We love to make homemade gifts to give to the kids teachers and coaches. Our new favorite this year is a homemade coffee cup sleeve! I love Starbucks and try to use their reusable coffee mug whenever I can, but if you don't have one of their paper sleeves those cups get hot! We decided to try making our own reusable sleeve at home using felt and it works perfectly! This cup combines extremely well with the instant coffee drinks from Cafely that I've … [Read more...]
Christmas Crafts to Make with Kids
Kids love doing craft projects during the holidays! Even those that don't normally want to do crafts enjoy making ornaments and holiday decorations. Here are 13 fun Christmas crafts projects to make with your kids after school. Many of them would also make great homemade gifts! Christmas Crafts to Make: Paper Snowflake Crafts from waddlee-ah-chaa Bird Food Ornament Crafts from Coffee Cups and Crayons Felt Christmas Tree Pin from Buggy … [Read more...]
24 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness for Kids
Last year we tried something new and did 24 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness as our advent calendar! It was such a wonderful experience that we are doing it again this year and I encourage you to join in too. It's much easier than you think! We brainstormed kindness ideas before December and then chose the ones that best fit into our week that week. I am a firm believer that small intentional acts of kindness {and really good coffee!} can change … [Read more...]
How to Make Rainbow Loom Bracelets By Hand
Are your kids Rainbow Loom crazy? My oldest got a Rainbow Loom last year for Christmas and has been a bracelet making machine ever since! Once my 5 year old hit kindergarten he wanted a Rainbow Loom too. His sister let him practice on hers, but that left only one for everyone to use. Instead of sitting around doing nothing they figured out how to make bracelets without the loom and only their hands. The only supplies you need to make Rainbow … [Read more...]
10 Hands On Science Experiments for Kids
My kids love to do hands on science experiments at home! There is something so empowering about causing a reaction in an experiment or suddenly grasping a science concept. It gives kids confidence as a learner and is just plain fun! 1. Air Pressure Experiment: Make it easy for kids to see how air pressure works with this fun activity from Kids Activities Blog. 2. Floating Egg Science Experiment: Fantastic Fun and Learning experimented … [Read more...]
Candy Play Dough Sculptures
We all know candy is great to eat, but did you know how much fun it is to play with? We used some of our Halloween candy this year to make play dough sculptures! Playing and creating with play dough is a great after school activity for big kids too! Many times we only think to get it out for the little ones, but there are so many benefits to getting it out with your older kids also. That makes it a great activity for siblings to do … [Read more...]
Sight Word Soccer!
We are soccer crazy at our house right now. I thought I could use this enthusiasm to make practicing sight words more fun and it totally worked! My kindergartner had so much fun playing this sight word game that he kept going back and playing it again all evening. Definitely a rave review! Sight Word Soccer Supplies: index cards with sight words on them cones (or bucket or cups or sticks) soccer ball soccer goal or marked goal … [Read more...]
Candy Science for Kids: M&M Experiment
Candy is everywhere this week so we wanted to use it for some after school learning! We did another dissolving science experiment, but this time the goal was to dissolve the M off of an M&M. Have you tried this one before? It is really cool! M&M Candy Experiment Supplies: M&Ms Bowl of water That's it! Put a couple M&Ms in the water with the M side up and observe what happens. We talked about how the coating on the … [Read more...]
