Fun and useful ideas for modern parents.
When I saw these in Target I could not pass them up even though I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them.
And then it hit me–necklaces! A red, white and blue craft and dessert rolled into one. The kids threaded the Fruit Loops onto plastic strings with post its around the end.
Then they wore (and ate) them while watching the Olympics!
Do you have any fun Olympic themed ideas? Add them to the Blog Hop!
A couple weeks ago I invited some friends to kick off the summer with a busy bag swap! What better way to get ready for summer travel than to stock up on new activities? If you’ve never heard that term before a busy bag is a self-contained activity or project for kids. For this swap the activity did not have to be reusable, it just had to have all the pieces and instructions needed for kids to complete. There were 6 moms who could make it so everyone brought 6 copies of their busy bag and we got together for a mom-only night of tapas and sangria. A moms night out with lots of cool activities to take home–we obviously had lots of fun!
I made these gel writing boards I had seen on pinterest from Play Dr. Mom. They are tons of sensory fun and can also be used for drawing, letter and number writing, math problems and lots more. Check out her site for the easy instructions.
This is a free giraffe counting printable from Prekinders that one of the moms laminated to make it reusable. She included play dough so kids can practice counting by making leaves on the trees and a dry erase marker for writing addition and subtraction problems. The play dough leaves become a manipulative kids can use to problem solve!
Another mom also did play dough mats and laminated full sets of these great math mats from Homeschool Creations! There in the play dough set kids can make the numbers from 0-20 out of play dough while practicing counting and reading the number word. Kids can practice number writing and one to one correspondence with the wipe off number cards.
And I can’t give you a link to this funny faces set because one of my friends actually drew it herself! My kids have had lots of fun making different faces and then coming up with their own story about their creation. This could even be something that kids can make for themselves.
And this is a super cool Spin and Spell from Michelles Charm World! Kids can come up with their own real and nonsense 3, 4 and 5 letter words. Such a simple and fun spelling tool!
And last, but certainly not least are these patriotic lanterns adapted from the Crafting Chicks! The mom who brought these prepped the craft for everyone and included enough materials for each kid in everyone’s family to make one. Since our swap took place right before the 4th of July this craft was perfect!
We had tons of fun at our first busy bag swap and are planning another one for before school starts. Have you ever participated in a busy bag swap before? What cool busy bag ideas have you done? Feel free to leave the link in the comments because we’re all looking for new ideas for next time!
The kids helped me make super easy red, white and blue muffin tin meals for dinner last night. They loved using the star cookie cutter to cut out the bread and cheese (and to eat the leftover bread and cheese while they worked!) and had lots of fun washing the fruit and deciding which cup would be just perfect for each food. This would also be an easy 4th of July breakfast for kids, expecially since it’s so hot out!
We love making layered Jell-O in the summer and have been making red, white and blue Jell-O for the last couple 4th of Julys. This year we decided to shake things up a little bit and make individual servings in 4 oz jelly jars. I included both recipes below if you’d like to try it yourself. Layered Jell-O is as easy to make as boiling water, but does need time to set between the layers so if you are planning on serving this dessert you should begin making well in advance of eating it.
Layered Jell-O Recipe Ingredients
How to Make Traditional Red, White and Blue Layered Jell-O:
Layered Jell-O in Jelly Jar Recipe Modifications:
I followed the first 4 steps pouring the jello into 12 jelly jars instead of the pan. Then for the white layer I dissolved 1 packet of Knox gelatin in 1 cup of water and added 1/3 cup of sour cream and 3 T of simple syrup to it instead of following the directions in steps 1 and 2. I then used the above directions for the red layer. I only used 1 box of blue and 1 box red Jell-O. I did have to add a little extra water (about 1 T) to the final red layer for some reason. I’m guessing I didn’t measure accurately at first because I was fine with the blue layer.
Happy 4th of July!
Last year we made these fun fingerprint and footprint flags for Flag Day! The kids had a blast and they hung on our back doors through the 4th of July.
This was the one my then 5 year old made. She only used one foot for the footprints so she wouldn’t get red paint on the white stripes. 
The then 3 year old obviously had to put both feet in the paint, but still managed to walk in a pretty straight line! They also did 50 blue fingerprints to represent the stars.
I’m excited to see what this year’s flags look like! Can’t wait to compare!
