Easy Origami for Kids

My husband is really good at origami. I have mentioned his blog before.  The kids naturally see him folding and want to give it a shot so today they did some folding.  My 5 year old stuck to an easier project, folding these origami mice.  Then he drew faces on them.

 My older son had seen an origami rocket book of his dad's and wanted to try one out so his dad showed him what to do to fold a rocket.

 Here is the book the rocket came from.  There are some other projects in it as well.

Origami Star Christmas Garland

 My husband folds these really fun origami stars.  My wheels were turning on ways to make our Christmas tree a little more fun and I decided to string these stars just like you would popcorn and use them as garland around the tree.  My husband plans on making a tutorial on how to fold the stars at his blog, Stephen's Origami.  I will update with a link to that post when he gets the chance.

I think it added some fun and some more color to our tree and I am happy about it despite my sore thumb. 

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14 Days of Showing Love: Valentine's Day Countdown

This year for Valentine's Day I thought it'd be fun to have a little activity each day to show love for someone.  So I came up with 14 ways that my preschool-aged children could do that.  One thing that I is great about this idea is you can take it and mold it to fit your own situation in life.  You can use my 14 ideas or come up with some entirely new ones.  You can choose to follow the way I am presenting my ideas or come up with a different way.  Hey, you could even have it been something for you and your spouse if you wanted. 

I am going to show you what I did to make our countdown.

I came up with 14 ways of showing love.  I tried to have a good variety in there.  Here they are:

1. Bake cookies and give away

2. Make a valentine for someone

3. Give someone a hug

4.  Tell someone you love them

5. Read a book about love

6. As a family take turns saying reasons why we love each member of our family

7. Put a puzzle together with someone you love

8. Send a valentine in the mail to someone you love

9.  Sing a song with/or to someone

10. Give someone a kiss

11. Do an act of service for someone

12. Watch "Be My Valentine Charlie Brown" with someone you love

13. Give a compliment to someone

14. Play a game with someone you love

After I came up with the ideas I wanted to use I found an assortment of patterned paper to use as pockets.  Since I don't have any daughters I tried to find paper that wasn't too girly.  I then cut the paper 3 inches long, 4 inches wide.

 I got some poster board and cut out a large heart.  (I don't have the greatest heart drawing skills...)

 Then I took the paper that I'd cut and folded half inch in on each side and an inch up on the bottom and glued the bottom to the sides to form a pocket.

Then I glued the pockets onto the heart-shaped poster board and numbered them.

 Next I took advantage of my husband's origami skills (yes, I am constantly doing that) and had him fold me 14 hearts.  You can learn more about this heart here.  He used 5 inch squared paper.  I am hoping he is able to give some instructions on how to do this fold on his blog in the near future. I will let you know if that happens.  If not, there you could just use heart shaped card stock or whatever you want.

Then I typed up my fourteen activities, printed them off, and cut them out.

 Then I glued the idea onto my heart.  This is what the heart looks like when you unfold it.

 Here is what my completed project looks like:

 I wanted the top of the hearts to be poking out so that they were easier to get out plus I think it adds to the overall look.  I think that my boys will enjoy opening the hearts up each day to find out what is written on each heart.  This was a lot of fun to make so I hope it will be a lot of fun for my  boys to do!

If you would like to see our Valentine Countdown Puzzle from last year click here.

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Handmade Holiday Decorations

All of our Holiday decorations were made by hand with just a few exceptions- our Christmas Tree, the tree skirt, and some of the ornaments.  I thought I would share some of the decorations we have at our house. 

Origami:

My husband is really good at origami and so I use and abuse his skills at Christmas time (among other times of the year.)  You can visit his blog, Stephen's Origami to see more.

This is a tree he makes that I love plus this fun star.  You can see a tutorial on how to make one yourself here.

 Then we have an origami wreath.  It's really cute!

 This star we put on top of the tree.  My son was so excited to put it on top of our tree this year.

 My husband has also done a variety of smaller wreaths we have on the tree.  They are pretty cool too.

He also makes a Santa Claus that I don't have a picture of.  Last year we put up some origami ornaments, however my sons couldn't resist the temptation to take them off the tree and destroy them.

Cricut Machine:

Another thing I use a lot to make decorations is my Cricut Machine.  Here are some things I've made.

A little greeting on our front door above the origami wreath.

 Santa, his sleigh, and his reindeer.  Silhouette style.

 A Christmas Countdown I do with my children.

 I have a variety of snowflakes hanging around our windows as well.

Child-Made:

The biggest part of our decorations are things that the kids and I make throughout the month.

Here is a chain to go around our tree.  See my post here for instructions.

 A paper torn Christmas tree.

 Christmas Tree ornaments from our Christmas tree day

 A Gingerbread house

 Gingerbread ornaments both of these gingerbread activities are from our Ginger Baby Day

And we have much more to make throughout the month!

Made By Others:

Lastly, we have several things that were made and given to us by other people.

This cute Santa was made by my mother.  She gave it to me the first Christmas I was married.

 These absolutely adorable stockings were made by my mother-in-law.  We also have two advent calendars she made.  I need to get a better picture of the stockings because they are awesome.

Well, that gives you an idea of what we've got going on around here for the holidays.  The best part is that not only are most of these things kid-friendly they are also budget friendly!