Stay at Home Mom Seeking Arts/Crafts Ideas

I bought a great cd of 1001 crafts for kids from ebay & buy stuff from oriental trading company all the time plus you can watch Activity TV on demand from comcast if you have it or go to their web site. No to mension all the crafting & painting kits that are at Fred Meyer or Walmart. You could also try the young woodworkers club & gardening classes! I also bought a cooking 4 kids cd rom & lots of kid cookbooks. Try 2nd look books or borders! They have all kinds of great stuff!

I've found some great ideas in Family Fun magazine. In fact, one I did recently with the kids was to make HUGE God's Eyes and we are using them to display our "finds" from the beach, photos of fun things we do this summer. I used to get the magazine in the mail and use the ideas when I worked with school-age kids at a childcare center in the summer. They have things like make your own teepee and decorate the outside of it, make games to play, and I especially love keepsake crafts. I think the key in the summer is to keep them busy. I used to work full time outside the home until recently and I too am taking time off to be with the kids. I find the summer's go by way too fast for all the fun things we want to do. Have fun!

There a lot of ideas on this site:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

You could go on a nature walk with your children just around your neighbor hood, or you local park. Collect various leaves,twigs, rocks, shells, you name it. Then come home and have them either put their items into a collage of fun stuff, you could have them make a placemat, or have them glue the objects together and make a mural of some sort. All sorts of fun and exciting things that you can do. If you go and collect a bunch of pinecones you could all have fun making bird feeders and putting them up around your yard and bird watch. Um, also with the pinecones you could make Christmas ornaments. The possiblities are endless. Or having any shells that you all have collected through the summer, you could make a sea shell wind chime, necklaces, and so on. For other simple ideas on crafts , you could make paper masks, paper bag puppets, sock puppets, a book about your summer, the list could go on and on. Hope this helped you in some way.

M.

Go to Familycircle.com and sign up for their mailing list. I get 2-3 emails/day with all kinds of different seasonal arts and crafts ideas.
Also, my kids loved making stepping stones... we bought some concrete mix (the smallest bag we could find), made a mold out of 2x4's, set it on top of a flat garbage bag, poured the mixture in and let it sit for an hour or two to start to harden. Once it was getting stiff, we put our hand prints in it and to fill in the spaces, I had some of those little colored rocks (not the tiny ones but the bigger ones you put in little fish bowls or candle holders... you can get them at the dollar store in all different colors), or for the older kids, you can use broken glass of different colors if you're careful to watch them so they don't get cut.
I am also scrapbooking with my kids this summer. I have purchased each of them a small photo album at the dollar store and have construction paper, new and old pictures of them, etc. and am letting each of them make their own book. This also gives me a chance to do mine!!!!!

Check out www.discovertraditions.com
It's my website, but represents great family fun ideas at no cost. It's kind of like family circle and there is a newsletter you can subscribe to monthly.

crayola has an awesome website with craft ideas!

Time to start on those Christmas gifts! Making soap is easy enough for your 3 year old to participate. And please don't forget good old macaroni art! Michaels sells cheap little wooden boxes and frames that are great to glue mac and then paint. I see a trip there in your future. I have a few kits but tissue paper in colors, construction paper, water color paints, glitter, ribbons, tape, glue, shaped craft scissors are all on hand supplies and there are great web sites if you google it. Look for teacher ideas, also. Just putting the supplies out is usually enough to get the fun started. A small photo glued to a paper and a poem written or sentences finished (I love it when Grandpa says___) make great gifts. Dollar tree is awesome for supplies, also. Wish we were neighbors, we'd have a summer school! Don't forget your local library (movies, books, story time, summer reading). Have a blast and stay cool, congrats on your first summer home!

Hi J.
They have sidewalk chalk or sidewalk paint that is absolutely fun. I have 15 year olds that still uses this stuff lol. Anyway they also have a games at walmart for dirt cheap. Id suggest maybe the fish one that you have to catch with a pole. Happy Hippo has always been fun etc...
If you dont mind the mess. (clean up with hose) use kids outdoor paint. Put a touch of them into balloons. Get a huge piece of paper tape it to your fence or lay it on the ground. Have them throw the balloons at the paper. Let dry. I hang mine in garage to display.
~Enjoy