Painting With Chalk

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

Painting with Chalk

A bit of a warm streak hit us here in Florida while most of the rest of the country was freezing. It’s a strange December when it’s 80 degrees outside.

Anyway, it does mean we’ve been spending plenty of time outdoors. In shorts, too, but that’s not the point.

One of the things I showed my girls today was that chalk wasn’t just great for drawing – it was great for “painting,” too.

This is a method of drawing where you simply dip your chalk into a cup of water before drawing with it. (Kind of like watercolor pencils.)

I let the chalk soak for a few seconds before drawing, and I repeatedly dipped it back into the water while drawing. The wetter it was, the smoother the finished product.

Painting with Chalk

You can see that I made some different shapes to show my girls how the colors would look when the chalk was wet. It was brilliant against the brick and smooth to the touch. My oldest daughter liked to blend the colors.

You could, obviously, also do this on concrete, but we have brick in the backyard. Whatever surface you usually use for chalk drawings should work.

We also used the blocks from the chalkboard storage box and blocks set I made.

And my girls also drew all over themselves with the wet chalk. My 21-month-old especially. She covered her legs in the wet chalk, and thought it was hysterical. Luckily, one of the reasons I love chalk so much is it’s very, very easy to wash off.

Have you tried this? I’d love to know if your kids enjoyed it, too!

18Dec2013

Coloring the Disney Box

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

coloring disney box

The best part of the Disney Store box? What’s inside, of course!

What was inside were Christmas presents… and another surprise.

I opened the box that came in the mail when the girls weren’t around, expecting just the things I ordered awaiting me. But, much to my delight, the inside of the box was a present in itself: it was decorated with Disney characters.

The plain, brown cardboard part of the box was on the outside when it was packaged and delivered, with the fun stuff hidden inside.

So, after storing away the Christmas gifts in the closet, I opened up the box into a flat piece of cardboard, and invited my girls to draw on it, much like they did their gingerbread house.

There was an outline of Tinker Bell and Pluto all ready for their designs, plus a trail of pixie dust and plenty of white space to fill in.

A great way to keep my little artists entertained. :)

15Dec2013

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Our next Christmas craft this year was a felt Christmas tree that was bigger than my girls.

It’s a similar concept to our Halloween felt board, but much, much bigger.

And more fashionable.

I had actually intended on doing a more traditional-looking felt Christmas tree, kind of like this tree that I saw last year.

But then I came across these amazing felt sheets:

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Score!

With these printed felt pieces I could make a delightfully girly Christmas tree instead! :)

Found them at Walmart, of all places. And I bought a yard of dark green felt from their fabric department, for the tree. I thought about getting some dark purple or a paisley patterned piece heavy with lime green (they sell precut pieces like these at Michaels), but I decided to stick with the green. I liked how it looked.

And I was going to cut a star from one of the pieces I had, but then I came across those adorable pink felt star ornaments on sale at Michaels. For forty cents, I couldn’t pass them up. Especially since they matched the felt I already had.

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Because I didn’t want to screw up the tree while cutting, I folded my yard of fabric in half, lengthwise, and drew a tree pattern on it with chalk, instead of just cutting it out by hand, like I do most things.

Then I cut out the ornaments. I cut rough squares and then cut circles out of them. I cut a dozen ornaments from the two with zebra stripes, but only six from the other two patterns, to give them some variation of size.

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Then I had to decide where to hang it. I tried using tape, even packing tape, but it was kind of heavy, so I didn’t consider the tape sturdy enough.

I tried sticking the felt directly to the stucco wall on the porch, thinking it would stick like felt does to brick, but the stucco was too smooth because of the paint.

I wound up going with Command Strips (pictured above). The picture hanging ones come with a texture similar to Velcro, so, instead of using the 8 pieces as a set of 4 hangers, I stuck the rough side of the strips right on the felt tree. Then I peeled off the sticky backing and stuck it on the wall.

The main reason I used the Strips is because I can adjust the tree. With a gentle pull, the felt comes right off of the rough side of the strips. And, when it’s time to pack up the Christmas decorations, I can gently pull the Strips off the wall. (But always follow the directions – if you do, they won’t harm your wall, but if you don’t, they’ll take the paint right off.)

Although, if you prefer, you could just leave the tree on the floor and let your kids play with it that way. But I think they have more fun with it if it’s hanging up. Like this:

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

I love the felt for playing. It’s great for both my preschooler and my toddler. They can put the ornaments on the tree, take them off, rearrange them, make patterns, and then do it all over again.

And I love that I found these fancy felt sheets. I was prepared to do the tree in traditional colors, but I love this concept. It’s so easy to change up the colors. Like, you could do a white Christmas tree instead. Or blue. Or green, but with just gold ornaments. Or whatever colors you’ve used to decorate your home for Christmas. What a great way to personalize an interactive toy for your kids!

