All ABOUT KID'S ACTIVITIES

Kids' Art Activities

In this world of technology, kids are easily attracted to gadgets and gizmos, which is sure to turn them into technogeeks. However, we must strive to incorporate conventional art activities into their curriculum, because such activities enhance their creativity. Activities with modeling clay, paper, paints, beads, etc., help them develop their creativity skills. Let's have a look at the different art activities you can carry out with your kids.

Easy Easter Craft Ideas for Kids

Want to keep your child busy this Easter holidays? Then do try these simple craft ideas that are sure to keep your little one busy and make him/her very happy.

With Easter around the corner, your kid will surely be excited about painting those Easter eggs. Easter can be lots of fun for kids as it is a great time to try out their craft skills with some simple kids' craft ideas. Making those cute paper bunnies and colorful eggs can keep the children busy and engaged.

Apart from the usual dyeing the egg with a store-bought kit, look for some innovative, yet simple, Easter craft ideas. You do not need to spend a lot on store kits. Simple craft items easily available at home, such as buttons or permanent markers, can help your child create some really cute and fun crafts. These can be used as decoration, and the whole family can join in to make the activity thoroughly enjoyable. If you plan to spend your days leading up to Easter creating something fun and cute with your kid, then here are some simple and easy Easter craft ideas that are sure to keep him/her hooked.

10 Simple Easter Crafts for Kids

Easter Basket Decoration

Felt Easter Basket

Whether you want to store colorful Easter eggs or enjoy the Easter egg hunts, you would definitely need an Easter basket. The materials include a woven basket, lime-green construction paper, green and pink felt, scissors, and craft glue.

★ Cover a woven basket in lime-green construction paper.
★ Using scissors, cut out the top half of two long green felt strips to resemble grass.
★ Glue them on the outside and inside of the basket. Cover the bottom of the basket with felt as well.
★ Cut out small pink felt flowers, and place them underneath the grass strips to create a beautiful, nature-inspired festive Easter basket.
★ To create the basket handle, cut a 1-by-20-inch strip of felt. Attach it on the inner wall of the basket. If the basket has a handle, then cover it with green felt.

Colorful Easter Egg Bunnies

Colorful Easter Egg Bunnies

Egg decoration is probably the most important activity of Easter. Along with dyeing the eggs in various colors, you can create wonderful patterns and even decorate and transform your Easter eggs into cute colorful bunnies. This craft activity is not only fun and bright, but also simple enough for your toddler.

★ For dyeing the eggs, you need hard-boiled eggs, food color, water, vinegar, a deep bowl, and tongs. Fill the bowl with the mixture of water, vinegar, and food color. Using tongs, dip the egg into the mixture, and leave it to dry for twenty minutes, to get a brighter hue.
★ Allow the eggs to dry before painting some colorful polka dots. Use black paint for the eyes and mouth of your egg bunny.
★ Cut two rabbit ears of colorful art foam. Glue the ears to eggs in a "V" shape with the pointed end up and inner ears facing forward.

Funny Easter Egg Faces

Funny Egg Faces

Why stick to the traditional and boring colored Easter eggs. Add a fun element by drawing funny faces on the eggs instead. This is so creative and easy that your child is bound to have fun.

★ For this, you will need painted hard-boiled eggs and a black permanent marker.
★ Once the eggs are boiled and cool enough, paint them in different colors.
★ Hold them with the pointed end downwards and draw some fun cartoon faces.

Button Easter Egg

Button Easter Egg

To make this simple Easter craft, you need buttons in various shapes and sizes, a piece of lace, three small paper roses, a lace bow, craft glue, scissors, and a textured board.

★ Trace an egg shape on a cardboard, and let your child stick buttons on it.
★ Cut out a piece of lace, and stick it to the bottom of the cardboard. Paste the bow on top.
★ Glue the paper flowers to the sides of the button egg.

Paper Eggs on a Line

Paper Eggs Garland

This simple paper craft for Easter looks bright and wonderful. Decorate the child's room with a wonderful Easter eggs garland.

★ Cut out egg shapes from white construction paper.
★ Allow your child to color the eggs the way he/she chooses.
★ Make tiny holes at the top, and string them into a cheery garland for some great Easter decoration.

