15 Creative Play Ideas for Kids {and Moms!}

creative play

Creative Play is really important. We know it is important for kids, but have you thought about how important it is for moms as well?  That is why we are so excited to have Kylie from Octavia and Vicky sharing her creative play ideas for kids AND MOMS today!  Octavia and Vicky was our best [...]

Simple Games: Bean Bag Toss {Preposition Practice}

Simple games like this adapted bean bag toss can be a great boredom buster for kids

Simple games can be a boredom buster for kids (and a life saver for mom).  Throw in a little preposition practice as well then it is even better.  Kids Activities Blog hopes your child enjoys this educational adaptation to the basic bean bag toss game. Simple Games Whether you have children that are “bored” at [...]

Indoor Fun: Make Animals {Playdough}

Kids love being creative as they make animals from playdough. Great kids activity!

Playdough is a favorite with most kids.  Here is a great project to keep kids entertained with playdough as they make animals.  Kids Activities Blog hopes your little one (and you) enjoy this indoor fun activity. Playdough Our preschool  lesson themes are based on books and topics that Bear {4 yrs} has chosen to make [...]

Play Marbles {Nostalgic} November Game

play marbles

How to play marbles is knowledge that kids can utilize for hours of fun.  Before the weather changes, head to the playground for this November game.  If you missed the balmy fall weather, then try an indoor variation!  Kids Activities Blog loves these nostalgic games that level the playing field between adults and kids. The [...]

What to do with kids? {We have 32 fun answers!}

what to do with kids

What to do with kids?  Is that a question that every parent, caregiver and teacher has asked themselves at one time!  In answering the question what to do with kids, Kids Activities Blog went searching for some of our favorite and unique kids activities.  We thought they should be fun, easy to do, not require [...]

Development of Play: 24 Ways to Explore with your Baby

activities for baby

Help your baby develop by helping them explore and play.  Here are two dozen different activities we and other kids activities bloggers have done with their infants to help connect and interact with them.  Looking for something for the tots?  Check out our post on Activities for One Year olds or our Baby Play board [...]

Preschool Fall Crafts – A It’s Playtime Roundup

50 kids activities celebrating fall

We love doing fall crafts with our preschoolers.   Thank you!!!  In our weekly Wednesday afternoon Kid’s Meme, It’s Playtime, there have been dozens of autumn activities linked up over the years!! There are tons of great activities for kids linked up each week. With the deepening days and the crisper temps – it’s the perfect [...]

Coloring the Rainbow: A collection of Colorful Party Ideas

colors of the rainbow

We love color, coloring and exploring a variety of hues with our preschoolers.  I was browsing through the archives of our weekly kids meme, It’s Playtime and discovered a bunch of oldies and goodies featuring the rainbow. . Colorful Party Ideas These rainbow cupcakes were made ages ago and my kids are begging me to [...]

Handprint Art: Owls

handprint art owls

Another fun hand print project! The past few months, Rory has been very into birds.  She loves all kinds of birds; ducks, flamingos, roosters, eagles, and owls.    Owls are one of Rory’s new favorite animals, she has a book called; “Say Hello to the Snowy Animals,” that she loves.  One of the pages has [...]

Outdoor Fun: Bicycle Games

fun bicycle games

From an early age, my kids have loved riding bikes.  Always looking for something new & fun to do outdoors, we decided to try to come up with some fun games that involved riding our bikes.  Here are a few fun ones we liked: How Slow Can You Go? Using sidewalk chalk, draw a 4-inch [...]

Paper Activity: Shape Monsters

Shape Monsters

My son, like many kids I know, loves monsters. He likes to pretend monsters are coming over for parties. He likes to paint monsters. He was thrilled when I made him these 3D paper monsters from an origami paper cup. He had me drawing silly faces the other day. (He likes telling me what to [...]

Playing with Paint: Weekly Activities Round-up

paint ideas for creative kids

Playing with paints is a favorite activity at the Quirky Kid household.  Just this afternoon we had our paint pens out creating more colorful clothespins (never have enough of them).  Here are some of the recent paint activities that we have enjoyed replicating through the It’s Playtime linky.  Each Wednesday afternoon we co-host a linky [...]

More Play Dough Ideas

playdough activity ideas

There are so many fun activities you can do with playdough!  Remember our previous posts, Playdough and stencils and last years It’s Playtime with Playdough.  Our older kids loved play dough when they were younger (and have since moved on to learning with legos).  Meanwhile, the playdoh fun is having a rebirth with our youngest [...]

Busy Hands: Colanders, Coffee Stirrers, and Cheese Shaker

coffee stirrer feature

After seeing a post on Chasing Cheerios, I went to the dollar store in search of a parmesan cheese shaker.  I was very happy when I found one!  Since I have a baby at home too, I was a little worried about the use of toothpicks (which was the item she used), so I went [...]