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Have fun with it!

And please share if you’ve made your own! :)

And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

Easy Christmas Craft: Paper Cone Christmas Trees

Easy Christmas Craft: Toilet Paper Roll Ornament Painting

Crystal Snowmen

Roaming Rosie Signature

3Dec2013

Our Colorful Backyard: Color Matching Activity for Kids

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

Our Colorful Backyard: Color Matching Activity for Kids

Today we spent some time exploring the colors in our backyard.

A bit of a colorful treasure hunt, really.

We collected items in various colors and placed them in matching paper boxes. We gathered leaves, grass, flowers, mulch, moss, and rocks. But the photos don’t even show everything we found, because we got distracted by a friendly ladybug, and when we went back out to get more flowers, I forgot my camera. :)

Either way, here are some of the things we found:

Our Colorful Backyard: Color Matching Activity for Kids

All of these boxes were made from construction paper and tape.

I picked out construction paper in brown, orange, green, purple, red, and white. Then I took my scissors and cut a slit in towards the center at each corner. Then I folded up the sides, wrapping the edges of the short ends on the outside of the long ends, and taping them together.

Kinda like this:

colorful backyard buckets

It’s not sturdy for long-term play, or to hold heavy items, but it worked perfectly for this activity.

Our Colorful Backyard: Color Matching Activity for Kids

And here is our little ladybug friend, hanging out on my daughter’s fingers:

Our Colorful Backyard: Color Matching Activity for Kids

You can still do this color identifying activity even if you don’t have a backyard. Bring the paper buckets to the park instead, or use heavy-duty beach buckets in different colors to collect toys around the house. Or just wrap some pieces of colored construction paper around existing buckets.

Not crafty at all? Just lay the construction paper on the ground (on a non-windy day) and let your kids place their collections right on top of the paper in piles.

Either way, the point is to have fun exploring the backyard (garden/park/etc) and not fussing about the container in which they’ll collect their treasures. :)

2Dec2013

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

So, I was helping my aunt get organized for a yard sale, and she had some extra boxes from her recent move. She asked if I needed them for anything. I took one look at the big box and thought: gee, that would make an awesome gingerbread house!

And maybe that wouldn’t be everyone’s first thought, but, hey, I mean the thing was already the right color…

So, I took it home, and I sculpted the box into a gingerbread house with some packing tape and a box cutter.

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

I made the roof by cutting off two of the top flaps and taping those to the remaining two flaps that were still attached, as you can see in the photo above. Taped them together to form the ridge of the roof.

I then cut out a door and three windows (1 big arch in the back to match the door and 2 small circles on the sides) with the box cutter.

I taped down the flaps on the bottom, too, to secure the floor, being careful not to remove too much for the windows and such, to not compromise the structure. I mean, I only expect it to last the season, but it still has to hold up to the excitement of a 1-1/2 and 3-1/2 year old.

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

I took the scraps from the door and carved two gingerbread men for their house. I decorated them with glue and glitter.

Because there’s always room for glitter.

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

Here you can see my girls decorating the gingerbread house.

I made some candy canes, peppermint candies, and gumdrops out of construction paper ahead of time. I made the peppermints by adding a red star to a white circle (close enough), and cut arch shapes from a few colors to represent the gum drops (or spice drops).

And I cut a few waves to represent snow (icing) stuck to the end of the shingles, to give the roof some character.

My girls and I then glued everything on together, and they decorated the house with markers as well.

They drew on the outside walls, the inside walls, the roof, the edges of the windows, the floor, and even on the little gingerbread men.

They decorated it, played in it, dragged it around the house, then decorated it some more.

It was a big hit.

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

Above you can see the two of them inside the house, decorating it with markers.

To make it yourself, you’ll need:

large cardboard box
packing tape
box cutter
construction paper
glue / glue sticks
markers

And before I go, one more photo, showing the little candy cane heart on the back of the house :)

DIY Lifesize Cardboard Gingerbread House

And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:

Felt Fashion Christmas Tree

Easy Christmas Craft: Paper Cone Christmas Trees

Easy Christmas Craft: Toilet Paper Roll Ornament Painting

Crystal Snowmen

Roaming Rosie Signature

14Nov2013

More Dirt Soup

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

dirt soup

I love the fall.

And now that it’s November, fall seems to have finally reached Florida. (Most days.)

So we’re spending a lot more time outdoors, which is a great boon to my outdoorsy kids.

As I’ve mentioned previously, in Dirt Soup: In Contact With Creation, my girls love digging in the dirt and mixing various things with water, all while explaining, in great detail, the flavors of their soup-like creations.

Today was a nice day. It called for soup.

And, above, you see a quick snapshot of my daughter in her fort (spaceship), next to her soupy creation and some gigantic rocks from the garden that were gifts we were bringing home from China.