Eggshell Candles

Eggshell Candles

This has got to be one of the most creative and fun craft ideas that can be used to light up your Easter table. You will need some eggs, a needle, food color, and small votive candles.

★ Using the needle make a hole at the top of each egg.
★ Enlarge the holes, and pour out the yolks. Remove one-third of the shell from the top, and clean the shells well.
★ Dye the shells with food color. Place the colored shells in a carton.
★ Place the votive candles in the shell to make this innovative eggshell candle for Easter.

Egg Bunny Stands

Bunny Stands

Decorate your house with some easy to make egg bunny stands. For this, you will need some eggs, sticker eyes, some black wool, and thick brown and green card stock.

★ Cut out the bunny's ears from brown card stock. Cut small strips of black wool for the bunny's whiskers. Glue these onto the eggs, and add sticker eyes to make the eggs look like bunnies.
★ To make the stand, take a rectangular brown paper.
★ Roll and glue one end. Cut out long strips of green paper, and stick them to the sides of the roll.
★ Place the bunnies on the roll as shown above.

Felt Bunnies

Felt Bunnies

Let your child create these useful and decorative felt Easter bunny stands. For this, you will need large brown or purple felt strips, small white, red, and black felt strips, scissors, and glue.

★ Cut out a long rectangular strip of brown felt.
★ Fold it in half and roll it. Glue the ends of the roll together.
★ Cut out the pointed bunny-shaped ears, and stick them on the top of the roll or stand.
★ Cut out one large, round white face and two small round black felt eyes. Glue the white face on the stand and attach the eyes.
★ Cut out a small triangular red mouth and attach it to the face of the bunny.
★ Cut out four small strips of brown felt, and use them as whiskers for the bunny.
★ Cut out small white paws, and attach them at the bottom to complete the bunny stand.

Marbled Eggs

Marbled Eggs

Marbled eggs are very popular during Easter. They are as simple to create as dyed eggs. For this, you will need hard-boiled eggs, two to three types of food colors, a large bowl, warm water, olive oil, and vinegar.

★ Dye the eggs in a light base color.
★ Prepare the marbling mixture by using a contrasting color or a darker shade of the base color.
★ In a large bowl, pour 2 cups of warm water; add the food color of your choice, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Stir the oily liquid to create a swirling pattern.
★ Hold the dyed egg in a pair of tongs or a spoon, and roll the egg in the oily mixture once, to pick up the oil streaks.
★ Pat the excess liquid with a paper towel, and leave the marbled egg to dry. Try different color combinations for different eggs.

Origami Easter Bunnies

Origami Bunnies

An origami bunny is something that even a preschooler can make. All you need for this craft are some bright-colored construction papers. The image below provides step-by-step instructions to create origami paper bunnies at home.

Paper Bunny

From bunnies to eggs, these craft ideas will surely keep the children happy and busy this Easter.

Activities for Two-year-olds
Children at the age of two are always imitating and following you around. Toddlers love to be involved in interactive activities that stimulate their sense of sight, smell, hearing, and touch. Let's take a look at various activities that you can carry out at home. 

Many shun away from educational activities simply because it seems like we're putting too much pressure on our kids to learn, perform, and excel. However, while putting undue pressure on a child is not right, it's also important to understand that toddlers are eager-to-learn, curious individuals, abounding with energy. They love exploring and learning, simply because their minds are like dry sponges waiting to absorb the information around them.

When toddlers are left idle, they often get into one of their destructive moods. They look for things they shouldn't be touching or pick up bad habits. All this, not because they want to be destructive, but because they don't know what to do with their time and energy. Our role is to direct their energies positively and constructively. Learning colors, body parts, or even the alphabet, or numbers is fun if you don't make it something they have to do. Learning becomes a pain only when you are forced to learn. Give your child enough freedom and he will surprise you!

Activities that teach the 'ABC'


A toddler that has just turned two may take a while before he or she can recognize the alphabet, although many are able to recite them. Identifying the alphabets wherever you come across them, such as in books, newspapers, food cartons, etc., will help make the concept more familiar. Let's take a look at some activities of how you can help your toddler learn the alphabet, and at the same time keep him occupied.

