: More Flowers For Little Ones :

Flowers are things of Spring. They are things of beauty. They are things of life and of color. Flower are great for awakening your child's mind and imagination, both boys and girls. Here a couple simple, thrifty ways to make flower art with your toddlers and preschoolers.

Field of Flowers

Cost: Not even 2 bucks

Materials:

Various colors of paper streamers or tissue paper

Green pipe cleaners

Green construction paper

Scissors

Glue

Tape 

Directions:

1. 
   
   Draw zigzags horizontally across the center of your construction paper. Have your young one cut along the lines. Mount your grass in a long row.
2. 
   
   Tuck and bend your pipe cleaners where you want your flowers to be. Tape at the top of each (they will be covered by the flowers themselves).
3. 
   
   To make your flowers, take a pretty long strand of streamer from your roll. Your kids will have fun crumpling these up and spinning a little, then gluing the loose parts. Also, make sure they make little centers for their flowers by pulling off 6-inch pieces and crumpling really tightly. Glue them on the flowers.
4. 
   
   Allow to dry for several hours (we waited til the next day). Use double stick tape or fold tape onto itself so that it is sticky on both sides and mount each flower to its stem, making sure to cover the tape at the top of your pipe cleaners.
5. 
   
   Additionally, you can create leaves with pipe cleaners, construction paper, etc... 

Wooden Flower Corner

Cost: About $3.25

Materials:

Wooden flowers ready to be painted

Paint

Directions: 

1. Get your wooden decorations (I bought mine from the dollar store) and red, yellow and blue paints.

2. Have your child mix red/yellow, red/blue, blue/yellow to yield orange, violet, and green.

3. Now, simply paint.

  

This makes a great window sill decoration, addition to a nature table, or put these anywhere that will add some personal springtime joy to your child's environment.


There are so many ways to create springtime flower crafts for your little ones. Look around. See what you come up with and let your child's imagination bloom.

: Spring Flowers Garland :

Spring is a time of color, life, gardens, wildflowers.... Why not celebrate the very essense of the season with your little one. This project is a cheap way to entertain your kids and decorate your house for spring.

Materials

Green yarn of choice

3 to 6 bouquets of fake flowers

Needle

Directions

1. 
   
   Pluck each flower and leaves from the bouquets.
2. 
   
   Thread your needle with your yarn and get ready to start stringing.
3. 
   
   Take the center out of each flower individually as you get ready to string them onto the yarn.
4. 
   
   Push your needle through hole in the center and pull about 3 feet or more.
5. 
   
   Do the same with the leaves, alternating between flowers.
6. 
   
   Once you are done, cut the yarn to the desired length and tie both ends each in a loop so it can be easily hung.
7. 
   
   Separate the flowers evenly how ever you like.
8. 
   
   Hang it either verticly hanging or draped horizontally.

: Baskets and Nests :

Easter..Spring... Perfect time for creating nests and baskets! We found this yarn basket on Eighteen 25, although my little one kept insisting it was a bird's nest, hence the eggs.

This one was a yarn basket we molded from a bowl.

This project took a few days longer than we anticipated, but it turned out great. Shown below are my 2-year-old's and my 4-year-old's spaghetti nests by Busy Bee Kids Crafts.

: Easter Entertainment :

We celebrated Easter Sunday quite frugally this year, to say the least. The boys decided to celebrate Easter and Spring by drawing pictures they related to that theme all over our driveway before it began to rain later in the day.

Balloons were a hit for all boys. Very sensorial for the little one, sciency for my middle man, and just plain fun to get crazy with or doing tricks with for my 10-year-old.

Each of the boys made nest eggs consisting of oatmeal cookies baked earlier in the morning, frosting, coconut, and jelly beans for the eggs. Also, they went out in the late morning and picked flowers. My oldest helped create a couple bouquets.

Of course, the Easter cliche :: Dying Easter Eggs. We mainly decorated them with crayons and then dyed them. There were assortments of peace signs, flowers, designs, faces, and so on.

Mmmmm!! What a healthy and sweet way to celebrate Spring! A fruit salad is super delicious and easy to prepare for anyone young or old. Just make sure those cute little hands are washed.

Naturally, we had an Easter egg hunt, as well. We also read some magical fairy-style Spring stories and bunny/duck stories. We went on a nature walk. We simply enjoyed the day and the pitter patter of the rain that ensued later in the day.