Terri Thompson

Best Posts of 2014

January 2, 2015 By Terri Thompson

At the end of the year it’s fun to look back and see what posts were the most popular. What interested you? What were your favorite posts?

It turned out that many people were struggling with the same issue I was, how to get your kids to open up after school. Connecting After School: The Questions You Should Be Asking was far and away my most viewed post of the year. It was read, it was passed around, it was pinned, and I hope it helped many of you.

There were many other posts that were popular this year. We had great fun with crafts and activities. You definitely love your holiday crafts and many of you are looking for activities for your school-aged kids. You’ll see more of both of these this year.

Here are some of my other most viewed posts from 2014:
Paper Plate Christmas Trees
Apple and Pumpkin Mini Books
Domino Doubles Game
100 Ideas for Your Summer Bucket List
Tulip Letter Match Game
Egg Carton Easter Baskets
Painted Easter Egg Sun Catchers
12 Ways to Play With Plastic Eggs
My Book of the Four Seasons: A Paper Bag Book

I’ve got even more great posts for you. I’m joining forces with a whole group of kid activity blogger to share all of our best posts of the year. You’ll find so many cool activities and resources that you may never need to read another blog in your life. Only don’t do that! I’ll miss you and you’ll miss out on all the great ideas to come in 2015.

The best parenting posts:

The best craft posts:

The best educational activities:

The Power of Wind: A Lesson in Wind Energy

December 22, 2014 By Terri Thompson

About 20 miles from our home is a wind farm. It’s a hard working wind farm, which makes sense, because, wind is just a part of life in my hometown. We’re much more likely to experience a brisk wind than a light breeze. Because of that, wind farms are quite common.

I never fully understood wind energy before I saw it with my own eyes and felt it on my own skin. It’s hard to imagine how a simple breeze can power a whole house, but with a few simple experiments, you can teach your kids all about this form of alternative energy.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Xcel Energy. The opinions and text are all mine.

Discover wind energy and find out how it is a green (and wonderful) form of alternative energy with this kid-friendly explanation.

Photo via Stephen Jones, Creative Commons license

Discovering Wind Energy

It’s so simple to experiment with wind power! Do you have a simple pinwheel toy? Hold it up the the wind and watch it go. If you don’t have any wind, hold it up in front of a fan. This very simple toy can show your child just how a wind turbine works. The toy spins around just like the large blades of a turbine.

Now that you’ve seen how the turbine spins, it’s time to discover the power of wind. Craft a simple paper airplane. Throw it in the same direction the wind is blowing. Can you see how far it goes? Now, throw it in the opposite direction. What happens to the airplane? Can you see the wind at work?

Do you want to see the power of wind on a larger scale? If you live near a wind farm, drive by and watch the turbines work for awhile. If you don’t live near a wind farm or you want to see even more, you can take a virtual tour of a wind farm at this link.

Photo via Stephen Jones, Creative Commons license

Xcel Energy is doing amazing things with wind energy. Check out this infographic to see the amazing things they’re doing in Minnesota alone. Amazing. Wind is clean, green, and renewable. And, if you live in Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, or New Mexico, you can enroll in WindSource through Xcel Energy.

WindSource is a voluntary green power program which gives customers the choice to support renewable energy. It gives you, the customer, the chance to choose how you want to use energy. You can put that wind power to good use.

You can find out more information and sign up through this link: Xcel Energy – WindSource. Isn’t it amazing that you can use wind power in your home and in turn support a greener and cleaner source of power.

Paper Plate Christmas Tree Kids Craft

December 8, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Sometimes I find that we are doing a lot of “flat” projects – cards, paintings, etc.

And while there are plenty of amazing and fun projects that are flat, it’s can be fun to take things up a notch.

Enter this 3-D paper plate Christmas tree. This Christmas craft is easy to make and you probably already have all the supplies you need.

Disclosure: 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.

Make this fun and colorful Paper Plate Christmas Tree craft for kids or make several for a perfect kid-made Christmas decoration.

Supplies Needed

Paper plate (1 per tree)
Clear tape
Green paint
Glue (either school glue, pva glue, or Tacky Glue)
Multicolored pom poms*

*Note: While I love the look of the pom poms, don’t let a lack of these stop you from doing this project. Stickers, beads, gems, buttons, or sequins also work. Use what you have on hand.

How to Make a Paper Plate Christmas Tree

In order to make the cone shape, you will need to cut a chunk out of your paper plate.

Find the center and cut out a wedge. We cut out an entire quarter of our plate.

Roll the plate into a cone shape and seal with tape.

Since you will be painting the cones, keep all the tape on the inside. I made little rolls of tape and used that to hold down the outer flap down.

