kid craft

Preschool Sewing Kit

Preschool Sewing Kit- perfect quiet activity for my little one. Helps with her patience, fine motor skills and giving Mom a few extra minutes to do my thing. It’s even more helpful now that I have a new baby and she’s feeling left out with how much time the baby requires. Activities like this are perfect for keeping her mind and hands busy but still be able to hang out with us. The first time we did this sewing activity she spent two hours happily singing and sewing with me!

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

Preschool Sewing Kit:

(these are affiliate links but feel free to find your favorite supplies at your local store)

This would make an awesome Christmas gift or Birthday gift for any preschool aged child. I surprised our daughter with it as a Big Sister gift and had her help me put it all together. One of her favorite things is to see what’s in my bags when I get home from the craft store or party store so she was super excited that it was all for her! She loved sorting all of the colored thread in rainbow order and that there were little compartments for each thing. I’d found plastic mesh canvases that were in little shapes at the craft store but also bought a large sheet that we cut up for larger projects.

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

As I mentioned, she sat for two hours sewing her first project for her sister (this was a few days before she was born) and couldn’t have been happier to hang it up in her room for her. Such a great memory for me to be able to work on a new craft with her and start her love of sewing. It also sparked her interest in making thread bracelets which lead to beaded bracelets. I dusted off my huge container of beads and we made tons of jewelry for all of our friends and family.

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

I will be doing a second post once we’ve graduated from this preschool sewing kit and have added embroidery hoops and real needles. Is there anything I’m forgetting to add to her sewing kit or any other activities your kids love doing by themselves?

Posts related to ‘Preschool Sewing Kit’:

Quiet Activities for Preschoolers

Making Creativity the Norm for Kids

 

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Preschool Sewing Kit DIY perfect for young sewers just beginning. Fine motor skills, patience and focus are all used for this project.

Making Creativity the Norm for Kids

With the new year came lots of talk of eating healthy, organizing, schedules and goals. I’ve been focusing on Less Stuff, More Fun and choosing experiences over things. With that comes activities that are free that we can do by exploring our city or experiencing at home. Sophia, our four year old, has been getting very interested in coloring. There are no less than six coloring sheets coming home each day from the Y or school. I want to help her by making creativity the norm around our home. Being DIY Mama, you know I have ALL the craft stuff and we pull them out often but I want to do it in a more guided educational way. Cue Encouraging Creative Kids (affiliate link) e-course by Elise. Elise shared a code with me to take this course for free because I was so passionate about the topic.

craft organization

Elise’s course helps parents by  having a guide to start making creativity a habit in their family’s lives. The piece that really resonated with me was saying ‘YES’ when our kids ask to do something creative. A lot of the time my thoughts automatically turn to ‘no, because it’s too messy, I’m making dinner, we’ll do it on the weekend when there’s more time etc.’ Always an excuse but no real reason for it. I want to be ‘YES Mom’ when it comes to encouraging creativity in my daughter. I will be doing a series on the blog with the different crafts we create as we go through the course.

Encouraging Creative Kids

If you want to join along with me, check out her course video and see what it’s all about. The course is laid out nicely with an introduction followed by getting the supplies organized (and easily accessible for kids), working art into daily life and continues to  go through several key topics like where to store all the art they create and educating along the way while you do art side by side.

Gen Con with Kids

Valentines_Heart_Garland_Cards (1 of 1)

Each day during the summer Sophia and I worked on a craft to teach her the alphabet and she loved it. I miss doing bigger crafts with her and am excited to making crafting a habit again. I loved crafting before she was born but had the feeling it was ‘too much’ while she was a baby. I’m ready to bring creativity back as a hobby! Follow along with #creativekidsecourse

Here are a few links to crafts I’ve done with Sophia so far:

Halloween Ghost Toddler Shirt

Tie Dye With Your Toddler

Valentines Day Heart Garland

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creativity in kids

Tie Dye With Your Toddler

Tie dye with your toddler can be tricky but I’m not one to shy away from a craft project for fear of a mess. Starting my toddler off experiencing different art forms is more important than the mess. We went to the Farmer’s Market this past weekend and stopped at a Tie Dye booth swooning over their toddler summer dresses. I caved and bought one for Sophie with a $20 price tag. Thankfully she wants to wear it every day but that was a really hard purchase. She loves the swirly colors in the dress so I thought she’d enjoy making her own tie dye clothes.

There are several different ways to approach tie dye but I’ll be showing you the easiest way to tie dye with your toddler.

