Roll Leaf Stamping Tree!

12. Help tots learn their colors with this Fall Leaf Color Matching Activity!

13. Get a Maple Leaf Paper Punch and let the kids cut out leaf shapes!

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Easy Nature Art: Leaf Painting for Kids

August 8, 2016 by Selena Robinson 8 Comments

I’m so excited to be participating in this year’s Paint-A-Thon sharing fun painting ideas for kids! In our family, we absolutely adore fall, so I thought “Why not paint with tree leaves?” And that’s what we did!

Unfortunately, it’s late summer in Georgia, which means we’re not going to have autumn-colored leaves for some time. 🙂 But we got out some paint, including fall-themed colors, and started up anyway!

Take a look at our easy nature art project: leaf painting for kids!

Want some more fall activities for kids? Try our fall snow globe craft or use our leaf identification flashcards to go on a leaf hunt! And don’t miss our All About Leaves printable pack for more leaf learning!

Easy Nature Art: Leaf Painting for Kids

To do this activity, you will need the following: (Affiliate links provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

drawing paper
acrylic paint
an assortment of leaves (try to get ones that are large enough for your kids’ hands)

Just a quick note: This was the kids’ first time working with acrylic paint, so they were kind of surprised by how it moves on the paper. If your kids like tons of paint, definitely try tempera paint instead.

I asked everyone what colors they wanted to work with and we got started!

We put down two pieces of drawing paper – one as the “canvas” and another as the splat mat, plus paint palette. I just squeezed a bit of each color on the side.

This whole activity took maybe 15 minutes, but it was such a neat way to try art while using nature!

After we painted for a while, we started experimenting with printing.

And that was even easier, since all you have to do is spread enough paint on the bottom of your leaves and then press them down.

Lift them up slowly and you get a lovely leaf print!

Have even more leaf fun this fall with these posts!

Follow my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest for even more fall ideas!

And get more fun learning ideas and crafts for kids when you sign up for our email newsletter! Subscribe using the widget below.

This post is part of Paint-A-Thon 2016 – a collection of more than 200 painting ideas for kids! Stop by to get tons of art inspiration for your kids!

25 Beach Crafts for Kids

July 10, 2016 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Have you made it to the beach yet this year? We’re planning a quick trip to a local one in August, so I thought I’d look for some fun and adorable beach crafts for kids that we can make together before we leave!

What I love about studying the beach with kids is that the topic is so broad! You can learn about the sun, the ocean, ocean animals, beach sand, animals that live on the beach, seashells, ice cream, and so much more! So there are crafts for all these things below!

Read on to find some fun beach crafts you can try too!

25 Beach Crafts for Kids

1. Beach Diorama for Kids from Look! We’re Learning!

2. Puffy Paint Ocean Collage from ArtsyMomma

3. Seashell Keepsake Craft from Moms and Crafters

4. Beach-Themed Sand and Shell Art from Happiness is Homemade

5. Sand Footprint Craft from Paging Fun Mums

6. Newspaper Shark Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

7. Paper Plate Sun Craft from Buggy and Buddy

8. Starfish Ocean Button Craft from A Little Pinch of Perfect

9. Shell Sunflower Craft from Rhythms of Play

10. Sand Handprint Keepsakes from The Imagination Tree

11. DIY Beach Sand from Look! We’re Learning!

12. Cupcake Liner Sun Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

13. 3-Ingredient Ocean in a Bottle from Happy Hooligans

14. Paper Plate Seashell Craft from Artsy Crafty Mom

15. Sand in a Bottle Craft from Gift of Curiosity

16. Coffee Filter Beach Ball Craft from Look! We’re Learning!

17. Popsicle Stick Mosaic Sun Craft from Kids Activities Blog

18. Cupcake Liner Lighthouse Craft from Sugar Aunts

19. DIY Seashell Mobile from Nurture Store

20. Egg Carton Ocean Craft from The Imagination Tree

21. Bubbling Shell Painting from Mess for Less

22. DIY Moon Sand from Look! We’re Learning!

23. Paper Plate Beach Ball Craft from Glued to My Crafts

24. Sun Craft Scissor Skills Activity from A Little Pinch of Perfect

25. Beach Keepsake Craft from Fireflies and Mudpies

Need more summer learning ideas? Try these with your kids!

Plus, get even more ideas on my Summer Activities for Kids Pinterest Board!

And don’t miss my All About Beaches Printable Pack – perfect for keeping kids learning over the summer!

This post is part of the Summer Activities for Kids Blog Hop! Check out more summer fun for kids below!

