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photo credit: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar
Today we have a guest Post from Michelle at Party supplies!
Kids have the best imaginations and their parties reflect those unhindered spirits that make kids so carefree. The themes and crafts you have at a party determine how occupied the kids will be and what memories they will take away from the event. At my son’s 6th birthday party, we used Super Mario Bros party supplies to create a household game. We decorated and encouraged kids to dress up so that when they showed up, we had an obstacle course set up, like the level of the video game. Most of the boys wore overalls, and we had fake mustaches ready for them to stick on to top off their costumes.
We try to make our kid’s birthday parties as interactive as possible. Pizza stations, where kids can top their own mini-pizzas make for easy to please and not too expensive food. The stations also take up a little bit of time. Having cupcakes for everyone to decorate with icing and candy is another option for a hands-on activity.
Having a craft for the kids to work on can also double as their party favor. Depending upon the age, interest and gender of the attendees. Kids that are old enough to handle paints can decorate their own t-shirts, aprons, hats or whatever else you can think of. Kids love paint, but clean up can be a nightmare if they’re too young to handle the responsibility of keeping the paint where it belongs…not on the floor. If the party is near the holidays making ornaments can be fun. Picture frames are another good option. You can have a Polaroid on hand and take pictures of the kids for them to put in their frames to take home
Younger kids are a little bit tougher. Toddler parties aren’t drop off the kid situations, so parents having something they can do to interact with their children and everybody interacting altogether is the goal. Edible decorating is good for this age group. It can be messy, but the last thing distracted parents need to worry about is policing what goes into their toddler’s mouth.
If you pick a theme like we did, that may help you by having some sort of genre to follow. Super Mario party supplies are one way to go of course, but consult your kids and use you imagination!
Summer is such a great time to play and enjoy time with your kids. There are so many fun activities for kids on these hot summer days! A wonderful activity to try with your kids is to go to the beach and explore for crabs, fish and shells and other fun things! (Of course you need to be able to get to a beach to do this. Although, if you don’t have a beach you can go to the park or woods and search for bugs and animals! ) We have a beach that has rocks by it and crabs love to hide under them! Kids can spend hours searching through the rocks for crabs to fill their buckets! Make sure to have a bucket with a handle and a net and you will be ready to go searching. You can fill up the buckets with a little sea water and once you find a crab, starfish or little fish you can put them in the bucket. This way kids get an up close and personal view of the crabs/sealife. Once they are done checking the sealife out they can let them go in the ocean.
It’s always fun to do some reading before you go on an adventure like this. You can read about some of the sealife they might find at the ocean. Make sure to bring a camera so you can take pictures of the crabs, starfish etc they find. Then they can look at the pictures afterwords and relive the fun they had. You can even get adventurous and have your kids create a book about their adventure. They can draw pictures of what they saw, and glue in pictures you took. You will certainly have some great memories and a fun day after spending a day at the beach like this!
photo credit: DaveBleasdale
If you have little kids at home, you might have noticed that they usually have this inclination to play with your refrigerator stick-ons. Sometimes, when we use these magnetic stickers to pin our bills and other important documents on the fridge, we would be surprised that our notes and reminders are scattered on the floor. The kids have played with your ref stick-ons and they love playing with it.
To perhaps avoid this inconvenience, why not involve your kids into making their own refrigerator stick-ons. And because December is already here, lets have the kids create Christmas-themed alphabet magnetic stickers.
Supplies:
- Small magnets
- Black paper board
- Colored paper board (green, yellow, red)
- Black marker
- Glue
- Glitter glue
- Puncher
Steps:
- Cut the colored paper boards into 2×2 inches square tiles. Green, yellow, and red are the colors of Christmas, and they are usually prevalent at this time of the year. This will establish the Christmas theme of the alphabet magnetic stickers. Make 26 pieces.
- Cut the the black paperboard into 2.5×2.5 inches square tiles. Create 26 pieces.
- Glue one colored paperboards over a black paperboard. Do the same with the remaining pieces.
- Write the letters of the alphabet on the paper tiles.
- Punch some holes on the colored papers to create small circles. Put yellow and green circles on the red tiles, red and green on the yellow ones, and yellow and red on the green ones. Apply glitter glue on the center of the circles.
- Glue the small magnets at the back of the stick-ons. Let them dry.
You now have your Christmas-themed alphabet magnetic stick-ons! Happy Holidays!
This is a fun craft for Thanksgiving that your kids can create. They will love getting to eat some of the goodies as they create their food turkey!!
Supplies:
- apple
- marshmallows
- toothpicks
- cranberries
- candy corn
- cheerios
Steps:
- Help your child place the toothpicks in the apple. One in the front for the face and a fan of toothpicks to create the feathers.
- Let them get creative with how they want to create their turkey. Placing marshmallows, cheerios, cranberries etc. on the toothpicks.
Have fun!
photo credit: Ritzee Rebel
Drawing a reindeer might look very challenging for you? Don’t be discouraged thinking about your difficulty in sketching this great Christmas creature. It’s just a matter of creativity and imagination.
Working on the “Reindeer Wall Stick On” is an easy-to-make craft made out of tracing a child’s hand and foot prints. By using the handprints and footprint, you can make a reindeer’s head that can be decorated on the walls of your children’s room.
Because the children will use their own handprint and foot print, they will be making personalized masterpieces that they could treasure.
Supplies:
- Orange, red, and brown construction paper
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Scissors
- Glue
- Large Wiggly Eyes
- Double Sided Tape
- Black marker
Steps:
- Let the child trace his or her foot using the brown construction paper. Adults can help children who still cannot do it by themselves. This will serve as the head of the reindeer.
- Then, let the child trace his or her left and right hand prints on the orange construction paper. These will serve as the reindeer’s antlers.
- Trace the outline of the foot print and the handprints with a black marker.
- Cut along these outlines.
- After cutting put the patterns, glue the handprints on the top of the reindeers head.
- Glue the wiggly eyes on the reindeer head.
- Cut a circle shape on the red construction paper.
- Glue the red circle shape in the middle of the reindeer head. This will serve as the nose of the reindeer.
- Draw a smiling mouth below the red nose.
- Cut the double sided tape and place it at the back of the reindeer. Peel off and stick on the walls of the child’s room.
Fill the children’s rooms with these simple and easy-to-do Christmas decorations and create the Christmas atmosphere that you all may appreciate.
