Crafting Secrets

Even before its establishment in 1890, Yosemite National Park has already been popular with tourists and visitors. Today, the park remains as a top tourist attraction in the Sierra Nevada, especially for families with young children. Once your child has reached the age when he starts to develop an appreciation for things, bring him to Yosemite. There’s plenty of great fun that awaits kids in this spectacular environment. Here are just a few samplings of what you and your family can expect:

Learning about animal friends
Children who love animals and are interested in wildlife will enjoy many of the programs currently available in Yosemite. There’s a pre-school program called the ‘Wee Wild Ones’ that the park offers that teaches kids about animals through storytelling, games, songs and crafts. This program is designed for children 6 years old and younger. Admission is free.

Becoming a Junior Ranger
If your child is a born explorer, why not sign him up for Yosemite Park’s program called Junior Ranger? This program is designed for children from ages 7 to 13, although younger ones aged 3 to 6 can join the Little Cubs. The program teaches kids about the value and importance of the environment through related activities. The Junior Ranger Walk (a guided tour that lasts an hour) is done in summer.

Exploring
If you’re visiting Yosemite in the summer, bring your kids to Happy Isles. This is the park’s nature center where kids can learn about the native species of animals that live in the area. There are also activities hosted by park rangers. Rangers lead kids through walks and allow them to participate in activities during a campout.

If you’d rather participate actively in helping your kids discover the beauty of Yosemite, take them for short hikes. Yosemite Valley is a good location for this purpose because many of the trails found here are designed for family exploration. Use a guide to refer to the features you’ll encounter during the hike.

Enjoying the view
Yosemite offers an alternative way to allow kids to enjoy the scenery: through a kid-friendly train ride. It’s known as the Sugar Pine Railroad and it goes through the Yosemite forest. You have a choice between the jenny railcar and the steam train.

Discovering history
Yosemite offers an invaluable lesson in history for young children and teens. Bring your kids to the Yosemite Museum to view the exhibits and let them learn about North American Indian culture through the Indian Cultural Exhibit. The Ahwahnee, an Indian village, is right behind the Yosemite museum. It showcases the culture and traditions of the Paiute and Miwok people.

Bringing out the artist in your child
Yosemite is so stunning in its utter beauty and majesty that it could never fail to awaken the inner artist in your child. For kids who have been dabbling in the arts or those who wish to explore their creativity, a visit to Yosemite can be the one perfect opportunity to allow them to do this. When visiting Yosemite, bring a camera or some art supplies. Then let your child’s imagination run free.

Fantastic kid’s room murals are fun and inexpensive. They add tons of personality and color to a room. Best of all, murals help create wonderful childhood memories that will last a lifetime. All you need to get started is a few craft supplies, a kid and some imagination!

Pick your wall. The great part about painting a mural is that you can totally customize it to the space in your child’s room. You can paint murals wall to wall, paint a single wall, paint the ceiling or just a wall section. It’s completely up to you and your hearts desire!

Choose your characters. Grab your kids and their favorite story books. Look through and find your child’s most loved characters. Your kids will love this. Decide which ones you are going to place in your mural. Don’t worry. No art skills are needed. You are not going to be free handing these drawings. Just pick the favorites. It’s O.K. to mix and match characters form different books.

Create your background. Take a hint from Disney and Winnie the Pooh. Keep your background colors light and soft. This will allow your characters to really stand out. Unless you are artistically inclined, don’t make this complicated. Take your sea sponge and dab on a very light soft blue color for the sky. Sponge all the way down to your designated horizon line. Use white to add fluffy clouds. Use a light soft color for the grass or ground. Use slightly different shades of green to sponge on some hills.

Add your foreground. This part is optional and can be as simple or detailed as you wish. Use stencils to add anything from flowers, butterflies & picket fences to sea shells, fish & seagulls. Use your sea sponge to dab on tree tops and foreground bushes. Use lighter green for bushes and trees far away and slightly darker shades for the ones close up.

Place your characters. Use a projector to project your characters directly onto the wall. Remember that characters made smaller will appear farther away. Lightly trace the characters. Try using chalk or a charcoal pencil when tracing. Mistakes wipe off easily! No projector? No sweat! Enlarge your characters on a photo copy machine. Trace them with a charcoal pencil. Place them on the wall charcoal side down. Firmly rub the tracing with a #2 pencil. The charcoal outline will transfer to the wall. Keep in mind that your character will be facing the opposite direction, so plan accordingly.