Flower Suncatcher Nature Craft – Messy Little Monster

Make a Bee Bath – Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Water Play Car Wash – Play and Learn Everyday

Tic Tac Toe Races – Royal Baloo

Finding Dory Wind Sock Craft – The Gingerbread House

Farm Shoebox Diorama Craft

March 17, 2016 by Selena Robinson 7 Comments

A while back, we made a Beach Shoebox Diorama and the kids had so much with it that I thought we should make another one. So for this linkup with the Early Elementary Blogging Team, we decided to make a simple and fun Farm Shoebox Diorama Craft!

If you’re looking for a low-prep, easy craft that will keep your kids entertained, this is it! Roo, my most active child by a mile, actually sat in one spot and played quietly with the diorama after we finished. Talk about miracles!

Read on to see how to make this craft with your kids!

If you love this activity, don’t miss our other farm learning ideas, including our list of Kids’ Books about Farms and our printable Farm Animal Flashcards!

Farm Shoebox Diorama Craft

To make this craft, you’ll need the following:

An empty shoebox (a child’s size shoebox is perfect)
A copy of our free Farm Shoebox Diorama Printable Pack
Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Play sand
Scissors
Glue
Markers

Our Farm Shoebox Diorama Printable Pack has a background and farm props such as a barn, a tractor, and some farm animals. But you can also have your child draw his or her own farm pictures if you want to add a bit more art to the project.

After we cut out all of the pictures, Roo got to work on the background. We just used a blue marker for the sky, then he glued the farm scenery onto the bottom of the shoebox.

Then it was time to add the props! You simply fold each prop on the dashed line, then unfold it slightly to make them stand up!

Roo placed everything where he thought it should go.

Then we poured in about a cup of play sand. (Note: Resting the shoebox in the lid is a HUGE help when it comes to clean up.)

And we’re done!

If you look at Roo’s face, it’s basically saying “Hurry up and take the picture so I can play with it, Mom!” 🙂 And that’s what he did. He sat there for over an hour playing with his farm set.

And it only took 10 minutes to make!

Round out your farm theme with these other farm resources!

Get even more craft ideas from my Simple Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest!

Check out the other fun farm-themed posts by the Early Elementary Blogging Team!

Farm Odd Numbers Skip Counting Puzzles at Life Over C’s

Montessori Farm Activities (Free Printables) at Natural Beach Living

Are You My Mother? 13 Baby Farm Animal Puzzles at 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Make a Farm Diorama (Printable Sets Included) at The Natural Homeschool

Farm Animals Worksheets for Kids at Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading

Fun {FREE} Farm Writing Prompts! at Preschool Powol Packets

Animal Nutrition: Why Cows Eat Grass and We Can’t at Schooling a Monkey

Farm Books for Kids (Farm Study Unit) at The Jenny Evolution

Beginning Sounds on the Farm at Parenting Chaos

Farm Skip Counting Math Worksheets at Living Life and Learning

Kindergarten Math with Farm Fingerprint Art at Sugar Aunts

Hands-On Learning about Taste Buds

February 11, 2016 by Selena Robinson 9 Comments

Studying the human body is always a fun unit with kids. And one of the basic concepts is the five senses, right? But it turns out that every time I cover this unit, I learn something new. This time it was about how our taste buds work.

Now I’m probably exposing myself as an ignoramus, but I really never thought much about taste buds. Not what they did, not what specific tastes they detect, and certainly not where they were located. But I know a lot more about them now and so do my kids!

Check out our hands-on learning about taste buds, including a fun paper craft that you can recreate with your little ones!

Learning about Taste Buds

What really got me started on this activity was reading the Sesame Street book My First Book About the Five Senses with the kids.

This is going to be really pathetic, but I didn’t know that there are different taste buds on different parts of our tongues!

See? The taste buds at the back of the tongue are for bitter tastes, while sour and salty taste buds are located on the left and right sides. The tip of the tongue is where the sweet taste buds are located. Neat!

So I created a similar “tongue” on pink construction paper with taste bud “zones”.

Pretty close, right?

After we read the book, I handed Roo the paper tongue and some torn pages from a magazine so he could find pictures of food and glue them in the correct taste bud “zones”.

Any time there’s a chance to use scissors, he’s raring to go.

See that image of coffee on the table? Roo didn’t know where to put that picture on the paper tongue. After all, he’d never tasted coffee.

Time to do a taste test and find out!

He was super excited to taste a grown-up drink. But afterward, he came to the instant conclusion that…

Black coffee definitely belongs in the “bitter” zone.

So, he finished finding pictures and gluing them in the right places.

And while he worked, I read about taste buds with Piglet. As you can see, she had a pretty good time.

And Roo is all done! Coffee and onion are in the “bitter” section, pickles and grapefruit are in the “sour” section, salted nuts and chips are in the “salty” section, and a brownie and a clementine make up the “sweet” zone.

