Fun DIY's To Do At Home With Kids

If you’re a parent, you know the constant struggle of having to entertain your children, they constantly want to do something new and exciting! 

Here are a few great DIY ideas that your kids can do at home with just a few inexpensive supplies. You’ll be giving your child the tools they need to spark imagination and creative play. 

Not only that, this will ensure that you get to have quality time with them and they will also learn new things and have a great time.

1. Newspaper Animals: 

You can use the technique to form any animals or letters. Teach one animal to your child and let them go wild!

We will give instructions to make a cat, you can use the same technique to create anything else. How to get started:

1. Cut a sheet of newspaper lengthwise into 5-inch-wide sections. We used 5 1/2 strips to make our cat.
2. Fold each strip in half lengthwise 3 times to end up with a strip that's roughly 1/2 inch wide. Press the folds flat.
3. Start coiling by rolling one end of the strip tightly around itself. Add strips to the coil by adhering the overlapping ends with a glue stick. Finish the shape by gluing down the end.
4. For the eyes and head, start with a larger centre circle before coiling.
5. Make other shapes, such as ears and a tail, as shown.
6. Arrange the shapes on waxed paper and add tacky glue where the pieces touch. Let the glue dry completely.
7. Use glue to add folded-paper features, such as feet, a nose, and a mouth.

2. Stone Plants: 

Even without sunlight or special care, these stone succulents stay green and are always in bloom. Paint small rocks with acrylic paint and let them dry. For a cactus with arms, join several rocks with tacky glue. Place the project on parchment paper until the glue dries, then paint on flowers, needles, and other details. For a planter, tape over the hole inside a small pot. Fill it with sand, then nestle the cacti on top.

3. Sock Puppets: 

Making a sock puppet is really quite fun. The thing that makes sock puppets so fun is making each one unique. It helps your children use their imagination and create something of their own, it could be a human, an animal or even an alien. This is how you can help your kid make their own 

1. Find a clean sock that's long enough to cover your kids arm. The sock can be any color they like. It can be fuzzy or plain. It can even have stripes or polka dots! Just make sure there aren't any holes.
2. Slip the sock over your child's hand. Once they the sock on, ask them to make a C-shape with their hand.Ask them to put their fingers into the toe part. Try to get their thumb into the heel part. If they can't reach it, ask them to tuck the sock into the groove between their thumb and fingers. Ask them to open and close their hand. The sock should already start looking like a puppet.
3. Ask them to use a marker to make two dots above the seam for the eyes. If they want your puppet to have a nose, ask them to make a dot for that as well.
4. Tell them to take the sock off. Spread it flat on the table. The marks for the eyes and nose may look out of place, but that's fine. This is why you made them while wearing the sock.
5. Glue some eyes onto the sock. You can do this with a hot glue gun, fabric glue, or tacky glue. For the actual eyes, you can use buttons, pompoms, or googly eyes. You can also draw the eyes on with a marker.If the puppet is a girl, ask them to draw some eyelashes with a marker!Add some other decorations. Their puppet is done at this point. Ask them to still glue items onto it to give it more character. For example, you can ask them to glue some yarn to the top for hair or anything else they might want to do to decorate it. 

4. Paper Lanterns: 

Paper lanterns are fun decorations that add a festive air to any occasion. With the upcoming festivals it can be a great way to get the kids involved in the preps for the festivals. With a few simple supplies, your kids can make their own paper lanterns & even decorate it! Here’s how you can help them go about it: 

1. Give them a piece of paper (A piece of regular printer paper will do just fine, but so will card stock or scrapbook paper. The lighter the weight of the paper, the more likely the lantern will be to collapse under its own weight) and ask them to fold it in half lengthwise. It can be of any size and weight. They can choose to use a solid color piece of paper or a piece of decorative scrapbook paper to make the lantern more festive.
2. Instruct them to cut along the folded edge, but not all the way to the end. It's up to them how long you want the slits to be. The longer the slits, the more light will shine through and the more flexible/floppy their lantern will be.
3. They can also decide how large you want your strips to be. The number of strips will completely change the look of their lantern. Instruct them that an inch or so (2.5 cm) apart is fairly standard.
4. Tell them to take the two ends of the paper and wrap them around to make a round tube shape. Make them use a piece of tape or glue to stick it together. Make sure they secure the entire length of the lantern! Tape everything from the inside so it's not visible.They can also use a stapler to connect the two end pieces of the lantern.
5. Ask them to cut off another piece of paper to make a handle. If they have used a piece of printer paper, the handle should be about 6" (15 cm) long and 1" (2.5 cm) wide. 
6. Using glue or tape, secure the handle to the inside of the top of their lantern. If the lantern is too straight-edged, bend it a bit. It will slowly give to the form you're putting it in. The heavier the paper, the more you'll need to force it into shape.
7. You can put a candle inside, hang it from the ceiling, or use it as a centerpiece.
8. Since the lantern is made of paper, only put an electronic tea light candle in the center. 

5. Homemade Soap: 

This is a fun and unique thing to make with your kids and they enjoy this the most as they can use it everyday and remember how much fun they had while making it. You might be able to only do this activity with slightly older kids. 

Here’s what you need to get started:

• Some soap shavings.(Can be bought from any hobby store)
• Soap coloring (Can be bought from any hobby store)
• Soap Fragrance (Also found at most hobby stores)
• Some sort of soap mold (You can also spread it on a cookie sheet and use cookie cutters to shape it)
• Bowl to melt soap in. ( Can us an old tupperware bowl)

Directions:

STEP 1: Melt soap shavings in bowl for about 30 sec to 1 min.

STEP 2: Pour melted soap into molds and add coloring and fragrance. We used toothpicks to stir ours around.

STEP 3: Let soap cool until hard and pop out of mold

STEP 4: Take a shower and marvel at how easy it was to make homemade soap!

Try these and let us know which one you loved and also share some DIY’s you do with your kids at home!