If you have a child who is old enough to be trusted to use scissors and glue on their own, consider creating a crafting container for them. Leave it out where they can have access to it whenever the desire to create arises. Items to include in the container would include not only the expected glue sticks and scissors but also items from around the house as well. Buttons, paperclips, rubber bands and coins are a great addition to a crafting container. Other items to add: papers of different texture and pattern, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, ribbon, dried beans, different shaped pasta, popsicle sticks, felt, foam and string. Also provide plenty of plain paper and construction paper, markers, crayons and colored pencils.

My son had an interest in castles at one point. One day, he asked me to help him make a fun picture of a castle. We used items from around the house, including pipe cleaners to make a catapult, pennies for windows, and paper clips for the portcullis. Providing a crafting container makes the crafting opportunities endless for your children. Happy crafting!

Snowglobe:

All kids love snow globes. Shaking it and watching the glittery snow tumble-down is an endless enjoyment. Why not make your own?

Supplies Needed: a glass jar (for this one, we used a baby food jar), distilled water, glitter, small object, paint, and waterproof glue.

We began by painting the lid to cover up the words on the lid of the jar. I then glued the small object to the lid with waterproof glue. We filled the jar with distilled water and added some glitter. I tightened the lid on the jar and then..shake!

Pinecone Trees

Supplies needed: pinecones, paint, glue and mini pompoms

My kids love to paint so they had a great time painting for this craft. I used store-bought pinecones but you could use some from your yard if you have them. Paint the pinecone “branches”. We did some green, some with green and white “snow” and some just white. Once the paint is dry, you can glue on pompoms to look like ornaments.

Handprint ornaments

These are a favorite that I give out as gifts every year. All you need are colored ornament balls (for safety, the plastic ones are best), paint and permanent markers. For the snowman ornament, have your child put their four fingers and palm in white paint. Then have them grasp the ball. Once it dries, add details with permanent markers. On the reverse side you can write a Christmas message, child’s name and the year.

For the reindeer ornament, dip their hand (including thumb) in brown paint. Have them grasp the ornament with their fingers facing down on the ornament and the thumb toward the top. When it dries, the four fingers become legs for the reindeer and the thumb is the head. Dip their finger in red paint to make a fingerprint nose. Draw on the details with permanent markers.

May you have a joyous Christmas season with your children!

There are many fun crafts for children to do this time of year. There are crafts related to the history of the holiday as well as the foods, colors and symbols of Thanksgiving. I also love to have the kids get involved in helping to prepare for the great feast. Below are a variety of crafts related to Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving Tree:

Since the foundation of the holiday is gratitude for all the blessings we’ve been given, why not have the kids practice gratitude? To make a Thanksgiving tree, gather branches from you yard and place them in a vase. Cut out leaf shapes in a variety of colors (I found this Leaf Template for those who may need it). Punch a hole in the leaf and thread ribbon through the hole. Have your kids and guests write on the leaves what they are thankful for and hand the leaves on the tree.

Indian Stick Game:

Since the Native Americans are a huge part of the first Thanksgiving, it’s fun to have the kids learn about them this time of year. This stick game is easy to make and play. While they originally used sticks to make their game, I used popsicle sticks. You need 19 sticks total. There are four sticks that are decorated and fifteen sticks that remain plain. 1) Lightning stick: draw red lightning on the front of the stick and nothing on the back 2) Sun stick: draw yellow suns on the stick and nothing on the back 3) Four Directions stick: Draw red arrows facing North, East, West and South. In between each arrow, draw a black line. Draw nothing on the back 4) The Rain stick: Draw three black dots on top of one another, then three red lines, followed by three more dots. On this stick, flip it over and draw three red lines on the back.

To play: Leave the fifteen plain stick in one pile. The play, the players take turns tossing the colored sticks, earning points based on how they land. 1) the first player picks up the four colored sticks and tosses them in the air. Based on the scoring, they takes the designated number of plain sticks and makes a pile. As long as the first player continues to score, they continue tossing sticks. As soon as they toss the back side of rain, it goes to the next player. When all 15 of the plain sticks have been removed from the pile, the player who just tossed, takes the correct number of plain sticks from the other players. The game is over when one person has gotten all 15 of the plain sticks. It doesn’t usually work out that way, so we usually decide when to stop and then count up who has the most sticks.