A tad bigger than the tongues in our mouths, but you get the idea.

We really enjoyed this project and Roo was so proud of his work that he ran out into the living room to show the rest of the family.

For more hands-on science fun, follow my It’s Science board on Pinterest!

And don’t miss the other fun human body learning activities this week from the Early Elementary Blogging Team!

STEM Respiratory System Investigation Asthma versus Healthy from Life Over C’s

What’s Inside Your Blood – An Edible Model from Preschool Powol Packets

Human Body Printables for Kids from Living Life and Learning

Telling the Time – Body Clock from Rainy Day Mum

Human Body Games for Kidsfrom The Natural Homeschool

5 Senses Unit from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Bones from Sugar Aunts

Human Body Math from Planet Smarty Pants

Parts of the Eye Painting from Still Playing School

5 Fun Winter Crafts for Kids

January 26, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Is anyone else kind of “over” winter? It seemed like the weather was never going to get cold and then BOOM! we all got hit with a massive winter storm and I was like “Okay, that’s enough cold for now.”

To get back to enjoying the fun of winter, I put together a quick roundup of fun winter crafts for kids that you can do in just a few minutes!

Today is also another Laugh and Learn linky party! Check out our favorite posts from last week and read more great posts from awesome bloggers below!

5 Fun Winter Crafts for Kids

Honestly, crafting is not one of my natural gifts. I’m the type of person that needs step-by-step directions to do most tasks. But these crafts are so easy even a non-crafty person (like myself) can do them in no time!

To get the scoop on how to make these crafts with your kids, stop over at Thinking Outside the Sandbox to get the details!

5 Fun Winter Crafts for Kids – Thinking Outside the Sandbox

Resources to Make Winter Crafts for Kids:

To make winter crafting even easier, try these great resources!

For more winter fun, follow my Winter Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

Onward to the linky!

This week we have some great links to share with you. We are very excited to bring you another great opportunity to linkup with us!

Welcome to our 67th week of Laugh and Learn – Home & Family Linkup! Laugh and Learn Linkup will be open by 6 am every Tuesday morning.
New: We have decided to expand our linkup to home and family categories! You are still welcome to share homeschooling or parenting posts with us. That will always be part of the #LaughLearnLinkup!

Each and every week, all of the hosts will pick one favorite post to be featured on the next week’s linkup. All of your links will be shared on three blogs.

We are also sharing the top four posts on Pinterest: #LaughLearnLinkup {Featured Favorites}. It’s added exposure for your awesome content!
Reminder: Please share this linkup! You can help us build a great family, home, parenting, and homeschool group.
Laugh and Learn Linkup was created by Tina from Los Gringos Locos. We want to thank her for this opportunity and send her big hug on her new adventure.

Your Fabulous Hosts 😉

Selena

Selena is a writer and a homeschooling mom to four kids, including three with ADHD/SPD. Selena and her husband, Jay, are committed to teaching their children at home and loving every minute of it! You can read about the family’s homeschooling experiences at Look! We’re Learning, written by Selena!
Find Selena at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
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Sarah

Sarah lives in Kentucky, USA, where she and her husband homeschool three children. Sarah writes for and about, families with special needs. She hopes to provide support and encouragement to all special needs parents in the homeschool community. Visit Sarah at Dedicated Homeschooler.
Find Sarah at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
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Haley

Haley hopes to encourage stay at home moms. She wants to help them learn how to make an extra income, to stretch a budget, to make crafts, and other useful information. Haley always has updates on the kids, and their funny antics. Visit Haley at Haley’s Vintage Finds & Deals.
Find Haley at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
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Most Clicked on Link

Selena’s pick for this week…

Note from Selena:
I love these ideas for making geography fun and hands-on in your homeschool!

Sarah’s pick for this week…

Note from Sarah:
We’ve actual conducted an experiment this year. With bipolar, ADHD, aspergers, and anxiety all in the mix, January is our most difficult month. So this year we just took it off. It’s been nice not feeling guilty about being to tired to get school done. I love Lindsey’s ideas for easing back into the routine.

Haley’s pick for this week…

Note from Haley:
These look amazing and I may even be able to get my kids to eat them!

Thanks to everyone who submitted a post. Please check out the post above by clicking on the image. If you enjoyed these picks as much as we did, please share them also!

Have you joined our Pinterest Board yet?

Follow Tina Ernspiker’s board #LaughLearnLinkup {Featured Favorites} on Pinterest.

Now give us your best posts!

An InLinkz Link-up

Color Crafts for Preschoolers with Family Fun Friday!

April 30, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This week’s Family Fun Friday is all about colors! Last week, bloggers shared some great posts with us and I wanted to feature some of the posts that highlighted color crafts for preschoolers.

