Crafty Kids

With the numerous windy days that we have during the spring in Colorado, I've been trying to keep my little tike busy aside from watching princess movies, playing princesses and coloring princesses.  She'd most definitely rather be outside playing but some days it's just too darn cold!  Kids are great, because if it's something that they can get their hands on and make something, they will really get into it. So I've been trying to come up with little crafty things we can do each day that we're stuck inside. Toilet Roll Bird Feeders:

We made the bird feeders using toilet paper rolls, peanut butter, bird seed, string and twigs.  My girl is a little obsessed with using sprinkles so I actually used an old cake sprinkle dispenser to put the bird seed in and after we slathered the roll in peanut butter she loved getting to sprinkle it with bird seed.  All that was left to do after that was puncture holes in the roll to push the twig through for the birds to stand on and string it up.  I really couldn't tell you if the birds ever got to enjoy the feeders because of the wind out here, but Sheridan and I had a lot of fun.

Button Bracelets:

Did you know that you can get a whole bag of buttons from most craft stores?  Well, neither did I until recently!  I also picked up some elastic string and we just threaded the buttons onto the string and made fun bracelets.  This is a great eye-hand coordination project because those little fingers really have to be precise in getting the string through the holes of the buttons.  I was actually pretty impressed that my 2 year old could get it done.  I'm assuming that putting all of those dresses on Barbies had some kind of connection with this activity!  In the end, you have very stylish and somewhat "noisy" bracelet!

Paper Crowns:

It's always a good idea to invest in some colorful card stock if you have kiddos because the possibilities are endless.  Sheridan chose her favorite color which is pink and I traced out a crown on the paper.  Then with some guidance and pre-school safe scissors we cut out her crown.  I had some feathers, rhinestones and our buttons all mixed together on a plate where she could choose what she wanted to put on her crown.  We then applied our glue stick everywhere on the paper where we wanted decoration and she went "crazy" with her decorating.  After she was done decorating we stapled the back of the crown together to fit her head and she wore it everyday for the rest of the week.  (BAD BLOGGER MOM DID NOT SNAP ANY PICTURES OF COURSE!)

Sensory Bags:

With this one, even Odessa could get involved.  I just made some paint using flour, water and food coloring, mixed it all up, and placed a few spoonfuls of each color in a Ziploc bag.  I then taped it to the counter and let the girls move the squishy paint around on the surface.  It's such a simple activity but kids love getting to manipulate colors.

So if you're "cooped up" inside still this spring, breakout the craft supplies and let your kiddos get creative.  There's still so many other activities that I'm excited to do with my girls.  Here's a short list of the crafts I have planned:

Shaving Cream Paint in the Bath

Paper Bag Puppets

Kleenex Box Guitars

Painting Rocks

Tin Can Phones

Stamps made with Potatoes

Boats made from Milk Cartons

Hopefully the wind will die down soon because nothing is better than getting to soak up that sunshine!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

Cooped Up Mama Candace