Father’s Day is around the corner and kids are scrambling everywhere to buy or make something for their dad or the father figures in their life.  This is probably the easiest craft that even special needs children can do with limited assistance.  All of the supplies I bought at my local craft store on sale.  It was less than $6 to make including the picture.

Supplies

• Scrapbooking stickers
• Paint
• Picture
• Frame
• clear spray (optional)

Instructions

1.  Take the frame apart and have your child paint the frame.  We painted it on all sides including the grooved part.

2.  Let paint dry.  It only took 20 minutes for ours, but it will differ depending upon the type of paint you use and the humidity in the air.

3.  Apply the stickers as your child sees fit.

4.  (Optional.) Use the clear spray to help everything stay on the frame.  I used a spray that I had in my stock, but it isn’t necessary.

5.  Once dry, reassemble frame with picture.

6.  Make sure that you can hang or set frame on a desk.  I had to do some creative work to get the frame ready for hanging, but it worked.

Each child will have an idea as to what stickers belong on the frame.  You can always stamp in paint or glue items onto the frame depending upon what the desired look is to be.  Be creative and have it reflect your child and their dad.  Happy Father’s Day!

The post Fathers Day Picture Frame Craft appeared first on Arizona Mama.

We officially kick off summer vacation this weekend. (I won’t mention all the fun we had last weekend to get us pumped for summer.)

After last year’s summer bucket list fiasco, I’m ready to jump in and maximize this year’s fun! Fortunately, The Happy Family Movement provided just the spark I needed.

To start this summer off on the right foot, we actually made a decent list (as opposed to the six things on last year’s list). We put all of our ideas on colorful pieces of paper and put them in a bucket (clever, I know). We use our list as a brainstorm, so when we have time for some excitement, we can flip through our collection of ideas and pick one. Here’s what we put in our bucket.

Our list is a healthy start to our summer fun. As we complete an activity, we’ll tape the card on the wall. I’m excited to see how much of the wall we can cover. Good thing it’s a big wall because I’m planning on an adventurous summer.  What about you? What’s in your bucket this summer?

If you like this article, you these might be up your alley too!

• Summer Goals for Kids
• Stay at Home Summer Camp Themes
• Paper Bag Kites

The post Summer Bucket List Challenge appeared first on Arizona Mama.

Plant something

Nothing says spring like planting a garden! If you have a Wolf Cub, he can pass off Elective 15a – d by planting and raising a box garden, a flower bed, vegetables or growing a plant indoors. Our family has mastered the art of planting – it’s the growing part that gives us trouble. The Bear Scouts have a landscaping elective (number 14). Webelos need to plant 20 forest tree seedlings for Requirement 8 of their Forester pin.

We had fun planting our own Chia Pets. Pour a cup of potting soil into the toe of a knee high nylon, put and then sprinkle grass seed on top.  Tie a knot to keep everything in place.  Next we hot glued google eyes and pom-poms to make a face (or something like a face).  Soak it in water and set in a sunny place.  I was surprised at how quickly they started growing grass; it was less than a week.

A visit to the Desert Botanical Garden is not only fun, it passes off Wolf Elective 15e.

Service project

A great way to spring into action is with a service project. How about a family service walk? You get exercise, clean up the neighborhood and your Wolf scout can pass off Achievement 7d. Bear requirement 6b can is planting a tree, which combines growing something with a service project. An outdoor conservation project is part of the Webelos Outdoorsman requirements.

Mad jumping skills

Why not get outside and see who has the best standing long jump (Wolf Elective 20i), high jump (Wolf Requirement 1f), or running jump. 10 second sprints are always fun – and exhausting! (Wolf Elective 20h) Some of the same activities can be used for Bear Scouts to pass off Achievement 16a and c. Webelos can develop their skills while working on their Athlete pin.

Remember to keep the outing in Scouting. Even if your family doesn’t include a Cub Scout these are great activities to get outside and enjoy nature! If you do have Cub Scouts, it’s always good to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. (No birds or Cub Scouts were harmed in the writing of this article.)

If you like these springy activity ideas, be sure to check the following:

Paper Bag Kites

Flight Activities for Kids

Mesa Community College Planetarium

The post Spring Into Action with Cub Scouts appeared first on Arizona Mama.

Materials Needed:

• Scissors
• School Glue (Glue sticks won’t work on this project.)
• 1 or 2 Silk flowers (depending upon how many you make)
• silver or gold glitter
• Sturdy cardboard or stock paper
• 1 popsicle stick or paper towel
• Newspapers (for under the project to keep your table clean)

How to make:

1) Pull or cut all of the petals off the flower(s)

2) Draw a circle in the middle of the page.  Use a lid from a mayo jar or anything you have around the house if you need a template.