Piglet will be beginning her preschool (lite) work this fall and we’ve already started introducing her to colors. With these fun color activities, she’ll learn them in no time! 🙂


Monica created Family Fun Friday and blogs at HappyandBlessedHome.com where she shares free preschool tools and printables, encouraging words for moms, and ideas for having fun together as a family. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google + / Bloglovin’/ Instagram. Monica will feature Family Fun Posts.

Selena is a homeschooling graduate and a veteran homeschooling mom to four super special kids. She blogs at Look! We’re Learning! about unit studies, foreign language, and homeschooling with ADHD. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Instagram / Twitter. Selena will be featuring homeschooling and kids’ crafts.


Herchel enjoys blogging about parenting, organizing, crafting, and having good old-fashioned kid fun her blog Scrggbug Corner. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Twitter /Google +. Herchel will feature organizing and family fun.

Britta was a military kid and is a military wife, now living in the high desert of Arizona and far, far from her New Orleans family. She happily homeschools and writes about the intersection of God’s Word and her world at Britta Lafont ~ Everyday Holiness. This year Britta wants to find that sweet spot between getting more done and enjoying the process. Britta will feature Delicious Recipes. Follow: Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram.

Christin blogs at illuminate. As wife to her high school sweetheart and mother to three premature children, she’s learned that God is the Perfect Party Planner and sometimes the unexpected is the greatest gift of all. Follow: Blog / Facebook / Pinterest / Instagram / Twitter. Christen will feature Inspirational Posts.

Here are my favorite posts for this week!

1. This Colored Water Transfer activity from Hands On As We Grow is perfect for outdoor fun!

2. Ten Kids and a Dog explains how to use simple Baking Soda Art to keep kids entertained on rainy days!

3. Cassie at 3 Dinosaurs shares a beautiful way to make Watercolor Butterfly Flower Paintings!

4. Learn how to help kids make Spring Flower Crafts with Pipe Cleaners at Mini Monets and Mommies!

5. The Jersey Momma demonstrates how to make Colorful DIY Squishy Play Dough!

6. Amber at From ABCs to ACTs features a free Spring Flower Color Matching printable!

Were you featured? Grab the Family Fun Friday button below!

Stop by to see what my co-hosts are spotlighting this week!

Bloggers are invited to share their best family-friendly and mom-inspiring posts in the link-up below.

Link guidelines:

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If you link up, you permit the hosts of Family Fun Friday to use your pictures/ideas as part of future posts and/or social media.

Family Fun Friday is a growing link-up with over 200 bloggers sharing their posts each week. Each host shares her favorites from the week before, increasing your chances of being featured. Co-hosts will also be pinning their favorites to a community Family Fun Pinterest Board. This link party opens up at around 4 pm EST on Thursdays.

Please be aware that by linking in Family Fun Friday you give our hosts permission to use your images to create a collage for our features. We may also use the collage to promote Family Fun Friday through our individual social media accounts.

Educational Crafts for Kids with Family Fun Friday!

September 11, 2014 by Selena Robinson 7 Comments

It’s time for another edition of Family Fun Friday! On behalf of my co-hosts, I want to say thanks for visiting and linking up last week! We had a blast featuring our favorite homeschool curriculum options from the linky, and this week we’re sharing some great educational crafts for kids!

Keep reading to learn about our wonderful co-hosts, see my favorite features from last week, and share your own posts!

Keep Reading…

Activities for the Book Hello Ocean: Beach Shoebox Diorama

June 16, 2014 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

I’m originally from the coast and I miss the beach so much. In fact, I think it actually intensifies as I get older.

So when summer time approaches, my mind lightly turns to thoughts of warm sand, salt air, and waves.

Unfortunately, we live several hours inland now, so a trip to the beach is not always feasible.

But we can always head to the shore with a beach shoebox diorama activity!

This was such a fun summer activity and it only took a few minutes. Plus, it was a great tie-in for a beautiful beachy read-aloud!

If you enjoy this project with the kids, be sure to try our simple Coffee Filter Beach Ball Craft!

Beach Shoebox Diorama Activity

To make this beach shoebox diorama, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Empty shoebox
Crayons
Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Scissors
Glue stick
Cotton balls
Play sand (If you want to make your own, try our DIY play sand recipe!)
A copy of our Day at the Beach Diorama Pack (See below)

We decided to read the book Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan to introduce our beach theme.

I love this book. It’s very simple for young readers and the pictures are absolutely beautiful.

The poetry does an excellent job of capturing the feel of a day at the beach, right down to the taste of the salt water.

After we read the book, we decided to put together a shoebox diorama featuring a beach scene.

This was another of our super simple activities.

We only needed a shoebox, some crayons, scissors, glue, and our printable Day at the Beach Diorama Pack!

