kids crafts

Make Forest Fairy Houses in the Great Outdoors

We made Fairy Doors on trees while exploring the great outdoors via @PagingSupermom

Here in Arizona, Fall means we can finally venture outdoors, so I guess we’re on a bit of an outdoors kick. Last week we shared ideas to help you go outdoors with your kids, and this week I’ve got a fun and imaginary outdoor activity: building tiny fairy houses out of items you collect in the forest!

Fairy House Ideas - great outdoor activity for kids to make while camping in the forest via @PagingSupermom

We made Fairy Doors on trees while exploring the great outdoors via @PagingSupermom

We went up to the mountains recently and stayed with some friends in a beautiful cabin. The kids were a little restless one day, so I dug into my childhood memories of making woodland fairy houses with my mom; whenever we were camping. Since I love all things miniature, it was one of my favorite outdoor activities, and so I showed the kids how to set up little fairy homes with beds, dressers, tables, and any other decoration or furniture our creativity could think of.

If you’ve just got boys, perhaps you might consider these houses for a little gnome rather than a fairy. Regardless, my boys loved this forest game — they built a tree house, a mini playground and even an electrical generating plant!

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Boredom-Busting Summer Activities for Older Kids

Boredom Busters for Older Kids via @PagingSupermom

I don’t know about you, but it gets tricky keeping my kids busy during the summer without a bunch of screen time, especially those older kids. We live in Phoenix so it’s too hot to be outside, which adds another challenge. I am always on the lookout for summer activities to keep my older kids playing, thinking, growing and limiting video games/tv/computer etc. With teens and tweens it’s especially difficult to find summer activities that will hold their interest. Here are summer boredom busters for teens that have worked well for us this summer.

1. Build a House of Cards.  It takes patience, a steady hand and practice. A rough surface definitely helps and be ready with the camera to snap a photo of success, because the whole thing is very delicate and a breath of air knocks it flat in 0.2 seconds. My two oldest boys have spent a good hour or two on a few different afternoons trying different techniques and building bigger/taller houses.

Boredom Busters for Tweens via @PagingSupermom

Boredom Busters for Tweens via @PagingSupermom

Boredom Busters for Older Kids via @PagingSupermom

2. Craft Stick Bombs.  My oldest son learned how to make these chain reactions from a friend and then looked up more patterns online and even made up some of his own. Again, this activity gets kids using their hands and brains. It takes a little patience to learn the patterns, but they’re not too complicated. My kids’ favorite is the Cobra Weave because it is long and super impressive when you let it loose and all the sticks fly… but they also like the smaller throwing ones that explode on impact. I like to challenge them to create and name new designs. Look up “Craft Stick Bombs” for detailed tutorials and ideas.

Boredom Busters for Older Kids via @PagingSupermom

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