Our friend, Jamie is the expert on creating fun, easy to do activities with kids at home using what you already have on hand. We picked our top ten favorite activities from her post: EASY CRAFTS FOR KIDS and want to share them with you!
ONE: DECORATE A WINDOW
Such a wonderful way to brighten the neighborhood and bring joy to those inside and outside of the house.
TWO: MAKE A GIANT WORD SEARCH
Are you working on sight words or focusing on a theme with school work? Make a word search about it! You can also make them around words about people in your family, holidays, friends. Let big kids create their own and have a family member solve it. You can use craft paper or the back side of wrapping paper for a large surface.
THREE: WATERCOLOR RESIST
Draw secret messages or designs on a piece of paper using a white crayon and let the kids paint on top of it with watercolors to reveal the design. Kids could mail these to their friends with instructions to water color on top to figure out the message. Jamie’s tip: The thicker you write with the white crayon, the better it will show up.
FOUR: SCAVENGER HUNT
You can do these inside or outside your house. Nature scavenger hunt, backyard scavenger hunt, indoor scavenger hunt and you could even use it as a clean-up activity! Like, find 3 dirty dishes and put in the sink, find two toys out of place and put them back, etc. Winner gets a prize!
FIVE: LEGO CHALLENGE
Challenge your kids to make something out of LEGO. Some of Jamie’s favorite challenges: make your name, build a bridge, build a house to hold a stuffed animal, build a tic tac toe game, build a boat.
SIX: MANICURE PRACTICE
You can use a cereal box, poster board or easy to cut cardboard to cut the shape of a hand for manicures!
SEVEN: ICE BLOCKS
Fill a plastic container with small toys (not your favorites!) and then fill it up with water. After it freezes, let the kids break up the blocks outside with mallets or kids tools (for younger kiddos) or a hammer (for bigger kids).
EIGHT: COFFEE FILTER CRAFTS
An easy, fun craft for all ages! Color on a coffee filter with washable markers. Then, paint the filter with water. After they dry, you can make them into flowers, butterflies, banners, use as window decorations or add a note to them and mail them to someone.
NINE: BALLOONS
Balloons make everything fun! Blow one up and play keep up or have kids make DIY paddles out of a paint stick and a paper plate. You can have kids race with balloons between their knees, throw the balloons up and have them catch the ballon on a cup or blow up lots of balloons and have a race of who can kick or hit with a plastic stick or putter the most balloons to their goal. (Image from: https://simply-fun-games.com/indoor-party-games.html/fun-indoor-party-games)
TEN: WRITE NOTES
Use all of the art you’ve been making to brighten someone’s day and teach your kids how to address an envelope and write a letter! Or, make a postcard out of card stock and decorate it. Here is a printable postcard from Tinkerlab and the image is from their site, too: https://tinkerlab.com/printable-postcards-for-kids-download-pdf/
