Ojo de Dios Yarn Craft

Ojo de Dios (oh-ho-day-DEE-ohs) is one of my favorite crafts I learned at summer camp when I was a child. Now my 8-year-old Nanny Kid can’t stop making these beautiful crafts simply made with yarn and sticks. Ojo de Dios originally come from the Huichol people of Central Northwest Mexico, were created as protective and […]

Blindfold Drawing

This is one of the best boredom busters to do with children. I simply use sleep masks to blindfold the children and instruct them what to draw with a blue or red crayon. I start by telling them to pick a particular color crayon (which they cannot see) and draw a basic house — without […]

Read “Snowmen at Night” and Make Indoor Snowmen

“Snowmen at Night” by Caralyn Buehner is a hysterical book about snowmen that your Nanny Kids will want to reread over and over again. In “Snowmen at Night” while the children sleep, the snowmen the kids made during the day come to life. The snowmen have tons of winter fun including ice-skating on a pond, […]

Corn Starch Play Dough

The best nannies have projects and back up projects to do with the children each day so that the kids never get bored. This is one of the quickest boredom busters and easiest play dough recipes I have ever made. I love it because already had the ingredients in the kitchen. Click here to see […]

Cardboard Roll Butterflies

I found this easy project on the patchwork parent blog. For little kids I recommend putting primary colored paint close to each other on a paper plate so they can play with mixing the primary colors to make secondary colors when making these butterflies. Older children can decorate the tubes with paint and markers in […]

Salt Painting

I’m always looking for new activities to do with the creative kids in my care. Salt Painting came to our summer boredom buster rescue! We already had all of the supplies in the playroom and kitchen pantry to make Salt Paintings. This is an inexpensive activity that will keep children that love crafts and painting […]

Sea Shell Necklaces

All children love hunting for beautiful sea shells along the beach. Here is an easy way to save the children’s favorite sea shells they gathered at the shore this summer. Click here to see some other projects I have made with children with their sea shells collections. Be sure to read our favorite children’s books […]

Saint Patrick’s Day Sun Catchers

Creative Wednesdays My six-year-old Nanny Kid loves using Dot Markers to decorate coffee filters. They look so beautiful. So we decided to experiment with different shapes to make some decorations for Saint Patrick’s Day. We cut out shamrock shapes from the center of paper plates and circles from the centers of other plates. We snipped […]

Cardboard Tube Shape Matching

Creative Wednesdays I save toilet paper and paper towel cardboard tubes to make free, quick, and easy projects for my Nanny Kids. This is an easy activity to let older siblings help make for their younger siblings. The shapes pictured might not look perfect because my Nanny Kid’s brother enjoyed drawing the shapes for his […]

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

Creative Wednesdays My Nanny Kids have had tons of fun cutting out paper snowflakes this winter. So we tried using coffee filters instead of paper this week and we loved the results. Google for paper snowflakes and coffee filter templates online for good ideas to help make snowflakes. But let the kids just explore cutting […]