Decorating you bike when you are young, whether for the 4th of July or a neighborhood parade, is so much fun! When you are little your bike is an object of triumph and your ticket to freedom so personalizing it and celebrating it just adds to the joy. All three of our kids are at the age where bikes are exciting so we knew that decorating bikes was something that had to be on our "Old School" Summer Bucket List! We have a red, white, and blue theme … [Read more...]
Craft for Kids: Duct Tape Hula Hoop
We just crossed hula hoop off our "Old School" Summer Bucket List! And came up with a fun and easy duct tape craft for kids too! When we were at Disney last week they had a hula hoop contest at the pool. My 5 year old wanted to join in, but didn't really know how to hula hoop yet so we knew that we had to practice when we got home! Unfortunately, all of our hula hoops were deemed too girly or too broken...so we upcycled one for him instead! Duct … [Read more...]
How to Tie Shoes: Shoe Tying Busy Bag Board
Learning how to tie shoes takes a lot of practice and is a great busy bag activity! We saw an expensive shoe tying board in a toy store and decided to make our own so my 5 year old could practice tying his shoes this summer. How to Make a Shoe Tying Board: Foam board (1 sheet makes 4 boards) Foam or cardstock sheets Glue, scissors, hole punch Permanent marker Screwdriver Shoe laces (we found ours in the party section at Target) This busy … [Read more...]
Three Independent Skills Your Child Needs for Kindergarten
Parents get so caught up in making sure that their kids have all of the academic skills they need for Kindergarten that they sometimes forget all about independent self help skills. Developing independent skills at home can be fun and easy and provide your child with the confidence she needs to be successful in school! Thanks to My Cute Graphics for use of this School Desk graphic! Independent skills are the skills that kids need to take care of … [Read more...]
Healthy Kids Snack: Painted Toast Flags
Painted Flag Toast turned out to be such a fun and healthy 4th of July kids snack! Instead of using milk and food coloring for our paint like we usually do we decided to try using fruit paint and found it to be delicious! This is one 4th of July craft you can do anytime of day...especially if you need a snack! To make the flag toast snack we cut the bread into a regular shape and made our fruit "paint". We had leftover strawberries and … [Read more...]
How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag
Have you ever made ice cream in a bag before? I haven't in years and the kids never have so we knew we had to put it on our "Old School" Summer Bucket List! Ice cream in a bag was just as much fun to make (and eat!) as we hoped it would be! How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag: 1/2 cup of half and half (also called single cream and 10% coffee cream) 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla quart size plastic bag (good quality) … [Read more...]
Following Directions and Listening Game: Teacher Says!
This week in the Get Ready for K Through PLAY! series we are focusing on activities that develop the social and emotional skills needed for Kindergarten. The ability to follow directions, especially oral, multi-step ones, is an important Kindergarten skill. It can also be a difficult skill for kids to master and often requires a lot of practice. Playing games is a great way to work on listening and Teacher Says! is a family favorite. How to … [Read more...]
Rock Kids Activities and Crafts
Rocks rock! They are a cheap, plentiful, natural material that can be used for so many fun kids activities. Here are 17 ways to learn, create, and play with rocks from The PLAY Group...rock on! Rocks can be used for just about any activity and can be an addicting material once you start using them! There are tons of learning, art, and play activities that you can so with them and I've rounded up 18 awesome ones from the The PLAY Group for you … [Read more...]
