Kids Craft: Straw Fireworks Painting

We are well into summer and sometimes to break up our day, the kids and I do a fun craft or activity. We have made a variety of things this summer and I thought something for the 4th of July would be appropriate this week.

What better thing to make this week than fireworks!

What you need:
bendable straws
tape
paint
paper to paint on - I used cardstock

Simply pull each straw to expand them all the way.
Gather up several and tape together, I did 6 straws in each.
Squirt some paint out on a paper plate.
Dab the straws in the paint and stamp them on the paper. Each straw doesn't transfer the paint all the way on the paper so you may have to push down each straw so the paint gets on the paper.

This made for a simple activity to go with the excitement of the 4th of July. Even my youngest had fun with it. We taped them to our chalkboard to display for the weekend.

Gardening With Kids - Gardening Gives Food and More

I left off in the last post talking a little bit about harvesting produce with kids from the garden. The garden provides nutritious and delicious food for us to eat....and also preserve if you have abundance.

There is nothing like a fresh garden meal in the summer!

Picking your vegetables right out of the garden and using them in your meal - you can't get any fresher than that!

You might make fresh salsa from your tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro in your garden.

You might enjoy stuffed peppers.

Sweet corn is always a delicious summer treat with any meal.

You might have a wonderful crop of green beans and can them to enjoy during winter.

Of course, picking fresh lettuces, spinach, radish, and green onions for salads is always refreshing.

Allow your children to cook meals with you. Sometimes its hard with little hands, but you might be surprised what they will eat knowing that they helped prepare it from what they helped grow and harvest.

Sometimes room is not available to grow everything you would like, such as fruits, where several plants are needed to pick a larger quantity. Look for local u-pick farms in your area and take your kids there to experience picking at a specialty farm. We go to a blueberry farm and strawberry farm every summer to pick bulk amounts of berries to freeze and make jam from. You might want look for local specialty farms in your area to pick strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, pumpkins and more.

For your kids to see these large specialty farms puts a whole new perspective on how and where produce is grown. For example, we just went to a u-pick blueberry farm and driving down the lane to where we would pick, my son said "These are ALL blueberries?!" They can see acres of one type of plant growing. I explained to him that the blueberry farm has workers to pick blueberries for customers to pick up or they can come and pick them themselves. Seeing these specialty farms helps put the whole idea of farm size into perspective. Kids can see that your backyard garden feeds your family. There might be some abundance of certain vegetables that you can share with others. Large farms, such as berry farms or pumpkin patches provides for several families, sometimes several hundred to thousands.

Gardening with kids has several advantages and provides such wonderful experiences.
- It educates them on where food comes from.
- Showing them planting to harvest and getting them involved is a great way to share the farm to    fork process.
- It teaches them what it means to live a sustainable and healthy life.

I hope you will show your kids where food comes from and enjoy the farm to fork process!

This post is sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers but all opinions, photos, and ideas are mine.

Gardening with Kids - The Harvest

If you remember in my first post about gardening with kids, I talked about some easy vegetables to grow in your garden and shared some tips how to get your kids involved in the garden.

This post is about the HARVEST! 

The most rewarding part of gardening in my opinion. 

The result of all your hard work in the garden......and you can sample and snack as your picking.

One exciting part about gardening is some vegetables continue to produce bounty after the first, second, and several  pickings.
Like green beans and tomatoes.......

By planting your garden from seed and/or transplants to picking what is produced and involving your kids in the whole process they are learning, seeing, and experiencing gardening with you. What a great way to show them how plants grow and where the food you eat comes from.

So what have you harvested from your garden? What is your kids favorite things to pick?

If you have the space try your hand at backyard gardening. Gardening is a great way to not only include your kids in the process but also to save some money. Who doesn't want to save a little cash on your grocery bill?!

For example:

Tomatoes in the grocery store cost between $1.50 to $3 a pound in the grocery stores. A 4 pack of tomatoes plants at a garden center is less than $2. Each tomato plant can produce roughly 8 to 20 pounds of tomatoes based on growing conditions and if staked and caged.

Potatoes cost around $4 for a 5 pound bag where as you can buy seed potatoes in the spring for 99 cents a pound. Cut those seed potatoes in fourths then plant. Each one will yield on average 5-15 potatoes give your a pretty high return on your seed potato cost.

When you think about your entire garden - lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, onions, etc the money savings can really add up. 

You will also save money by eating what is in your garden. This may prevent you from going out to eat or will aid in providing ingredients to the dishes you prepare for your meals. Doesn't a dinner of green beans, red potatoes cooked with onion, sweet corn, and broccoli sound great to go with the steaks your having? Save yourself the $40 plus dinner bill going out to eat and have a nice meal from the garden you've grown yourself.

If you don't have room to garden at home, check to see if there is a community garden in your town. These are becoming more and more popular and are a great to take part in. Your children can help in the garden and also enjoy the rewards of gardening with fresh produce. You can also do some patio gardens with tomatoes in pots. Grow lettuce, green onions, spinach together in a spot for your salad needs.

The taste of your backyard garden produce will taste amazingly different that what you can buy in the store.

Stay tuned for the next Gardening with Kids post for different ways to enjoy and preserve what you're growing in your garden.

This post is sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers but all opinions, photos, and ideas are mine. 

Handmade Valentine's Giving

Valentine's Day is this Friday! (Ahh it seems like we just celebrated Christmas!) So, this means school parties and excitement for the kids!
This year I wanted to find some online printables for Valentine's cards. In previous years, we have bought the box ones from the store, but this year I wanted to do something different. The kids always enjoy helping and I can't pass up a time to be a little crafty.
I found a blog that had put together a post with 75 of the best Valentine's Day free printables. You can find it here. Another blog had a variety of printables for all seasons also. We used this one here. I showed the boys some options and let them decide, below is what they settled on.

T adding pencils to his maze card.

Supplies needed for L's candy planes

The finished planes for 10 preschoolers :)

Our finished products!

 So if you are still in need of Valentine's cards for your kids' school parties, try some online free printables. It's fun to have something a little different and a great opportunity to do some DIY as well!

Thanks for reading!
Stacy

Mess Free Finger Painting On Our Snow Day

Today we are home, snowed in. I'm not sure the exact amount of snow we have gotten because the wind is blowing pretty good out here in wide open country. We have two spots on our road, one to the North and one to the South, that drift shut pretty bad when we have this much snow and wind.

I knew I would need an activity for the kids to do, mainly the boys, to break up some of the day. I saw the idea of mess free finger painting on Pinterest. We haven't ever done that before so it would be a good activity they would be interested in for a while. I set it up early this morning and they have been back and forth several times. Going to play with other things and coming back to the finger painting. I also eventually put a letter sheet there so Lane could practice his letters.

Are you snowed in today? Give this activity a try.

All you need:
Ziploc bags
Paint
Tape
A window/A piece of white paper if placing on a table - so they can see the picture they are making better

Ty drew a tractor

 

Lane said this was a field

Lane practicing letters

I think we are also going to do some baking today. I have two boys eager to help with cleaning today too so I will be taking advantage of that :) Working on orders during nap time will also be on my list.

Have a great "snow" day everyone!
Stacy