3) Lay petals around the circle and then glue them down (let dry for 15-20 minutes before continuing)

4) Using the popsicle stick or paper towel, put glue on it and then spread around in the circle making sure the whole inner circle is covered.

5) Pour or shake the glitter in the circle and shake the paper or cardboard to evenly distribute the glitter.  (let dry for 20 min.)

6)  Take the stem of the flower you destroyed and then cut it to size for the page.  If there are leaves, remove them.

7) Glue the stem and any leaves to the page and let dry.

8) Display or give away!

The post Mothers Day Craft DIY Flower Power appeared first on Arizona Mama.

I wish my plane was as cool as this one my son made!

After discussing our most and least favorite parts of the book (Who wouldn’t be impressed with a witty and heroic escape from a fiery tower?), we made our own airplanes – the paper kind. What good are airplanes without some kind of contest to demonstrate their effectiveness? We had a couple of tests for distance. I need to come up with a better design since I lost both contests.

Fortunately I shone on our next activity, paper airplane races on Wii Playground. I was the first to win 2 rounds. It’s always fun when I can beat my kids at a video game, especially when it doesn’t happen very often.

We finished off our meeting with ice cream cones with sprinkles. Somehow the kiddo in charge decided the sprinkles represented the fireworks in the book. (I would tell you more, but I don’t want to be a spoiler!)

If you are looking for an adventure for the whole family, be sure to check out Airman. This book has something for everyone – a little romance, a lot of adventure – and you might even sneak in a little history from the time period.

If you like this uplifting activity, you might like reading the following:

Flight Activities for Kids

Flagstaff Lowell Observatory

Flying Machines Summer Camp

The post Airman Family Book Club appeared first on Arizona Mama.

This project is more challenging than the flight activities I shared last fall. We made kites from paper grocery bags. I found directions in the Cub Scout Wolf Handbook, but I like these instructions better.  I made these with a group of Cub Scouts, which was fun. I just wish the adult to child ratio was more even. I would recommend one adult to one or two boys; more than that and it gets a little crazy. It’s also fun to go wild and decorate them with markers; the brighter the better!

The best part was the test flight.  We had to do some repairs right off the start – it’s like they were made of paper or something!  This was a great time to discuss kite safety. (You know the boring stuff like not flying your kite into power lines.) After some patching and the addition of a tail, we got them in the air and used all the string we had (which wasn’t saying much).  Since we were just in the neighborhood, I didn’t want to lose them in someone’s backyard.

When one of the neighbors saw us out there, they gave us a cool kite they never used.  That one flew much better, but there was something special about getting something we made in the air.

Try your hand at making your own kite before summer closes us inside our air conditioned homes.

If you liked these cool activities for kids, be sure to check out a few more!

Angry Birds Party Ideas

Family Photography Challenge

Badminton Fun

The post Paper Bag Kites appeared first on Arizona Mama.

1.  Use a template of a shamrock.  I did a basic search and different types of templates came up.  Just pick the one that works for you.  I printed several pages just in case my son had issues with cutting.  I used white paper so they can decorate the shamrock.

2.  Have your child cut out the shamrock, if they are able to do so.

3.  Paint, color, etc. to make the shamrock green.

4.  Find buttons, green m & ms, green shells, green beads, or anything green.  Glue them onto the shamrock.  This is where the fine motor skills are reinforced by picking up small objects.

5.  Let them dry!

We usually give our crafts to distant family members so they can enjoy something that my son made.  He also enjoys picking out the items just for them.  You can also hang them on the refrigerator as part of your seasonal decorations.  Add a magnet to the back and it’s easy to put them on the refrigerator. Enjoy!

The post St. Patrick’s Day Shamrocks for Young Kids and Special Needs Children appeared first on Arizona Mama.

In the town of Spring Haven, four children have been selected to compete in the national candymaking contest of a lifetime. Who will make a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Yellow Lightning Chew?

Logan, the candymaker’s son, who can detect the color of chocolate by feel alone?

Miles, the boy allergic to rowboats and the color pink?

Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy as if it were a feather?

Philip, the suit-and-tie-wearing boy who’s always scribbling in a secret notebook?

This sweet, charming, and cleverly crafted story, told from each contestant’s perspective, is filled with mystery, friendship, and juicy revelations. {Amazon}

We had all kinds of ideas for activities related to this book, most of them involving experimenting on our own new candy creations. Unfortunately time, skill and equipment were all hurdles to the creation of a unique Roberts family candy. We did try our hand at taffy making, but we succeeded in making hard candy instead. (I refuse to attempt any further candy making until I get a new, quality candy thermometer! Obviously the thermometer was the problem, not the candy maker.) Fortunately, the kids like hard candy too!

Another candy activity was a candy quiz my daughter found online. We had to guess the candy from a picture of a cross section. For the record, I was actually good at that one!

The complex characters and story line gave us plenty to talk about.

• Which candy would you most like to try from the Life Is Sweet Candy Factory? Is ‘all’ an acceptable answer?
• What room would you most like to work in? With choices like tropical, taffy, caramel and chocolate that is a hard question! A room full of caramel… OK, I’m back.
• What undercover assignment is most appealing? (This is where the intrigue comes in!)
• What kind of new candy creation would you like to make?
• We unanimously agreed that we would all like to live in the candy factory like Logan!

The Candymakers makes a great read aloud book and appropriate for grades 3 and up. I’m glad I fit in that range. It held my attention and kept me guessing.

If you enjoyed this family book club article, be sure to check out the following:

Christmas Jars Reunion Family Book Club

Princess Academy Family Book Club

Savvy Family Book Club

The post The Candymakers Family Book Club appeared first on Arizona Mama.

I have a little crafter living under my roof. This same child inspired our fall paper plate crafts, a disco party and took us to a local pottery studio.  She enjoys creating scratch art, but after seeing the prices of the paper, she wanted to try her hand at making her own scratch art paper.

She tried a few different methods to find the one that worked the best. For each method, she started with a square of cardstock and used acrylic paint.

Method #1

She used a piece of colored cardstock and painted a layer of black acrylic paint on top. The paint was firmly bonded to the paper. When she scratched a design, it was very faint and allowed little of the colored cardstock to show through.

Method #2

This time she painted red acrylic paint onto a piece of white cardstock. After it dried, she covered it with a layer of black acrylic paint. Scratching a design in this method barely left an indention in the black paint and no color showed through.

Method #3

For her final test, she colored a piece of white cardstock with crayon and then covered it with black acrylic paint. Success! It worked as well as the scratch art paper we have bought. I read mixing a little dish soap with tempera paint also worked. We didn’t have any tempera paint on hand, but tried mixing a couple of drops of dish soap with the acrylic paint and it wasn’t as effective.

If your kiddos want to make their valentines into an art project, here is an inexpensive and fun way to go. You can be pretty sure they will be different from the rest of the class’s!

If you liked this Valentine’s Day article, be sure to read theses too!

Valentine’s Day Love Bingo

Valentine’s at Joe’s Farm Grill and The Coffee Shop

And another February holiday:

Celebrate Chinese New Year

The post DIY Scratch Art Valentines appeared first on Arizona Mama.

10. Spring Cleaning. I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from cleaning up the Christmas mess. Maybe next month I’ll be ready to think about spring cleaning (or the month after that).

9. The Thief Family Book Club. This may have been my favorite book I read last year; then again it’s way too hard to pick just one. I did have to devour read the next two books in the series immediately.

8. Superstition Mountain Museum. Those of you who live in the Phoenix area, this is a great place to spend an afternoon. It’s an entertaining way to sneak in a little history!

7. Valentine’s Day Love Bingo. Be sure to check this one out again, it will be Valentine’s Day before you know it!

6. Stop Start and Continue. With all the focus on goals this month, definitely reread this one to help you evaluate what’s working and what’s not.

5. Book Theme Birthday Party. We sure love our books in this house, so it was natural that we’d center a birthday party on the theme.

4. SMART Goals for the New Year. Here’s another great tool to help you set those New Year goals. (I’m happy to say those feet are 10 pounds lighter!)

3. Science Fair Family Book Club. Did I mention we like to read in my family? This was another great book for our family book club.

2. Angry Birds Party Activities. The only thing we like to do more than read is to party. (Unless we’re parting about the books we read.) Our Angry Bird Party was a blast!

1. Top Ten Posts of 2011. Who doesn’t love a countdown? And I don’t think you’ll find a better shortcut to my most popular posts.

So, was your favorite on the list? I can’t wait to see what the New Year has in store!

If you enjoyed this list, be sure to check out a few more!

Most Read Posts of 2010

Top Three Toddler Christmas Gift Ideas

Roberts Family Classic Picture Books

The post Top 10 Posts of 2012 appeared first on Arizona Mama.