Homemade Snow Globes

Description: Homemade Snow Globes make a perfect winter project to do with the kids during the holiday break. Great gift idea, too!

Craft Link : Homemade Snow Globes

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home

Fun And Funky Mobile

Description: Plum Pudding put together this great idea for a Fun And Funky Mobile. Yardsticks, buttons and tin can lids are just some of the cool components of this fun project.

Craft Link : Fun And Funky Mobile

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home

Free Hopscotch Pattern

Description: With the cooler months coming, this Free Hopscotch Pattern will provide fun and indoor exercise for the kids.

Craft Link : Free Hopscotch Pattern

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home

Animal Applique Pillows Tutorial

Description: The thing I love about this Animal Applique Pillows Tutorial is that it’s so much cleaner and simpler than the usual children’s patterns and fabrics.

Craft Link : Animal Applique Pillows Tutorial

Read More : Sewing or Home

Quick & Frugal Ideas For Summer Fun

Looking for some cheap and educational activities this summer? Need something to occupy your kids before they destroy your house? Here a couple of quick and easy ways to keep both you and them satisfied.

Start with your library.

Libraries often have wonderful music, nature and reading programs running from June through August. Most of the programs are free but they do require you to reserve a place ahead of time, so call early to avoid a last minute disappointment.

Next, work your way over to the book section. Try to see if you can revive your children’s interest in Harry Potter. If not, dig into some good mysteries, historical fiction and how-to books instead.

Then, see what’s available in the crafts section. Our local library has half a dozen books on making “treasure from trash.” Also search for titles on dough crafts, paper crafts and scrap fabric crafts.

Before you leave, be sure to read the “what’s happening” section of your local newspaper. Most big cities have free outdoor concerts, puppet shows and art fairs throughout the summer months. See what’s in your neck of the woods.

Other Suggestions To Share With Your Kids:

Write to an email pen pal

Keep a nature journal of your own backyard

Make nature crafts – painted rock, wreathes, dried flowers

Design a quiz-type game show on history

Study cartooning

Build from cardboard

Cook an authentic Chinese dinner

Keep a diary

Create a historically accurate diorama from scrap materials

Read, read, read

Arrange a neighborhood yard sale

Get a job walking dogs, cleaning or doing errands for a neighbor

Make a food pyramid from old magazines

Learn to comparison shop for groceries

Plant a vegetable garden

Draw original mazes

Create a birthday card

Design a web page

Make a quilt from recycled materials

Volunteer at the library

Invent something

Observe your pet and record your findings

Grow an indoor terrarium

Learn origami

Learn a foreign language

Build with scrap materials

Make your own holiday presents

Compose new, science-based lyrics for popular tunes

Participate in online projects

Write a script for a puppet show

Learn to use a word processor

Attend local museums on free days

Learn to sew

Design a variation on the game checkers

Borrow educational videos off the internet.

Participate in a nature scavenger hunt

Learn to paint with watercolors

Practice cake decorating

Obedience train your dog

Create paper mache bowls from old newspapers

Make handmade paper

Buy and learn to play the recorder or harmonica

Enter all kinds of contests

Solve word problems

Make and observe a bird feeder

Play scrabble and other board games

Do low cost science projects

Give several of these activities a try. If your child doesn’t enjoy one activity, suggest another one instead. But, if you find that all your child wants to do is sit and veg out, let him make that choice. He may need the time to relax and, after all, it is summer.

Read More : Crafts For Kids or Home