Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in kansas city, KS

Easter fun at home - and it's green!

by Jenny Meade

April 07, 2009

 For little kids, the topic of the horrific death of a man they are taught to adore in the form of a baby only four months earlier is perhaps a bit much to explain - the stuff of nightmares, one would think.  Which is probably why most parents choose to spend more time focused on the egg hunts and pastel colored eggs and the rabbits made of chocolate.  So, here's a couple of fun things to do at home besides break out the vinegar and food coloring tablets.

• arrange jelly beans in a clear jar and see who can count how many beans are in the jar. Then dump them out and count them for real, and give a prize to whomever was closest.
• draw a bunny face onto a white paper plate, then staple ears to the top and have your child glue on cotton balls and color in wherever they want.
• put dried beans or pennies inside a couple of plastic eggs and shake them like maracas!

 And what about after the holiday is over? What to do with those egg shells after you've peeled and eaten your yummy hard boiled eggs?

• Keep a bowl ready by the side of the sink to collect the egg shells and let them dry, instead of throwing them away or pushing them down the disposal.  Once you have a good sized pile, use a wooden spoon to mash and grind them into smaller bits.  Then sprinkle them in the garden - egg shells make good nutrients for the soil.
• Re-use the empty egg carton to collect and store plastic eggs for next year's egg hunt.  You can also use egg cartons to hold extra golf balls, or even help daddy organize all those little screws and nails in his toolbox.  You can also use them later for mixing paint colors.
• Have little girls? Decorate the egg carton with paper, stickers and markers and turn it into a little jewelry and keepsake box. 
• Boys collect things too - like paper clips and bottle caps. (Don't ask my why, they just do.) Those things fit nicely into egg cartons, as well.

For more fun and crafty Easter ideas, check out some printable coloring pages and more from our friends at Family Education.

Making Great Music Together.

by Jenny Meade

March 02, 2009

Remember when your little ones would sit on the kitchen floor and be entertained with wooden spoons and pots and pans to bang on? If you could stand it, they'd sit there endlessly banging and drumming and making noises without any type of real musical instrument - just found items in your cupboards.  And then you probably discovered that wooden spoons on tupperware makes an interesting and satisfying noise, too, and not nearly so hard on your own shredded nerves at that giant copper soup pot.

 It's still easy to make music at home with your kids. And it doesn't have to be much more sophisticated than banging on pots, either.  Here's a few ideas for musical instruments you can make at home.

Fill an empty plastic water bottle with dried black eyed peas. Add a tiny bit of glue to the screw tracks of the lid before you put it back on, then you'll know it will stay sealed and you won't have beans flying allover the house.  You can do the same with a small butter tub, and even a paper envelope to get different tones and pitches.  You can use an empty paper towel role and tape the ends with duct tape. A Pringles can makes a great noise, too. And for an clangier pitch, you can put some beans in an aluminum can, just be sure to put duct tape over the top so no little fingers get sliced on the mouthpiece.  Then just shake away!

Christmas ornaments, and contests!

by Jenny Meade

December 04, 2008

As a child, one of my favorite things to do to mark the onset of the holidays was a family gathering at our church where we made Christmas tree ornaments with yarn and pipecleaners and glitter and glue. Christmas decorations seem to have become much more sophisticated since those days, but it's still fun to sit down with your little ones and make crafty Christmas memories  Read more...