Scoring:

Front side of four directions: 4 points

Front side of rain: 3 points

Front side of lightning: 1 point

Front side of sun: 1 point

Back side of lightning, sun or four directions: O points each

Back side of rain: cancels out the entire score for that toss

(Taken from Colonial Days by David C. King)

Ice Cream Cone Teepee

A fun, and yummy, activity is to make ice cream cone teepees. They could be used to decorate the kids table on Thanksgiving, or just for a fun snack. Take a sugar cone and coat the outside with white icing. Place in the freezer for about an hour for the icing to harden. Decorate the outside with colored icing, gels, and candies to look like a teepee.

Native American Necklace:

The Native Americans often wore necklaces made out of bear claws, teeth, shells, and handmade beads. You can use clay to make your own. Mold them into shape and using a needle, poke a hole through it big enough to thread a faux leather lace through. Allow to dry before wearing.

Pilgrim Hats:

Another yummy addition to the kids table or for a snack are these Pilgrim Hats. We used cookies with a chocolate coating on one side. We then spread white icing in the middle and placed a small peanut butter cup on the icing. Lastly, we used a small rectangular piece of gum and attached with icing to the front. The rectangle can also be drawn on with gel icing. It’s quite yummy!

Handprint placemats:

I just love hand print art! You can make cute placemats for Thanksgiving by having your children make hand print turkeys onto white paper. Paint their hands with the different colors and place their hand on the paper. Draw the turkeys face and legs with markers. If you glue the white paper onto a larger colored piece of construction paper (the size of a placemat), you can then take it to an office supply store and have it laminated.

Best Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Doing crafts involving leaves is a fun way to develop a love for Fall in your child. The main ingredient needed for all these crafts: leaves!

Leaf Coasters:

Explore your yard for leaves of all shapes. Using air dry clay, roll it flat to about half an inch. Take a large biscuit cutter and cut out a circle shape. Press a leaf into each coaster. After it dries, you can paint it or leave it the way it is. For use on wood furniture, attach soft chair sliders/protectors on the bottom (there are sticker ones that are used to attach to the bottom of chairs and other furniture to make them move smoothly across the floor).

Leaf Collage:

Use the leaves you have collected and glue them as a collage onto a sheet of construction paper. You can preserve them with contact paper, making a nice wall hanging or place mat.

Leaf Print Hands:

Hand print art is especially fun for the preschool age group. You can draw a tree trunk on a piece of white paper and color it brown (or even use their arm as the tree trunk by putting their arm in paint and then placing it on the paper). Have your child put their hands into paint (orange, red, yellow and brown) and make handprints all around the tree as leaves. If you don’t want to do hands, you could do fingerprints instead.

Leaf Rubbings:

It’s also fun to use collected leaves by doing leaf rubbings with them. Place a leaf underneath a piece of white paper. Take the paper wrapper off of a crayon and rub the crayon on its side over the paper. The shape of the leaf below will appear.

Leaf People:

You can use leaves to make fun people art. A few examples: draw a face on a piece of paper and glue leaves all around the top of the head as hair. Another idea, glue a large leaf as the body of a person onto a sheet of paper. Decorate the person by drawing arms and legs. You could also add yarn for hair, buttons as clothing, googly eyes–use your imagination!

Happy leaf collecting!

More Fall Activities for Kids

• Craft Planner Printable – For Mom!
• Thanksgiving Craft – Pilgrim Hats
• Acorn Craft Ideas
• How to Make a Leaf Door Hanger
• How to Decorate a Fall Tree

Today, I want to share a couple of recent projects we’ve done with boxes and pieces of cardboard.

Supplies: Cardboard box your child can fit into, spray paint in a variety of colors, paper plates, paper bowls, brads or fasteners, black marker, stencils, reflectors, razor knife, strong ribbon, packing tape and painting tape

Step 1: Cut the bottom flaps off the box, cut only half the flaps off the top side (the part let remaining is the hood of the car–see picture). Our box was a little flimsy so we needed to use packing tape to keep it secure.

Step 2: Spray paint your car. We used painters tape on the sides for stripes, after the orange had dried, we removed the tape and then hand-colored with permanent black marker that section black.

