Tag Archives: Age

Simple Valentine’s Day Projects for the Entire Family

Here are a couple of simple crafts suitable for the entire family. Whether you make these sweet cards as a group or you plan to help the kids design them for your spouse, parents or in-laws, they are appropriate for all skill levels. Take a look: SPONGE PAINT VALENTINE’S DAY CARD Materials: Construction paper or card stock Paper plate Red or pink paint A new sponge Scissors or pinking shears Pen or crayons White craft glue Glitter, sequins, ribbon, buttons, stickers or other embellishments Directions: Fold paper in half for a traditional card. If you want a smaller card (the … Continue reading →

Easy Last-Minute Valentine Projects

My superstitious friend was so focused on the fact that Friday the 13th is two days away that she completely forgot that Saturday is Valentine’s Day. Fortunately, she is married to one of the most laid-back guys around, and I doubt that he would have raised an eyebrow had she overlooked the holiday. If you too suddenly realized that Love Day is just three days away, then you might consider making the following homemade Valentine’s Day crafts. Not only are they inexpensive and simple to create, but they’ll also be appreciated by just about any Valentine from grandparents and spouses … Continue reading →

Fun Valentine’s Day Projects for Kids

If you are looking for an affordable gift to give grandma and grandpa this Valentine’s Day, these kid-friendly crafts are right on target. Gather your children around the table and have them make these homemade hearts out of everyday items. Kids ages 6 and up can craft these hearts with little adult supervision. With preschoolers you may want to help with the cutting and gluing, and with toddlers, consider doing the cutting yourself and let them have fun with the pasting. PAPER MOSIAC HEARTS Materials: Poster board or card stock Construction paper Old magazines or catalogs Scissors Glue stick Directions: … Continue reading →

Affordable Valentine’s Day Crafts

Craft projects can really put a dent in your wallet, and with Valentine’s Day just a week away making your own Love Day gifts can really add up. While it cost less to go the homemade route, the key to saving as much money as possible is to stick with projects that feature affordable materials. The following kid-friendly Valentine gift can be made without breaking the bank: PAPER PLATE BEAR Materials: 2 large paper plates 1 snack-sized paper plate Card stock Markers or crayons Scissors Glue Tissue paper Green pipe cleaners Directions: Glue the 2 large paper plates together, to … Continue reading →

Simple Valentine Crafts for Preschoolers

I swear it was just last week that I was mailing out Christmas cards (okay, maybe it was two weeks ago). Now, Valentine’s Day is just 11 days away, which means there’s no sense in putting away my craft bin at this point. This, of course, is welcome news to my preschooler, who is always ready for new craft projects. The following Valentine art projects are ones we made last year when she was 3 years old. They are appropriate for ages 3-5, provided an adult is present. Older kids could make them on their own. Besides being easy to … Continue reading →

How to Make Christmas Gifts with a Toddler and Preschooler

Last night we decided to wander around a few area stores to see if the rumored discounts were really as good ad we were lead to believe. One of your stops was Target, where we scoped out some gifts for our youngest child, who always seems to get the shortest end of the stick when it comes to new toys and clothes. I also needed to pick up a secret santa gift. Our middle child, the preschooler, really wanted to pick out some gifts for the rest of the family. Some of the ideas she had included a new bed … Continue reading →

YouTube Making Paper Snowflakes

Yesterday, the kids and I had a great time making some paper snowflakes for a small table top tree. The practice of making paper snowflakes for me is so old that I don’t even remember where or when I learned how to do this. Perhaps it was from my old set of children’s books, or perhaps it was at school. Either way, making paper snowflakes has been a fun and inexpensive bit of entertainment and decoration for most of my life. Paper snowflakes can be hung from a tree, as we did yesterday, taped to a wall or to a … Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Crafts for Kids

Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean you should rid your home of pumpkins. Thanksgiving is an ideal time to showcase the fresh orange globes in a seasonal display. Unfortunately, most stores stop selling pumpkins the day after Halloween. This sad fact means most parents have to get creative when it comes to setting up a Thanksgiving pumpkin display. The following simple salt dough pumpkin art project was a bonafide hit with our preschool playgroup last year. All you’re doing is whipping up a batch of salt dough and shaping it into miniature pumpkins. Once the pumpkins are formed the … Continue reading →

Kids and Movies: How Young is Too Young?

My 4-year-old daughter has been eagerly counting down the days until the release of “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” We have the original on DVD, and frankly I’m surprised the movie’s images haven’t been permanently seared on our TV screen given the amount of times she’s watched it. The DreamWorks movie about Central Park Zoo animals that end up in Madagascar (and in the sequel—Africa) is age appropriate for children ages 3 and up (at least in my opinion), which is why I didn’t think twice about shelling out $15 to take my lion/hippo/zebra/giraffe/monkey/penguin/lemur-loving child to an actual movie theater to … Continue reading →

More Ways to Have Fun with Fall Leaves

By now you might be cursing the thousands of colorful leaves scattered across your yard, your driveway, your deck, and your garage. But, before you take a match to the season’s most popular symbols consider gathering up a few to create fun art projects that will keep your kids busy for hours. Here are some of my preschooler’s favorite fall leaf projects: Stuffing. Rake up a bunch of leaves and use them to stuff a homemade scarecrow. Masks. Go on a leaf hunt and see who can collect the most colorful bunch. Then, glue the dry leaves to a store-bought … Continue reading →