Summer Fort Coloring Page
Marc, our fantastic designer, dreamed up this summer time tree fort and created a coloring sheet to get the kids thinking about their dream summer fort. Make every coloring page great by finishing the sky with watercolors. The crayon acts as a resistant so you can’t mess it up! Let your child water color [...]
Popsicle Stick Kazoos
This popsicle stick kazoo project is easy and fun. Kids enjoy making then and them making music with them afterwards! What you need: – 2 popsicle sticks – washi tape – 1/2 in wide strip of paper – 1 wide rubber band – 2 thin rubber bands Start by decorating your sticks with [...]
DIY Play Camera Necklace
Kids love pretending to take pictures! This activity lets them make their own camera to play with. You will need: craft foam, pencil, scissors, and glue. It’s also helpful to have straight and round objects to trace, a hole punch, and some string. Cut a rectangle from the foam of whatever size you would like [...]
Simple Science Experiment: Making an Eruption
To make this simple eruption all you need is 2 small containers, baking soda, and vinegar. We did the experiment outside so we didn’t have to worry about the mess. If you’re doing this inside, do it over the bathtub or container. To conduct the experiment, start with one container with a bit of baking [...]
DIY Bird Feeder
My preschooler loves any and all animals. Besides her affinity for dogs and cats, she loves birds (probably because her grandparents have an enormous cage on their back porch with at least 7 birds residing). And now that the hummingbird feeder I put out 2 years ago finally has visitors, I decided that maybe the [...]
Bottled Spring: Fine Motor Nature Walk
Put spring in a bottle! This is a fun nature walk sensory project. All you need are a few kids who like exploring, some empty water bottles (clear), and colored tape. Give each child a bottle. Talk about spring and how wonderful it is to see everything growing and blooming. Then go out to the [...]
Sensory Texture Crayon Rubbings
Use this project to introduce your preschoolers to different textures around your house and yard. What you need: crayons, paper, and hard surfaces with different textures. Show children how to rub the crayon over the paper to transfer the texture of a surface. Good surfaces include wood grain, woven chair seats, textured walls, and bumpy [...]
Contact Paper Transfer Art
Do you ever find yourself scrambling to find a quick, easy, and fun project for your preschooler(s)? This is an idea that fits all 3 requirements! And the best part? It only takes a minute for set up and clean up! It can’t get any better than that! Here’s the few items needed to get [...]
Where The Wild Thing Are Masks
What preschooler doesn’t love Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are? Here’s how you can make your own monster masks to play with next time you read the story. You’ll need: brown shopping bags with plain backs, white paper, markers, scissors, and glue. First draw Wild Thing faces on the plain backs of the paper [...]
DIY Musical Instruments: Cereal Box Guitar
Musical instruments are all the rage at my house recently. Last week my preschoolers put on a ‘marching band’ where everybody was a drummer (ear-splitting!) and had a blast. I thought it was about time to expand their instrument selection, so when we emptied a box of cereal I knew just what to make. For [...]
Pipe Cleaner & Straw Preschool Jewelry Project
Here’s a fun beading activity for very young children. The pipe cleaners are easier to handle than strings or shoelaces and they fit perfectly inside the straw-beads. What you will need: pipe cleaners, colored straws, scissors, and tape. First make your beads by cutting the colored straws into one inch pieces. If you are working [...]
Origami for Kids: Jumping Paper Frogs
Today we made jumping paper frogs. These are a very simple origami project that kids love, because they really jump! All you need is some paper and crayons or markers. I used small strips of paper, about 3×6 inches, but 3×5 index cards would work well also. Start by having the children color the paper [...]
Bath Time Foam Letters, Numbers, and Shapes
I am always on the lookout for preschool learning activities that can easily be replicated at home for a fraction of the cost. So when I saw a package of foam bath letters and numbers at the store for $8, I knew could easily make these at home for much, much less using colored foam [...]
Simple Nature Scavenger Hunt Printable
It’s spring, and chances are it’s beautiful outside! My two toddlers love to spend time outside together, so I’m always looking for new outdoor activities to keep them active and learning. This week I decided to put together a nature walk/scavenger hunt so they could practice paying attention to their surroundings. My daughter is only [...]
