These DIY conker eyeballs are a great way to use up those slowly-wrinkling conkers that the kids collect in the autumn.
A simple and fun autumn craft, it’s easy enough for preschoolers to do and gruesomely creative enough for big kids to enjoy too, which makes it a marvellous Halloween activity for siblings.
So whether they want to make zombie eyeballs or monster eyes, read on to get our top tips and tricks for this Halloween!
Making a giant bubble wand is the easiest thing in the world, and all you really need are a few sticks and some string! These kid-made tri-string wands make the biggest bubbles I’ve ever seen – the kids won’t be able to resist playing with these all day long… Read on to find out how they can make their very own giant bubble wands, with our totally home-made and plastic-free tutorial!
Making giant bubbles is child’s play with our diy giant bubble wands!
Whether you love fairytale multicolour twinkles or a soft, golden firefly glow, a twig ball lantern can add a really enchanting touch to a party, wedding, or festival. No party to decorate for? Hang them in a corner of your garden to add a touch of magic to long, summer evenings. You don’t need specialist equipment, a willow tree wood or vineyard full of grapevine to make them either – the kids and I made ours with trimmings from the common garden climbers that regularly take over our back yard.
Want to make some too? Of course you do – everyone needs a twig ball lantern in their life! So read on for the full tutorial…
This beautiful twig ball lantern was made just with cuttings from the garden and a string of cheap LED lights.
In our efforts to go plastic-free, we took a hard look at one of our favourite activities to see what it would take to have plastic-free play dough play-time. It turns out this is so easy to do – We’ve found all sorts of alternatives to plastic right here in our own home, as well as out in the garden, and it is amazing what you can find in charity shops or thrift stores once you start looking. Replacing our mountain of plastic play dough stuff with an all-natural kit was really easy, and what we’ve got now is far more open ended and even more fun to play with! So read on to see how we play with play dough without without a single bit of plastic…
Playing with play dough needn’t mean getting out a pile of plastic toys!
Have your kids conkers gone wrinkly? When autumn comes around my kids just can’t help collecting bucket loads of shiny horse chestnuts, but they start to loose some of their charm once the shrivels (as we like to call it) sets in. There are only so many games of conkers we can play, so, to avoid being buried alive by these puckered leftovers, we’ve found other ways to make use of them. One of our favourites is to turn them into Conker Comets… Probably the most fun you can have with conker – and it makes a great bonfire night craft too! Read on to see how we do it.
Make a throwable comet out of conkers and tissue paper!
At this time of year, our local park is littered with conkers (otherwise known as horse chestnuts) – at times they are literally (and rather painfully!) raining down on us. Who can resist prising open spiky cases for that thrill of discovering shiny brown nuts inside? My kids certainly can’t, and so over the first month of autumn we tend to accumulate a big pile. And what better way to make use of this autumn bounty than through a smashing game of conkers? We love it so much, I had to share it with you. So read on to discover all the do’s and don’ts, rules and the cheats, hows and whys of playing conkers!
My kids love making dens when we’re out in the woods, yet there are times when it’s not practical or possible to make one that’s kid-sized. But we don’t let that stop us – instead, we just think smaller… Read on to see how to make an adorable mini den!
Making a mini den in the woods is a fun way to introduce den building to kids!
We love a bit of woodwork with the kids – whether out in the woods, at forest school, or at home with a bit of softwood, so we were very happy when One Hundred Toys asked us to test out a pile of fabulous-looking, kid-sized real tools from HABA. Read on to find out why we’re now eschewing pretend tools for the real deal.
HABA’s folding saw is kid-sized and just right for taking to forest school.
We love leaf painting! Use natural materials like leaves, sticks and stones as the canvas for your kids’ artwork!
Painting is a great activity for young children. It’s a fantastic work-out for their imagination, and helps them practice their fine motor skills, as well as helping to develop their understanding of colour, shape, texture and viscosity (yes, wet paint WILL drip onto the floor/your clothes/the dog’s dinner…). We do a lot of painting in our house, and love finding different things to paint – after all, flat paper can be SO last earlier-this-morning. We try to bring natural materials into our play at every opportunity, and painting is the perfect thing for this as its easy to find natural objects to decorate. Stones, sticks, pinecones, shells… you name it, we’ve painted it. Leaf painting is an absolute favourite, though, and something that we do all the time – read on to find out why!
There are images of some amazing mud kitchens out there on the web, and it’s very easy to fall down a rabbit hole of great ideas without actually ever making one for your child. I was certainly guilty of it, until one day my sister stopped by and interrupted my description of the great mud kitchen I was going to make (one day), by pulling together a few things lying around in the garden and making one in about thirty seconds!
My kids have been playing with it ever since (we’re talking for years now!), and though I still dream and plan of a more beautiful and robust solution, they’re out there having fun today – and they really couldn’t care less that it’s not perfect.
So read on to see what you need to make a mud kitchen right now, and I guarantee that you’ll have enough stuff already to get your kids playing today!
Mud kitchens are great for kids so get them playing dirty today!
