More fun activities for kids

Here are some quick, easy kids activities ....

1. PAINT IN A BAG

This is a great mess-free fingerprinting activity that can be used over and over again. Simply squirt some paint into a zip lock bag, squeeze out the air, and hang up onto a window .. Presto!

2. BUBBLE SOCKS

You will need  a sock, some dishwash solution, an old bottle with the base cut off and optional food colouring

Slide the sock over the bottle, and seal with sellotape ...

Squirt some colours onto the sock face, and dip the bottle into the solution. Blow into the pouring end and you will make a long rainbow of bubbles!

3. BAKING SODA VOLCANOES

Here mix vinegar with food colouring in different containers. Empty a tub of baking soda into a large tray and allow the kids to spoon in the coloured vinegar. The mixture will bubble and rise, my 3 year old loved this one!

4. GLOW IN THE DARK BATH

The title says it all... so simple! Poundland sells packs of glow sticks and other such illuminating things, switch off the lights and blackout the lights.. add some bubbles, and let them have a long fun bath. 

5. SPAGHETTI HOLDERS

Let the kids paint and an old Pringles tin.. and label it. Its the perfect size to store a lot of spaghetti! 

Paint Your Own Clothes!

Today we decided to play with fabric paints ...

A seller on eBay has sets of 10 fabric paints pens for £2 all in and they sure are worth their weight... we  really managed to spice up and personalise some old ragged t-shirts.

Heres what we did ....

First we printed out some extra large letters onto normal A4 paper. Then put greaseproof paper over the letters, traced them and cut out the inside. During this process, we made sure that the shiny side of the baking paper pointed downwards so as to stick onto the shirt during ironing.

Then I ironed on the letter outlines with the iron on full heat and steam function off.

Then the kiddies had their fun and scribbled bright colours all over their letters. (note- my particular make of greaseproof paper wasnt always holding well, so i eventually reinforced it with sellotape)

After the paints dried we peeled off the tape and paper... and voila!

Other designs were also made by using masking tape stuck vertical and horizontally across the shirt. This one is not bad considering and 18 month old painted it!!

Shaving Cream Artisans

Tonight the kiddies had some fun before their baths. We simply threw a few drops of food colouring into muffin "easels" of shaving cream!

Turned out it was more fun painting themselves in monsters than the bathroom walls :)

Here are some pics

... and it all turned into a monster painting session!!

Coffee Filter Flutterbyes

Here is a fun toddler-appropriate craft to do on a rainy day (and boy have we been having many of those lately!!). They are little butterflies made from coffee filters

Firstly you need filters for coffee machines, and some crayons ... and some pipe cleaners.

Step 1 - Colour in the filter paper to your hearts content

Step 2 - Paint over the filter paper colouring with water

STEP 3 - Watch the colours smudge into each other

STEP 4 - Let the paper dry for an hour or 2, i put them on newspaper so that the excess water was absorbed

STEP 5 - Scrunch up the paper in the middle and wrap a pipe cleaner around it, leaving the ends as antennae.

STEP 6 - Decorate, let the kids stick on googley eyes! 

Final product, pretty cute and cheerful little creations :)

Coloured Rain

Heres a fun & easy one for the little ones (& big ones too!) ...

We made our crayons 'rain colours", like this





It was actually very simple, we just used double-sided tape to stick crayons to paper, as Katherine illustrates below-

The we aimed a hair dryer at the centre of the crayons, being sure to "melt" each one evenly

And voila

Katie and Chloe stuck cotton wool clouds on and i cut out a girl with umbrella for them to stick on too

What a fun picture :o)

A Very Hoppy Easter Weekend ...

As usual, our house turned into a bunny park in the run up to Easter this year.

Firstly, the girls and I had some fun painting, decorating and sparkling-up some polystyrene eggs which we used to make a large Easter twig tree, Katherine also wanted added the little felt bunnies!

We planted some daffodils in an egg shell a few weeks back and they blossomed right on time for us

Then, somebunny went wild with our mantle piece ...(with art work by Katie)

Not to forget the Bunny Carrot cake

Easter Morning was filled with some super bouncy bunnies ...

As the Easter bunny had left a trail with some sneaky clues along the way

The Happy Chappies tuck into their loot ...

Later in the afternoon, the kids got ready for another egg hunt...

This one was a serious competition, no time to dawdle and smell the roses!!

To end of the day, Luke has some fun with the littles ones out in the bouncy castle ... #iKnowaGoodDadWhenISeeOne!!