Monster Eye Gak

The focus of this activity is fine motor skills. By using the tweezers to pluck the eyeballs out of the gak and transfer it to the jar, it helps to strengthen little hands and fine tune the use of the pincer grasp. It's a great activity for Halloween time too!

What you'll need:

-Gak (get the recipe here: http://bfandaf.blogspot.com/2014/08/gak.html)

-Googly eyes

-tweezers

-a small jar or bowl

If you want to increase the difficulty a bit, use playdough instead of gak. Since the playdough is more firm, it's a little more tricky to pluck the eyeballs from it.

Spiderweb "Bug" Toss

It's that awful time of year when all the spiders are everywhere! I can't even walk from the house to the shed without waltzing into at least three spiderwebs along the way. There I am, walking along innocently, when I suddenly feel the sticky tickle of a web wrapping around my face. Suddenly I'm windmilling my arms and screaming my pretty little head off all because of some damn spider that unexpectedly became a resident in my hair.

Luckily, this activity makes spiderwebs a little more fun while showing your kid how they work. Plus, it's a great way to keep older siblings entertained while little siblings sleep. ;)

All you need is some tape (I used some leftover painters tape I had lying around), and some wads of paper. In a doorway, set up a tape web and let your kid have a blast throwing crumpled paper "bugs" at the web to see if they can make them stick. My son had a great time doing this. And luckily for me, it kept him preoccupied while his little brother napped, and it gave me a chance to actually drink my morning coffee!

Fun with a cardboard box

Box Coloring

Need to keep your kid entertained? Don't have time or energy to set up a big activity? If you have a large cardboard box lying around, simply plop your kid inside the box (leaving the top open of course!) and give them some markers or crayons to color with. Have them decorate the inside of the box because, let's face it; you could give them the coolest toy in the world and they'll still want to play with the box. ;)

Cardboard Robot

Clearly we didn't put much effort into making this robot. In fact, all I did was cut out a spy hole so my husband could see, but that was about it. The rest we left to our son's imagination. But despite our lack of creative robot building, Andy (my eldest son) absolutely loved it!

...and yes. He is fighting the cardboard robot with his Doctor Who sonic screwdriver...

Star Gazing in a Box

If you have a star nightlight (which, if you don't, you should get one! They are great!), put it in your kids lap, and then take a cardboard box and flip the box upside down over top of your kid. Instantly they will be transported into their own private room of stars! It's ridiculously simple but for a kid and their imagination, it's epic!

Cardboard Monsters

I made these cardboard monsters for my son's 2nd birthday party. The one on the top we used for a beanbag toss game, and the one on the bottom was purely for the sake of crawling in and out of. It was easy, inexpensive, and they were a lot of fun. We kept these monsters for quite awhile after the birthday party just because they were too much fun to play with!

Apple Building

 

Apple man

We are quickly getting to that time of year when apples are abundant. So what activity could be more suitable than apple building? All you need for this activity is apples and toothpicks. Simply cut up the apples into little pieces and let your kids poke and assemble their own creations using the toothpicks.

 

So focused

 

Apple spider

 

My son said this was his porcupine ^_^

"Boo Bombs"

This activity is done in seconds but it is worth it! A friend of mine (thanks Stacy!) put this activity together for our kids and they LOVED it. If we had enough, they seriously could have done this all day long, I'm sure! This was activity was Pintrest inspired by another fellow blogging mom. So if you're interested in giving this activity a try, the following link is to the original blog post, created by Crystal Underwood.

Activity link: http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/09/smoking-boo-bombs-halloween-activity.html

Pumpkin Painting

Is your kiddo too small to carve a pumpkin? No worries. Let them paint a pumpkin instead! Lay down some newspaper or a towel (in my case, an old shower curtain) and let your little one have a blast slapping paint all over their pumpkin. They can use a brush, their hand, whatever they want to use to paint with. Also, a muffin tin makes a great paint holder to divide out your colors. Enjoy!

Fall leaf placemats

This activity takes a little longer but has a fun end result your kid can feel proud about. As a start, go on a nature walk around the neighborhood and collect several different kinds of leaves. Take the leaves home and divide them into two piles. Take one pile, dry them off, and press them (you can wrap them in paper towels and sandwich them into a heavy book). Then take the second pile and get ready to do some leaf rubbings!

