I've been wanting to post these for a long time now. I thought maybe some of you could use some of these indoor and outdoor games, crafts, and ideas to keep your young ones busy and entertained this summer.
The following are taken from the book "365 Days of Creative Play" by Sheila Ellison & Judith Gray, which is a great resource for craft ideas for your kids - which include chapters on art, construction, crafts, dance, education, environment, family, food, games, horticulture, make-believe, music, and nature.
I'll be using ideas from this book for YEARS to come, but what I really like is that some of the ideas use up things you might normally just throw away.
Or as the back cover states, "Using only safe, simple household supplies..."
I don't want to take up alot of room here, so I will list some of the crafts that I thought some of you might want to hear about and the materials you would need. If you find one that you are interested in, PM me and I'll give you the directions, or I can post about it here.
This first one is going to be a favorite around my house, and I'm going to give you directions for this one, because I think alot of us could use this tip!!
Colored Crayon Balls
Materials: Old and broken crayons, used plastic sandwich bags, twist ties, muffin pans.
Directions: Peel paper off old crayons and break into small pieces. Select a group of several different colors and place them in the sandwich bags. Seal tightly with twist ties. Put several bags of crayon pieces in muffin pan. Place pan in the sun or in a slightly warm oven for 20 min. or until crayon wax is soft. (It should never be hot!) With crayons still in the bags, shape into balls. Drop bags into ice-cold water. Remove from bags and use them to color!! (I'm going to try to shape them into new "crayon shapes".)
Watercolor Contour
Materials: Drawing paper (watercolor paper is best), water-based paints, cookie tray, water, paintbrushes.
Grocery Bag Blocks (To build houses with!!)
Materials: Large grocery bags, newspaper, wide masking or packaging tape.
Log Houses
Materials: Brown construction paper, cardboard, pencil, tape, glue.
Smoothie Gift Wrap
Materials: Thick, white paper (butcher paper works well), water-based paints (tempera), spoons, cling wrap, muffin pan or paper cups.
Bottle to Vase
Materials: Bottles or other glass containers that could be used as a vase, colored tissue paper, scissors, photographs copied onto paper or colored pictures from magazines, brush, glue or Mod Podge.
Feely Box (Feely bag, really.)
Materials: Large cloth bag or pillowcase, assortment of toy animals and familiar objects, rubber band.
My Own Scales
Materials: Wire coat hanger, 2 strong paper plates, 4 pieces of string - 30" long.
Question Scavenger Hunt
This one is pretty cool, and it will give kids at your next gathering something really fun to do!! The kids ask the adults for answers to fun questions you give them, that they would not otherwise know, about other adults at the gathering. (Someone's first grade teacher's name, where did someone go to grade school, first name of grandmas' first date, etc.)
"Most Responsible Thing To Do" game
I love this one too!! Make up flash cards with situations on them (I lost my house key, the toilet overflows, someone I don't know offers me a ride, etc.) where each person takes a card then has to name the most responsible action for the given situation.
There are alot more really neat ideas in the Family section of this book, like the two games mentioned above.
In the Food section there are recipes for...mashed potato sculptures, homemade ice cream (no electricity involved), pudding paint, homemade child's cheese, squishy food painting...among many others.
...just too many to mention here.
I highly recommend this book to everyone - Moms, Grandmas, baby sitters...It would be worth every penny!!
Kids Creative/Craft Ideas - For ages 2 and up!!
Linear Mode