Texture Book

While you get texture books at the book store, how about making one of your own. Create an alphabet texture book. Use different materials like cotton balls, felt, wool, etc., to make large-sized alphabets, then stick them on the pages of a book. This will not only allow your toddler to touch and feel various textures, but will also encourage him to feel the pattern of the alphabet. Gradually, as your toddler flips the pages of the book, he will begin to recognize different alphabets. He will learn how each alphabet has a particular pattern. You can also paste pictures of words beginning with A and other alphabets respectively, so as to help your child connect the alphabet with actual objects.

Letter Matching

You can have large cut-outs of the alphabet pasted onto blank squares of construction paper. Have another set of cut-outs (the same size as that of the previous set) made and hand them to your toddler. Help your toddler place the A cut-out on top of the paper with A. This may take time for your toddler to perfect, but eventually you will find that your toddler has picked up certain alphabets over others, identifies them, and is able to match them. You can also use foam alphabet cut-outs for this activity.


Activities that teach 'Numbers'


It's not about teaching 1-9, but it's about introducing the concept of numbers. Never use a single activity to introduce numbers (or any concept), because that's when numbers become boring. If you look around we're surrounded by numbers. When you get into the elevator, point out to the numbers. Count the birds by your window sill or count the cookies before giving it to him. When you narrate a story, include numbers like two monkeys, three apples, etc. Count fingers or even buttons on the shirt.

Stepping Number Game

Take large sheets of construction paper and cut out large squares sufficient enough to hold your two feet. Paste a cut-out of the number one on the square. Prepare two of these, one for you and one for your toddler. Make similar number squares till the number 9. Then play the stepping game. Arrange the numbered squares in a line across the room. Tape the sheets to the floor so they remain in place. Step on your #1 square and ask your toddler to do the same, then jump to the next number. Your toddler may seem hesitant initially, but will eventually love the game. Moreover, he will soon be introduced to basic numbers.

Gluing Activity

Toddlers love to work with glue, so how about using a gluing activity to teach numbers. Get a few magazines and cut out different objects that will attract your child. For this activity you also need a blank book and a marker. Write the number in large font on one page and stick one item on the other page. Stick two items on the next page, corresponding to two. You could also stick shapes like three circles to teach shapes with the same book. Have your toddler apply glue and paste the picture in the book. Your toddler will enjoy the book he helped bring together.


Activities that teach 'Colors'


Just like numbers, colors are all around us, so keep pointing out to colors across the room. While teaching colors it's important to go one step at a time. Introduce one color at a time, and allow an interval of a couple of days between different colors. This will allow your toddler to comprehend, and will also allow him to retain better.

Color Tray

Gather together items of a particular color and place them in a tray. Choose items that your child is familiar with, so that he knows you're talking about the color that is common to all items. For example, get his red car, red crayon, red shirt, red block, etc. You can also include tomatoes, strawberries, roses, etc. Don't go out of the way to get these items. Just look around the house and get hold of items that your child plays with on and off. Once you show him the color tray, pick an item and say 'Red Car', and similarly with the other items. Allow him to play with the items and don't push him to learn. A child may or may not be interested in the color at the moment, but as you introduce the trays over the next few weeks, the child will begin to associate colors. To supplement your activity, every time you pass a toy, just name the color. This will help build the necessary link.

Color Separators

Gather old Pringles cans and wrap them with different colors of paper. Write the names of their respective colors in bold. Although your toddler cannot read, he's actually getting exposed to more of the alphabet. Place the wrapped cans besides each other. Place a tray of colored blocks and ask your toddler to drop the block into its respective can. This will take a while for your toddler to master, however, it's an activity that will reap fruit. Just be patient, and don't fret when he messes up the colors or even looks baffled the first time you introduce this activity. Eventually, your toddler will learn to differentiate the colors. Instead of blocks you can use colored pom-poms, tiny balls, etc. You can even add food coloring to spaghetti or pasta and ask your child to sort them into respective colored bowls.