Paint your characters. This is no more difficult than using crayons in a coloring book. Grab your water cleanup craft paint and start painting. Stay in the lines. Use inexpensive sponge brushes for large and medium areas. Use detail brushes for the small stuff. Want to really make it pop? After it dries, outline it with a darker color. Refer to your story books for inspiration.

Your kids will be so excited; they’ll hardly be able to wait to show their new mural off to their friends. You might find yourself doing a little bragging too! Create a room that you and your child will never forget. Have fun. Be playful. Do it together.

If you want to teach your kids the value of recycling, it would help a lot if you give them some hands-on experience. Learning first-hand just how important recycling is and what they can do with materials that are considered by some as trash will give your kids a greater appreciation for recycling.

A few simple crafts can get your kids started on recycling. Here are some recycling projects for kids that your children may enjoy working on.

1. A letter holder from old CDs and packaging foam

One good recycling project for kids is making a letter holder from old data CDs and foam. Old data CDs are hard to dispose sometimes, and so is packaging foam.

To make a letter holder from these materials, you would need the following:

• Four old data CDs

• Packaging foam

• Scraps of decorative cloth, art paper or pages from a glossy magazine

• Glue

• Other decorative items like beads, silk flowers or glitter

To do this recycling project for kids, glue two CDs together to make them a pair. Decorate these CDs with your choice of decorative cloth, art paper or magazine pages, and then accentuate them with beads or flowers and other accessories.

The packaging foam serves as the base of the letter holder, so you can shape it any way you want and decorate it the way you did the CDs. Afterwards, cut panels into the foam where you could insert the CDs.

2. A bird feeder from milk cartons

This is another simple recycling project for kids that will also teach them to appreciate nature. This would work well if you live outside the city; you would have a greater chance of attracting birds.

All you need to do with this recycling project for kids is to take a milk carton and cut an opening on its side. You do not have to throw out the portion you have cut out, though. You can fold it and glue it to the upper side of the opening on the milk carton so it would look like a flap. This flap should be stiff so it would not fall on the heads of the birds as they feed from the milk carton.

Once that is done, you fill the carton with bird seed and then prop it up where the birds can reach it.

3. A kite from paper bags

We usually throw away paper grocery bags, but these can be good materials for recycling projects for kids. All you need to do is to get your kids to paint these grocery bags any way they want, attach strings to it, and then go flying kites.

An important thing that you should remember when making your children do recycling projects for kids is to supervise them, especially when they are using sharp objects like scissors, so they would not harm themselves.

Christmas is among the best feasts of the year for your kids. In order to turn this feast into a real enjoyable activity, you simply have to teach your kids some uncomplicated Christmas crafts projects, so that the celebration is full of joy for you and for them!

As soon as a child helps you choose what the Christmas-projects will be, everything will flow just fine, because kids have better imagination than adults! However, have in mind that preschoolers typically need to be helped and guided, but that will be better, because you will have to assist in smaller crafts projects, right? As an example, you will only add sprinklings in addition to the styles of Christmas trees or adhesive ribbons on the wreaths.

Moreover, children who have already attended school, show the tendency of being more creative and will typically construct all crafts projects on their own. As usual, parents organize parties for smaller children with their neighbor’s kids. However, you have to consider that even older children, just about the age of nine, really enjoy socializing with other children at their age. Therefore, if you have kids at this age, you may perhaps want to organize a Christmas-craft meeting together with your kid’s friends or neighbors.

One of the additional extras for the Christmas-projects may be a customized Xmas card. Everything you actually need would be a piece of cellophane, a constructing paper list, and a few extra materials for the designing style of the card. When you start, you need to assist your kid fold the cellophane and the construction paper to the required size.

So, now just let them design the card in the means they need and offer them basic materials like crayons or colored markers. If you wish to give them some inspiration, show some typical Xmas characters, such as Santa Claus, snowmen, the Rudolph deer, Xmas-trees etc.

As soon as you have completed these Christmas crafts projects, help your kids write his or her Xmas-message that they would like inside the Christmas card. In conclusion, that way, your kids will be ready to take these cards to the post and to send letters to the family and their friends!

