Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Little House in the Big Woods ~ A Mini Adventure

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Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the 
Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.

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Thus begins Little House in the Big Woods, the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series.It was one of my favorite book series growing up (and still is). My mom read them, I read them, and now I’m reading them out loud to my girls.

It was love at first sentence for the girls and I’m so happy that they are falling in love with Laura and Mary.

Thanks to the popularity of the books over the years, most of the Laura Ingalls Wilder home sites have been restored.Museums have been built, bits of pioneer life have been preserved, and you can have a first hand look at what life may have been like.

Living in Minnesota, we are very fortunate to live very close to a few of the Laura Ingalls Wilder home sites.

Over the 4th of July weekend this year, we took a camping trip and combined it with a trip to see Laura’s birthplace and the site of Little House in the Big Woods.

I promised the girls this trip as soon as we finished reading Little House in the Big Woods.

Then came the planning – a camping trip to the shores of Lake Pepin and a day trip over to Pepin, Wisconsin to see the Little House.

We had such a great time filled with s’mores, lake swimming, a fireworks show, and of course, Laura.

The house you see is not the original Little House. The original didn’t survive all these years nor did the Big Woods.

In the 1970’s the town of Pepin took great pains to rebuild the house almost exactly as it was when Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa, and baby Carrie lived there.

Then they created a charming roadside park around it with picnic tables, trees, and lots of shade. We picnicked there and spent a very pleasant time exploring and taking pictures that afternoon.

The Big Woods are also gone and in it’s place are corn fields. The rolling hills are still there and the landscape is still simple and beautiful.

My daughters immediately left the present time, and flew back to pioneer time.

You see, every few days, Lizzie, age 6, tells me, “if Laura were still alive, she and I would be friends.” Yes, I’m sure they would.

She played with Laura that day. They climbed into trees, ran around, and explored the house together.

The house was incredibly tiny. It’s hard to believe a family of 5 could live there. But, they did, and they were happy. Sometimes I believe we think we need more space than we actually do.

The town of Pepin has also erected a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. We spent a small amount of time there as it is currently undergoing a major renovation. The renovation is set to be completed in the fall of 2013.

The museum was nice, but to me, the true gem was the home site. It was so easy to close your eyes and envision the Big Woods. Suddenly you’re hearing the crack of an ax and a few girlish giggles. The wind blows through your hair and your senses awaken. I can see why they loved this place. I really can.

We do projects all the time to bring a book to life, but it’s not too often that you can travel to the place where a book took place. We were very lucky to have this opportunity and snatched it up. It wasn’t the trip of a lifetime, but it was a perfect mini-adventure and a trip back in time to see the Ingalls family.

More more information about the Laura Ingalls Wilder home site at Pepin, WI, please click here.

Kids and Boredom

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“Mommy”
“Yes, dear.”
“I’m bo-ored”
“That’s nice”
*Insert pout face here*
“Well why don’t you do something about it.
I’m not going to fix it for you.”
At this point they walk away… and 5 minutes later they are happily playing.

Do you hear “I’m bored” a lot?

I know I do, and I know it’s especially bad when my kids add an extra syllable to bored.

I know they want me to find something fun for them to do. And sometimes I will. We may play a game, read a book, or do a craft.

But often the conversation plays out exactly as I’ve written. What is your typical response to “I’m bored”?

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Quote from Slow Family Living: Boredom; the Gateway to New Ideas

I hear all the time of parents that are afraid to let their kids get bored. They’re afraid they may cause trouble, become a couch potato, or any number of “bad” things. So, they fill their kids’ days with lessons, enriching activities, or just flat out entertain them all day long. It sounds exhausting and it is exhausting.

Truthfully, I can’t really blame any of us parents for trying. Because that’s what we’re doing… we’re trying. Trying to give our kids wonderful experiences. Trying to make sure we give our kids plenty of quality parent time. All of that is good.

But, what we’re forgetting is to let them be bored.

Let them be bored.You’ll be amazed at what they will create.

My girls have made an elaborate dinosaur nest complete with Barbie babysitter, and they played with it for hours. They’ve become superheroes, mermaids, and princesses. The stories they create are amazing.

Sometimes they’ll just work puzzles, color, or look at books. But, they came up with the idea on their own. I didn’t tell them what to do.

As I was writing this post, my girls took all their little Lego people on a camping trip, complete with lots of giggles and extreme Lego sports. We were happily coexisting that afternoon. I had pen to notebook and they had their imaginations.

