Archive: Activities

Ant and Worm Activities for Kids

Mom Trusted put together a few fun ideas for critter-crazy children. These will help them expand their scientific knowledge and have a great time. Here are some bug activities for kids. Some are educational and others are even tasty:

Invest in an ant farm. Your kids will have fun for hours watching the ants dig mazes.

Eat dirt for dessert! Make some chocolate pudding, following the instructions on the box, and pour it into small, plastic cups. Then crumble chocolate cookies on top of the pudding. Stick a few gummy worms in each cup. You can even add green coconut shavings (dyed using a few drops of food coloring) for grass if you want to get extra fancy.

Make a worm hotel. All you need is a big glass or plastic jar and some worms. Fill the jar with dirt, stick a few worms in and watch them wiggle through it. Note: the worms will be happiest if you alternate dirt and sand every few inches. Make sure to return them to their natural habitat after a few days.

Make compost in your own backyard. Gather veggie kitchen scrapes, some leaves or cut grass and place in a large pale with a lid. When it starts to decompose into dirt, add a few worms to help the process along.

Feed the ants and watch how much they can carry. Be sure to do this activity far away from your home! Grab some lunch leftovers and take them out to a field with a few ant hills. Drop the food in large chunks and watch as tiny ants come to take away pieces many times their size.

Sources:

-“Bugs and insect activities for kids” Pinterest

-“Creepy crawly activities for kids who love bugs” education.com

-Photo courtesy of antpkr/freedigitalphotos.net

Earth Day Crafts for Kids

What better way to teach kids about Mother Nature than getting their hands dirty? Mom Trusted has put together a list of Earth Day crafts for kids to help celebrate the holiday and the environment:

Papier-Mâché Globe

Blow a up a balloon and cover it with blue and green strips of tissue paper dipped in watered down glue. Let the project dry completely before drawing continents on it. Dry time usually lasts over night.

3-D Forest

Help your kids make a 3-D forest out of construction paper. For each tree, cut out two evergreen shapes out of green construction paper. Cut a long, vertical slit in one of the trees, leaving a ½ to 1 inch portion still connected at the top. Outline each side of the tree with glitter glue and let it dry. Then slide the slit tree down the center of the uncut one. Secure with glue or tape it needed.

Rainsticks

Make rainsticks by securing squares of wax paper with rubberbands on either end of a toiletpaper roll. Pour a handfull of beans or rice inside first. Then decorate the outside with painted images of nature.

Coffee Filter Earth

Make beautiful works of art our of markers, water and coffee filters. Color on the coffee filters with blue and green washable marker. Then dip the edges of the coffee filters in water and let it seep up the filters, blending the marker colors together. Let them dry and you’ll have beautiful Earth crafts to hang near a window (they look especially pretty when light shines through them like stained glass).

Sources:

-“Earth Day crafts and ideas” Pinterest

-“Earth Day crafts and projects” Enchanted Learning

-Photo courtesy of Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net

Earth Day Activities for Kids

Celebrate Earth Day with some of these fun Earth Day activities for kids:

Clean up the outdoors

Grab everyone in the family and head to a local park, bike path, pond, lake or river. Grab some gloves to stay clean and some paper or reusable cloth (just wash them after!) bags. Spend a couple hours picking up trash and reducing litter in natural areas within your community.

Ditch the car

Vow to spend the day carless if you can. Rely on long walks and bikes to get around. Not only is this a great way to stay fit, but explain to your kids the negative impact of cars and how minimizing their use can benefit the environment.

Have a blackout party

Teach your kids about conserving energy by hosting a blackout party. Grab some candles and leave all the lights off when it gets dark. Don’t use any electricity and spend the evening playing games and telling stories by candlelight.

Plant a garden

Dedicate a special, small garden in your yard to Earth Day. Spend the day laying fresh soil and planting flowers, vegetables and herbs.

Plant a community tree

Contact your local park or community center to see if your family can help plant trees or flowers at any public locations. Then, every time you walk by it you’ll be reminded of the Earth Day you spent together.

Sources:

-“Earth Day for kids” Activity Village

-“Get your kids involved for our planet” She Knows Parenting

-Photo courtesy of pat138241/freedigitalphotos.net

Earth Day Resources for Kids

Looking for some great places to visit to help teach kids about the environment and Mother Earth? Look no further than Mom Trusted. Here are some great Earth Day resources for kids:

Helpful Hits for Planet Earth

Helpful Hints for Planet Earth has a whole variety of activities for children. It has a list of fun ideas to do, all themed around Earth Day, from puzzles to maps. It offers an online quiz to help teach valuable, green lessons. It even offers a full list of books related to Earth Day.

 Earth Day Games by PBS

PBS offers a colorful page filled with fun, online, Earth Day games. Learn how to garden with Caillou Gardner. Have Sid the Science Kid help teach how to plant veggies. Go on a Sesame Street Earth Exploration. Learn about recycling with Gabriela Cleans Up.

Earth Day Activities from DLTK’s Crafts for Kids

Check out DLTK’s Earth Day page for a long list of crafts and activities. They offer everything from coloring pages to games and puzzles. There’s also a list of Earth Day crafts where kids can make earths out of coffee filters and festive wreathes and pinwheels.

Earth Day for Kids from Activity Village

Earth Day for Kids from Activity Village has a whole list of interactive Earth Day activities. Choose from one of the fun coloring pages or watch a few of the Earth Day videos. You can even read a recycling poem to the kids.

