Tag: children

25 Ideas for Advent Calendars (&Crafts)

Today there are many advent calendars that can be bought, ranging from simple chocolates to complex lego advent calendars.  There are wine, book, superhero, and just about anything advent calendars that can be bought for a price.   I remember having certain Christmas traditions in my home as a child and want my children to experience similar fond memories when they are older. So I purchased a German Christmas pyramid second hand (as they can be very expensive and knowing children, it most likely will break).

I also decided to buy an advent calendar for my children.  I decided one sturdy wooden advent calendar would do the trick!  I saw many beautiful lit ones for higher prices; however, I felt they could easily be broken.  I finally decided on one I purchased at Lowes.

Now, the big question is, what should I fill each day with? So many options, but such a SMALL space. So, only very small items fit, such as two Hershey kisses or two small mini candy bars and the door wont completely shut. I didn’t want to start off with something too grand in the first door. My kids were excited about chocolate, so that’s what I did, two very small pieces of chocolate.

For the other doors, I will have some small chocolates in a couple, but I have many other cute and fun items for the kiddos. I’ll leave a very small piece of paper in the day that will have a clue to where their item is located. I was going to go into scavenger hunts, but lets be real, I would rather relax for a couple minutes after bed (or do this post), instead of trying to come up with an elaborate hunt they will be done with in 5 mins!  Since my children can’t completely read yet, I decided using pictures might be best.  So in day 2 I will put a picture of a christmas tree. They will run to the tree and see a pack of fruit flavored candy canes under the tree to hang up on the tree.

Here are some other ideas of items you can leave notes for:

  1. Candy
  2. Christmas books
  3. Plato
  4. wooden /ceramic projects
  5. Felt snowman fun
  6. any kind of christmas project including photo ornaments, easy glitter ornaments, and many other ones on this website
  7. ornaments for the tree
  8. Christmas clothing
  9. Christmas lights
  10. coloring books
  11. Christmas cookies
  12. Baking recipe to make cookies
  13. Sprinkles for cookies
  14. Hot cocoa packet/marshmallows..or homemade hot cocoa
  15. Christmas movie
  16. Christmas mask (2020)
  17. Christmas headband, clips, socks
  18. Small stuffed Christmas santa, elf etc.
  19. Sock Snowman (either made or have supplies to make)
  20. Felt Christmas tree (can make one, or if child is old enough they can make it!) or just an ornament to add to their current felt C
  21. Christmas tree!
  22. Tree Prints!
  23. Salt dough wreath, ornament, or garland!
  24. +Pomander Ball supplies
  25. Felt Snowman Fun!
  26. Singing holiday card/toy/Christmas solar bobble head

ENJOY AND HAVE FUN!!

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Alternative Trick or Treating 2020

We all love trick or treating! I can remember trick or treating in high school with a group of my soccer friends! I personally think trick or treating is great for older children as well (as long as they behave and aren’t too scary for the little ones!). There were neighbors who said, “How old are you?” or “Don’t you think you’re too old for trick or treating?” NO is the answer. If a teenager is responsible and behaving, then by all means go trick or treating instead of the many other negative things that could be done.

I remember running home and spreading the treats all over the floor with my brother and sister. We would compare our stockpile and trade our treats! Oh what fun trick or treating was! However, 2020 is different. With the COVID virus going around (rate dependent in your state/county), we are minimizing this high risk activity by avoiding the traditional trick or treating. As disappointing as this is, there are some other super fun alternatives (and hopefully next year we can do the old school trick or treating)!

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  1. Mini Party!!!!!! Mini party essential means a small party, usually under ten people, with trusted low risk covid people. This can encompass many activities such as
    1. A Piñata
    2. Movie night
    3. Campfire night with smores
    4. Fun Halloween snacks and food
    5. Carving/painting pumpkins
    6. Halloween crafts/face painting
    7. Board games
    8. Crafts
    9. How many candy corns are in the container
    10. And any of the other activities on the list!
  2. Scavenger hunt time! Who doesn’t love a good scavenger hunt? Well, maybe your kids if they don’t want to work for their candy! There are many scavenger Halloween hunts, I made one for kids who aren’t quite reading yet so they can look at the pictures and words and understand. The one below you can download. If you need another type you can find many online!
Halloweenscavengerclickhere
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3. Halloween Egg Hunt: You can easily use marker and draw faces on eggs, or you can use puffy paint! Another option is glow in the dark eggs and a night egg hunt…SPOOKY! You can also paint eggs with glow in the dark paint. Put your favorite candies, stickers, tattoos, rings, or whatever you child enjoys in the eggs! Use your pumpkin or usual trick or treat bags to collect them.

