Author: Maria Blitzer

Summertime is the perfect time to do crafts with your children. These four summer crafts for kids utilize items that most people already have in their homes. So, you can have summertime fun without breaking the bank.

Homemade Washable Sidewalk Paint

What you need:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of cornstarch
• Small containers
• Food coloring

Steps:

1. Combine the water and cornstarch until well blended.
2. Divide equally among containers. The number of containers depends on the number of colors you would like to make.
3. Add food coloring to the containers to make different colors. For white paint, do not add any food coloring.
4. Kids can use paint brushes or their hands to paint on the sidewalk.

Beach Sand Art

Turn a day at the beach in to a hunt to make the perfect sand art. What you need:

• Glass fishbowl
• Items collected from the beach. Examples are sand, small rocks or pebbles, seashells, and starfish.

Steps:

1. Pour sand in to the bottom of the glass fishbowl.
2. Place the collected rocks, pebbles, seashells, and starfish on top of the sand, however you please.
3. If you are feeling adventurous, pick up a hermit crab from the pet store. The fishbowl will make the perfect home for your little pet.

Make a Homemade Kite

Homemade kites are fun and easy to make. In no time, your kite will be soaring in your backyard. What you need:

• Sturdy cardstock paper
• Hole puncher
• 2 straight, plastic drinking straws
• Glue
• String or yarn
• Scissors
• Markers, crayons, and glitter to decorate
• Ribbons

Steps:

1. Draw a diamond shape on the cardstock.
2. Cut out the diamond with scissors.
3. Decorate the diamond with markers, crayons, and glitter.
4. Make a cross using the two straws and glue it together in the center where the straws meet.
5. Glue the cross to the back of the diamond and cut the ends of the straws to fit.
6. Use the hole puncher to punch a hole on the top and bottom points of the diamond.
7. Tie string from the top hole to the bottom hole, being sure to make a loop.
8. Tie a long piece of string to the middle of the loop. This will be your flying line.
9. For added detail, you can glue ribbon strips to the bottom of your kite.

Sun Handprint Craft

What you’ll need:

• Paper plate
• Orange and yellow construction paper
• Yellow finger paint
• Scissors
• Glue

Steps:

1. Use the yellow paint to paint, completely, the paper plate. Let dry.
2. Trace your child’s handprint on the orange and yellow paper. Make six orange handprints and six yellow handprints.
3. Cut out the handprints with scissors.
4. Use glue to paste the handprints to the paper plate. The fingers are the sun’s rays, so the bottoms of the handprints should be pasted to the back of the paper plate. Alternate yellow and orange handprints around the plate.

Summer days can seem long, but with these summer crafts for kids you can stave off boredom and keep the action going for your kids. These hands-on crafts are fun, easy, and inexpensive. Kids will enjoy craft time fun, while making memories and keepsakes of their summer vacation time.

 

Author Bio: Maria Blitzer is a freelance writer and a mother of 3 young children. She believes that purchasing a comprehensive car insurance policy is one way she can keep her children safe when she is on the road with them.