Crafts For Kidlets

I love finding easy crafts to do with my son. He is being home schooled this year and is a very hands-on learner. One of his more difficult subjects this year is Writing. I created these little characters to lessen the stress he feels around this subject.

Supplies:

• Pre-painted wood cutouts (I found these at the dollar store but Michaels Craft Store has them as well)
• Glue
• Popsicle Sticks

All you need to do is glue the Popsicle sticks to the back of your wooden cutouts. (Pretty simple huh?) Let them dry completely before using.

How am I using these for Writing?

I create little stories. Instead of Me asking him to write something, I get Mr. Monk Key to suggest a topic. i.e. Hi, J. I need help in writing my grocery list. Could you take your pencil and paper and jot down my list for me?

Silly I know but for some reason it works for him. He won’t be writing a thesis anytime soon but one day we will work up to that.

Stick Puppets for Story Time or Finger Plays

You can also use these cute cutouts for finger plays. The turtle could be used for the Tortoise and the Hare, the Lady Bug could be used for counting spots, and what about having your little one create a play or story using these as characters?

The possibilities are endless and since the craft takes very little time you can make a set for each story or play.

What stories do you include in your home story time?

Are you looking for a fun and easy craft to do with the kids on some cold fall day?

How about making one of those great no sew fleece blankets?  Kids love them and if you do the cutting in advance, they can do it all by themselves.

There are great no sew fleece blanket instructions found here.

I love this cute and super simple kids craft project for the harvest season!  You can just imagine how a group of kids would each come up with very different looking pumpkins.

All you need is some construction paper, scissors, glue, a pencil and some time for fun.  Full instructions can be found at the Kaboodle website.

Autumn is my favorite season, as I have said before. So I am really looking forward to following these links and trying these crafts tweeted by:

Teach_Preschool on Thursday, September 9, 2010 of an abstract Autumn painting project, a construction paper Fall tree project, and a cute Autumn song to go along with it!

creepymasks also tweeted on Thursday, September 9, 2010. I know it may be a little early, but Halloween is just around the corner, and @creepymasks has posted a great link to a site where you can find artificial pumpkin carving templates and printable Halloween masks!

boutiqueshops has tweeted a link to her own blog on Wednesday, September 8, 2010. Here you can find some really great crafting projects to decorate your house for the season with!

For the crafting community as a whole, we are always looking for more… More projects, more tools, more anything and everything to do with crafting!

When I am strapped for ideas on what to create next, I like to refer to my “Top 10″ list of crafty blogs:

Starting with #10 on my list is, CraftFail!

Even though this website isn’t on how to actually do crafts, its a fun little site where others can display what happens when crafts go wrong. Or in other words, what happens when things don’t go as planned! This site is sure to make you crack a smile or get inspired to figure out how to make a messed up project a successful one.

Blog #9 is, Plaid Kids Craft!

The craft ideas on this site are simple and fun for the kids! There is an endless list of crafting categories on the right-hand side of the page (which makes it really easy to scan through the projects), but the website seems to only be updated every couple of weeks! The creativity of the writer is really genuine and wild, so even though the blog isn’t frequently updated it is still worth the bookmark.

Blog # 8 is The Crafty Crow!

This website is not one filled of how-to’s, but it is a really great collection of links to them! You could also find a great list of other blogs to check out, and a list of book recommendations your crafty kids may be interested in reading!

Blog #7 is Little Birdie Secrets!

Here you can find some really great kiddie craft projects. In addition to the really cute projects, you can also find some great recipes and giveaways! You may find that some of the projects or materials used are for sale on the blog as well.

Blog #6 is Zakka Life!

This is one cool blog, which is more like looking in on the crafty life of the Okui family. With an archive dating back to June of 2007, it is impossible that you won’t find a craft project or recipe that you won’t absolutely love, not to mention that the supplies used are fairly simple or easy to find (some may even be just laying around your house now)!

Blog #5 is Loo Le Do!

Their own website description says it all, “extraordinary projects from ordinary objects”! The projects are fun, easy and simple for the kids. Plus, they are cost efficient for the parent, since most of the projects are made from recycled materials.

Blog #4 is Craft Jr.

This site is a well organized collection of kids craft projects. In addition to having projects categorized by type or season, you can also find projects by age group and time it takes to complete the project! Not to mention, the yummy recipes you probably wouldn’t have thought to do on your own.

Blog #3 is Make and Takes!

This blog is a collection of work from their ten editors, all from different walks of life. Each one brings their own backgrounds into the blog, to give it one out-of-this world feeling! Here you can find kids projects, projects for the home, and recipes too, with loads of extras that are well worth the looking around.

Blog #2 is Dollar Store Crafts (are you all surprised?)!

It is no big secret that I love this blog! The editor Heather updates the blog on almost a daily basis. It is truly unique and almost all of her crafting supplies are from the dollar store. When you scan through some of the completed projects, you may be blown away like I was to see what was made our of dollar store goods! This blog makes crafting affordable for anyone!

Blog #1 is Crafts for Kidlets!

Was that another surprise?! What makes this blog so special to me other then the fact that I am writing on it right now is, this blog is an intern blog where Kelly McCausey helps others to become great blog writers. Each intern brings to this blog their own flavor, so as the intern changes, so will the flavor of the blog and they types of projects you will find on it! That in itself, is like looking forward to the next season!