{"id":5832,"date":"2011-07-22T06:04:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T11:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=5832"},"modified":"2011-07-22T06:04:26","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T11:04:26","slug":"friday-family-fun-five-crafty-ideas-to-keep-kids-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2011\/07\/22\/friday-family-fun-five-crafty-ideas-to-keep-kids-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Family Fun: Five crafty ideas to keep kids busy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span> was in Costco the other day and they had the back-to-school supplies out already. Nooooooo! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ready!!! Yeesh, summer has barely begun!<\/p>\n

And yet, when the kids are restless, those long summer days can seem less like something to be enjoyed and more like something to be endured. For this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version of Friday Family Fun, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s five crafty ideas that will keep kids engaged \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for a few minutes, at least!<\/p>\n

1. Make-yer-own sidewalk paint<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love this craft, and had no idea how easy it would be to make nor how easy it would be to clean up!! I wrote a post all about how to make-your-own sidewalk paint<\/a> with nothing more than corn starch, water and food colouring last year.<\/p>\n

\"Fun<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Make-yer-own moon sand <\/strong><\/p>\n

Confession: we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tried this one yet, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen it all over the Interwebs this summer. Apparently, if you mix 4 cups of sand, 2 cups of corn starch and 1 cup of water, you get the equivalent of that mouldable Moon sand stuff. I think this would be really fun to try with that fancy Crayola coloured sand, which would give more than enough for each boy to have his own bin full.<\/p>\n

3. Make-yer-own playdough<\/strong><\/p>\n

If moon sand isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t your thing, how about some home-made playdough? We got this kool-aid playdough recipe from Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nursery school years ago, and I really like how it turns out. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need<\/p>\n

1 1\/4 cup flour
\n1\/4 cup salt
\n1 pkg unsweetened Kool-aid (the mini-ones)
\n1 cup boiling water
\n1 1\/2 Tbsp vegetable oil<\/p>\n

In a bowl, mix flour, salt and dry kool-aid mix. Boil water and add with oil to dry mix. Be careful, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hot! Allow to cool a bit but while still warm knead with hands for about 5 minutes. Will store for up to two months in a Ziploc bag.<\/p>\n

4. Beads<\/strong><\/p>\n

We make a trip out to the local bead store each summer. Once upon a time, I thought of beads as more of a girl thing, but I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be more wrong \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all the boys I know love to make beady crafts. And you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to limit yourself to jewelry, either \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the boys make nametags for their backpacks and lunchbags, zipper pulls for their jackets, and even name collars for their Webkinz pets. I usually buy a big bag of pony beads and alphabet beads and some elastic cord at the dollar store, and let them choose half a dozen or so fancy beads each from the bead store, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re good for at least an afternoon of entertainment.<\/p>\n

\"Beads\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Rock painting<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another one on my to-do list for the summer. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need some bright colours of tempra or acrylic paint (not watercolours), some brushes, and various sizes of rocks. Tip: collecting the rocks can be a great way to waste an afternoon \u00e2\u20ac\u201c erm, I mean, another way to spend some quality time with your children! You can be ridiculously fancy like Martha Stewart<\/a>, or aim a little lower and just hope more paint ends up on the rocks than the kids. You can guess which end of the spectrum I fancy!<\/p>\n

I also found this <\/a>neat idea on Pinterest: Use a stamp kit, stencil or transfer to create a whole bunch of alphabet tiles made from small stones. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that a fun idea?<\/p>\n

So there you go, that should keep the wee beasties busy for at least another week, right? \ud83d\ude42 As always, please feel free to share your ideas for crafty family fun in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in Costco the other day and they had the back-to-school supplies out already. Nooooooo! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ready!!! Yeesh, summer has barely begun! And yet, when the kids are restless, those long summer days can seem less like something to be enjoyed and more like something to be endured. For this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version of … Continue reading “Friday Family Fun: Five crafty ideas to keep kids busy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,77,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-things","category-fun-for-kiddies","category-ottawa-family-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}