What to do over the summer?

I'm working on a summer schedule for our family to keep us occupied and engaged this summer instead of having to come up with something new to keep everyone happy each morning.  I'm hoping to share some of the things that we're doing over the summer so that you can implement them into your summer routine if they fit your family.

I'm very excited to share one of the projects that I'm most excited about for this summer: Kiwi Crate!  I had heard about Kiwi Crate on Pinterest a while ago but hadn't really checked it out.  I've recently connected with them and am so excited about sharing some of the fun things that they have going on!

Kiwi Crate is a crate of kids crafts and activities geared towards 3-7 year olds that's delivered right to your front door.  You can either subscribe to the service and get a new crate every month (in 3-, 6-, and 12- month increments) or you can now purchase single crates for $19.95 to give you and your kids a single set of activities!  Here are a few of the single crates that I'm most interested in trying for our family!







Right now Charlotte (4) is interested in finding out why and how things work so I think these crates would be perfect to keep her interest for a long period of time (hours or possibly days if spread out) and keep her interested in learning over the summer!

In addition to these cool crates, when I went to look at the website in depth I found lots of other things that are AWESOME about Kiwi Crate!

They have party favors (or party activities) like this super cool Super Hero Cape or making a Fairy Wand!





In addition, they also have an area with top quality kids craft materials for you to stock up on to ensure that your kids are learning and having fun with products that are fun and of good quality!



They also have gift cards or gift crates that I'm thinking might be my new "go-to" birthday gift!  I hope my kids are as excited about these as I am because I am really giddy thinking about the possibilities!  Honestly, reading over this post I've got a lot of exclamation points and I promise they're all genuine.  Trying to tone it down now.  :)

And as an added bonus for the next few days, Kiwi Crate is part of a giveaway to make your Mother's Day the happiest ever!  Enter this sweepstakes for a chance to win $250 each from Target, Nordstrom, Lululemon, and Anthropologie!  But make sure and enter soon because the contest closes on Sunday!


*This post falls under my Link/Review Disclosures and there are affiliate links in this post.  Any clicks and purchases that you make will result in support of this site.  But, I promise, all enthusiasm and opinions are my own!

Christmas Tree Craft

For the Christmas party in Charlotte's class, her teachers asked if one of the parents would lead the kids in a simple craft.  When no one else volunteered for it, I decided that I could probably handle it and so I volunteered for it.  Then began the painstaking process of finding something that was simple and not time-consuming, that could be done by three year olds with little to no help.

Pinterest is great, but it is not a great source of easy projects.  It was finally the weekend before her party and I still had no idea as to what I was going to do.  Then, I turned down the hall to take James to the nursery on Sunday at church and saw something similar to this craft and knew that it would be fun and easy and SIMPLE for the kids.  I'm sure that this idea is on the internet somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.  If you know who I can credit the idea to, please let me know!

Cutout Christmas Trees

Immediacy of Results: Immediate

Prepwork needed: Yes, 30 min to an hour

Time required: 15 min

Materials needed:

White construction paper

Green construction paper

Brown construction paper

Yellow/Gold construction paper

Multi colored construction paper

Scissors/shape punchers (for prepwork)

Glue sticks (for kids)

Step 1: (Prepwork)

Cut out three triangles for each child from the green construction paper.

Cut out one brown "trunk" for each child from the brown construction paper.

Punch out one star for each child from the yellow/gold construction paper.

Punch out anywhere from 9+ balls for each child from the multi colored construction paper.

*Note: I used these kind of scrapbook punches from Hobby Lobby for the stars and balls.  They are AWESOME!

Step 2:

Distribute all materials to each kid.  They need the following:

1 piece white paper

3 green triangles

1 brown trunk

1 yellow star

9+ multi colored balls

1 Glue stick

Step 3:

Show the kids how to glue on their trunk and then glue on the pieces of the tree to the background paper.

Step 4:

Add the star to the top of the three

Step 5:

Let them go to town "decorating" their tree with ornaments!

Step 6:

Admire their handiwork!

Posts of Christmas' Past

Since it's now December I thought I'd remind you of some Christmas posts from past years.

Let's start with crafts involving kids.  I've added them to my Activities for Kids page but here are the links.

Snowmen Ornaments

Salt Dough Gift Tags

Footprint Reindeer

Handprint Christmas Trees

And for the grown-up's.  Here's the link to the Christmas Card holder that I made last year.

Christmas Card Holder

If you're not into crafts but want to see the gifts that I've raved about over the years check out these posts.