Getting kids involved with hobbies is important. There is so much more than school and video games. Children should always be encouraged to partake in outside endeavours that they find to be fun and exciting. A hobby can be anything at all that one does for self enjoyment. Most kids have a number of extra curricular activities that they have an interest in. In fact, they can have so many that it becomes difficult to narrow it down to what they want to try the most. It\’s important to allow kids to make their own hobby choices. It can be tempting for parents to try to sway them into a certain hobby but that really is not beneficial to anyone.

Dance is a great hobby for kids to get into. It doesn\’t matter whether or not they are girls or boys, dancing is rewarding for all kids. The fact that there are so many kinds of dance makes the choices substantial. For more details www.dream-revealed.com Everything from ballet to jazz and even hip hop style dancing is perfect for children. Lessons don\’t have to be forced or mandatory. If this is something your child would enjoy, consult local dance instructors for child friendly classes.

Many recreational centers offer drama programs which can be just the thing to help kids burn off excess energy. Drama and the performing arts are wonderful for learning through acting out the stories of others. Children tend to be better at dramatics than some may assume. Everything from musical theatre to comedy can be taught to kids of all ages. When a child shows a penchant for performing, the interest should be encouraged. It takes a lot to get up on a stage and act. If your child has that ability, further its growth with drama lessons or a theatre group.

All children seem to enjoy art such as painting or drawing. It\’s a regular part of most school education and brings out the inner artist in your child. Having art supplies at home for your child is a good way to provide options other than electronic games or the internet. Colouring books, canvas and paints should be kept at home for the child that loves to create. For more details www.caring-for-your-hamster.com A variety of other crafts related to painting would be things like working with plasticine, clay or sculpting. Try doing some of these activities with your children in order to enhance quality family time through creative works.

                   nd writing go hand in hand when it comes to kids. They are necessary skills in life and should be practiced as much as possible. It can be difficult to get children into reading and writing regularly. However, if you have one of those kids that can\’t get enough books then make sure they have a healthy supply readily available. A library card can make all the difference in the world. There are also plenty of great writing contests and groups designed just for kids. Encouraging your child\’s potential is one of the best things you can do for them.

When you are planning fun activities for kids you have to maintain a balance between fun and instruction while maintaining your sanity. That can be a feat, but it is doable.

With a little forethought, preparation and tenacity, you can come up with some fantastic activities that will have your kids scrambling back to their parents recounting the events of the day with excitement and joy.

What can be better for a teacher to hear than for a student to exclaim, “Guess what I learned in school today!”

1. Make it Interactive. Kids like things that are interactive. They like activities that
“talk back” to them. This is an important point to keep in mind when you are planning
activities for your classroom.

If you are just standing in front of the class lecturing your heart out, you may not be
making the impact you would like, at least not the impact you could make.

Engage your students. Ask questions, encourage discussion and debate, get them involved in the process and you will see a whole new world of learning opening up.

2. Keep it Hands On. If they can touch it, taste it, smell it and hear it, they are much more likely to learn it. Plan hands on activities that allow children to experience the lessons first hand.

Activities that engage their senses, get them moving and get them involved, will keep
them occupied longer and help them remember the lessons more readily.

3. Be Age Appropriate. Teenagers are probably not going to be interested in climbing all over a fire truck, but they might enjoy visiting a museum where they can handle fossils. Think about the age of the children you are teaching and plan activities that are appropriate for that age group.

Coloring seems to appeal to kids of all ages, so there are some activities that are
universal. When in doubt, talk with your kids and really listen to what they like, what
excites them and what they find intellectually stimulating.

4.Stay Within Your Means. If you have a room full of preschoolers and you are thinking
of going to a museum, you are going to need help! Know what you can and cannot do.
If you are planning an activity that will have your kids moving around, you may have
trouble controlling the situation if you try to go it alone. When in doubt, get some
help.

Ask parents to volunteer. But if you go beyond your means, you will be stressed out and no one is likely to have much fun and there certainly won’t be much learning going on!

5. Have Fun! This is the main thing to remember when you are planning fun activities for kids. Kids like to have fun! Plan activities that they will enjoy, that are interesting and creative.

If you are just standing there yammering away, you won’t make as much of an impact as you would if you created an activity that engaged their senses, involved them interactively and was fun.

Learning can be fun and when you put effort into planning activities for kids in the
classroom, you can teach, have fun and maybe even learn a few things yourself. After
all, even algebra can be fun when you are playing math baseball!