Which is also why, incidentally, I usually let her tell me what we’re doing. Her imagination astounds me. Reminds me of how boring adults can be.

13Nov2013

Blustery Day Water Play

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

Blustery Day Water Play

Some days it’s just too cold and windy and blustery to play outside.

But we needed something to keep busy, and we’d already blown up the small pool the night before when we didn’t realize the sun wouldn’t be showing it’s face today.

So: water play.

We moved the pool indoors to the dining room. I filled two large plastic bowls with water, and placed them inside the pool. Then collected as many measuring cups and spoons and general gadgets (whisks, funnels, mesh strainers) as I could find, and tossed them in the pool, too.

Then, I let the girls have at it.

Blustery Day Water Play

It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

I had to refill the large bowls a couple of times since most of the water ended up in the bottom of the pool anyway, but that’s the reason I had them wear swimsuits.

I kept towels nearby to clean up spills that splashed onto the dining room floor and also to wrap them in when they’d had enough. But they spent so much time measuring and scooping and experimenting with the water to make setting it all up more than worthwhile. We’ll be doing this again.

This activity can also easily be done in the bathtub if you don’t have a little, blow-up or plastic pool. Or, if it’s a nice day outside, them you can just provide the bowls and tools spread out across the grass or a patio.

Either way, a fun yet educational (and basically free) way to keep your little ones entertained!

10Nov2013

Free Kid Activity: Developing Fine Motor Skills with Crayons

Posted in activities for kids by Rosemary Lynn

free activities for kids developing fine motor skills with crayons

This is another one of those activities that just kind of happened on its own.

My kids were coloring on the kitchen floor, and, for whatever reason, my daughter decided to go into the pantry and take out the bundt pan. Then both of my girls started filling the hole in the center with crayons.

I realized this was good for developing their fine motor skills (and keeping them busy while I was otherwise engaged in the kitchen), so I encouraged it.

They would insert the crayons into the hole, and once it was full, I’d show them they could pick it up, move the crayons, and start again.

You could use just about any small or skinny object for this: pipe cleaners (maybe cut shorter), pom poms, small toys or balls. Heck, you could even pretend it’s a volcano, and use small dinosaur toys. Let your kids get creative and pick what they want to use. Or compile a bunch of small toys and let them experiment to discover what will fit.

9Nov2013

Turkey Treasure Buckets

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

Turkey Treasure Buckets | Great Thanksgiving Activity for Kids!

This November, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and Autumn, one of the projects we did was to make these Turkey Treasure Buckets.

My girls LOVE being outside.

They’d sleep out there if I let them.

Anyway, I wanted a project that would involve nature. So we made some turkey buckets to collect autumn leaves.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of beautiful, colored leaves where we live in Florida. Our backyard pretty much has a bunch of brown Live Oak leaves. And some sticks, and some mulch, and some grass…

So, nature: yes. Beautiful fall colors: not so much.

I feel bad, too, because we we just in Georgia a couple of weeks ago and we collected a ton of fantastically bright fallen leaves. But I didn’t think to bring any home with us.

So, we improvised. Used what we had.

And the kids had a blast.

Turkey Treasure Buckets | Great Thanksgiving Activity for Kids!

We started with some copper-colored mini buckets from the bargain section of Target and a handful of clothespins.

We painted the clothespins with a variety of colors and sprinkled sequins over the wet paint to represent the turkey’s feathers. It was messy, but fun. My girls love painting.

And we only did one side. You could do both if you prefer.

I cut a quick face out of construction paper while they were painting, and they helped me glue on the eyes, beaks, and waddel. Then I hot glued the faces to the buckets. This was a sure way to keep them securely attached, but with an easy way to remove them later to reuse the buckets for another project.

Then, they clipped on the clothespin “feathers.”

Voila!

Turkey Treasure Buckets | Great Thanksgiving Activity for Kids!

Here’s a picture of my baby searching the backyard for treasures.

The clothes pins are a little heavy, but my girls wanted as many as possible. You could always use less if the weight is problem for you.

And here’s one of the buckets, filled with leaves and sticks.

They had so much fun with this. And they played with the buckets over and over, filling them with all kinds of treasures, including tiny toys.

And I had a blast watching them and helping them seek out fun discoveries in the backyard. It’s so great to spend some outdoors with my girls. I’m sooooooo happy that the coolness of fall is finally showing its face in Florida!

17Oct2013

Letter L: Free Alphabet Worksheets for Kids

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities, free worksheets & printables by Rosemary Lynn

Free Letter L Printables

If you’re new to our Alphabet Activities, please read the Introduction to the Alphabet Activities first!

Here are all of the free printable PDFs for the Letter L. They are for home and classroom use, please don’t sell them. Click on each title to print or download them: