Keeping the Kiddos Busy

Don't throw away toilet paper rolls! Like tin cans and glass jars , toilet paper rolls can keep children busy for hours.  So many things can be done with them.  You can fill them up with candies or other treats and then wrap them as party favors or small gifts. If you have pets like rabbits, hamsters, or guinea pigs, you can use toilet paper rolls to make toys for them to keep them stimulated. With other art materials and a bit of imagination, you can transform toilet paper rolls into cars, animals, and other objects.  If you have several of them, you can make a model city. You can decorate them into fancy napkin holders. Etc., etc. Some more ideas of things you can do with toilet paper rolls can be found here , here , and here .  You will find many more if you search online. As with the other activities in this blog, the only limits are safety and your imagination!

Papier mache is easy to make.  All you need are old newspapers, water, and flour or glue.  And you can make a lot of things with it:  masks, vases, bowls, animal models, jewelry, etc.  When it is dry, you can paint and varnish it. Here are some instructions on how to make papier mache, and here are a lot of projects you can do with it.  Children may need help with big projects such as those that involve chicken wire frames, but there are many small projects that are easy enough for children to do. After you have some experience doing some of the projects in those websites, you can experiment with some of your own.

Perhaps in your garden, backyard, or even in your garage, you might find some spare rocks.  With some imagination, as well as paint and glue and some odds and ends, you and your children can make nice sculptures out of them.   After you gather the rocks and wash them, examine them:  perhaps their shapes might remind you of some animal? See what combinations of rocks you can put together to make the shape of the animal you have in mind.  Once you have mentally composed the figures, glue the rocks together.  You may use white glue; cement glue would even be stronger but it should only be applied by an adult and in a well-ventilated area. After the glue dries, you can paint the rocks to add other features.   Here are some ideas .     

(Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Paper_beads.jpeg) Stringing beads into a necklace or bracelet is another craft that is considered easy enough for children.  However, I originally did not think of it as a good lockdown activity because while most households have sewing kits with a stash of thread in them, obtaining beads is a different matter. But I learned that it is possible to make beads out of paper.  The procedure is simple: cut the paper into narrow triangles, add glue to one side, roll them up with the aid of a toothpick or barbecue stick, seal them with glue or clear nail polish.  By making variations on the procedure , you can make beads of different shapes and sizes. You can use any kind of paper you want.  You can even use the pages of old newspapers and magazines for a unique look.   You can also make sophisticated jewelry patterns . Making jewelry out of paper beads is fun, but wearing it is even more fun. Who ...

Maybe you and your children have been following this blog ever since the beginning of this lockdown, have been trying the activities featured here, and have written a sizable collection of haiku , cinquains , or clerihews ; or a collection of zines that you want to bind in one volume;  or a well-researched family history ; as well as various art works.  Or maybe you want to compile heirloom recipes in a beautiful handmade cookbook. Or perhaps you just want a unique-looking personal diary where you can record your experiences of the day or your secret thoughts and feelings.  Whatever the case, making a handmade book is another good project to do.  There are many ways of hand-binding a book. Instructions can be found here .  Whether you choose the simplest or most elaborate method of making and binding your homemade book,  you will end up with a precious keepsake which you will enjoy leafing through again and again.

What would your ideal city, town, or village look like? You and your children can make a paper model of it. The architectural firm Foster and Partners has released templates for children to make paper models of houses and other structures.  The templates can be downloaded here .  You and your children can assemble and decorate the models using paper, scissors, paste or glue, and any other supplies you have at home.  Then you can arrange them to look like the city, town, or village you like.  You can even share photos of your creations by sending them to fandpmarketing@outlook.com Lockdown is a good time for sone healthy dreaming about the kind of world your children want to build.  Who knows?  Some future architects, engineers,  and urban planners might be inspired by this project and one day actually build that world.

Tin cans are not the only things that can be made into pretty crafts.  Most likely, you have a stash of used glass jars in your house.  You and your children can make a lot of things with them. After you wash the jars and remove their labels -- as well as any traces of the adhesive that was used to attach the labels -- there are countless ways of decorating them. You can paint them, tie ribbons around them, stick things on them, drip melted crayon on them... Just be careful that your kids don't break them and injure themselves . Then, you can use the finished product for many things. You can use them as organizers for various items, flower vases, or even as lanterns .  Here are some ideas of things you can do with glass jars and bottles .  Again, the limit is your imagination. 

A few days ago, I blogged about how you and your children can make serious music using recycled items like tin cans.  But music is just one thing you can make with tin cans.  You can also decorate them to reuse them as pencil holders or organizers for other items. Older kids can make lanterns out of them by boring holes in them and adding a lighted votive candle inside.  Tin cans can also  be transformed into toys like toy phones and stilts. You can paint them, glue things on them -- the limit is the imagination! Just be sure to remove jagged edges or cover them with layers of masking tape, for safety. Here are some ideas of things you can do with tin cans, with instructions. But like I said, the limit is the imagination!

This portrait of John F. Kennedy is made mostly of eggshells . Indeed, you and your children can make art using them if you do not throw them away.  Eggshell mosaics are easy to make, although you can also make them as complex as you want them. To make an eggshell mosaic, draw first your template on a sheet of paper. Decide what color you want for each part. After cleaning your eggshells, paint them your desired colors and sort them out.  Spread glue over each part of your template, then attach the eggshells according to your desired color scheme.  When the glue dries, you're done! Here is a Youtube tutorial showing how it's done. You can also use the same eggshell mosaic technique to decorate items like vases . Eggshell mosaics are an accessible version of an ancient art form , something you and your children will enjoy making at little or no cost.

A zine is just a homemade magazine.  It is a lot of fun to make, and you and your children can make it about any topic you want:  stories, poetry, artwork, hobbies, life during ECQ...All you need for a basic zine are sheets of paper, writing materials, and a pair of scissors.  Of course, you can make a more elaborate zine using additional materials if you want. This article describes a simple method for creating a zine.  Here are some other ideas. After you make your zine, you can scan it and e-mail it to family and friends. Or you can just keep it, for the whole family to read, enjoy, and be proud of.

Paper weaving is easy to learn and to do.  For very young children, it is a good way to introduce the concepts of "over" and "under".   The only materials needed are paper, scissors, and glue or paste or adhesive tape.  Your designs can be as easy or as complicated as you want; you can experiment with different color combinations.  In any case, the result will look pretty just the same. Some instructions to get started are here and here . You can post the weaving on the wall as a work of art. You can also use paper weaving to make cards, bookmarks, and other similar items. Older children who want a bit of a challenge might even want to try weaving paper baskets.  Here are instructions to make two kinds of baskets: one out of colored construction paper, another out of rolled strips of newspaper. Here are more ideas of things you can do with paper weaving.  There are countless others in the Internet.

Image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Einbanddurchreibung_von_Stempeln_%280116%29.jpg "Tripsigraph" is just a fancy term for "rubbing". A rubbing is very easy to make. Put any textured object - a coin, a leaf, a doily, etc. - under a sheet of paper, then, using a crayon or a soft-grade pencil, rub the surface of the paper that covers the textured item. You will end up with an impression of the item on the sheet of paper. Your kids (and most likely you too) will enjoy making rubbings. And there are many things you can do with them. They can stand alone as works of art, or you can mount them on thicker paper or cardboard  to make cards, bookmarks, gift tags, place cards, and other paper crafts. Have fun!

UPDATE: Philstar  already revised its article about this initiative. Dr. Nicole Perreras, a doctor in RITM, is requesting kids to make hand-made get well cards for Covid-19 patients. The cards can be scanned and emailed to covidletters@gmail.com . Someone will print them out, and the patients will each get a card as part of their breakfast trays. Some ideas for making cards can be found here . But any hand-made card, no matter how simple and made with whatever materials you have at home, will brighten the day of someone who needs it most. Who knows? Perhaps the smile that your kid's card brings to the patient who receives it may just be that push the patient's body needs to fight and defeat that virus.

When I was 10 years old, an aunt gave me a book on origami. I really loved it. That book gave me countless of fun hours folding animals, flowers, fancy boxes, and other objects. Origami is an engaging and cheap activity for children and even adults. All you need are square-shaped sheets of paper (which you can make using scratch paper), scissors for some projects, and instructions. There are many websites of origami projects. For the butterfly and the cherry blossom pictured in this post, I got the instructions from   origami-instructions.com, where there are countless other projects. It even allows you to upload and share pictures of your completed projects. The key to making good origami projects is to make the folds neat, crisp, and accurate. Origami is a fun way for kids to learn eye-hand coordination and geometry. A warning, though: origami is addicting. Your house will be soon cluttered with origami figures that you will hesitate to throw away!