Summer is here. The weather is getting hotter and the boredom may be increasing. While kids are excited to finally be out of school, they may eventually become bored and wonder what tom do. Instead of lying around and doing nothing, get everyone involved in something. Try arts and crafts, most kids love those. Not only will crafts keep kids occupied, but it may actually teach them as well.
Summer crafts can involve items such as seedpods or heads, grass, flowers, etc. One craft idea is making a nature collage. To do that, take these items (or any other suitable items they may find) and glue them to a stiff piece of cardboard. Then, help them spray paint some of their items with silver or gold paint. They also may choose to use glitter glue on the collage or some of the items.
Another craft is collecting wild flower seed heads, arranging them into a dried flower, and putting them into a homemade vase. Or they may decide to just pick flowers and put them inside of a homemade vase. You can actually create the vase out of a tin can. A great example is a soup can. Soup cans are smooth on the outside and a little narrow, like a vase. Do not forget to file off any sharp spurs on the inside opening before giving them to the children, as we do not want them to get hurt. Once the can is ready to be decorated, start off with cutting a piece of construction or colored paper to put around the side of the can.
Next, decorate the paper as you would like or as the child would like. There are many ways to decorate the paper, such as drawing a summer scene, using stickers, glitter or glitter glue, or other summer items. The child could also write their name or whatever they may like in large letters and glue items (such as seeds, glitter, beans, petals, grass heads, seed pods, etc.) onto the letters. After the child is done, let any glue that they may have used dry. Once everything is dry, then glue the decorated paper to the outside of the can. You can add fresh flowers and water or dry flowers and no water.
This can does not have to be used as just a vase. It can also be used as a place to store pens, pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever you or the child may want to store inside of the can.
Another vase idea is making a jar vase. Canning jars do make cute vases, but plastic or food jars (such as mayonnaise or pickle jars) will also work as well. First and foremost, the jar is going to need to be clean. This works out because in the summer, kids love getting wet. You can even let them put on their bathing suit to clean the jar (or jars, if there is more than one). Let them splash a little and have their fun, water can be cleaned up later and this activity is meant to be fun. Once the jar is clean, dry it and tie a pretty ribbon around the opening. The children can also decorate the outside of the jar if they want to. They can do so by gluing beads or buttons, or maybe even with decorated paper, just as they did with the can vases.
So there you go, summer crafts that will not only keep the kids busy and happy, but will also provide you with some cute and inexpensive decorations for your home! Let the kids gets creative and have fun, and always remember that during those boring hours, you can’t go wrong with arts and crafts!