Using some white paper, place the leaves under the paper and use the broadside of a crayon or charcoal (be ready for a delightful mess with charcoal but it does end up looking really cool) and start rubbing over the paper. Be sure to have your kid press firmly so the shape of the leaf will come through onto the paper. Make several leaf rubbings, cut them out, and save them for later.

Once your leaves are dry and flat (about a week or so), you are ready to set to work! Gather up your dried leaves and your leaf rubbings, some construction paper, and some clear contact paper.

Lay out a large placemat sized piece of clear contact paper, sticky side up. (I recommend taping the corners down so it doesn't slide while your kid is working.) Have your child start laying down construction paper to create a background for your leaves. You can do whatever pattern you'd like. Just be sure to leave at least a 1 inch border around the edge of the construction paper so you can seal everything in. Once that's done, stay out a mix of leaf rubbings and dried leaves. When your child is done, take an equal sized piece of clear contact paper and gently lay it on top, sticky side down onto the placemat "laminating" it all closed.

And there you have it! Placemats your child can make for the Autumn season that the whole family can admire for every meal. These are also great for Thanksgiving too!

Delightfully messy with charcoal and loving it!

Smell my Feet...

Another fun Halloween decoration (or as a card for family and friends) you can make with your little ones: ghost feet! Simply paint the bottom of your kid's feet with white paint and have them carefully step onto a piece of black construction paper. When they are dry, paint on the details of the eyes and the saying "Trick-or-Treat Smell my Feet!" You can also glue it onto a larger piece of paper to create a border and have your child help decorate the border.

Glitter Spiderwebs

Want some cheap and fun Halloween decorations you can make with your kids? Try making these adorable spiderwebs.

What you'll need:

-glitter puff paint

-wax paper

-children's non-toxic paint

-paper

-scissors

-clear tape

Start by making your spider web. Take your glitter puff paint and draw a spiderweb onto the wax paper. Set aside to dry.

While your web is trying, have your kid paint their hands and press onto a paper, overlapping the thumbs and palms. This will create the body of the spider. Next, paint on the spider's eyes.

When everything is done drying, cut out your spider and tape it onto the spider web. These make great window decorations!

Fall Creature Creations/

As the leaves start to change color, it is a great time to take your kid out for a nature walk. Bring a small basket/bucket with you and let them have fun gathering fallen leaves, sticks, pinecones, and whatever else they can find.

When you get home, spread out your bounty and let the creativity begin! See what kind of creatures you can create from what you found. Using a hot glue gun, glue each of your creatures creations together to keep them from falling apart. And if you want, you can add some other details such as googley eyes, construction paper, or paint.

Pictured above is some of the creations we came up with. Hopefully they can help give you some fun ideas! This activity is a great way to inspire and fuel your kids creativity and imagination. And it will help get them a little fresh air too! ;)

Pizza box Pumpkin Painting

Got a spare pizza box lying around from last night's dinner? Or maybe you just need an excuse to buy some pizza for dinner tonight?...Cut off the lid of the pizza box, and cut out a pumpkin shape in the middle. Then, on the back side, tape a large piece of paper. TADA! You just made a pumpkin stencil. Now give your kid some paint and let them go to town on the front of the stencil. When they are done, peel the paper off the pizza box lid, let it dry, and then draw on a face.

Look! Your kid just made a cute jack-o-lantern painting, compliments to last night's dinner! ;)

Fall leaf sun catchers

One of the essentials in kids craft supplies is clear contact paper! It is fantastic for simple crafts that are easy and sticky, but without all the mess. For this activity you'll need the following:

-scissors
-clear contact paper
-construction paper--cut into leaf shape frames (see pic below)
-tissue paper (we used fall colors like yellow and orange)--cut or ripped into 1 inch squares

First, take a good size piece of contact paper and tape it down to the table, sticky side up. (Taping it down will keep it from sliding everywhere while your kid is working.)

Next, stick the cutout leaf frames you made from the construction paper.

After that, let your kid slap, sprinkle, dump, gently place as many of the tissue paper pieces as they want within the leaf frames. It doesn't matter if they stick tissue paper outside of leaf shapes. You'll be cutting the excess away later anyway.

Once your kids are done, take another piece of clear construction paper and place it on top of the other, sandwiching the sticky sides together to "laminate" their work.

Lastly, cut out the leafs, leaving about 1/2 around the outside boarder of the leaf. Tape up on the window and enjoy!