If you find you need tape on the outside, wait until your paint is dry before taping it down.

Paint your cone green. While it will work to paint your plate before making the cone, I’ve always found that my girls loved the idea of painting on the cone shape. Sometimes it’s fun to mix things up and paint on a different shaped object.

After the paint dries, glue on all your pom poms. We had a bag full of pom poms and thought they were a fun addition. We also thought our trees looked a lot like party hats!

Special note about the glue: We had great success with regular school glue (pva glue), but if it doesn’t work for you, use Tacky Glue or a low-heat glue gun.

Have fun decorating and don’t hold tight to the pom pom suggestion. If your kids have another suggestion, let them go for it. It’s all in the process and not the finished product.

When you’re done, find a fun place to display your cute mini paper plate Christmas tree. Our kid-made decorations are some of my favorites.

If you enjoyed this Paper Plate Christmas Tree craft, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook or you can save the photo below on Pinterest.

Christmas Scented Gingerbread Man Ornament

December 3, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Every year, without fail, we make a few homemade ornaments for our tree. (And some years, we make a lot!)

This year, we added a sweet Gingerbread Man Ornament to the Christmas tree. For a fun twist, we added spices to our paint so that they not only look like gingerbread men, but they smell like them too.

Make a fun Christmas-scented paint to use when you create a Scented Gingerbread Man Ornament. They're a great addition to your Christmas tree.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details. CraftProjectIdeas.com provided some of the materials for this post. All ideas are my own.

Supplies Needed:

Thick cardboard (We used a shipping box)
Gingerbread man cookie cutter (optional)
Brown paint
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger
Assorted beads, sequins, buttons, and other baubles
White glue
String

How to make your Christmas Scented Gingerbread Man Ornament

Start by tracing your cookie cutter on your cardboard. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can freehand a simple gingerbread man shape or find a simple coloring page to trace.

Cut out your gingerbread man shapes. This is not a very kid-friendly step in the process. My cardboard was thick and my scissors were dull, so I had to get out a box cutter. You may want to prep ahead if you’re planning on making quite a few of these.

Also, do yourself a favor and punch a hole in the top for your string. I didn’t do this until the end and wished I would have done this step earlier.

Mix your brown paint together with a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. About a 1/4 teaspoon of each spice would do the trick. Your paint will be thick and goopy; make it thinner by adding more paint.

Let the kids do the mixing. It’s fun to see it all come together.

Once the paint is mixed, paint the entire surface of the gingerbread man. Try for an even coverage. The goopier it is, the longer it will take to dry. Once the paint dries, you’ll be able to smell the spices without the added paint scent.

Once the paint is dry, it’s time to decorate your gingerbread men.

We had an assortment of beads and buttons. The girls searched and sorted to find the perfect embellishments for their gingerbread men. Use white glue (or hot glue) to add them to the ornaments.

Once the glue is dry, you can add your string and hang them up on the tree.

I just love homemade ornaments and this Gingerbread Man Ornament is the perfect fit for our eclectic tree.

Recycled Kid’s Art Gift Tags

December 2, 2014 By Terri Thompson

I’m a kid’s art hoarder. I just can’t help it. I take pictures of all my girls’ arts and crafts, but I still have a very hard time throwing any of it away. Please tell me I’m not alone! This year, instead of throwing it away, I am reusing it. These recycled kid’s art gift tags will look great on all your Christmas presents. The relatives will adore it and the kids will love seeing their artwork under the tree. It’s the perfect solution for that hoarding problem.

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.

Supplies Needed:

Old artwork

Card stock

Mod Podge

Circle punch

Hole punch

Baker’s twine (or string)

Sort through that pile of old artwork and find some stuff you want to try use for gift tags. I found some cute old paintings, including this fun piece of marble painting. Try not to use anything with a 3-D element, since you’ll be cutting it into pieces. Use the Mod Podge to glue your artwork to a sheet of card stock. Spread a thin layer over the entire piece of card stock. Work fast; it starts drying quickly. Place your artwork on top and press down, smoothing out all the wrinkles. Let it dry for at least a half hour. I left mine under a heavy cookbook to flatten while drying.

After everything is dry, grab your circle punch and start punching. I punched as many circles as I could from my artwork. If you don’t have a circle punch, you can cut small squares or rectangles. They would all look great on your packages. Use your small hole punch to punch a hole in the top of each gift tag and tie string through the hole to attaching to your Christmas gifts. The card stock on the back of each tag will give you a great surface for writing.

What are you waiting for? Recycle your kid’s art and make some simple and unique gift tags for all your packages.

Terri Thompson

Best Posts of 2014