Story Time Activities


Story time is an important part of child development, because it stimulates the child's creativity. It also keeps them occupied and intrigued for longer. While reading out stories from books is an all-time favorite bedtime activity, you can make it a day time activity by incorporating simple activities into it.

Toy Animals

Build a story around your toddler's favorite animals. Create conversations between the animals, give them make-belief food, and even put them to sleep. Toddlers are fascinated with animals, and when we give them character and dialogs, there's nothing like it. Bring out the toy cars, trucks, and wagons, and give the animals a ride. Usually, your toddler will tell you which animals he or she wants in the story, and will often provide the necessary direction. Just play along. From this story time, a toddler learns the names of animals, learns to connect, learns to be creative, imaginative, etc.

Vegetable and Fruit Fun

Take a few vegetables and fruits and draw eyes, nose, and mouth for each of them. If possible give them some kind of clothing using old pair of socks, etc. Create a story of your own by imagining what Mr. Cucumber said to Mrs. Cabbage, and how baby turnip was rescued by strong and masculine pumpkin man. This activity not only teaches kids about different vegetables, but also enhances their creativity.


Activities that teach 'Shapes'

Again, we're surrounded by all kinds of shapes. In fact, every tactile object has a shape, so keep showing them to your kids. Pointing out to circular plates, square boxes, rectangular books, triangular pizza slices, etc., are wonderful ways to introduce shapes. However, simple activities will make the concept easier to comprehend.

Bread Shapes

Get out those cookie cutters and cut out different shapes from slices of bread. Your toddler will love watching you cut out a circle, square, etc. Eventually, your kid will have a shape he likes and will ask you for that particular shape. Apply peanut butter or any other topping and serve it while proclaiming the shape. You can also use pancake batter to prepare different shapes of pancakes using cookie cutters as molds.

Play Dough Shapes

You can either buy play dough or prepare your own at home. Play dough is colorful and malleable, which is why they are loved by kids. You can use play dough tools to cut out the shapes. Your toddler will enjoy making the shapes on his own. While you are at it, you can also teach colors. Give the shapes eyes and nose to make them more fun and appealing. You can also make shapes of different sizes and teach the concept of size.


Food Activities

Toddlers have an innate desire to cook, especially because they see you spending such a lot of time doing it. While most of our toddlers have managed to mash their fingers into a banana or smear peanut butter and jelly all over themselves, there are some other activities that will not only introduce them to other foods, but will also keep them occupied.

Food Ripping Fun

Toddlers love to tear stuff, so how about giving them some lettuce or cabbage leaves to rip apart. In the process if they put some in their mouth, there's no worry. Toddlers also love to dip them fingers in water, so you could provide a bowl of water in which they can wash their lettuce before they tear them. This will keep them occupied for longer.

Pouring Colored Liquids

Toddlers love to pour and transfer (more like they love to spill!). Fill a few transparent beakers (non-breakable) with different liquids like one with orange glucose powder, another with watermelon juice, another with carrot juice, etc., and give them to your toddler. Hand him measuring cups (the ones used for baking), some spoons, a large bowl, and a few glasses. Let him play as he pleases. Name the different colors and allow him to have a ball just pouring and mixing the liquids.

Two-year-olds want something new all the time (unless they specifically ask for repetition). They love driving you nuts by asking you to repeat the same story or nursery rhyme over 50 times. But it's their call. If they like an activity, repeat it, but if they dislike it, don't push. If they're neutral, try the activity without being pushy and gage their response. Toddlers hate being pushed around, so make sure you aren't pushy. Learning must be fun and voluntary. If your child wishes to learn animal names over the alphabet, then amen to that! Toddlers are learning on a daily, minute-by-minute basis, so don't get too worried. Our job is to keep them occupied with different fun and interactive activities―what they learn from that is purely up to them. In fact, if you look at any activity closely, you can learn a lot from it, because each one involves numbers, shapes, colors, etc.

Hobbies for Kids
Kids are known to have several interests and high energy levels. If at such times they do not have the right activities, they will resort to destructive measures. So, let's check out some hobbies for kids.

