Grow Crystal Geode Eggs with Kids

Do you love geodes? My kids adore sparkly rocks and for this Easter craft, we tried our hand and made sparkly geode Easter eggs.  (Or maybe you could call them dragon eggs? Oooh, I love the sound of that.) Aren't they beautiful? Directions for making them are below!

How to Grow Crystal Eggs with Kids

(An easy and fun kids' science STEM project)

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How to Build a Paper Air Skimmer Sleigh (FREE Printable included)

Looking for a really neat winter STEAM activity to make with the kids? A few months ago, my eldest son came back with a really cool paper skimmer that he made at school. They followed this paper skimmer tutorial on YouTube. The directions were great for older kids, but my youngest wasn't able to make one easily. So I came up with an easy printable that we could print out, color, fold, and race. :) Both boys loved using it so much that I'm sharing it here! With it being so close to Christmas, we called them our paper skimmer sleighs. 

Print, Fold, and Build a DIY Paper Air Skimmer Sleigh

(Free printable included!)

 

Free Printable Christmas Agamograph

Christmas is right around the corner! And while we've yet to decorate the house in Christmas decor, I've already started dreaming of fun Christmas crafts to do with the kids. If you're looking for an easy printable that kids can color and fold for the holidays, this agamograph is it! This would make the perfect quick after-school activity, library activity, or classroom activity. Download the free sheets below and enjoy!

Free Printable Christmas Agamographs

Free Printable Fall Agamographs

Did you grab our printable Halloween Agamographs last week? They were such a hit that I made these fall agamographs for you to print out and make with the kids. The free printable is down below! Print, color , and accordian fold them for some easy kid-friendly STEAM-filled fun!

Free Printable Fall Agamographs

(A super easy and fun STEM activity for kids of all ages!)

Free Printable Halloween Agamographs

Ever heard of agamographs? It's optical illusion art that changes depending on how you look at it. I saw this idea first on STEAM powered family. With Halloween coming around, I thought I'd make a coloring sheet agamograph that kids of all ages could try. This would be a perfect after-school activity! No cutting or gluing involved. Just print out the free coloring sheet below, color it in, accordian fold it, and voila! A cool piece of op art!

Free Printable Halloween Agamographs

How to Draw Cute Bunny Tessellations: An Easter Math Activity

Is anyone else surprised that Easter is just around the corner? Today I'm sharing an Easter Craft that also doubles as a Math activity. (I love it when art and math mix together, don't you?) Today we're drawing these adorable bunny tessellations.

How to Draw Cute Bunny Tessellations:

How to Make Clapper Trapper Toys

Hi friends! How are you doing? I have a small cold, my husband is working from home, and the boys are *thankfully* still happy to be home. If you're like me and looking for easy and affordable ways to encourage creativity and fun, then you're going to love today's post.

We're making cardboard clapper trappers! These nifty homemade toys transform potential energy into kinetic energy and by making loud snapping sounds when released.

How to Make Clapper Trapper Toys

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means I make a tiny bit of grocery money from each purchase made at no cost to you. Thank you for your support! For my full disclosure policy, click here.

Op-Art Christmas Ornaments

Last week we made some Optical Illusion Christmas ornaments for the tree. The results were so groovy that I had to share them here!

Making Op-Art Ornaments with Kids

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4 Kits to create your own DIY Summer STEM + Robotics Camp

Love the idea of sending kids to summer STEM and Robotics camps... but not the prices? I get you! We love doing easy science and STEM activities at home. This past summer, we considered sending my eldest to some robotics camps, but then realized that they just weren't in our budget. So, instead, we set up our own STEM and Robotics camps... at home by purchasing a couple of STEM/ Robotics kits and building them together. Here's a quick review of the 4 kits that we tried out!

A Review of 4 STEM and Robotics Kits 

This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small bit of money for any purchases made through the links at no additional cost to you.  Thank you for your support.  For my full disclosure policy, click here.

Kids Spring Fairy House Craft

Looking for a super easy Spring craft that gets the kids creating outside?  Or, are you looking for an easy STEAM inspired activity that kids of all ages will love?  Try this Nature Fairy House Craft Challenge!

What kind of fairy house would YOU design?

DIY Homemade Spirograph

Ever play with a spirograph toy?  We LOVE them and the other day I got to wondering.... could we make a DIY version using materials around our home?  Well, the answer is... YES!  Today I'm sharing this artsy- science craft.  It got a big two-thumbs up from my eldest. He really loved trying it out with me.

Let's Make a DIY Homemade Spirograph Toy!

This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small portion off of any purchases made through the links at no additional cost to you.  Thank you for the grocery money!  For my full disclosure policy, click here.

