Kid Activities

Category: Kid Activities

Kids Easter Activities   - One Small Child

Kids Easter Activities 2015

It’s always fun to try something new around the holidays. With a million kids Easter activities to choose from, we’re shooting for three new ones this year.

Kids Easter Activities | One Small Child

I love the idea of growing our own Easter grass. I know my kids would enjoy watering it every day and watching it grow. …And wouldn’t it be fun to decorate with? Here’s a great tutorial from How Does She?.

Easter Kids Activities 2015 | Cascarones from mom.me

These cascarones look like so much fun! I know I’d be in for a mess, but the kids would have a blast making and breaking them. Mom.me has a great picture tutorial on how to make these.

Kids Easter Activities | One Small Child

I really enjoy doing fun service activities as a family. I think it’s important to incorporate service into our family time. Especially around holidays. I love the idea of ‘egg’ing someone for Easter! I’ve seen several variations of this: scatter treat-filled eggs in their yard and leave the sign on their door; leave a basket of candy-filled eggs; or my favorite-put together a simple plate of home-made Easter treats and do the ring and run. This activity offers extra family time since we’ll make the treats together. Family Ever After has a cute “You’ve Been Egged” free printable.

Decorative clover leaves over white background - One Small Child

My St. Patrick’s Day Tradition

Decorative clover leaves over white background

Growing up I knew what our St. Patrick’s Day tradition was. There would be green everywhere I turned. Green decor, green milk, green biscuits at dinner and of course green clothes. But something that never happened on St. Patrick’s Day was my mother wearing green. Ever.

My mother is half Irish and just so happens to have green eyes. (Being adopted that never was an excuse I could use). She took great pride in trying to keep up Irish traditions even though her mother died when she was 16 and her father just after she enlisted in Vietnam as a nurse. Her source for family traditions was gone so early in her life that she kind of had to improvise and come up with something new to make the holiday fun for the kids.

Every year she would prepare breakfast with as many items she could put green food coloring in. When I would come home from school I could always smell the Corned Beef and Cabbage cooking. Do I like Corned Beef and Cabbage? Not even close, but the taste and smell will always bring me back to my mom. She served it with vinegar, green biscuits many years and sweet iced tea, being that not only was she half Irish, but she was also from the South. There is just something special about the nostalgia that comes from sitting down to a meal you’ve had so many times over.

But there is also something exciting that comes from changing those traditions just a little and making it into something new with your own family. I love to cook to celebrate holidays, like my mom, and always look for something new and fun to try. The best kinds of recipes are the ones the littles can help with because you can talk while you cook, teach them a skill and get a wonderful treat out of it!

One of my favorite places to get recipe ideas is the blog Oh So Delicioso. They have several recipes for St. Patrick’s Day but by my favorite is the Neon Green Punch since I have small children that love the color! Electric green is a head turner and since it’s not too sweet I don’t have to worry about giving a second glass to my kids. Another one of my favorite sites for recipes is Weelicious as well (you can see the natural green recipes here).

I have found that with modern traditions, it’s not necessarily about having the exact same thing each year but that you do something each year so your kids know about the holiday and what fun you can have with it. My kids are all preschool age and younger so the big school parties won’t happen until this coming fall. Until then we have the opportunity to make each holiday unique to us and what we love.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Valentines Lunch - One Small Child

Valentines Day Activities for Kids

I’m always looking for new Valentines Day activities to do with my kids. It’s fun to try something new and there are tons of great ideas out there! This is what I’ve found for this year:

We are big fans of food at our house.  (Who isn’t?) One of my favorite things to do is make fun food around the holidays.  This looks so simple, and I am always happy to find something fun and easy to do with my kids.

I found this idea from one of my favorite blogs redtedart.com. You can find the tutorial here.

Valentines Day Activities

 

Another fun idea is this adorable paper heart. I know my older two will love making these.

Here’s the video on paper quilling.  SO fun!

We hope you enjoy these Valentines Day activities with your kids!

Christmas cookies and hot chocolate - One Small Child

Holiday Movie Night

Dollarphotoclubcocoa

Having a Holiday Movie Night in only takes a small amount of preparation to have an enjoyable evening that you can turn into a yearly tradition. Movie theaters are open on Christmas Day every year with some kind of a holiday show for families. But that also requires getting dressed, getting in the car and spending astronomical prices for popcorn. Besides, who wants to get out of their Christmas pajamas anyway? Why not stay in, stay warm and enjoy your vacation at home? I thought you might agree.

Needs:

-Favorite Christmas show (Polar Express is always a good one because of the hot chocolate dance)

-Sleeping bags, blankets and pillows. Enough to fill the floor.

-Hot chocolate bar on the counter with ingredients like: marshmallows, chocolate chips in several flavors, cinnamon sticks, peppermint sticks, flavored coffee creamer, whipped cream and sprinkles.

Bring out some cute containers to put everything in and put on the pajamas! Send invitations out to family and friends you make with the kids. When everyone is over, let all of them sit on the pillows and blankets and cuddle up together. Turn out the lights and have just the Christmas tree on and it will feel magical. If the kids fall asleep there on the floor, leave them! What could be more fun than that? (Just not on Christmas Eve, you don’t want to trip on them while delivering gifts under the tree)

Traditions are part of what we look forward to during the holidays. Being able to share those things we cherish with those we love is a great way to give a gift that has no monetary value. It also shows your children what is so important this time of year, being together and growing as a family, extending the hand of friendship and making bonds. Happy movie night!