Step 3: Be creative: We used two paper bowls for wheels, spray painted them black and fastened with brads. The steering wheel was a plate fastened to the dashboard with a brad in the center. The windshield and dashboard were extra pieces of cardboard attached to the car. We also used a strip of cardboard as a spoiler. Small round reflectors can be used as lights and stencils can be used to give the car a number on the side. We used ribbon attached on the inside of the box to hang on my son’s shoulders. Don’t forget a license plate!

Other ideas: instead of a car you can make a truck, train, airplane, boat, whatever your child most likes.

With leftover cardboard pieces, I did an activity with my boys to teach them a spiritual lesson. We talked about how important it is that we memorize scripture because it helps us defend against lies. After discussing the kinds of lies we believe, we wrote them down on cardboard. I then cut out the lies into shapes of arrows. A few examples of the lies were, “He hit you first so you can hit him back” and “When my parents give me a consequences, it’s because they don’t like me.”

We talked about the scriptural truths to use to defeat the lies. The kids drew a large shield on a piece of cardboard and drew a bible on the front of the shield. We took turns throwing the arrows at one of us holding the shield. The boys had to recite the scriptural truth at each arrow that was thrown. They really enjoyed throwing the arrows (what kid wouldn’t?) and it was a fun way to practice defeating lies with the truth of God’s word.

Do you have any favorite crafts you’ve done with cardboard? Share them in the comments below.

1. Peel and freeze bananas. These can be used as a treat by themselves or added to fruit smoothies.

2. Homemade sorbet is easy to make. For instance, if you love strawberries, you can puree the strawberries; add some water, a little bit of sugar, lemon juice and a package of unflavored gelatin. Use an ice cream maker to complete the recipe.

3. Freeze whole grapes. Remember, however, not to give these to small children as they can be a choking hazard.

4. Homemade popsicles can be made with 100% fruit juice. You can also make them using powdered drink mixes.

5. A fruit juice spritzer is a good alternative to serving your kids a full glass of soft drink. Add 100% juice, whatever kind you like best, to ginger ale or other clear soft drink. Add ice to cool the drink down. You can also put the mixture in the blender and create a slushy with it.

6. Brown cows, or ice cream floats, are also a cool snack you might want to give your children. Fill a glass three quarters of the way with your child’s favorite soft drink. Then add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy.

7. Buy a large container of yogurt in your favorite flavor. Spoon the yogurt into an ice cube tray and then cover it with plastic wrap. Poke a popsicle stick or tooth pick into the plastic. Place these in the freezer and allow them to freeze. You can add pieces of chopped up fruit if you want to add a special treat.

8. Cut up a variety of melons and keep them in the refrigerator for a quick cool snack at any time. To make the snack more appealing, allow the children to use cookie cutters to make shapes out of them.

9. Make a batch of cookies. When they have cooled entirely, place a scoop of softened ice cream onto one cookie and then place another on top. This will make a wonderful ice cream sandwich.

10. Orange and vanilla is a wonderful combination. Add orange juice to a blender and then place a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You’ll have made a liquid dreamsicle that is much healthier than the traditional version.

Prepare these ten cold snacks for your kids the next time they ask for a snack this summer. These snacks will help them cool down and be enjoyable at the same time.

You can download the CSAHM Craft Planner printable here:

Download the PDF for FREE!

Craft Planner (730)

I pray this printable is a great blessing to YOU!

To get started, all you need is a lunch-sized paper bag, some popcorn kernels and a measuring cup.

Of course, popcorn needs toppings and what you’ll provide is up to you. You can do traditional salt and butter, drizzle with chocolate sauce, sprinkle parmesan or seasonings and spices.

Get Started

Put ½ cup of popcorn in each bag (or ¼ cup for smaller appetites). Then fold the top of the bag over twice.

Place the popcorn, one bag at a time, in the microwave. Put in high setting for 2 ½ minutes, but stop the microwave when there are about 5 seconds between pops. Leave it in for too long and it may burn.

CAUTION: It’s hot in those bags! Open them up and let the heat escape before serving.

Add Your Toppings

Open the bag and add your preferred toppings. Close the bag and shake well to distribute yummy flavor.

Then serve!