Foam Dough = Shaving Cream + Corn Starch
My preschooler loves playing with play dough, but what do you do when you run out? I’ve tried making my own, but it’s never turned out as smooth as the store-bought dough. Plus, I don’t like the price tag for it. So, as usual, I browse the internet for ideas. When I first saw this [...]
I bet you CAN…Challenging Your Kids to Believe in Themselves
Today my son took 6 trips to bring all his matchbox cars out into the family room to play with them. We built ramps and had races. He crashed and wrecked them. Pure fun. After he was done, he needed to put them all away. The putting away part is never as much fun as [...]
Ignore the mess sometimes and let them be kids…while it lasts
I usually cringe when I think of the mess that my preschooler makes when we do projects and activities together because any activity (seriously any activity), she somehow manages to become a mini tornado of destruction. But I came across this pin on Pinterest. After reading the Hands Free Mama’s post the pin [...]
Printable Mother’s Day Card for Kids
Click any of the images to download this printable Mother’s Day card. Or download your printable Mother’s Day Card for kids here! We would love to see your creations too! Share them with us on our Facebook Page!
Spaghetti Painting
Here’s another unconventional (but fun and silly!) painting method to try out: spaghetti painting! It’s slippery and slimy and messy – a super tactile way to paint! You’ll need cooked spaghetti paint containers (we used muffin liners – you’ll need something shallow enough that the floppy spaghetti can really “get in there” and [...]
Homemade Sidewalk Paint
YAY!!! for warmer weather! Now that spring has sprung and we’ve started shedding our layers of sweaters, jackets, scarves, and gloves, I’ve been on the lookout for fun outside activities for my creative preschooler. While my 3-year-old enjoys painting, all those name brand paints can be a little pricey. So, I scoured the internet [...]
Playing Doctor: How to Make a Cast for Your Doll or Teddy Bear
Dora has had a rough life. She was cuddled and drooled on by a loving toddler. Then she lived outside in the sandbox for a while to really get a feel for the outdoors lifestyle. Today she had an accident and broke her leg. Poor Dora. Don’t worry, the doctors are here and we’ll fix [...]
Easy Geometric String Art for Preschoolers
Encourage fine motor skills and pattern making with this easy-too-make geometric string art project! There’s a number of ways to complete this project. We used Cardboard A marker to trace a circle Styrofoam plate Scissors (and for thicker cardboard, a utility knife) A variety of embroidery floss or yarn tape We made two string [...]
Grow Onions in 10 Days: Great Growing Project for Young Kids
Grow your own green onions at home in 10 days! This is a great growing project for young children because they grow so fast the kids can see their plants grow day after day. What you need: – bunch of green onions – jar or cup – water What you do: 1. Cut the top [...]
Secret Agent ID Card – Free Printable!
When you’re a kid, there’s nothing more fun than pretending to be a mysterious spy. Print these secret agent ID badges, and let your little ones create their own secret identities! Let them paste or draw their photo. Get a stamp pad and fingerprint them. Fill out the important secret agent information. Cut out, [...]
Build Your Own Theater Stage
Our kids love to sing a song or create plays with an audience. We’ve all heard “Mom, look at this” a million times. They love to show us that they are good at things. Sometimes we feel the need to take imaginative play to the next level. Maybe your kids spend a lot of time [...]
Washi Tape Flags
Here’s a way to make some super cute and super easy muffin toppers! They look great with our wild-berry muffins and are a good activity to get into while you wait for the muffins to bake (especially if you have antsy little bakers around). You’ll need toothpicks washi tape (in a few different [...]
Toothpick Porcupines
Make these pokey, adorable toothpick porcupines with air dry clay and toothpicks. We made two different kinds, a “regular” porcupine, and a rainbow porcupine! You’ll need air dry clay (we used 2 different brands, both worked great) toothpicks markers For a rainbow porcupine, you’ll start by coloring toothpicks in any [...]
