recycle the recycle..upcycle

We have a busy household with a active 3yr old, keeping him occupied and busy while I get some work done takes some planning. I'm forever collecting bottle caps, egg cartoons,cans and packing material for future use.  So for this project a covered a few big boxed with white paper and let my son use his imagination.

Supplies:
Egg cartoons
Bottle caps and bottles
Soda cans
Kitchen towel rolls
Glue
Finger paint
Tape
Cereal box or any other kind of packing material
Use anything you have at home (thats the whole idea)

I covered a few big boxes with white paper and helped my son(Aarav) tape a  few pieces together. What started as a car quickly turned into a robot, with a little imagination and lot of glue Aarav was ready to color his robot. Soon the robot had a name..Mr.Memorybot. Aarav took his time to color it with his fingers and paint brush.


It was hours of fun, you can never go wrong with glue, color and boxes(give it a try)

Tips:
Start a conversation of what you are trying to make, before you start joining the pieces, get the kid(s) excited.
Go with the flow, let them use their imagination
Make it fun, add color or sparkles like their favorite color.

Tips for first play date

Some easy tips for planning your first play date:

• Talk to your child about calling his friends over, specially about sharing his toys
• Its Ok to hide a few of his favorite toys if he is not comfortable sharing them all with friends
• Plan in advance how long will the date last, activity or theme arrangements
• If the kids will be dropped off or will the parents stay with the kids 
• Some kid friendly snacks like popcorn's, cookies, juice etc.  also for the moms some snacks like coffee and sandwiches.
• If its your first time hosting a play date keep it simple and make the house rules clear to the kids. 
• Its a good idea to have kids of same age group so they can enjoy the play-date together
• If possible inform the parents in advance about the play-date  theme or what activities you have planned for the kids.
• Be ready to play with the kids even when sitting and chatting with the moms seems like a good idea. kids love the interaction.
• While babies love to play side by side, toddlers love simple crafts, keep some time aside for singing and going silly.
• Kids will fight or cry, be ready to play referee
• Invite  the group to another play-date, or you can rotate houses.

Irish Bat (Egg carton Bat)

This St.Patty week I saw a little too much of green. I had seen these egg carton bats at Halloween and decided to make a this green inspired bat. Its simple and a great craft project on a budget.

Supplies:
Egg carton (cardboard)
green paint (fingerpaint or any other kind)
google eyes
green pipecleaner
glue and scissor


Cut the egg carton into four parts each with 3 egg cartons as we made four bats.

For each bat cut the side shells to make it look like bat wings( keep them little pointy) repeat on the back side too.

Paint the egg carton green , by son loved to use finger paint and get messy, when its dry add google eyes or use black markers to make eyes.

Use scissors to make hole on the middle section joining the egg cartons, insert the green pipecleaners and join the pipes by twisting the ends, makes it easy to hang around the house.

Tips:
If green is not your color paint the bats black, you can also go creative with color.
Its a good time to talk to your kids about bats and share some interesting facts like they hang upside down or they come out in the night, what kids of food they eat.