Keeping the Kids Busy Day 5

Well since it’s New Year’s Eve, how about something appropriate for the holiday?

Give your kids a bunch of supplies and challenge them to make party hats for themselves…or for the whole family!  Paper plates, construction paper, crepe paper, tissue paper, even wallpaper can be used to make awesome hats.  With the wallpaper, you have to be prepared to get a little messy to try this method.  What we did was to cut a square of wallpaper (big enough for your child’s head and then to leave a brim around hit) and then dampen it.  Form it over the child’s head and let it dry that way (I didn’t find that it had to stay on their heads to dry.  Once it was formed, I could usually find something to put it over that would retain its shape during the drying process.  Don’t want to get your head wet?  Find a bowl that is the appropriate size and form it over that instead.  You might want to cover the bowl with plastic wrap or something similar to keep it from sticking.  Now you can embellish the hat with paints or markers or cut out shapes.  How about feathers or fake flowers?

Here are some more hat making ideas:

http://creatingthehive.com/blog-post/56801/diy-new-years-party-hats

http://andreacurriecrafts.com/the-mini-top-hat-is-where-its-at

What kid doesn’t love a noisemaker?  My daughter has never been too fond of fireworks but has always loved making noise so we found alternatives to the city fireworks display.  Grab a length of bubble wrap and let the kids run across it for that fun popping noise.  Or once again give them some materials and let them see what they can come up with.   A couple of paper plates or even better, some foil pie plates with something inside can make a tambourine like noisemaker.  How about a toilet paper tube or a paper cup (covered with construction paper) that has some little beads or dried beans or something like that inside to make shakers?  An old coffee can makes for a wonderful drum!  Just put out some of these supplies and it will be no time before the kids find plenty of ways to design their own noisemakers!

Here are some more ideas:

http://www.makeandtakes.com/new-years-eve-noise-makers

http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Noise-Maker/

Another fun item to make for New Year’s Eve is a wish box.  My daughter and I used to always write out the negative things that had happened through the year or personality traits we’d rather get rid of and then we would burn those pieces of paper at midnight to release them into the universe and be free of them.  Then we’d make wish boxes – little boxes that we decorated to look really pretty.  Once they were done, we’d write down our hopes and wishes and dreams for the following year and place them in the box.  The following New Year’s Eve or periodically through the year we’d take them out and see how many of them were coming true.

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope 2011 is a great one for all of you!