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Crafts

Encouraging Creativity in Your Children

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Public schools across the country are finding their arts and music programs cut due to budgetary problems. While art classes are the first to go when money is tight, this might not be best for children. Art actually offers many benefits in childhood development, and these benefits follow children into adulthood. Failing to foster creativity in children is ignoring some of the most important parts of their development.

Fortunately, school isn’t the only place your child can express his or her creativity. If you encourage artistic expression at home, your child will be able to develop important skills for his or her future. Confidence, diligence, and thinking outside of the box are just a few of the skills children develop from making art. Art also helps express feelings which may be difficult to be put into words. When you create an environment where your child feels safe and supported expressing herself creatively, you’re teaching her that her emotional world is important.

kids in art party

If you’re not artistically inclined yourself, it can be difficult to think of how to encourage your children to make art. What are some ways you can help your child creatively? [Read more…] about Encouraging Creativity in Your Children

Originally posted on February 27, 2015 @ 8:16 am

Top 4 Fun Party Favors for Free—Well, Almost Free

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The best part about holidays and milestones is the opportunity to throw parties. Although you can throw a few of your own, parties tend to be the most fun when they’re for kids. From classroom shindigs to birthday parties to fêtes thrown just for the heck of it, be sure to include some of these top four kid- and wallet-friendly party favors.

partyparty

1. Fashion Accessories

Is your little girl having a princess party? The whole group can leave with a style upgrade when you give out small and simple fashion accessories as party favors. Look for fun, age-appropriate pieces that can fit with your theme. For example, if the party is zoo-themed, each little girl can get her own pair of cute animal drop earrings that she’ll actually be able to use well after the party has ended.

2. Homemade Edibles

What could be easier and more cost-effective than simply baking a batch of cookies for party favors? Kids will definitely love a sweet treat, and you can easily customize these with frosting designs. If your little man is having a superhero party, you can make cookies designed for different superheroes so each child has his or her own unique treat. The Internet is a virtual gold mine for interesting food crafts for kids, so feel free to explore how other parents do it or get creative with your own project.

3. Plants

Every kid should have a plant to gain a better understanding of nature and to practice responsibility. You can custom decorate a few clay pots, purchase some seeds and fill the pots with soil from your own backyard for an inexpensive and extra special party favor. For a girl’s birthday party, every guest can have her own flower, while a boy’s party can have “cooler” plants like cacti. For both boys and girls, look for fun character pots that grow grass from their heads for a hilarious twist.

4. Monster Doh

If you’re not feeling very crafty, take the easy way out by purchasing some containers of Play Doh, removing the labels and replacing them with funny monster faces for a unique and simple party favor. Simply remove the labels by soaking the Play Doh containers in warm water until the adhesive comes off the container. Have fun with stickers, googly eyes, colored cotton balls and other decorations to make Play Doh monsters or other characters for every guest.

You can make pretty much anything into a party favor with a little creativity and some craft glue. Use your imagination or explore Pinterest and parenting blogs for some good ideas on getting started. After shoveling out big bucks for presents, renting a venue and paying other party expenses, saving money with cost-effective DIY crafts can enable you to throw the party of the year without breaking the bank.

Originally posted on March 6, 2013 @ 6:48 pm

The Size Difference

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Large doll houses have entirely changed the playing landscape of children. No longer limited by the confines of the truly miniaturized versions of houses, the larger versions ensure more playing opportunities with playmates. The bigger size not only makes it possible to have more features that can hold a child’s attention, it also allows playmates to play simultaneously in different areas of the doll house.

Opting for large doll houses necessitate minor assembly work as it is not practical for manufacturers to have them packed fully assembled because of their size. The expected joy derived from having an excellent doll house choice more than makes up for the little extra work. The size also permits the inclusion of more furniture and accessories which are of course, such a delight to young children.

Large doll houses also offer more flexibility in personalizing doll houses while providing more opportunities to highlight a child’s creativity. The small hands of children may not yet be up to the care required by smaller versions of doll houses. The semblance of realism in a child’s point of view is much better achieved in the doll house’s advantageous size.