Halloween party games for kids - Upcycle plastic Easter Eggs for a Halloween Egg Hunt.

4. Trick or Treat Stations: Setup stations in your yard, or at each of your doors. Each adult is dressed up and has a scene behind them. For example, one adult has spider webs behind them and the kids come up and say trick or treat. The idea is that its safe since it is your mom and dad or family member you live with and its similar to trick or treating. We may do the door idea. So the kids can run from door to door (maybe more than once), and knock for trick or treating.

5. Family trick or treating: this is similar to the one above. However, you can drive to grandparents house or aunt or uncle house and do trick or treat at just a select couple houses to lower the risk.

6. Family Ideas: So besides all the other ideas, there are many other Halloween things that can be done. Family board games, campfires, Halloween movies, pin the spider on the spiderweb, mummy toilet paper roll game (although you may not want to waste the toilet paper!!), painting pumpkins or carving them, Halloween bingo, ring witch hat toss

17+ Halloween Party Games for Kids
Halloween Bingo - Perfect halloween party games for kids

7. Yard Parade: have your little ones dress up and walk around the yard and do a parade! You can walk down the road dressed up as well (not on trick or treat day of course!). Kids love dressing up and having a pretend parade!

8. Zoom party! So have a family/friend zoom party. You can vote on the best costumes, each show off your spooky treats and your pumpkins. Do crafts together or drawing contests

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Homemade Paint!

Looking for an easy homemade nontoxic paint for your little one to be creative?  Well, look no further!  We experimented with several types of homemade paint and below are our favorite recipes!


Kids of all ages love painting!  You can have your little one finger paint, use brushes, sponges, or even potatoes!

So we started off making completely edible finger paint with only a couple ingredients!

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Here is what you will need: (this makes enough for about 4-5 different colors depending on how much you want for each)…

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  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup of flour
  • extra water to thin out
  • food coloring, watercolors, or natural colors such as beet, carrot, tumeric

Instructions:

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  1. Place pot over medium heat and pour flour and water into pot and continuously stir the ingredients until it becomes a thick paste.
  2. Take the pot away from the heat when it no longer sticks to the sides
  3. Add cold water to the blob until it reaches the consistency you like and place the amount you desire into separate bowls to color.
  4. Add food coloring, watercolors, natural colorants such as beet or carrot juice, turmeric spice
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  6. These can be enjoyed right away or stored in the fridge!!

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This paint works well for fingerpainting or sponge painting.  You can also use brushes but as you see in the photo, the colors come out thinner and lighter than traditional paint.  The color dries on without fading. We used the paint several days in a row.

 

And who doesn’t love watercolors?  The problem with watercolors is that the colors can mix and you only get very small amounts of each color.  However, this can all change with homemade watercolor paints!

photo by factorydirectcraft
photo by factorydirectcraft
tbsp. baking soda
2 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. corn starch
food colors*
containers for storing paints*
something to stir with (toothpicks)

photo from happyhooligans
photo from happyhooligans

You can use a muffin pain, disposable cups, egg cartons, or any other container that you aren’t going to use for a couple days.

Instructions:

1)Mix baking soda & vinegar in a cup with a spout.  I used my Pyrex measuring glass.  Let the kids watch as it fizzes

2) Add in light corn syrup and stir.

3) Stir in the corn starch until well combined.  (If it gets too thick, add a little more vinegar.)

4)Pour into your paint containers- not too full, you need room for the food colors.

5)Add the food colors and stir until you reached your desired color!

6) Now if you want them to harden into hockey pucks you have to let them sit almost two days!  If you plan on using it right away that’s fine too!

 

Sponges and potatoes!! 


You can cut out designs in potatoes or out of sponges and dip into paint and press just like a stamp! I remember doing this as a child! 


You can also use cookie cutters and paint the potato. This picture was taken from Fun stuff. 
Dollar store sponges are great to cut out designs for painting! 

Enjoy! 

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