Sidewalk Chalk Obstacle Course Ideas

Hi friends! How are you doing during the Quarantine? Are you looking for ways to get the kids out of the house? My boys miss seeing their friends, so we found a fun way to entertain ourselves (and possibly the other kids in the neighborhood too!) Last week, we pulled out our trusty sidewalk chalk and designed an easy chalk obstacle course. The boys enjoyed thinking up different activities to include, so I'm sharing it here today! This would be a super fun artsy outdoor activity for kids of all ages.

How to Design an Easy Sidewalk Chalk Obstacle Course with Kids

Painting Cute Rock Strawberries

Last weekend the boys and I went to the beach and collected some lovely rocks. We love doing rock crafts, so we brought them home and painted them. The boys painted their own designs and I painted these adorable strawberry rocks!

How to Paint Rock Strawberries

Cupcake Liner Dumpling Craft (and our 10+ favorite Asian Food Picture Books!)

A couple of weeks ago, our family celebrated New Year (and made a ton of Chinese New Year Crafts.) Even though the celebrations are over, I've still been in the mood to eat lots of yummy Asian food. The boys and I recently tried making dumplings (using this super easy recipe). Today I thought it would be fun to put together a fun list of Asian food inspired picture books + share a cute cupcake liner dumpling craft. Enjoy!

10+ Awesome Asian Food Inspired Picture Books AND a Cupcake Liner Dumpling Craft

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Fall Forest Paper Chains

So... apparently, I have a paper chain obsession. I know, I know. I just posted these sweet Halloween paper chains earlier...but I had to share this adorable bear and fox version too. They're SOOOO cute and such a perfect fall craft to do with the kiddos.

So if you're looking for an adorable and easy fall craft, THIS IS IT.

Let's make some...

Fall Forrest Paper Chains!

Balancing + Rocking Origami Tutorial

Did you enjoy playing with those balancing bird toys (aff link) as a kid? Well, if you did, today's origami project will be highly satisfying. We're balancing a piece of paper on our hands... using the power of origami! Fold and then place your creation on your finger. It will balance, rock back and forth, and even turn... without falling!

How to Fold Balancing, Rocking, and Turning Origami!

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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?

Oil Pastel Rock Monsters

These little rock monsters are super cute and fun to make around Halloween!  Just grab some rocks and oil pastels and you're ready to go!

Oil Pastel Rock Monsters

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Kids Paint Watercolor Geodes

Love staring at geodes?  Do agates make your heart pitter patter?  We recently attended a rock and crystal themed birthday party (cool idea, right?) and we had fun "painting" these super simple "watercolor" geodes for our birthday card. 

Wait a moment.  Why am I putting everything in quotations?  Well, keep reading to find out! (Spoiler alert- No watercolors were used!)

Let's "Paint*" Geode cards with Kids

(*No fancy watercolors needed for this fun kid craft!)

  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.

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!

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Create a Rock Maze

Is the weather getting warmer where you are? Yesterday we embraced the sun with this quick and easy STEM activity.  We grabbed some rocks and made our very own rock maze for cars!

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Lovely Yarn Wrapped Rocks

Got yarn?  Got rocks?  Good.  Then you have all the materials needed for today's summer craft.  We'll be doing some easy rock wrapping!

Lovely Yarn Wrapped Rocks

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30+ Awesomely Unique and Fun Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

It's no secret that I LOVE paper plate crafts!   Wanna make my heart sing?  Hand me a bunch of blank paper plates.  Seriously.  No joke. (Ok- Crafter confessional here- I've even snuck interesting paper plates out of parties before to craft with... shhhh... )

If you follow me on Instagram you'll see that I'm this week's #kidscrafts101 judge! Yup!  Every week there's a fun challenge to craft with a different material.  This week's theme is... drum roll please... paper plates! I know all of you and your kids have such creative ideas, so I'd love to see your ideas on IG!  (Just use the #kidscrafts101 so I can see your great ideas!)

And in honor of this week's theme, I thought I'd also share my absolute favorite paper plate crafts!

30+ Super Fun and Unique Paper Plate Crafts for Kids!

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Let's design a zoo! (And our 15+ favorite zoo books!)

Are you looking for an easy, open-ended prompt to encourage children's play and creativity?  How about a building challenge?  We've designed and built playdough and rock houses , cardboard bridges, boats from recycled materials, and super hero hideouts.  Today, we're designing and building a zoo!

Designing a Zoo with Kids!

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Our 30+ Favorite Flower and Plant Art + Craft Projects (and books!)

Love flowers?  Well, today I'm in kind of a flowery mood.  I've got a couple of flower crafts that I'd like to try once we all start feeling better.  So until then, I've scoured the blog for our favorite flower and plant project ideas  in case you're in a flowery, springy mood too!