The size of large doll houses likewise allow for more extra details such as turrets, balconies, surprise rooms, and drawbridges. It also facilitates a wider range of interactive activity such as rearranging rooms and furniture to produce an entirely new look for the house. They are also much sturdier and can handle maximized play of children. Many models are provided in fun designs and colors to make imaginative play more exciting. A custom-made doll house can be as large as a young girl wants it to be.

Originally posted on January 27, 2011 @ 1:45 pm

Homemade Halloween Costumes: Get Creative and Save!

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At our Halloween party last year the best costumes were definitely Bloody Mary and the Boy-with-pencils-stabbed-into-his-head-and-body (also extremely bloody). They were the kids of a frugal and creative friend of mine, who proudly made the costumes herself, spending very little and putting the rest of our store-bought outfits to shame. I admit that I love surfing the web (months in advance, like an obsessed woman) for Halloween costumes, but when I think about how much I actually spend for these costumes to be used once or twice (or more if you get the younger siblings to re-use), it really isn’t funny.

The other day I thought I’d go through all the costumes/dress-up items we had, and we had three very large plastic boxes filled to the brim. Far too much. None of them were homemade of course, since I am completely talentless when it comes to sewing of any kind. If you must know, I actually hate it! But as one of my mantras this new year (it was my birthday last week) is to SAVE money and SPEND less, I am really really going to try and get creative with some homemade costumes this year.

Here’s what I found online, with a few of my favorite ones (fun and easy!):

1. The Robot – My 4-year-old son loves robots, and this is great for using recycled items around the house. You can go on the high side with spending (one parent spent $40 making one), but this “Candybot” seems easy and thrifty enough. With used boxes of different sizes, some paint and maybe some tin foil, a homemade robot could be yours for the taking!

2. The Dorothy – Ok, so this is an Ebay item, but still great I think. The Wizard of Oz is beloved in our household, and I thoroughly approve of a timeless costume like Dorothy, rather than some TV star who probably will be forgotten by next year. And with its unbeatable price of $5, including the ruby slippers and D’s wig, I say it’s a fab purchase.

3. The Lego Boy (or Girl) – Which kid doesn’t like LEGO? I like how you’ll be able to find your child easily in the sea of Halloween costumes. And there’s a big chance little brother or little sister will want to use this one again. It takes less than an hour (I kid you not) to make this bright little number, so no excuses for us busy Moms!

4. The Mummy – When a little boy swathed in bandages came trick-or-treating at my house last year I thought it was the cutest thing. It’s one of those costumes that are incredibly cheap, easy and pack a good punch! Simply buy (borrow or beg) gauze or bandage rolls, apply, and hey presto! You have an authentic yet spooky costume. Add a bit of red paint and grey makeup and things get even scarier!


5. Cheap and Cheerful – You can actually spend NOTHING at all this Halloween by going with the old Charlie Brown classic – the white bed sheet with holes. How charmingly retro! For more costs-next-to-nothing ideas, the Dollar Stretcher has some very simple tips – like a Nerd (her son won first prize with this!), Angel (use the same ghost’s sheet and make a halo with kitchen foil) and the very cute Heart playing cards made from cardboard and cut-out hearts! Would be perfect for twins, I think.

6. More Ideas Like Making Fake Blood– For lots more simple ideas you can do in mere minutes (from Rappers to Deviled Eggs), and making your own props (like no-sew capes, hooray!) and makeup, this page from Mahalo is a veritable one-stop resource for all of the above.

7. Ask For Donations! – Now here’s an idea that’s nice for Mom (and the Earth), but might not fly so well with the offspring. If a family member or friend asked me if they could borrow a Halloween costume for their kid, maybe something one of my kids have outgrown, I’d happily say yes. A chance to recycle and free up space at home! So ask around and chances are you’ll get a great costume thats only been worn once or twice. Borrowing might have a better success rate with under 3’s, but I say give it a whirl anyway.

Originally posted on September 28, 2009 @ 1:21 am

Kids and Earth Day

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Happy Earth Day 2009! One of the best things you can do to Save the Earth is to educate your kids about the environment and sustainability – making it a fun process that they can carry through for the rest of their lives.