Make a Mini Science Journal Booklet from one sheet of paper

Have you ever tried making tiny notebooks?  My eldest is currently obsessed with pocket-sized books.  He loves using them to doodle, jot down ideas, or record stories.  Today we're doing a STEAM themed craft and turning a single white sheet of computer paper into a cute science journal.  It's the perfect place for young scientists to jot down observations, hypotheses, and ideas for experiments.

Let's get making!

How to Make Mini Science Journal Booklets

(from 1 sheet of computer paper!)

This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small portion off of any purchases made through the links at no additional cost to you.  Thank you for the grocery money!  For my full disclosure policy, click here.

Play-dough and Cardboard Mazes

Hello friends!  I'm currently on the lookout for easy (and not too messy) ways to keep the kids entertained.  Today I'm sharing a fun preschool STEAM activity that kept both my boys entertained.  We've made outdoor rock mazes, edible candy mazes, and Lego mazes.  Today we're keeping the theme going with these super easy play-dough mazes!

Let's Make Play-Dough Mazes!

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small bit of change when you purchase items through the links.  Thank you for your support and the grocery money! For my full disclosure policy, click here.

STEAM Kids Kitchen- 70+ Activities and Recipes for Creative Kids

It's here! It's here!

If you have curious and creative kids who love to tinker and question and make... then you'll love our new STEAM Kids in the Kitchen book!

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My 3 Cardboard Craft Books are finally here!

Ok.  The title says it all. So please buy my 3 awesome cardboard and duct tape craft books.  End of Post.

Just kidding! (Apparently I'm much too wordy for a 1 line post.)

So grab a coffee or tea and let's chat.

Last June I shared that a publishing company contacted me about writing a series of cardboard craft books. (If you missed that post, or you just want to see a photo of our cardboard-filled garage, click here.)

Well, it's been almost a year since that post and tada.... the books are here!

Don't they look good enough to eat? Num num num num num.

This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a teeny tiny bit of money from any purchases made through the Amazon links below.   Thank you for your support! For my full disclosure, click here.

Cardboard Ninja Throwing Stars

Ninja Crafts, I have found, can be quite polarizing.  Some parents think they're super fun and great for birthday parties.  Other parents are uncomfortable with kids using weapons like a sword, ninja stars, and such. 

While I don't condone violence, I do realize that making toys that shoot, launch, or fly (like this pom pom shooter, car launcher, or this 1 sheet paper kite) are always crowd pleasers.   (Plus, they're a great opportunity to slip in some STEAM learning.)   So today I'm sharing this cute Ninja Throwing Star Craft.  It was super easy to make and kept us relatively sane on a stuck-at-home-going-to-pull-my-hair-out-cleaning-the-pulled-out-puzzles-for-the-eight-time rainy day.

How To Make Cardboard Ninja Throwing Stars

This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a teeny tiny bit of money from any purchases made through the Amazon links below.   Thank you for your support! For my full disclosure, click here.

Mystery Grid Art Challenge

Howdy! Today I'm sharing a STEAM activity that combines art and math.   Put on your creative hats and grab your favorite color pencils.  We're trying our hand at the Mystery Grid Art Challenge!

Think you can conquer the Mystery Grid Challenge?

(Well, read on and find out!)

Let's Build Beautiful 3D Card Structures!

What happens when you have access to the internet, shortened daylight hours, a craft-and-math loving kid, and a deck of old playing cards?  Well,  if you're me... you rally everyone together to do a STEAM activity!  Yeah!

Tired of bouncing off the walls one night, our family tried our hands at making these nifty 3D Card Sculptures.  They came out pretty cool and I thought I'd share them today with you!

Let's Make Beautiful 3D Card Sculptures

Twirly Whirly Paper Snowflake Mobile (And our favorite snow books)

Is it a good time to make snowflake crafts with the kids?  The answer to that question is always, "YES!"  Snowflake crafts in summer, snowflake crafts in spring, snowflake crafts all time of the year is my personal crafting mantra.

Well, now that we've removed all the Halloween decorations (sob, sob) my son and I are starting to decorate our home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  While I've yet to find a good kids' Turkey craft that I like, I can always count on snowflakes to tide us creatively over while I keep looking.

Today's twirly whirly paper snowflake mobile is just such an easy and fun craft.  We made ours ona whim one night together before bed.  Don't you just adore it?  You get to make snowflakes AND watch them "fall" from a cute cloud.

(Hmm, I bet you could easily incorporate some STEAM lessons with this art activity as well!)

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Clothespin People and Doodles

I needed a few clothespins for some crafts... but ended up acquiring a whole bunch more than necessary.  They were just lying around, so I fiddled around  and came up with a really fun, open-ended art project:  Clothespin Doodles!

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for the grocery money!  For my full disclosure policy, click here