Summer Crafts with the Kids

April 9, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized

It’s summer in our part of the world and that means beach trips, intense heat and my kids staying at home all day. This usually means I hear the “I’m bored Mom, what can I do?” question at least a hundred times a day and my kids fight like cats and dogs almost at exactly one-hour intervals. I usually just let them play out in our backyard where they get crazy ideas like cutting grass or planting flowers. My kids even told me we need to have garden bells along our fence! So I am finding some ways to keep them busy while trying to be creative as well.

We might actually install them one day. I told my husband about it and he thought it was a nice idea so we can spruce up our little flower garden as well.

A few days ago, we experienced the hottest day so far in the season – I think we had temperatures over 36C. Our wind chimes were not moving at all, there was no air and the heat was just unbearable.

So I had a brilliant idea to have the kids make some wind chimes as crafts. The kids were excited about it that I would like to share how we did it:

(We just used paper, string and beads (heavy ones)

1. Cut the pieces of the materials you want to us at various lengths.

2. Pick a location where the items (seashells, stones etc.,) are small and thin enough poke a hole through them with a nail or hole punch.

3. Now thread a piece of either the string, thread or wire through each hole of the objects above and tie a knot in it.

5. Use a lid/paper cup to have as their binding and the one where you will attach the string.

6. After poking the holes in to the plastic lid thread through the string, wire or thread that you are using and tie a not in the end to avoid it coming out as well as threading through the piece that will be used to hang the wind chime up in the location you have decided upon.

7. Thread the objects that you prepared onto the wire and once this has all been completed you can then hang it up where you have decided to place it.

I would prefer the bamboo wind chimes available at Outdora.com. They are the most popular type of wind chimes as they are very compatible with the outdoors and are considerably cheaper compared to metal or aluminum wind chimes.