Boy’s Pilgrim Hat

Pilgrim’s hats aren’t really that difficult to make.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Black construction paper – 12 x 12 inches
• Black construction paper – 12 x 12 inches cut into 4-inch strips
• Gray construction paper – 9 x 12 inches
• Tape
• Pencil or pen
• Scissors
• Glue

Begin by cutting an oval out of the full sheet of black construction paper. This will be the brim of the hat.

Cut the second sheet of black paper into strips 4 inches wide. Tape them together to reach around the child’s head. Tape the end of the paper to remain the correct size and resemble a tube. Create an oval shape and trace around it, leaving about 3 inches all around the brim. Cut the inner circle out and try it on the child’s head.

Tape the tube onto the brim using tape, trying to match the edges as well as possible. Then you can make a thin band out of the gray paper as well as an open square for the buckle. Tape or glue those onto the hat.

Don’t worry about the hat not having a top. If you want to have one, turn the hat over so the opening of the hat is facing up. Trace the hole and then cut it out. Tape it onto the hat and it will then be closed.

Girl’s Pilgrim Hat

Girls wore a bonnet rather than a hat. These can be made by taking a 12-inch by 18-inch piece of white construction paper. Fold one side of the length of the paper up about 3 inches. Punch a hole about half inch above the fold on the wider side.

Measure across the paper 6 inches and draw a 3-inch line toward the fold; measure over 6 inches and draw another 3-inch line. Cut on the 3-inch line and fold the two outer flaps toward the center. Glue or staple the flaps to help the hat maintain its shape. Tie a piece of ribbon through each of the holes which can be tied under the chin.

Encourage your children to learn about Thanksgiving by sharing what you remember about the holiday from when you were their age. Perhaps you have pictures of the arts and crafts you made for Thanksgiving when you were little!

More Fall Activities for Kids

• Craft Planner Printable – For Mom!
• Acorn Craft Ideas
• How to Make a Leaf Door Hanger
• How to Decorate a Fall Tree

An ‘Acorny’ Family

Gather up a bunch of acorns from your yard or a nearby park. Try to pick up only the acorns with the tops still on them. You can also purchase wooden acorns from a craft store. If the tops come off while you’re transporting the acorns, use a little bit of craft glue to put the tops back on.

Find enough acorns for each person in your family for this first craft. You’ll also need to have some acrylic paints, paint brushes, a sharp pencil and possibly six or more inches of heavyweight thread.

Paint the bottom half of the acorn using a flesh-tone or light brown paint. While this is drying, paint the top or cap of the acorn your favorite color. You would then do the same thing with enough acorns for your family, making the cap of each acorn that family member’s favorite color.

When the acorn is dry you can paint a face on it using a detail paintbrush or a very sharp pencil dipped in the paint. Add other embellishments such as little bows for a girl’s hair or painted pearls for mom. You could even make acorn animals by gluing on pieces of paper for the ears. These are particularly cute for couples who don’t have children but have ‘fur babies.’

Allow the acorns to dry thoroughly and either set them in a bowl, near family pictures or glue string on them to hang them as ornaments. Another thing you can do is create an acorn person for each person who is attending Thanksgiving dinner. Glue their acorn on a folded piece of business card stock and write their name on the card so everyone knows where to sit.

Wreaths

If you have a wreath to place on your front door, tie acorns onto a piece of raffia. Next tie the raffia into a bow and glue that to the wreath. You can also hot glue the acorns in groups of three around the wreath. Then use other fall items like baby’s breath, silk leaves and berries to fill out the wreath.

Picture Frames

How many old picture frames do you have which you would like to update? Create autumn frames by gluing acorns onto the picture frame. To dress the picture frames up a little bit, dry brush gold or copper paint on the frame and acorns. Once the picture frame is completely dry, place the picture back into the frame and group them in one area as a photo display.

Acorns are normally in abundance in the fall and it really is a shame to throw them away. In the spirit of trying to recycle and reuse, these crafts will help you do just that. By making one or more of these acorn craft ideas you can use the acorns and decorate your home at the same time.

More Fall Activities for Kids

• Craft Planner Printable – For Mom!
• Thanksgiving Craft – Pilgrim Hats
• How to Make a Leaf Door Hanger
• How to Decorate a Fall Tree