Children are born with a natural and primal interest in everything. However, depending on genetics and general nature patterns, they are bound to find certain activities more interesting than others. As such, hobbies for little kids is a great way to keep them focused and busy.

In fact, good hobbies have shown heightened academic acumen, as well as general knowledge level. Certain really cool hobbies, can help them increase their interpersonal skills and general personality development. Most importantly, hobbies can add a great deal of value to their time and energy.

Understanding Your Kid
It is necessary to understand your child. Parents must talk to the kids at all times, and question and understand the things that influence their kids.

Most of the parents, at times, see their personal unaccomplished interests through their children and become distressed when the kids are passive towards it. You should respect the individuality of kids, and support and appreciate them righteously in all their interests.

Good Hobbies for Children

Reading

Reading is a must for all age groups. Reading is often viewed as monotonous, but what one needs to understand is that reading is a learning experience and is a major factor in shaping your child's life. Instill the habit of reading in your children at an early age and they will thank you for it eventually.

There are plenty of books that can cater to the child's varied interests. If disinterested at first, give them books with a lot of graphical representations. Some all-time favorite books to start off with are:

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Enid Blyton Series
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The Adventures of Tintin (Now a major movie)
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Asterix and Obelix (Also a movie)
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Marvel Comics (Now a major movie franchise)
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Archie Comics (Movie - Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again )
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Hardy Boys (TV series and movie)
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Adventures of the Famous Five (Part of the Enid Blyton series)
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Nancy Drew (Popular movie in 2007, collaborated with the Hardy Boys for a particular TV series and was called The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: Double Whammy!)
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Now a major movie)
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Agatha Christie (Movies and video game series)
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Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha (Famous mythological and folk tales of India)

Stamp Collection

Stamp collection is great at improving the kid's association skills and memory. In fact, it is also great to improve their general geography-based knowledge. So, they will learn how to associate certain symbols or colors with certain countries. They will remember country names better, as well as their currency, to a certain extent.

Coin Collection

Coin collection is great to understand the fact that different countries have different currencies. This hobby can really make the kid conscious of the value for money and its importance. This hobby is great to imbibe the habit of economizing and saving in the kid, from an early age and also to keep him away from frivolous fascinations.

These hobbies are also great to make them more responsible, as they need to keep and maintain their collections. Parents need to know, that if they (the parents) take over that responsibility, the end result expected from the hobby may not be achieved.

Cool Hobbies for Children

Some hobbies are simply a great way to make them more social.

Balloon Twisting

You can give your child balloon twisting instructions, let him practice for a certain amount of time every day. This will give him a sense of accomplishment and the occasional balloon bursting will make him see the existence of failure. This will make him more secure within himself and give him strength to face the world. More so, there will be great improvement in the kid's dexterity and focus.

Music

Let the kid learn how to play a musical instrument. This will give him an added advantage in his age circle. It will add a talent to his kitty and also add a great deal of confidence to his personality. Music has its way of calming down an individual; hence, this hobby will help reduce the aggressiveness in the kid and give him something to do in his free time. I don't think I need to add that music in itself is enticing enough to teach him focus, concentration and determination.

Model Building

Creative games like Lego and Mechanix unleash the technical creativity in a child and is a fascinating hobby. They can also experiment with making makeshift models of buildings, ships, planes and vehicles.

Origami

This ancient Japanese craft reflects patience and is a great way to hone the child's skills in design and engineering paper crafts. A little complicated at first, Origami is very catchy and grows on you.

These hobbies will require them to be by themselves for some time. Parents need to bear in mind that, they will need their space to get better at this skill.

Fun Hobbies for Your Kids

Some hobbies seem to have no specific positive impact on the kids; time to rethink that!

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is a great hobby to build a creative side in the kid. It will teach them to analyze the importance of incidences and people. More so, it will give them a sense of reflection. Scrapbooking requires skill and patience, both of which are great if imbibed at an early age in the kid.

Drawing and Coloring

Drawing and coloring pages have been known to help improve the creativity in the child. It helps in improving their concentration and association skills. More so, they will learn how to express themselves freely. These hobbies are great to improve the kid's general understanding of things.