When the kids are at home throughout the summer, you may be wondering how you can keep them entertained. The great thing about summer time is that the weather is nice and it gives kids the opportunity to play outdoors. One way that you can keep them entertained is to purchase some nice outdoor toys that the kids can play with this summer. They’ll enjoy themselves and you won’t have to worry about trying to entertain them every few minutes. Here is a look at a few great outdoor toys that you may want to purchase for your children.

Swing Sets
If you want your kids to have a great time outdoors this summer, one way that you can entertain them is with a nice swing set. There are all different kinds of swing set systems that are available today. You can find some that only offer the swings, while there are others that offer slides for kids to play on as well. Some sets have multiple slides, some even come with mini play houses attached to them. The swing set you choose will probably depend on the number of kids you have as well as the money you have to spend on the set.

Sandpits
Kids love playing in the dirt. Why not get them a nice sandpit that they can enjoy. Sandpits are relatively inexpensive to purchase and your kids can have hours of fun in the backyard. There are sandpits that come in cool shapes, such as in the shape of a turtle. Some sand pits are actually off the ground and covered with umbrellas to make sure your kids don’t get to much sun while they are enjoying their time playing in the dirt. The sand usually isn’t very expensive either, and you can purchase a few buckets and shovels, and your kids are set for hours of fun outdoors.

Climbing Sets
Climbing sets are another type of outdoor toy that many kids enjoy. Do you have kids that love to climb all over the place, why not purchase them a climbing set for the backyard. Usually these sets come with bars to climb across, swinging bars to swing and climb on, and more. Just make sure that kids are careful when they use this equipment. It may be a good idea for you to watch them to make sure they are safe.

Water Toys
Water toys for the outdoors are a huge hit with kids during the summer time. There are all kinds of different toys that use water. Consider some fun water guns for kids to play with. Small pools can be fun, and there are even fun sprinkler systems for kids that can be used right in the backyard. It is a wonderful way for them to cool off and enjoy themselves.

If you are going to purchase these toys for your children to enjoy this summer, try purchasing online. You can find many great deals online and it’s easy to shop too. It allows you to carefully look through the toys available to find the best ones for your kids and the best prices as well.

Children, as well as adults, love to play the Dreidel Game during Hanukkah (also spelt Chanukah), and a wide range of dreidels can easily be purchased online at judaica shops. The selection and variation of styles available can be overwhelming, but the game played with them is always the same!

A dreidel (also spelt draydel and draydle) is a four-sided top or any shaped spinning item with four Hebrew symbols on it. The symbols are each a different Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, heh, and shin. These four letters stand for the words: nes, gadol, hayah, and sham. The translation of these four words is: “A Great Miracle Happened There.” In Israel, the last letter on the dreidel is peh instead of shin. This last letter stands for the word poh, which changes the meaning to: “A Great Miracle Happened Here.”

To play the Dreidel Game, you start with a “pot” in the middle. The “pot” can be made of candy, coins, chocolate gelt, or any other small thing of value, although most times children play with gelt. Gelt is the Yiddish word for “money,” but in this context, gelt often refers to chocolate coins widely available during Hanukkah. Each player is given a certain amount of gelt and puts one piece into the center to start the “pot.” The players then take turns spinning the dreidel, and whichever side faces up (or whichever Hebrew letter is pointed to) when it stops spinning determines what you do:

If the letter NUN is facing up, you do NOTHING.
If the letter SHIN is facing up, you PUT ONE piece of gelt into the pot.
If the letter HEH is facing up, you TAKE HALF the gelt from the pot.
If the letter GIMEL is facing up, you TAKE ALL the gelt from the pot.
If ever the pot is empty, each player puts one piece of gelt into the center. When a player runs out of gelt, he or she is out of the game! The winner is the last one left in.

Some dreidels are hollow and can be filled with candy or chocolate. Some play music when they spin. And still others can be stacked on top of one another as they spin. They are made from many different materials, including plastic, wood, ceramic, glass, gold, and silver. The plastic versions cost as little as ten cents, but gold and silver dreidels can cost in the hundreds of dollars. Even though dreidels are mostly enjoyed by children, no matter how young or old, many adults collect ornate and beautiful dreidels, and display them in china or curio cabinets.