Photo courtesy of ddpavumba/freedigitalphotos.net

5 Everyday Objects that Your Baby Will Love to Play With

Sometimes we get so caught up with the cool, new technological baby toys that we forget how much fun they can have with simple, everyday objects. Babies’ curiosity makes simple items lying around the house new adventures. Here are a few to explore with your little one:

Scarves

That pile of scarves sitting in your closet is more than just a bunch of accessories. It’s a great way to make your little one smile. Not only do babies love the silky texture of scarves, but the colorful, bright patterns are sure to catch their eye. Try throwing them around so your baby can watch them twirl around in the air.

Pots and Pans

Just like in the movies, babies love the sound of banging on some pots and pans. Grab a spoon or spatula, some pots or pans and let your little one rock out. OK, so we know the noise can be enough to cause a migraine, so just make sure that you set aside a short time period and stick to it.

Plastic Cups

Safe and simple- babies love stacking plastic cups. Grab a variety of sizes and colors and set them out in front of your little one. The best part? They make for a fast cleanup!

Tupperware

Grab some Tupperware with lids and show your baby how to snap them on. They’ll have a blast matching up the right ones.

Cardboard Boxes

Grab some big cardboard boxes and make a tunnel for your baby to crawl around in. Let them hide under them and cruise through them.

Sources:

-“11 Fun Activities for When Winter Weather Traps You Indoors.” Parents.com

-“5 Unexpected Household Items that Babies Love to Play With.” Yahoo Shine

-Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net

5 Ways to Bring Outdoor Activities Indoors

Have you read as many children’s books as you can stand and downed hot coco until it’s coming out of your ears? Stop longing for the long days of summer and bring some outdoor activities indoors with these 5 fun activities for toddlers.

Hopscotch inside

Who says you need a driveway for hopscotch? One of the easiest ways to bring outdoor activities indoors is by making a hopscotch board. Simply head to your local craft store, unroll about 10 feet of paper and use some markers to draw a colorful hopscotch board on it. Then let your cooped up kiddos jump around and let loose on the new toy.

Throw a pool party

Throw on some reggae, pour some pineapple juice and dig those swimsuits out of storage. Then grab your kids and pile into the bathtub, your own, personal pool. Invite Barbies and action figures to join! You can even blow up a mini beach ball to toss around. Just remember that this pool party should remain soap-free because a slippery bathtub can be dangerous.

Create tropical creatures

Use pipe cleaners to put together a whole jungle of tropical critters. From lizards to leopards, you’ll have your own rainforest in no time. Just start with a loop for each animals’ heads, coil around for their bodies and stick a few cut pieces on for the legs, tails, and tongues. You can even encourage your little ones to make trees, grass or water for their pipe cleaner animals to live in.

Stylish sunglasses

Buy a few cheap pairs of sunglasses and help your children glue summery decorations to them. Maybe you want to add shells, sequences and rhinestones. What better way to brighten a grey winter day?

Picnic time

Have an indoor picnic. Spread out a blanket in your living room and chow down on summer favorites like sandwiches, fresh fruit and lemonade. Plus, cleanup’s a breeze. When you’re done, just throw the blanket in the washer.

Sources:

-“Hopscotch Mat” Martha Stewart

-“Pipe Cleaner Creatures” Martha Stewart

-“Fancy Shades” Martha Stewart

-“20 Indoor activities for kids besides TV” Simple Mom

-“17 Great Indoor Games and Activities” Parents.com

-Photo courtesy of stockimages/freedigitalphotos.net

Easter Crafts for Kids

What’s cuter than baby chicks and bunny ears? Your little one making Easter crafts! Mom Trusted rounded up a few simple Easter crafts for kids to try out this year:

Forever Easter eggs

This year, dye Easter eggs that won’t go bad. Take an uncooked egg and shake it hard for about a minute. Then have an adult use a thick needle or pin to poke a hole on each end of the egg. The grownup can then blow the contents of the egg into a bowl (Voila! Omelets for breakfast!). Dye the eggs as you normally would and after they dry, you have beautiful decorations that bring splashes of color to your home and don’t need to be refrigerated.

Fluffy bunnies

Make fluffy bunnies using construction paper and cotton balls. First, glue two to four cotton balls together to create the body. Then, glue one on top to be the head. Next, divide one cotton ball into fourths, gluing each part on to represent a foot. Take construction paper to cut out two small rabbit ears to glue onto the fluff balls. Finally, add a couple mini googly eyes.

Striped eggs

Spice up your regular egg dying by adding stripes to your family’s eggs! Help your kids separate the dye colors into three categories: light, medium and dark. Then, take a hardboiled egg and dip it in the lightest dye. Let it dry. Wrap a rubber band around the egg, spreading it out to create a crisscrossing design. Dip in the medium dye. Let it dry. Finally, add another one or two rubber bands and dunk the egg in the dark dye. You’ll have a batch of rainbow-striped eggs.

Eggshell flowerpots

Break off the top third of a dozen eggs and empty the yolks out. Discard the tops. Wash or thoroughly rinse out the bottom two-thirds of the eggshells. Fill with dirt and plant a few seeds in each. Place them back into an egg carton to help them stand upright. Then water and set them in a sunny spot.

Sources:

-“Eggshell Flowerpots” Martha Stewart

-“Kids’ Easter Crafts” Spoonful

-“Easter Activities for Children” DLTK

-Photo courtesy of Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net