The kids colored the bottom and sides of the shoebox using the colors mentioned in the story: grey, blue, and green.

We cut out the background scenes…

and pasted them to the bottom of the shoebox.

Our background is all done, so it’s time to add a few props!

We cut out each upright scene image, including the bottom square, as one piece.

Then we folded the bottom square under to make the image stand up.

After we used a stretched cotton ball as a cloud, we poured a little play sand in the bottom and added our upright images to get a feel for the beach in our dining room! 🙂

Scroll down to get your printable beach shoebox diorama pack!

Don’t miss these other posts!

To see even more fun summer crafts, follow my Summer Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

If you’d like to complete this activity with your littles, grab our free Day at the Beach Diorama Pack by clicking the image or the link below to download it!

>>>> Day at the Beach Diorama Pack <<<<

This post is part of the “A Book and a Big Idea: Summer” linkup at iHomeschool Network! Click on over to read the great book activities of our fellow bloggers!

How to Reuse Old Candle Jars

April 28, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Do you have a bunch of old candle jars just sitting around the house? Turns out – you can actually get some use out of them after your candles melt!

We had several candle jars that we’d already used, but the jars were so well made that I hated to throw them out. Pinterest to the rescue again! I found a great tutorial on how to reuse old candle jars from A Homemakers Journey and got to work.

I was pretty skeptical that the method described would work. I mean, look at these things. They look like they’ll never be any good again.

But I followed the instructions carefully, which included heating them to melt the wax.

After I got the wax out, I washed them thoroughly.

Gasp! They look like actual glasses!

And that’s what I got! I ended up with three glasses. In fact, those two larger glasses are basically tumblers.

The largest candle jar became a manicure in a jar gift for Tigger. 🙂

And the teeny jar got repurposed into a paper clip holder. By the way, this whole process took me about 30 minutes. Not bad at all!

So if you like buying candles, now you’ve got another reason to go get some more! 🙂

This post is part of the Spring Pinterest Flips and Flops linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Click on over to see some of the Pinterest fails and successes our fellow bloggers are sharing!

Happily Homemade: Super Simple Fleece Blankets

February 5, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Good morning! Hope you’re all having a great week so far! Today, I thought I’d share a really simple DIY fleece blanket that’s perfect for sewing newbies!

To make these, you really only need two pieces of fleece and some thread. That’s it. You can make your blankets as large as you want, just be sure to include at least an inch all around for seam allowance.

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Collage Making with Kids

January 22, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Have you entered our Lego Game Giveaway yet?

Hey everyone! Today, we’re linking up with the Kids Get Arty linky at Red Ted Art! Each month, families focus on an artist and then do a project inspired by that person’s work. We decided to focus on the art of Romare Bearden. In fact, some good homeschooling friends of ours went to see an exhibit of his, but since we couldn’t make it, we got to work on a project of our own at home.

Image c/o: Carl van Vechten

Romare Bearden was an African-American artist, who became famous for his mixed media collages. He did a lot of paintings, but his collages were most notable, because he often used pictures, paint, and fabric together. On a visit to the High Museum of Art, Jay and I got to look at some of his works in person and they were very fascinating. It seemed like the longer we stared at the work, the more we saw in it.

We decided to help the kids make a collage of their own. We based it on God’s promise of a paradise and we chose pictures that reflected that hope – beautiful scenery, happy families, and animals.

Along the way, we gave Tigger some help in gluing things without making a mess. She got the hang of it, which means (hopefully) less messy projects. 🙂

On one side of the collage, we focused on land. We used the other side for the beach and sea life.

I wouldn’t mind sitting in one of the rocking chairs on that deck right now.

And we’re finished! That looks like the kind of world I want to live in! 🙂

Today, we’re linking up with Red Ted Art’s Kids Get Arty linky! Be sure to stop by and get a look at the kids’ art projects shared by other bloggers!

Easy Fall Snow Globe Craft for Kids

December 13, 2013 by Selena Robinson 9 Comments

I love fall. I just love it. It’s such a rich season – full of colors and textures and scents. It’s a perfect time of year to go into full-on crafting mode.

Since we had a lot of leaves left from our Fall Leaf Garland, I thought we could make a fall “snow” globe with them. And since I love easy kids’ crafts, it seemed like a quick and fun project to make. See how you can make this easy fall snow globe craft for kids!

If your kids love making this craft, check out some of our other fall learning ideas, including our Leaf Painting Activity, our Coffee Filter Owl Craft, or our Fall Leaves Unit Study!

Easy Fall Snow Globe Craft for Kids

This is a super dee duper craft to make with your kids. Just so you know – I’m all about the super easy here. 🙂

To get started, we just scrunched up a lot of our leaves.