 

The dinosaur nest with Barbie babysitter

Let them be bored. I’m not telling you to stop playing with your kids or to ignore them for hours at a time. I certainly don’t do that.

What I am telling you to do is to give them some down time.

Don’t constantly entertain them. Give them the opportunity to figure out what entertains them. Let them use their imagination. Let them make up stories or elaborate play scenes. Let them race their Matchbox cars down your banister and see what happens. Let them have fun and let them be bored.

Let them figure it out for themselves.

Do it while they’re still children because teenagers who haven’t learned to entertain themselves WILL become couch potatoes.

I want to hear from you. Do you let your children be bored? Do you feel it’s important? Why or why not?

Here are some great posts for further reading on this topic:

Boredom: The Gateway to New Ideas from Slow Family Living

The Benefits of Boredom by Richard Louv

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 46

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    1. Do some bug-themed yoga with Kids Yoga Stories
    1. Make 4th of July Eye Spy Rice Bottles with Pink and Green Mama
    1. Make a balloon-printed caterpillar with Meet the Dubiens
    1. Make your own regatta with The Pleasantest Thing
    1. Explore the library with the Non-Fiction Library Challenge from No Twiddle Twaddle
    1. Play with your own DIY Spy Kit from Inner Child Fun
    1. Make an exploding fireworks painting with Inspiration Laboratories
    1. Write some acrostic poems with Creative Family Fun
    1. Go searching for animal tracks with Learn Create Love
  1. Make simple bug hotels with Red Ted Art

How are you going to play this weekend?

Craft Stick Initial Plaque

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We’ve accumulated such a big supply of craft sticks that I’ve been challenging myself to come up with crafts that we can do with them.

One such craft was our initial plaques.

My girls loved making them and are now using theirs to decorate their bedroom.

The plaque would also make a fun and easy gift for your kids to make.

Let’s get started crafting!

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Supplies Needed:

Craft sticks
White glue
Masking tape or painter’s tape
Craft paint
String (optional, for hanging)

Lay several craft sticks out side by side until they are the length of a craft stick.

Push them close together; you don’t want any gaps.

Once you’ve arranged your craft sticks, glue two crafts sticks crosswise on your sticks. See the picture above for an example.

Use your masking tape to mark off your letter. You’ll want to use either masking tape or painter’s tape since you will be pulling it off after painting.

After you have formed your letter, it’s time to paint.

My girls wanted to paint one solid color on their plaques, but don’t let our examples stop you. Get creative! Stripes, dots, or even a chevron pattern would all look great.

Let the paint dry for a few minutes before you take the tape off. Peel it off carefully and you should have perfect initials on your plaque.

Don’t let the paint dry too long, or you may have difficulties getting it off!

If you would like to hang your plaques, attach some string to the back. Or you can do like my girls did and prop them up on a shelf. This is a fail-proof project for kids of all ages!

I still have a pile of craft sticks waiting to be used. Do you have any ideas for them?

Classic Crafts ~ Craft Stick Frames

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Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided me with some of the supplies we used in this project. The ideas were entirely my own. There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

There are a few classic crafts that every kids should make at least once during their childhood.

One of those classics is the craft stick picture frame.

Did you make one of these when you were a kid? I know I made a few. In fact, my mom still has some of the frames I made.

Supplies Needed:

8 craft sticks per frame
White glue
Embellishments (We used glitter glue & foam stickers)
Photo

There are millions of ways to make these frames, but we opted for a double-wide version. We wanted plenty of room to get creative with our embellishments.

Lay out two crafts sticks for the side, then layer two on top and two on bottom. Do not glue until you are satisfied with your arrangement.

Once you are ready, use white glue on your corners to hold the craft sticks together.

We used this fun neon glitter glue assortment from craftprojectideas.com to decorate our frames.

We loved the glitter glue and have to say it was much better than other glitter glue we’ve used in the past. It was easy to squeeze and dried thicker and brighter.

It was the perfect embellishment for our frames. We also added a few of these awesome glow-in-the-dark foam star stickers.

When everything was dry, we added our photo.

We’re using our frames to show off our pretty dog, Charlie. Isn’t he a handsome boy!

To add a photo, just cut the picture to size and glue the overlapping edges to your frame. It’s that easy.

Prop your frames up on a bookshelf or add a magnet to the back for a fabulous fridge decoration.

Have you ever made craft stick frames?