Tie Die with your toddler

Tie Dye With Your Toddler

What you’ll need:

  • White clothes, bags, bananas etc. washed and dried
  • Tie Dye Kit (I used the Tulip brand bought at Hobby Lobby but it is less expensive on Amazon)
  • Paper towels
  • Extra rubber gloves
  • A wire rack
  • Plastic tablecloth
  • A nearby hose



Step 1: Rubberband all clothing items. This step will mostly be done by an adult but you can ask your toddler what designs they want on their shirt. For example, I did a Mickey Mouse on my daughter’s shirt per her request.

Step 2: Lay your wire rack on top of a few layers of paper towel. We started on the table but moved to the grass once we saw how much dye gets on the table. I recommend wiping off excess dye between projects to avoid muddling of colors.

Step 3: Put gloves on yourself and your toddler. We used rubberbands to help keep the giant gloves on the kids. If you have kid gloves it would be much easier.

Step 4: Place the white clothing item on the wire rack and show your toddler how to squeeze the bottle on the shirt. I really enjoyed this video on simple swirls and this video on Earth Day shirts.

Step 5: Wrap clothing in plastic wrap or bags and let sit for 6-8 hours.

Step 6: Put on gloves. Rinse clothing in cool water until the water is murky. Remove rubberbands and continue rinsing until water is almost clear.

Step 7: Throw all tie dye items into the washer with a minimal amount of all® free clear detergent. I only use this detergent because it keeps the colors vibrant while still being gentle on my toddler’s sensitive skin.

Step 8: Hang tie dye out in the sun

Step 9: Go out and PLAY!

tie dye tutorial

Tie Die with your Toddler

Do you have any tie dye experience with your kids? What worked best for you? What do you find to be the best way to keep your tie dye colors bright?

Related Posts:

Snack Necklace

Modern Crayon Holder

How to Make Time for Creativity with Kids

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Tie Dye Tips with Toddlers

 

Snack Necklace

I’ve had a super fun-filled week these past few days because my niece, Fiona, came to visit us. We love having her stay with us because she’s so imaginative and keeps us laughing. She’s the star of the show wherever she goes and I love it! I knew I’d need lots of different activities for when she came that we could do as a family, with both girls and while Sophie naps. One night we were extremely brave and attempted to take both girls to the drive-in!

Snack Necklace

One of the best parts about the drive-in are the snacks. When I was little, my parents would pop a huge paper bag full of popcorn, throw TONS of blankets and pillows in the back of the truck and bring a cooler of drinks and treats. I thought it might be fun for Fiona, who’s 4 and LOVES jewelry, to make her own snack necklace. I got a variety of snacks that had holes and weren’t all sugar. Fruit Loops, Cheerios, cookies, chocolate pretzels and salted pretzels. Try finding the small bags so you don’t have a bunch of leftovers.

snack necklace ingredients
snack necklace craft for kids
I dumped all the treats into bowls so they would be easy for Fiona to grab and string onto her necklace. I also used some tape to make an aglet for the end of the string. This is a great small motor activity for any child who is a toddler or older.

snack necklace for kidsIt was the perfect activity for her because she got to choose what snacks she wanted AND make jewelry! She needed help with the cookies because some of them didn’t have holes big enough but I used a toothpick to enlarge the holes so they fit on the string.

making snack necklace
snack necklace craft for kidsThe string was a little soggy for my taste but she said it was fine and she loved it. Next time I will use an elastic string. We saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 and really enjoyed the movie, apart from it storming half way through. Once it was lightening we headed inside the car, which Sophie wasn’t a fan of so Daddy had to walk her around outside with an umbrella. We knew going in that it was a long shot to see the movie in it’s entirety but had to try.

drive-inPlease excuse the poor pictures but I couldn’t not share! In hind site, I should have made one of just puffs and cheerios for Soph because she LOVED it (but got chocolate everywhere!) Have you gone to the drive-in yet this summer? What kind of snacks and activities do you pack for your little ones?

Other great kid snacks:

Easy Peanut Butter Recipes for Kids

Gooey Granola Bars

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snack necklace

Gooey Granola Bars

Hi guys! I wanted to share with you one of my favorite Kid Chef recipes to get your kids involved in the kitchen. Laura posted this granola bar recipe at Heavenly Homemakers and I knew it looked like a super yummy snack that would be a great recipe for my kid chef!

Gooey Granola Bars

The title is extremely accurate. These granola bars are super gooey which is a great sensory activity for toddlers. This recipe is super easy and customizable. You can have your kids choose what additions to make to the recipe. There is only one part that an adult would need to help with, depending on the age of the kids.*

Gooey Granola Bars

Ingredients Needed:

  • 1/2 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)
  • 1/3 c honey
  • 1/4 c coconut oil
  • 1 c oats
  • 1 c (total) of any combination of : sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut flakes etc.

Gooey Granola Ingredients

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