If I ever want my kids to have fun instantly, all I have to do is give them the chance to destroy something. Look at that face! That is pure glee.

All ready!

A quick look at our supplies: crushed leaves, brown paint, a baby food jar, and baby oil.

Did I mention that this is really, really easy?

Paint a few barren trees on the outside of the jar.

If you want, go back and add a few white clouds.

Turn the jar right side up and add the crushed leaf pieces.

Pour in the baby oil.

Screw the lid on top. If you want to add extra hold, you might hot glue the lid on.

Turn the jar upside down and give it a shake!

Ooooohhhh….purty.

This entire activity takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, so it’s a great craft to put together in a hurry.

If you want to add a bit more decoration, you could hot glue a scarecrow figurine to the lid so that the scarecrow would be “caught” in the leaves when you shake the jar. You could also add a bit of glitter for extra sparkle!

Oh – one quick note: If you paint the jar first, give it time to dry before you go on to the other steps. I had to use the very tips of my fingers to finish the rest of the project…lol.

Want to make fall learning fun for your kids? Try these ideas!

If you’d like to check out even more fall crafts and activities, be sure to follow my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

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20 Kid Crafts for Winter

December 12, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Winter’s fast approaching and it’s a great time to break out some winter crafts for the kids! I’m not in love with winter, but I do love to make cute crafts and that’s usually enough to perk me up out of the winter blues. 🙂 Now that we have a very active preschooler, she always wants to make things with scissors and glue, so crafting is a perfect way to spend some time with her.

I’ve rounded up some of our favorite kid crafts for winter from around the web and I’m sharing them here today! We’ll be trying out a few of these this month and through the season, but I’d love to hear which ones catch your eye as well!

By the way, if you want more winter craft ideas, don’t miss our lists of penguin crafts for kids and snowman crafts for kids!

20 Kid Crafts for Winter:

1. Printable Snowflake Math Factors Craft – Look! We’re Learning!

2. Winter Snowflake Slime – Little Bins for Little Hands

3. Glittery Snowflake Suncatchers – Happiness is Homemade

4. Sensory Blizzard in a Bottle – No Time for Flashcards

5. Snowman Factory – Buggy and Buddy

6. Foam Ball Winter Snowman – Crafty Morning

7. Cardboard Snowflake Printing – The Jenny Evolution

8. Paper Snow Globe Craft – Housing a Forest

9. Snow Puffy Paint – The Imagination Tree

10. Salt Truck Shape Craft – Sugar Aunts

11. Snowy Paper Collage – A Little Pinch of Perfect

12. Paper Polar Bear Craft – Crafty Morning

13. Fine Motor Ice Skates Lacing Craft – I Heart Arts and Crafts

14. Ice Wreath Bird Feeder Craft – Hands On As We Grow

15. Melted Snowman Shape Collage – Mom Inspired Life

16. Winter Necklace Craft – Domestic Mommyhood

17. Q-Tip Painted Snowman Craft

18. Ice Sun Catcher – Kid World Citizen

19. Children Catching Snowflakes Winter Craft – Crafty Morning

20. Winter Playdough Creation Station – No Time for Flashcards

And if you love these, try some of these other fun ideas for kids!

Plus, see more winter learning ideas on my Winter Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

Bee Crafty Kids #31: DIY Knitting Needle Holder

November 15, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Happy Friday everyone! It’s time for another Bee Crafty Kids Link Up! Every Friday, I get to co-host this roundup with Dusty from To The Moon and Back and Melanie from Our Crafts N Things! You can find out more about all of us here.

This week, I’m sharing a couple of DIY knitting needle holders that are super easy to sew.

If you have circular knitting needles in your house, then I don’t have to tell you that it’s a pain keeping them organized. They roll up in funny ways and get tangled in your straight needles and it can quickly become a mess. The solution: A hanging knitting needle organizer!

Now you can buy these already made, but where’s the fun in that? All it takes to make your own is a couple fat quarters of fabric and some thread. To make this one, I followed the tutorial from Pin and Paper. You only need to sew straight lines to stitch it together, so it’s a perfect beginner’s sewing project. In fact, I plan to help Tigger sew one for her budding knitting needle collection.

For straight needles, you can make a simple DIY knitting needle roll. This is pretty much the same design as the hanging organizer but without the loop at the top. WikiHow has a great picture tutorial on how to make this one. It just requires two pieces of fabric and a string of ribbon.

To make room for my shorter double pointed knitting needles, I just used pinking shears to cut the pockets down so that I could reach them.

All tied up! These make great gifts for the crafters in your life, so you might want to encourage your kids to make them for homemade gift giving.

We’d love to see the crafts you and your family cooked up this week! To share the button for this linkup, grab the code below!

