Summer is the best time to get creative with your kids! Whether you’re outside enjoying the warm weather or holed up inside with the AC, here are five unique crafts for you to do with your kids before school starts up again.
Painting Flower Pots
If you’re a green-thumb family, this is the craft for you! Most hardware or garden stores will sell terracotta planter pots, which work perfectly as blank canvases. Set down newspaper or a towel inside or outside and let your kids paint their own flower pots.
Pro-tip: Turn the flower pot upside down and teach your kids how to get creative with a pour or drip technique.
When they’re dry, teach your kids how to plant their own seeds and watch them grow!
Materials Needed:
Acrylic paint
Paintbrushes
Flower pots
Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Out of sidewalk chalk? Don’t stress! Make your own sidewalk chalk paint with cornstarch, water, and food coloring. Utilize a cupcake tin to keep all the colors separate while your kids decorate your driveway or sidewalk.
Pro-tip: If you’re staying inside to beat the heat, use a 1:1 ratio of cornstarch and water for painting on paper.
Materials Needed:
1/2 cup Cornstarch
2/3 cup Water
Food Coloring
Cupcake tin
Paint brushes
Painted Treasure Rocks
If your kids love taking walks, encourage them to collect rocks the next time you’re out and about. This simple craft is perfect for kids of all ages. Using acrylic paint, paint the rocks with whatever theme your kids are interested in: animals, rainbows, or even numbers to practice counting. When they’re dry, line them up on a porch railing or place them through your yard.
Pro-tip: Coat them with clear Mod Podge to give them a protective layer in harsher weather conditions.
Materials Needed:
Rocks of various sizes
Acrylic paint
Paintbrushes
Clear Mod Podge (optional)
Folded Paper Fans
This craft is a little more advanced than the others, but perfect for kids who are ready for a challenge. An adult should start by drilling small holes through one end of the popsicle sticks (there will be 5 sticks per fan). Using the paint, let the kids paint the sticks to match the theme they’ve chosen for their paper fan. In sets of 5, insert a metal fastener through the holes in the popsicle sticks, binding them all together.
Next, map out a curved rectangle on paper and let the kids decorate the paper. Cut out the curved rectangle and splay out the connected popsicle sticks evenly. Using a glue gun or elmer’s glue, attach the popsicle sticks to the paper and let dry. When the glue is dry, gently collapse the popsicle sticks, allowing the paper to fold into a closed fan.
Materials Needed:
Thick popsicle sticks
Acrylic paint
Paintbrushes
Paper
Drill
Glue gun or Elmer’s Glue
Officemate Round Head Fasteners
Pro-tip: Visit A Girl and A Glue Gun to get inspiration from Kimbo’s fruit themed fan examples!
Beaded Bubble Wands
Our final craft idea is advanced and not suited for children who may put decorative beads in their mouths. All materials in this craft can be found at your local craft store: pipe cleaners, wooden dowels, and assorted beads. Before you create the wands, make the bubble solution - the longer the bubble solution sits, the bubblier it will be!
Whisk your sugar and water until sugar dissolves, then whisk in the soap. To start your beaded bubble wands, Wrap on end of a pipe cleaner around one end of a dowel. Have your kids feed their beads onto the other end of the pipe cleaner. Once they’ve added all of the beads they want, tie off the open end of the pipe cleaner to the dowel, creating a circle. Pro-tip: If you have a hot glue gun, seal the pipe cleaner to the dowel to make it extra secure.
When the bubble solution is ready, use a wand to dip the entire circle into the bowl and get those bubbles flowing!
Bubble Solution
1 large bowl
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup blue Dawn dish soap
Materials Needed:
Pipe cleaners Wooden dowels Assorted beads Hot glue gun (optional)
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