Luckily, most “big” schools now teach kids about the environment, about recycling and even organic farming, so helping kids in grade school or older is easier than ever before. My daughter’s 1st grade class, for instance, visited an organic farm for their field trip last year and they saw how lettuce was looked after and harvested naturally. She knows not to leave the tap running when she brushes her teeth or washes her hands (I hear her scold her little brother that he’s “wasting!” water), turns off lights when nobody is using them, and talks to me excitedly about what it means to recycle.

For preschoolers, it’s a little more challenging. I have been trying to teach my 4-year-old some of the basic principles I taught my daughter, but I just get a sort of “bored” look most of the time. So my project, beginning this Earth Day, is to get my son more involved with some hands-on work. I found some great ideas online, like on iVillage, for instance, they have a useful article about how you can “Go Green at Any Age”. For preschoolers, they suggest things like this:

Teach your preschooler how to help pick out ripe seasonal fruit and vegetables for their snacks and meals. Show them that when they have finished their fruit and vegetables, there are parts that can be composted. Involve your children in composting your food scraps, coffee grounds, etc. Get them used to seeing that food waste is not garbage but rather something that can be turned into soil to grow more food.

Another site I like is Funschool, which has a lot of fun games and activities I know will appeal to my computer-loving little boy.

And lastly, for baby Wills, I’ll be dressing him in organic or sustainable clothing today (and as much as my bank account can afford!) but more often than not, I’ll be doing this: let him use his big sister and brother’s old clothes, shoes and toys. That’s recycling for you!

Photo via BecoThings

Originally posted on April 22, 2009 @ 2:33 am

My Favourite Halloween Costumes

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Mini Donald
Mini Donald
Halloween is huge in our household. Since the 1st of October, we’ve had our Halloween decorations out and increasing (who can resist a “Halloween Tree” I found at a sale last week? Picture a pumpkin on a spider web, black, with spiders, black cats and ghouls hanging from it- adorable!). There are orange lanterns with jack-o-lantern and witch faces dotting our house, giant spiderwebs with spiders, bats and bloody hands on our windows, a rather large “witch” wind banner blowing in the garage, an assortment of spooky garden stakes in the front lawn (with glow-in-the-dark eyes), and a “face” for our tree at the front of the house which makes it look like the apple-pelting ones in the Wizard of Oz.

We threw a Halloween Party last Friday after school. Nothing fancy, just games and snacks for around 15 kids, and potent Bloody Mary’s for the grownups courtesy of my hubby, who’s perfected the art of the Bloody Mary. My three went as Wizardess, Cowboy and Superman, and there was Darth, Sandy from Grease, a Pirate, a Mermaid, 3 Rambos, a Fairy, a Spider and a kid who boringly went as himself with his skateboard.

On Friday my kids have their second set of costumes (except baby Wills), Wednesday Addams and Peter Pan (a gift from my Aunt), and we’ll have a little pizza party at home after the Trick or Treating. Exciting! If you aren’t a Halloween-obsessed Mom like me, and still haven’t decided on a Halloween costume for your little ones, here are some of my favourites.

1. Donald Trump (pictured above) – You have to love the hair! This costume makes the Donald look absolutely adorable.

2. Fire Breathing Dragon – A crafty Mom can put this together easily, and create a fantastic magical costume sure to be a showstopper.

3. Baby Yoda– Ok, its not the most original, but when I see a little one in this costume it makes me melt.

4. DJ Lance– He’s the funky guy from Yo Gabba Gabba and if my 3-year-old son didn’t have a costume already, this would be it.

5. Sushi Roll – My 6 year old loves sushi, so again, if I didn’t already have 2 costumes for her, and if I got myself organized a lot earlier, I would have made this her costume for Halloween. Oh so clever.

Originally posted on October 28, 2008 @ 7:16 am

The Pirate Cake

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dd
All is finally back to normal here at home. The kids are healthy, Daddy is back from his trip, and Mom is back to pirate mode. One of my major coups this week has been finding the perfect birthday cakes, and thanks to my internet-research-savvy sister, she found me a girl who makes the most fabulous birthday cakes and pretty decent prices.