Homemade Games

homemade toys

It is another week of, It’s Playtime.  Each Wednesday afternoon you join us in featuring sweet and simple things that inspire us to enjoy our kids.  Wowsers!  There were over 200 great ideas of activities and games that you can make and play with the kids in your life linked up last week.  We love [...]

Ocean Sensory Bin

ocean sensory bin lead

A Boy’s Ocean Fascination Due to Bear’s current fascination with everything ocean-related, I created an ocean sensory bin focused on the underwater world.  We use a plastic under the bed storage bin for our indoor sensory tub.  That way, I can actually put a lid on it and slide it under the bed until next time.  [...]

Cool Ways to Welcome Summer

QMWS1

Happy Memorial Day!!  Are your kids out of school yet?  Or will they be soon?  Either way, we welcome summer with a BANG in our home.  Here are some fun ways we have done it it in the past and a few other fun ideas we are going to try! Welcome to Summer School Bus [...]

Paper Crafts for Kids: Paper Dolls with Spray Adhesive

paperdolls

When my sister and I were growing up we had a steamer trunk full of paper dolls.  It was probably our favorite thing to play together. Now that I have two daughters who are old enough to play with dolls I thought it would be fun to introduce them to some of the many paper [...]

Finger Paint: Homemade Fun

little girl painting on floor

Finger painting fun! Rory and I had nothing planned today so we decided to make our own finger paint! I chose to make our own paints because I know Rory is getting her molars now and so everything is in her mouth.  I did just a basic flour, salt and water mixture so that if [...]

Summer Time Bucket List: 50 Activities for the Kids

50 activities for Summer

I love our weekly It’s Playtime Link-up! Each week you have hundreds of activity ideas and suggestions for us! Thank you for being an inspiration to us each and every week. Below are just a few of the activities that have been linked up this past year. These activities are on our Summer Bucket List [...]

Dramatic Play: Inspired by Piaget

dramatic play piaget

“Play is the answer to how anything new comes about.” – Piaget.  Dramatic play is one of the things that instills a sense of belonging and identity.  Our children experience who they are and how to relate to others as pretend in various roles.  Pretend play helps our children develop empathy as they practice putting [...]

Things that Glow: Balloons with Glow Sticks

glow balloons

I recently went to Wal Mart to shop for party supplies.  One of the items I wanted was a bag of balloons.  I found the balloons but also discovered a fun new kind of balloon – LED balloons!  They have a little light in them that is activated when you pull out the tab.  Then [...]

Make a Craft Puppet: Pretend Play with your Childs Art

puppet craft

Do your kids draw and draw? Up until recently my 5-year-old wasn’t interested at all in picking up a pencil and making her mark but in the last few weeks she’s caught the bug and produces pages and pages of characters and scenes. I love seeing children’s drawings and spotting how they change as the [...]

Somewhere over the rainbow

somewhere over the rainbow

We love all the colors in a rainbow, they bring smiles to our faces.  We had numerous colorful posts linked up last week in our weekly kids meme, It’s Playtime.  Todays post is inspired by Kate, of Picklebums.  She had fun with her kids and droppers full of paint.  They had fun creating blotted rainbows [...]

Painting Play in the Bathtub

P1110155

Over the years of crafting, the Quirky Mommas have painted with crayons, we’ve thrown our paint, even painted our napkins and we’ve learned… Art is at its best when it is Big… Messy… and… Colorful! When you’re a parent, art is at its best when it is Clean… Contained… and… Entertaining for long periods of time! [...]

A Homemade Game for the Family: LEGO Challenge

homemade game legos

We are a game family.  We are also a Lego family.   Hmmm… how about we combine the two?  That is how our little family Lego Challenge was born.  The point of the “game” is to draw cards with a specific task – ex: use only the small lego blocks or make something you can [...]

Creative Kid Bloggers Plan for 2012

Creative Kids Bloggers

There are tons of great creative children’s blogs – and every month a bunch of us get together on twitter for a chat.  In last months chat, 57 bloggers discussed our playing schemes and dreams of what projects we think would most interest our kids or what we would love to do with them in [...]

Kids Days Out: Fun School-Break Ideas

Kids days school break activities

Are your kids home from school and going batty?  Here are several of our favorite activities that were linked up to It’s Playtime over the past year.  Perfect to entertain and engage your kiddos during a long week off of school.  We are taking a break from Playtime this week to to enjoy our families [...]

Snowman Pancakes

snowman pancakes

We made Snowman Pancakes. They were super easy and so much fun! All you need is prepared pancake mix, chocolate chips, bacon, and whipped topping. Step 1: Pour your pancake mix in a small circle and a larger circle.  Make sure to place them close enough together so that they will touch as the batter [...]

Free things to do with kids

Free things to do with kids

Kids don’t need toys, they don’t need “programs”. I love a few of the activities linked up in It’s PLaytime last week! These are things you can do with your kids almost anywhere with no preparation – and they won’t cost you a dime. Looking for more ideas? Check out our weekly link-up below. Lots [...]