Our 30+ Favorite Flower and Plant Projects

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Easy and Spooky Shrunken Apple Heads!

Do Halloween crafts rock your world?  Yes!?  Awesome.  They totally rock mine too.  Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year.  Costumes, magic, candy, gross things, spooky things—I love it all!

Tomorrow is the first day of October and I’m trying to squeeze in as many Halloween crafts as I can before the month is over.   Today I’m sharing a really neat Halloween activity that also doubles as a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activity too.  We’re making shrunken apple heads! 

Super Easy and Spooky Shrunken Apple Heads

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(Ha! My husband was weirded out my this little guy, but I think he’s just adorable.  Look at that toothy grin!)

Let's Make Easy Wire Wrapped Nature Pendants!

How has your summer been going so far?  We've been spending a ton of time outdoors, running around, playing in the water, and digging in the sand.  For what?  Treasures!  So far we've found lovely bits of blue and green sea glass, shells, and funny shaped rocks.  We've placed some of our treasures on display at home and turned others into these easy-to-make, wire wrapped nature pendants. 

Let's Make Wire Wrapped Nature Pendants!

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Aren't they lovely?  We love doing nature crafts, like making melted crayon friendship rocks, weaving with flowers, building birds nests, and constructing play dough and rock houses.  Today's wire wrapped pendants are a too difficult for the preschool crowd, but adults and older children can easily wrap pendants for younger ones!  

Make Colorful Watercolor Peg Doll and Beaded Necklaces

I recently purchased a box of Liquid Watercolors (affiliate link) to try out.  I'd seen so many beautiful projects by other fellow Rockin' Art Moms  that we just had to try them out too.

And guess what?  These paints totally lived up to the hype.

Here's why liquid watercolor rock- The colors are beautiful and vibrant.  These watercolor paints are also SO MUCH EASIER to use than the typical pan watercolors.  My preschooler doesn't typically enjoy painting with me because he struggles with getting enough color on his paint brush.  I think he really enjoyed today's project because it was easy and the colors came out looking fabulous!

So here's our first liquid watercolor project- Tada!  We used our liquid watercolors to dye some wooden beads and peg dolls to make these lovely, family necklaces!

Let's Make Colorful Watercolor-Dyed Peg Doll Necklaces!

 

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Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry

Mother's Day is coming up!  So of course, fun kid-made gifts have been on my mind!  Last week we made these darling egg carton flower pins.  I thought they would go great with some lovely kid-made jewelry.  But of course, there had to be a twist!  (A math twist that is!)

Let's Make Mathy Mother's Day Jewelry!  

The Artful Year and Melted Crayon Friendship Rocks

Chuck doesn't always enjoy making things with me.  (What? Yup.)  A lot of days he would just rather that we read books or race airplanes together.   And I'm really trying harder to let go and follow his lead.  But I love crafting.  So I keep putting out those invitations in hopes that he'll join me.  And on those special occasions when he's interested and involved in a craft... boy oh boy... those days are really magic.

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We recently received a copy of Jean Van't Hul's The Artful Year to review.  Jean is an artist, mom of 2, and author of the amazing kids' art blog Artful Parent.  (She's also the author of another great kids' art book The Artful Parent. ) 

In her newest book, Jean shares a whopping 175 family-friendly crafts, and recipes!  The photos are dreamy and beautiful; the crafts span through all the seasons and holidays of the year; and the recipes look really, really yummy.  I love this book.  But those things aren't what I love the most about her book.

What I love the most about the book is her voice.  In the beginning she shares this beautiful quote-

"We need to be more intentional than ever as we carve out quality time together, celebrate in meaningful ways, build traditions and memories and create stronger families.  It's not about doing more.  It's about making choices, fostering creativity, and building family connection."  

Wow.  That just hit so close to home.  I don't want to just make things with Chuck.  Things eventually break down, get lost, or tossed away.  I want to foster creativity.  I want to build our relationship.  I want to make lasting memories.

Ok.  This was a super long intro, I know. But I just had to get that all out there.  Because it really is a beautiful, beautiful book.

Here's the craft that we chose to try out first from the book:

Melted Crayon Friendship Rocks

10 Ocean Crafts and Activities

This week's Creative Preschool Collaborator's theme is Oceans and Fish!  I was excited to tackle the theme because Chuck LOVES going to the beach and playing in the ocean.   So keep reading for some ocean themed storybook ideas, 10 preschool ocean crafts/activities, AND 4 other kid blogger's creative Ocean themed activities!

10 Ocean Crafts and Activties

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