2011 Stocking Stuffers and Gift Ideas

2009 Holiday Favorites and Gifts

Experiment Girl - Celery Painting

When I made Tomato Basil Parmesan soup a few weeks ago, the recipe called for chopped celery.  I just bought an entire celery stalk at the grocery store and when I cut the end off I remembered seeing somewhere that the end of a celery stalk would make a good stamp.  I tried a few paintings before she got out of bed and when she got up I set her up and let her go to town.  She could do this craft from start to finish by herself (other than pouring the paint) and she had fun making a painting for herself and one for Gramme.

Celery Painting

Immediacy of results: Immediate

Prepwork needed: Buying celery and cutting the end off

Time required: As much or as little as desired

Materials needed:

An end of a celery stalk

Paint

Plate to put the paint on to dip the celery into

Paper or canvas to paint on

Foam paintbrush (optional)

Step 1. Squeeze paint onto plate.  You can mix colors or just use one, whatever you want.

Step 2. Use the paintbrush to mix the colors and spread it evenly around the plate.

Step 3. Dip the celery into the paint, covering the flat surfaces.

Step 4. Stamp the celery onto the paper.  Repeat until you're satisfied with your final painting.

Experiment Girl - Icing Trees

We rarely do Experiment Girl experiments anymore because we're just so busy, but last week I decided to pull one out to keep Charlotte entertained one afternoon.  She loved it and I didn't mind the "clean up" either!

Icing Tree's

Ingredients Needed:

Ice Cream Cones

Icing/Nutella

Spoons/Spreaders

Sprinkles

Cookie sheet to contain mess

Step 1. Cover cones in chocolate icing or nutella.

Step 2. Using icing containers to create swirls on trees.  You can get much more creative than we did!

Step 3. Sprinkle sprinkles on the icing covered trees.

Step 4. Enjoy eating your yummy treat!

Experiment Girl - Sink or Float?

By the time I got to this experiment last week I was on my last leg of coming up with experiments and counting down the days until I got to (I mean had to) send the kids back to school.  So in an act of desperation on my part I decided to do one of the easiest things ever, grab items from around the house and see if they would sink or float.  It turns out that this is really exciting for a three year old so I guess my lack of inspiration was an unintended win!

Sink or Float?

Immediacy of results: Immediate

Prepwork required: None

Time: Depends on how many items you grab

Materials

A tub filled with water

Any items around the house that can get wet.  Items that we used were:

Whisk

Ice cream scoop

Ariel princess

Teething ball

Small basketball

Teething ring

Little People Lamb

Little People Donkey

Small frisbee

Fisher Price Egg

Step 1. Search the house for toys that can get wet.

Step 2. Ask your child whether they think each individual item will sink or float.  Charlotte's expert hypothesis was that everything would float.

Step 3. Fill the tub with water and let your child splash around.

Step 4. Once they're tired of splashing give them each item and let them drop them into the water to see if they will sink or float.  If you really want to get scientific talk about why things sank or floated.

Our items that floated: Small basketball, teething ring, Little People Lamb, Frisbee, Fisher Price Egg, Little People Donkey

Our items that sank: Teething ball, ice cream scoop, Ariel, whisk

Experiment Girl - Paper Airplanes

We hadn't been doing experiments on weekends but one day we were all home on a Saturday morning and Charlotte said that she wanted to do one so Jason took her up on it.  He found a paper airplane site and printed out some templates and they got to work making paper airplanes.  Charlotte loved watching Jason fold them and then especially loved watching them fly!

Paper Airplanes

Immediacy of results: Immediate

Prepwork needed: None

Time required: About 30 minutes

Materials

Computer

Printer

Printer paper

Step 1. Pick out some airplanes to try and print out the templates.

Step 2. Follow the template instructions to fold the airplanes.

Step 3. Enjoy flying the airplanes!

Experiment Girl - Salt on Ice

This is another experiment from Play Create Explore and it is really cool.  I loved watching the ice crack and pop and the colors expand and so did Charlotte.  Of course, she also enjoyed using an entire container of salt on the ice but enjoyment's the name of the game so that's ok!

Salt on Ice

Immediacy of Results: Immediate

Prepwork needed: Freezing water on cookie sheet

Time required: As much as desired plus prepwork

Materials

Cookie Sheet

Water

Food coloring

Salt

Step 1. Fill a cookie sheet with water and leave it in the freezer to freeze.

Step 2. Get cookie sheet out of freezer and set it on a table.  Pour salt on different places on the ice and also sprinkle food coloring.  Watch as the ice cracks and the colors seep into the cracks to form beautiful patterns.