I love to bake, but in all honesty, one of those fancy “themed” or shaped cakes are totally beyond me. I’ll just leave that to the experts, thank you very much. So when I found this girl called Erika, (a pastry chef in her twenties, baking from home) who could pull off not just the cakes, but matching cupcakes and cookie lollipops in pirate theme, I was thrilled. She sent me a few sketches for approval, and asked for any other input I may have to make the day as special as she could for the kids.

A few more sketches and emails later, we were set! The pirate cake is actually going to be a huge treasure chest, with booty richly overflowing out. But thats not all. Places on a cake board decorated like a desert island beach, she is going to make an edible replica of the treasure map I drew for the party! Add to that some mini-moulded pirate candles we bought to place around the map (5, of course), and we’re set. Exciting stuff aaargh!

[tags]pirate, pirate birthday, pirate cake[/tags]

Originally posted on January 24, 2007 @ 10:01 am

Pirates Aaaargggh!

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xx

After my soon-to-be 5-year-old saw a fabulous pirate girl costume at our local party shop, it was a done deal. Its going to be a pirate party!! Luckily for Mom, the shop was on 50% off (hurrah!), so we stocked up on plates, hats, cups and so on. Next up was research time on the internet, as I was more of a girly kid in my youth, preferring princesses and castles to dirty, brazen-mouth pirates. I think my daughter takes after my hubby in that respect!

Online, I found some pretty great resources, like Birthday Party Ideas, which I would highly recommend for any parent planning any party. Written by parents who so kindly share their experience with loads of tips and advice, the site has all the birthday party themes any kid would want, with over 150 categories of fantastic birthday party ideas. I love it!!

For Pirate Kids party fayre, the site Pirate Party Food has some easy kid-friendly recipes to give you some creative ideas when planning for the party’s menu.

More ideas which came in handy were found at Boardman’s Birthday Party Ideas, like some thorough instructions for the invitations like how you should dip the paper in coffee for that old ragged look, and very pirate-y wording like:

“Aye…..ye be invited fer some birthday spirits at Captn Tyler’s Buccaneer Bash
Chart yer course fer the “location” ? day of month
We be a meetin at “time” fer some swashbuckling fun, grub and kiddie spirits.
Wave yer flag if ye be attendin or hav yer mum send message by yer phone to “number”
Sees ye there…..aarrgghh!

Yesterday we hit the shops in search for pirate loot for the prizes etc, and although we did find a good amount of stuff, I’m still kicking myself for not being more organized and getting stocked up at Halloween when all the pirate-y goods like skeletons, skulls and so forth were everywhere. But such is the last-minute decision making of 4-year-olds! I’ll have to search for my inner Martha now. Aaaarrgh!

[tags]Pirate party, kids’s party, birthdays, 5th birthday[/tags]

Originally posted on January 12, 2007 @ 6:56 pm

The Bottled Invitation

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ee

For the invitations, I pulled out my inner-Martha and made “message in a bottle” invitations. It involved a couple of nights work (those short precious hours between the time when the children have gone to bed and tired Mothers cant keep their eyes open for one minute longer), a printer, left-over coffee, tea, and my trusty stove’s gas burner. Throw in some sand and old shells lying around the house (from the last beach holiday), a bit of string, glass mineral water bottles, and hey, presto!

As luck would have it, both mine and my husband’s printer were acting extremely temperamental (and headed for the junk yard), so I went ovet to my sister’s house, parchment in hand. We found the perfect font, and in a few minutes, cooked up the wording:

Ahoy Matey!
Captain Natasha will be in harbour
On February 11th, 2007
at three o’clock in the afternoon
in search of a motley crew
and will navigate her way to
The Pooldeck (of our apartment building)
to meet suitable recruits
for a swashbuckling adventure bash!!

No liver-belly cowards or landlubbers need attend.

Now soak in coffee, burn the edges, tie and stuff in the bottle, seashells and sand. Easy and fun. And expect to get lots of compliments from the parents!! Oh, and I also put the bottle in a brown paper bag, with a “jolly roger” drawn on with a felt tipped pen. Those skulls get easier to draw once you’ve done them at least 10 times.

[tags]invitation, message in a bottle, pirate, birthday[/tags]

Originally posted on January 26, 2007 @ 8:00 pm