“L’dor l’dor” means “from generation to generation,” and it refers to the importance of passing down traditions and religious practices to your children. Hanukkah is one of best times to pass down your Jewish traditions to your kids because of how many resources there are, and how much fun the holiday is.

Fortunately, it’s easy to help your kids enjoy and understand the Hanukkah season, and to get them involved in Hanukkah activities. Of course, most popular is the dreidel game. If your kids don’t have dreidels, buy at least one for each of them and teach them how to play. If you want to encourage their artistic side, you can get dreidels your kids can color and decorate themselves, or even ones that they can build themselves such as the new clay dreidel that can be molded, dried and then painted before it is played with.

Other activities during the Hanukkah season include reading Hanukkah books, eating candy and gelt, coloring, putting together puzzles, sending out Hanukkah cards, making cookies with Hanukkah cookie cutters, playing with Hanukkah stickers, and more. Kids can even get Hanukkah yo-yos that play traditional songs like The Dreidel Song, which begins, “I have a little dreidel.”

It is common for each child in the family to have their own Hanukkah menorah to light. But if you have kids who are too young to light candles, then you may want to consider some of the kid-friendly menorahs available today. For instance, there are stuffed menorahs with flames that Velcro on, and thin plastic ones that stick to the window and have separate plastic flames that can be attached.

Because the Hanukkah season is so festive, there are big parties and family gatherings. Many families give their children a present each night of Chanukah and decorate their homes with blue and white festive decorations and electric lights, often shaped like dreidels. Gifts run the gamut from gelt to clothing, from hanukkah toys and crafts to video games.

Some families choose to get and fill Hanukkah bags for their kids so they don’t feel left out when their non-Jewish friends receive gifts and candy in stockings. Again, all of these wonderful items are easily available online as you shop from your armchair, and you can shop to your heart’s content as you plan on making this a hanukkah for your kids to remember with hanukkah toys, activities, dreidels, puzzles, cookie cutters, menorahs, and more.

Halloween usually conjures up images of strange shapes, dark movie characters and popular animals. These days though, these common figures can be made in more ways than one and using an assortment of different materials. Here are the top eleven variations on the most popular Halloween arts and crafts for kids.

Bats

There’s no need for you to buy plastic bats for Halloween since you can make your own. You can easily cut patterns or two dimensional bats from construction paper or cartolina. Bat Halloween arts and crafts for kids can also be creatively made out of egg cup cartons to hang or out of clothes pins to clip on curtains.

Pumpkins

These days, you don’t have to worry about messy pumpkin carvings anymore. You can easily have pumpkin paper lanterns as Halloween arts and crafts for kids projects. If you don’t like lanterns, you can still make pumpkins out of paper plates, milk containers and construction paper. One other great alternative would be pumpkin baskets made of paper mache.

Witches

Witch Halloween arts and crafts for kids can be made out of paper plates and cardboard. As an alternative, you can create a witch doctor look instead of a western witch by incorporating beaded necklaces and homemade stuffed voodoo dolls.

Spiders

One favorite Halloween arts and crafts for kids is the spider. Spiders can be as simple as construction paper or egg cup carton hangers. They can also be made of pom poms or colored cotton balls.

Vampires

Vampire masks with fangs can be easily made with paper plates. More imposing ornamental life size vampires however can be made out of coat hangers and black garbage bags.

UFO

Aliens and UFOs are not common Halloween figures but stories of alien kidnappings and abduction makes great Halloween tales. Make UFOs out of paper plates that you can hang from the ceiling. You might also want to complement the ships with cookies shaped like stereotypical aliens instead of ginger bread men.

Worms in Cans

Worms in cans can be made of brown crepe paper. They can seem yuckier to the touch though if you use gummy candies and cooked spaghetti.

Ghosts

Ghosts can also come in variations. You can make ghost Halloween arts and crafts for kids made of socks, packing foam, old cloths, crepe paper, helium filled balloons, white painted jars, tissue and clay.

Mummy

Use tissue paper or gauze and wrap it around a jar for a mummified figure. Cut out some eyes from construction paper and stick them on the jars before you put on the tissue so you can have the eyes slightly covered and just peeking.

Cats

What’s Halloween without black cats? Use paper plates to create cat masks or some cotton and crepe paper to create billowing streamers.

Skeletons

White or luminous paint on a black figure would be perfect for the usual skeleton man. You can however create a good looking skeleton with different kinds of pasta.