These hobbies will require your supervision in the beginning. However, you need to let them take it from there. Occasional discussion of these hobbies will allow the parents to understand the kids better. Hobbies should also, at times, be done with company around, as competitiveness brings out the best in your child.

Other common hobbies to be practiced under supervision include:
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Photography
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Candle making
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Woodwork
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Cooking
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Sewing
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Doll making
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Gardening
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Trekking
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Fishing

All in all, if kids develop useful hobbies, it'll help them pass their time nicely. It'll help their growth and development in an amazing way. I also urge parents to put a personal effort into it by participating with the kids in their hobbies at regular intervals as it goes a long way. So, this is where I sign off. Have fun with your kids.

Fingerprint Art Activities for Children
As parents, we always seek to open new avenues for our children to learn from. Painting is one such way of putting imagination to creative use. One of the simplest forms of painting is finger-painting, which uses nothing more than paint and your hands. There are no other tools required! Let's take a look at some of the easiest fingerprint art activities that children can do.

A child's curiosity is his biggest teacher. It is the way in which this curiosity gets channelized and answered that determines the lessons learned. A great deal of effort and creative outlook goes into raising children with an independent thought process. One way of keeping children creatively occupied and making them think out of the box is through simple art activities.

The interesting thing about art is that it is universal in the mundane. If you ever take a look at the simplest of art activities, all it truly involves is your imagination! Through this article, we are going to explore different ways in which you can make fingerprint art activities for children enjoyable. All you need here is your fingers, toes, and ample of paint. So let's get started in discovering the joy of simplicity.

Fingerprint Art Ideas

Fingerprint Family
Family Fingerprint
The fingerprint family idea is a great way of letting kids express their familial relationships. To make this painting, pick a different color for all the family members. Take your child's fingers and make as many impressions as that of family members. Now, make impressions for the faces too, with varying skin colors to resemble your family members. Once the colors are dry, take a pen and complete the thumb figures with details of their clothes, accessories, facial expressions, and features. Of course, do not forget to draw your darling pet too in the picture!

Fingerprint Garden
Garden Fingerprint
Early school-goers learn about basic and popular flowers in a garden. Use this opportunity to include some subtle learning through your painting class this time. Make a flower garden with finger-painting. Make use of all the flower colors, and finish the remaining touches with a pen. Keep turning your thumb sideways to make the petals. And to give your flowers some definition, outline them with contrast crayons.

Fingerprint Pillowcases
Pillowcase Fingerprint
This activity will require a little tact and planning. You will need to use fabric paint as opposed to regular paint. Think of your design beforehand so that you don't spoil the pillowcase. A great fingerprint pillowcase idea is―let your children dip their hands in different color paints, and leave their hand impressions on the pillowcase. Below each pair, let them write their names, with a sweet message for their parents.

Fingerprint Bookmarks
Bookmarks Fingerprint
It is no easy task getting children into the habit of reading books. But here's a tip that could work. Give them an incentive to read books using creative fingerprint bookmarks, which they themselves have made. All you need are strips of paper, different color ribbons, and paint. Let them paint the bookmarks with flowers, figures, caterpillars, and other such objects, as long as these little creations serve as a motivating factor for them to read books.

Fingerprint Invitation Cards
The old school system of mail is long gone. But, here's how you can revive it, and actually post custom-made invitation cards to your friends and family. Fingerprint invitation cards are a constructive way of putting your child's holidays to use. Pick an occasion for which you will be making the invitation cards. You can make assorted designs or go completely abstract to make your colorful invitation cards with just the power of your fingers.

Fingerprint Objects
There are several other fingerprint objects which one can make. The real trick lies in twisting your fingers at various degrees, and finishing the drawings with a few details. Some simple objects which you can create are:

Trains
Bookworms
Butterflies
Hearts
Flowers
Bees
Peacocks
Snowmen
Trees
Animals
Rainbows
Watercrafts

Give your little artist a palette, wet cloth, supply of clean water, ample of paint bottles (as you can trust children to dip colored fingers in bottles without much consideration), and most importantly, participate with them as they create their masterpieces. Let the main aim of this activity be enjoyment, instead of planned creation. After all, having fun is the best way of learning something new.