Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Parenting

January Notes

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for continuing to read and visit, but most of all thank you for your support. I hope to continue to provide you with fun crafts and activities to help you make the most of your time with your kids. I have lots of fun things planned for the year. So keep on stopping by!

Starting this month, I will be having theme weeks here at Creative Family Fun. I’m doing this to help *me* plan better, but I hope that it will give you something to look forward to and a reason to keep stopping by. You can find the themes for January listed below.

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.

Following along is simple. You can stop by the blog and see what’s new or subscribe to Creative Family Fun in a feed reader. You can “like” Creative Family Fun on Facebook here. I post links to all my new posts and also share fun things I find on other blogs. If you want to follow along on Facebook, make sure to like status updates or comment on occasion. It’s the only sure way to make sure my status updates keep showing up in your feed. Plus, I really like getting to know you! If Facebook is not your thing, you can follow along on Pinterest. I pin each of my new posts on my Creative Family Fun board here. Or you can follow all (or whichever boards you are interested in) here. Another option you have is to subscribe to my newsletter. I’ll send out a weekly email every Saturday, starting January 11, with links to all the previous week’s posts. I’ll also provide a few links to other ideas I’ve found that go along with the week’s theme. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter.

And for one final piece of news, I’ve finally joined Instagram. Woot! Follow along here, for sneak peeks of blog projects in progress and glimpses of everyday life. I’m already loving it!

Hope you continue to enjoy what you find here at Creative Family Fun!

Top 10 Posts of 2013

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I always enjoy looking over my posts for the year to find out what was most popular.

Sometimes you surprise me by making something popular that I never expected.

I learn what I should do more of and what I should do less of. I start planning and plotting for the next year.

Believe me, we’re going to have a lot of fun in 2014.

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.

And now, without further ado, is our top 10 list counting down to the most popular post of the year. (Click on the orange titles to get to the post.)

10. Becoming Warhol – a kid’s art activity

9. Name Recognition Activities

8. Estimation Station for after school math fun

7. Color Mixing Lab – a little science and a little art all rolled into one

6. Printable Summer Bucket List

5. Greek Salad Bites – part of Around the World in 12 Dishes

4. Go Outside Cards – free printable outdoor activity cards

3. Princess Addition – a fun, hands-on way to practice math

2. 12 Candy-Free Valentines

1. 10 Science Experiments for Preschoolers 

Which one was your favorite?

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”?

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.

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

My Reading Promise or Why Reading Aloud Matters

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Reading aloud is important. We’ve all heard the many reasons why it’s crucial to read to your young kids. In fact, we should start reading to them as soon as they are babies. It’s the first step on that reading path and it’s an integral part of their education.

But, is that all? To me, reading aloud is not just about the educational benefits, it’s about so much more.

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.

I recently read The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma. I had been wanting to read it for awhile now. I love books and reading has always been important to me. I knew I would love the book and I was right.

This book is a memoir of the books Alice and her father shared. When Alice was 9, her father made a promise to read to her every night for 100 nights. That promise became a streak that lasted 3218 days. The last day Alice’s father read aloud to her was her first day of college. This book is not just a book about reading. It’s about so much more. Because reading is always about so much more.

There has never been any doubt in my mind that I would read aloud to my children and read aloud often. My Mom made sure there were always plenty of books in our house and that we took frequent trips to the library. (Thank you Mom!) I want to do the same for my own girls. I hope to still be reading aloud to my girls even after they can read themselves. I hope to be reading aloud to my girls for a long, long time.

Why?

It’s about the connection…

It’s a simple way to connect on a daily basis. You’re in the same place, the same story. Maybe you’re traveling together to Narnia, Hogwarts, or the 100 Acre Woods. No matter where, you’re there together and that’s important. You’ll share an experience. You’ll share points of reference. Maybe you’ll even share an inside joke. All of it is important. And all of it can be achieved by reading aloud together.

It keeps you talking…

My girls and I have been reading the Little House books together. We’re not just reading them, we’re talking about them, asking questions, and trying to understand a very different way of life. They are infinitely fascinated by Laura’s life and I encourage their curiosity every step of the way.

Reading aloud can help you introduce difficult topics to your kids such as death, war, or racism. I don’t plan on shying away from such topics once my girls are older. I plan on opening that door and embracing those discussions. Reading aloud can make that happen and that’s important.

Like Alice’s father did all those years before…

I promise to read aloud to my girls everyday.

Will you join me?

A Pinteresting Bucket List For the Kids

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The last two summers we’ve made summer bucket lists. (See 2011 list here and 2012 list here.)

But this year, we’re trying something different.

We’ve already planned a camping trip and a vacation to visit family. The girls are signed up for swimming lessons and a farm-themed summer day camp. Oh, and don’t forget our library’s summer reading program.

We’ve already got a packed summer and I thought adding a summer bucket list would add stress instead of fun.

So, in lieu of the summer bucket list, we created our Pinterest bucket list.

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.

I took a pile of index cards and started jotting down the projects I wanted to try with the kids.

I also notated the Pinterest board where it is pinned as well as the blog the idea came from.

Each index card has four ideas.  The girls take turns selecting a card, then they have to decide which of the four projects they want to do.

The one rule we have is that they both have to agree on a project.

Once we’ve completed a project, I check it off with the date.

We’ve been playing with our Pinterest bucket list for a couple of weeks now.

We worked on watercolor kites from Little Family Fun this morning. We made paper plate ladybugs from Crafts By Amanda, giant painted paper flowers from Buggy & Buddy, and did a few experiments to find out how big the dinosaurs were from this post by Frugal Fun for Boys.

We’ve done a lot of craft projects so far, but that’s not the only thing I included.

We have outdoor play ideas, reading & writing activities, science projects, and math activities.

I only included things that I knew we already had supplies for, which is a lot since we have a HUGE craft/activity stash. I didn’t want to have to stop the excitement to run to the store.

I’m not sure we’ll ever get through with all the projects, since our basket it quite full, but it sure is fun to try.

The girls get excited every time I suggest getting out our project bucket.

My goal this summer is to do one project a day, except for the days we’ll be out of town.

It’s a lofty goal and I won’t stress about it. As long as we keep it fun, we’ll have a blast.

I love this idea so much that I’m planning on making my own bucket list of Pinterest projects just for myself!

In case you’re wondering about the projects we have in our basket, I started a Pinterest Bucket List pin board. Make sure and follow as I fill up the board. Hopefully you’ll find some fun Pinterest ideas you want to try.

What Pinterest-inspired project have you done lately with your kids?