I truly believe kid friendly creative projects are my saving grace when it comes to working from home. But there are only so many times in a day that I can ask my kids to draw me a picture before they start to revolt. They get bored quick. And because even before the pandemic 85% of my job was working from home, I have had to think outside the box for years to keep them entertained and avoid hours and hours of screen time.

Finding unique ways to get their growing brains working and creativity flowing, it makes the day FUN and passes the time! Because of social distancing, I catered this list toward at home activites and kept supplies minimal. Other than the take home kits, we did all of these things with what we already had at home! Also with most of our projects I try give our kids minimal instructions. That way the are in control and get to feel creatively empowered with the project!

 

Local Take Home Craft Kits–

Before you hit add to cart on that craft from amazon, do a quick Facebook scroll to see if any local small businesses are doing take home DIY kits! From flower kits, cookie kits and coloring print outs, tons of local businesses are offering these now! These smiley mug flower kits were from Consider The Lillies and our kids LOVED them!

 

Treasure Map Making–

You Need- Packing Paper (or any paper is fine, crumple it up for that old map look!), Crayons, Markers.

You know that massive hunk of brown paper that Amazon uses for packing boxes? That’s map making paper in our house! The kiddos bust out their crayons and make massive maps leading them to buried treasure! Bonus points if you have a used paper towel roll lying around. Because then your little pirates can actually FIND the treasure!

 

Flower Petal Bookmarks–

You Need- Clear Packing Tape, Scissors, Paper Strips (optional but it makes a more sturdy bookmark), decorations (petals, glitter, something to color with), Hole Punch & String (optional).

We had a vase of very droopy flowers. And Jay was particularly bummed that they were close to being tossed. So, we decided to ‘make lemonade’ from these ‘lemons’ and came up with a way to repurpose the flower petals. With clear shipping tape, paper cut to bookmark size, scissors, and dried petals (or any other decorations flat enough to use) they made some pretty snazzy bookmarks!

 

Kinetic Sand Dino Dig–

You Need- Cookie Sheet, Plastic Dinos (or other small toys), Kinetic Sand.

This is Greyson’s favorite! I grab a cookie sheet or plastic tub, lay out a bunch of his plastic dinosaurs, and dump bags of kinetic sand over it all! Then the kids get to digging! I usually combine this craft with making playdough fossils (Just press dinos into the playdough and presto! You have a fossil!) for added dinosaur fun!

 

Paper Bag Puppets–

You Need- Paper bag, Googley Eyes, Crayons, Markers, Glue, Extra Decorations.

Our craft closet has who knows what stuffed into it. With the extra time the pandemic has given us, I’ve been able to do a deep dive into it and found a big stack of paper lunch sacks. Which we transformed into a huge stack of paper puppets! Then, my favorite part, the puppet shows began!

 

Paper Egg Decorating–

You Need- Paper, Scissors, Crayons, Markers.

With easter coming close, the kids have egg dying on their minds. Now I don’t know about you guys, but it’s been a toss up for whether or not I can find eggs at the store. So instead of dying eggs, we made paper eggs! Cutting out the eggs helps with their fine motor skills and then they get to decorate their eggs. You could also cut out paper baskets, hide the paper eggs around the house, then have them glue the eggs into their paper baskets as they find them to help get some of that crazy kid energy out!

If you try some of these, or have any other crafts your kids have loved making, I’d love to hear about them! Leave a comment! Stay safe and stay home!