Back to School - Easy Crafts For Kids

Going back to school can be a scary time for any child. It's a big change as well as a stepping stone. A parent can also be affected by this change. It means your child is growing up and they are going to learn new and exciting things. There's a great way for your child to be prepared for going back to school or starting school for the first time; make it fun. Start crafting with your child. Craft some fun back to school easy crafts for kids. There are so many options out there.

When I was young and starting school for the first time I was very nervous and excited at the same time. I wish there were as many creative easy crafts for kids back then as there is now. Nowadays kids are able to craft with trash. By taking recycled goods around the house they can create the darndest things. Take for example a recycled school bus. It can be crafted out of a spaghetti or pie crust box. This is a very clever craft and it will get your child used to seeing a school bus so they can have fun with it.

It can also be a scary time meeting new kids in a new school. Make your child smile and feel comfortable by making an I.D. tag. These are such great kid's crafts. They can help make them and write their name on it, so they can easily find their backpacks and belongings. If I had a name tag on my things it would bring a smile to my face. Even a child as early as preschool may not be able to read, but at least they can identify the picture on the tag.

I have so many nieces and nephews that I love so much. Most of them are going back to school, while others are just starting school for the first time. I love crafting with them when I'm babysitting. There are so many easy crafts for kids that they get so excited when I bring a new craft to do. The latest one was a terra cotta bee pot. It was so cute with its wings and wiggly eyes. They needed a little help with it, but what craft doesn't need help from an adult? They helped with the painting and putting on the foam sheets. I thought it was such a cute craft that they can bring to school for show and tell. These bees are great back to school easy crafts for kids. And although the bees are made with terra cotta pots and they needed to be gentle with it, they still had tons of fun shaking it to watch the wiggly eyes move around.

So keep in mind if you are nervous about your little one going back to school or starting for the first time, they're probably even more scared than you. Have fun with it. Make them feel as comfortable as possible by making easy crafts for kids. There are so many free patterns out there for you to choose from, there's no way a child can get bored creating fun crafts for school or just preparing for school. There are different skill levels for crafts as well. So hurry up and put your little one on that yellow school bus. After crafting that recycled bus out of a spaghetti box, they'll wave bye to you as they step foot on the school bus with a big smile on their face.

by Christine Doheny

5 Tips to Making Saving Fun For Young Kids

I am of the belief that starting to save from an early age, say age 6 and in fact setting savings goals, is a healthy way to view money. But how to get young kids to take to saving positively is another matter altogether. Here are a few ideas on how to make saving fun for young children.

1) I think the first thing to do is to take your child, even from age 6 or 7, into the bank with you to open their savings account. Most banks will have savings accounts for children with no fees, no minimum balances and a reasonable rate of interest. Help the child to fill out the application form and open the account. A reasonable goal should be to save 10% of the child's pocket money into the account each month.

2) Let your child understand that the money is still theirs and will be used to buy larger purchases in future, such as iPods, CDs, skateboards etc. Help your child put up a graph behind the bedroom door or if they are old enough they can develop a spreadsheet on the computer. Then get him or her to plot each month how the total savings are growing. You will need to help them with this. They should also plot their savings target, so that they can see each month how their savings are growing towards their target, or savings goal. You will be amazed how this simple exercise will help them with maths at school as well, as they are dealing with the basics of arithmetic here. Let them stick a picture of themselves up on the chart to remind them that this money is still theirs.

3) If you have more than one child, set up a challenge to see who can reach their savings goal or exceed it by the largest percentage. If you don't like the competitiveness of this, reward each child who achieves their target savings each month, in the beginning, then every few months after that. So, for example, you can agree on the savings goal, say after 3 months, and agree that when each child's savings reach that agreed level, you as the parent will add $20 to their savings account. The child whose savings have grown by the greatest percentage (not dollar amount as the older child might be saving more on a weekly basis) might be given an additional $5 or $10 reward. Take them into the bank to deposit this reward.

This reward should be given not for work performed around the home, but for the savings goal achieved and will be money well spent by you, as these lessons get reinforced in your child's mind.

You may find that one child is a much better saver than the other and to get the child who is less inclined to save up and running, it may be agreed to set lower targets initially. I remember that while I was a great saver in my youth, my younger brother never had any money in his savings account - he had almost always spent his pocket money before he even received it. We are still different in this respect today.

4) One thing that I learned rather late in life was the power of envisioning what it is that one wants in life - to see the positive outcome in your mind is a powerful tool. In the savings context, you might get your child to find a picture of what they want to buy once they have achieved their goal and get them to stick pictures on their savings chart of each item they are saving for. When the child is very young, simple things like adding a gold star to the chart is a good start. As the number of gold stars grows, the child will learn that what he or she is achieving is a very good thing. You may decide that 10 gold stars earns your child a ticket to the movies with popcorn, cold drinks and the works.

5) An idea that I used was to have a glass jar, where I would throw all my coins at the end of the day, or week. Then at the end of the month I would divide the coins in half, put half into my savings account and spend the other half. So in this way, I was delaying gratification even from my coins that I had left over in my pocket.

by Stuart Fish

Playroom Stations

The playroom can quickly become a disaster area! But, with a little planning and creative thinking, you can set up your child's playroom in a way that helps both of you keep it straight.

The first thing is to come up with a "stations" plan. Think of a preschool room. There is an area just for reading, one for painting, one for eating, you get the picture? Now, if you do this at home, it helps your child learn where everything goes. Plus, if you do it just right, you can make it fun for them to keep it straight. Another bonus is that when you go to clean, everything is near the space that you created for it. Here's how you do it.

If possible, use physical barriers to section off areas of the room. An L-shaped bookcase is perfect for creating a reading area. Let one or both sides of the bookcase surround a corner or section of the room. Fill the space with cushions, pillows, stuffed animals or comfy chairs. Label the area with a sign that says, "Brayden's Library" or "Susan's Quiet Place", whatever you can think of to communicate to your child that this is the area for books and relaxation. You can further encourage them to stick with the plan by letting them use a special lamp or light in this area. Just make sure that it is cool to the touch, unbreakable and safe for children.

On the same side of the room as the reading corner, you might want to put a desk or table for other quiet activities. Puzzles, clay, art supplies and board games can be stored in this area. To protect your carpet, put down a rug or office chair mat. Use interesting items from around your home to keep art supplies in. A clear sugar bowl can be used for beads. A decorated coffee can is great for markers. Restaurant style sugar shakers make great yarn and ribbon dispensers.

The next area can be for louder activities. Video games, electronic toys, tools and other noisy items should be kept near each other. This is helpful for playrooms that are used by more than one child. Section off a loud area with upholstered chairs to absorb sound and corral kids into one area.

The last section should be for gross motor toys. This area is best kept near the closet if possible, so that you can store tunnels, tents, slides and small trampolines in the bottom section of the closet. Kids will have to put one item back to play with another because there won't be much room if they don't! To make a playroom closet accommodate clothing too, build a shelf below the hanging clothes. Children's clothing doesn't hang down far anyway. The shelf can be used for bins of socks or underwear, stacks of t-shirts and for storing other normal closet items. The big area underneath will be great for putting big toys away and out of sight.

Keep the room more organized while teaching the kids how to clean up after themselves. Make a game of guessing where things go. Asking questions like, "Where do you think a loud toy like this would belong?" will help kids to generalize information and apply their knowledge to figuring out the correct answer. Let them use the baby hanges or infant hangers in the closet to put away their own laundry and keep that area neat as well.

When you get everything set up for success, you can concentrate more on helping your child succeed in keeping the playroom organized.

by Kurt Adams