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Link up your kid-approved craft activities below! And be sure to visit the other posts in the link up this week!

Rules are simple:
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Studying Volcanoes!

September 17, 2013 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

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Good morning everyone! Hope your week is going well! We’re having a blast over here! (Because we just studied volcanoes – get it?)

Last month we decided to set aside a day to learn about Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in August of 79 C.E. We figured that was a great time to talk about volcanoes in general, which Roo has been wanted to learn about for the longest.

First, we did some research about volcanoes themselves – what they are, how they work. There is a great basic post about volcanoes (complete with facts at animations) at Weather Wiz Kids. We read through that together and talked about the types of volcanoes and the basic idea behind plate tectonics. The kids thought it was cool that enormous pieces of land are constantly moving around the earth.

We picked up the Knowledge Box Central Volcano Lapbook from Currclick and reviewed basic volcano vocabulary and the types of volcanic eruptions, including Strombolian and Plinian. Which brings us back to Mount Vesuvius, because we learned that Vesuvius was a Plinian eruption (the most explosive) and that it got its name from the eyewitness account recorded by Pliny the Younger. Very neat.

To show the children just how large the Vesuvius eruption was, we looked at some images taken of the area.

Image c/o: Italy Cruise Shore Tours

What’s really fascinating about this image is that the top of the volcano is missing because it was COMPLETELY BLOWN OFF during the eruption. Wow. Geology.com has a great in-depth article about the Vesuvius eruption, with maps, pictures, and a history of both the 79 C.E. eruption that destroyed Pompeii and the smaller one in 1944.

After that, we wanted to get a better look at these types of eruptions, so we used the HLN Volcanoes Unit Study (also from Currclick) to look at images of eruptions. In this Unit Study, we learned about a couple of other types of eruptions, including fissure eruptions and hydrovolcanic eruptions. The kids thought that the hydrovolcanic eruptions were especially cool, since they the explosion creates steam from the release of lava mixing with water vapor in the air near the water.

(By the way, if you want to see some truly stunning, unforgettable images of volcanic eruptions, you have to check out this photoessay at the Daily Mail. Yes, it’s the Daily Mail, so be careful of the sidebars. But the images are worth a look.)

To get a real-time look at volcanoes, we watched a short video from National Geographic called “Volcano 101”.

Prior to watching this, I had no idea that volcanoes had any beneficial effects outside of forming land. Huh.

Of course, we couldn’t let this unit go by without making our own volcano. (I never got to make one of these in science class, so there was a little of living vicariously through the kids here. I can admit that.) We used the volcano recipe from Science Bob and a play dough recipe originally developed by Mister Rogers to form our volcano.

We mixed the flour and water together for the play dough and then made a hole in the center. We placed an empty prescription medicine bottle in the middle to hold our ingredients. To give it a slightly more authentic look, we added some of our play beach sand around the outside of the play dough.

Time for the ingredients! It’s just baking soda, liquid dish detergent, food coloring, and vinegar. Save the vinegar for last, because as soon as you pour it in….

You get an explosion!

We had so much fun learning about volcanoes together! Have you gotten to discuss volcanoes yet with your kids? How did you go about covering this topic? Let us know in the comments!

Simple Straw Bead Necklace Craft for Kids

August 30, 2013 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

If your kids are anything like mine, they’re always asking for the necklaces in the 25-cent machine at the grocery store. You know those fake gold necklaces that turn your neck green? Yeah, those.

I got tired of saying “no” over and over again, so I thought we’d come up with a simple jewelry craft that the kids could make and then wear on their own. That’s when we found this simple straw bead necklace craft and it was a perfect alternative! Plus, it didn’t turn their neck green, which was a plus. 🙂

Read on to see how to make these with your kids! And don’t miss my list of super easy preschool crafts you can make in just 10 minutes!

Simple Straw Bead Necklace Craft for Kids

This week, we jumped into the great book The Arts & Crafts Busy Book: 365 Art and Craft Activities to Keep Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy and found a super easy craft for kids of all ages: straw beads! And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Here’s what you need to make this craft:

We passed out tissue paper to the kids. They chose their own colors. Surprisingly, Roo picked blue as his new “favorite” color. He’s been hung up on red for years.

Then we spread glue over the paper. At first, we used glue sticks and they worked somewhat, but we ended up reinforcing them with liquid glue. So, to save yourself some time, use regular glue in the first place.

After that, you just place the straw at one end of the paper…

and roll it up tightly. We ended up adding a bit more glue to the very end of the paper just to make sure that the ends stayed closed.

Cut the straw into small pieces with a pair of scissors to make stringable beads. Have the kids string the beads onto a length of yarn, tie it around their neck, and you’re done!

Roo adored his necklace. He wore it the rest of the evening.

Pooh fiddled with his most of the day afterward, but he’s asked to wear it everyday since.

Tigger just loved her necklace! Right now, anything even remotely girly is a big hit with her.

Have you tried this straw bead necklace craft? How did it go? Share your experiences in the comments!

Don’t miss these other craft ideas!

Plus, see more crafting fun on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!

Simple DIY Pinwheel Craft for Kids

August 16, 2013 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Windy days are made for pinwheels, am I right? Remember getting a pinwheel at the county fair or the book fair at school (my favorite place ever) and running outside to watch it turn in the wind? As a child, I could stare at a pinwheel turn for hours. They were just mesmerizing.

I had never made a pinwheel myself, so I thought the kids would enjoy learning how to make one as an easy spring craft. Like a lot of our projects, this DIY pinwheel craft is very simple and only requires a couple of supplies. If you like this activity, don’t miss our easy spring toilet roll butterfly craft!

DIY Pinwheel Craft

To make this pinwheel craft, you’ll need the following:

To get started, all you have to do is cut the paper into squares and then make a diagonal cut toward the center on each corner.

Actually, I didn’t even cut the paper into squares. I did the old school thing where you fold the paper in fourths and then tear it. (I know I’m not the only person who does that, am I?)

After you’ve made the diagonal cuts, take each cut and fold the right corner toward the left so that the end lands in the center of the paper.

You don’t want to actually “fold” by making a crease in the paper, because you need the paper to remain curved in order for the air to move through it. So you’re really just pulling the corners toward the middle here.

Once you have all the corners folded toward the center, just hold them down with one hand and then stick the push pin through with the other.

Make sure you catch all the corner ends and don’t stick yourself! I pushed the pin through first and then stuck the end into the pencil eraser.

And we’re done! The kids were so excited to try them out that they sat at the table trying to perfect how to blow across the sails to move them properly for about 20 minutes afterward.

I will say that these are not the most permanent pinwheels you can make, so if your kids get a little rough with them (like ours did), you’ll have to put them back together. But you just have to push the paper corners back down and re-pin. Easy peasy!

If you enjoyed this spring activity, check out our other spring learning ideas!

And get more ideas on my Spring Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

Textured Sponge Painting Preschool Craft

August 9, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Art is one my favorite subjects to teach in our homeschool lessons. But when you’re starting with young children, I’ve found it best to keep the projects as simple as possible. After all, they’re not quite ready to study post-modernism. 🙂

So we tried this easy textured sponge painting preschool craft with our kids and they absolutely loved it! It was a simple way to study color and painting while giving them a bit of sensory input at the same time.

Read on to see how to do this simple art project with your kids! And if you love this craft, try our list of super easy preschool crafts you can make in 10 minutes!

Textured Sponge Painting Preschool Craft

To do this craft, you’ll need the following:

To set up this craft, we cut a large kitchen sponge into four pieces and handed them out. (This step should be done by an adult.)

Then we added a bit more texture by having the kids crumple up their paper before beginning. We found some super old fingerpaint (I mean, from when Tigger was a toddler) and added a bit of water to thin it out and then it was time to get started!

When we asked Roo if he wanted me to sketch his design for him, he said “I want to make whatever I want to make.” Got it.

Tigger wanted to paint a picture of a tree, so I sketched it for her to give her a little guide since the sponge tips are so large.

Pooh wanted to paint a train and it ended up not going as well as he would have liked. But the experience of painting was so fun that he was all smiles anyway at the end. I think that’s what art should be like for kids!

Here’s everyone’s work. Mine is at top left, Tigger’s is at top right, Pooh’s train is bottom right, and Roo’s unique individualist expression is at bottom left.

To give the pictures a bit more flair, we sprinkled glitter and colored salt on them before they dried. A simple introduction to Impressionism, perhaps?

Have you tried this textured sponge painting preschool craft with your kids? Let me know how it went in the comments!

Like this post? Try these other ideas for preschoolers!

And get more ideas for preschool learning on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!

Fun Snowman Crafts for Kids

25 Airplane Crafts for Kids:

25 Leaf Activities for Kids

Easy Nature Art: Leaf Painting for Kids

25 Beach Crafts for Kids

Farm Shoebox Diorama Craft

Learning about Taste Buds

5 Fun Winter Crafts for Kids

Resources to Make Winter Crafts for Kids:

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Beach Shoebox Diorama Activity

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Have you entered our Lego Game Giveaway yet?

Easy Fall Snow Globe Craft for Kids

20 Kid Crafts for Winter:

Simple Straw Bead Necklace Craft for Kids

DIY Pinwheel Craft

Textured Sponge Painting Preschool Craft