Keeping the grandkids happy and occupied can sometimes tax even the most creative mind.  Here are a number of activities you might like to think about.  They're easy to do and cheap to fund and should keep them happy for hours.  

Our projects this edition are courtesy of www.whatwedoallday.com and there are lots more ideas so give them a visit.

​ If you have any ideas we can pass on to other grandparents use our CONTACT US form to share it with us and we'll share it with our readers.

THAUMATROPE

A thaumatrope is a fun blend of science and art that offers endless possibilities for fun.

What you need:

• Card stock
• Something round
• Scissors
• Double-sided tape
• Pencil and markers
• Straws or other stick-like object such as chopsticks, dowels, or even real honest-to-goodness sticks

Instructions:
1. Trace and cut out two identical circles.
2. Draw two images which “go together.” How about an osprey on one side and a fish on the other so that the spinning image would look like an osprey was carrying the fish. Or the classic “goldfish in the bowl” with a fish on one side and a bowl on the other. Or a roaring fire, with the pile of wood on one side and the flames on the other. The possibilities are endless.
 
TIP: To align the drawings, stack the paper circles and press hard with a pencil around the outline of the first image. The image impression will be on the 2nd circle and kids can easily align the images appropriately.
 
3. Place a piece of double sided tape on the straw and apply the first paper circle. Flip over and apply second piece of tape. Carefully align the images back to back and press to secure.
 
4. Hold the straw between two palms and spin to see the images combine.

HANDMADE WRAPPING PAPER

I love to use handmade wrapping paper to wrap gifts and kid made wrapping paper is lots of fun. This tape resist technique is great because it allows you personalize the present and also eliminates the need for a card if you are in a hurry.
 
Use low-tack tape (such as painter’s tape) to write the child’s name, initial or age. Madly color and scribble around the tape. Remove tape. Voilà!
 
Needless to say, this technique works best with flat packages such as books or games. If the package is small, an initial or the child’s age is perfect.
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SHAVING CREAM MARBLING

What you need:

• Baking pan. We used an old pan, but you could wrap a pan in foil.
• Shaving cream.
• Droppers. 
• Liquid color. We used liquid watercolors, but you could also use food colouring.
• Watercolour paper or heavy card stock
• Craft stick or plastic knife
• Spatula

​Instructions:
Fill a baking pan with shaving cream. Squirting out a mound of shaving cream is always a fun start to any project for kids!  Use an eyedropper to drop liquid watercolours all over the cream. You could also used food colouring.
 
Then, using a wooden craft stick or plastic knife, swirl, swirl, swirl. Stirring the colors may just make a muddy brown mess, watch closely and stop the action if your kid gets a bit carried away. Or, just let it go and see what happens. Either approach is fine, really. 
 
Press heavy paper on top of the shaving cream. We used watercolor paper.
 
Remove shaving cream. At first I used paper towels but that smeared the color so I had the brilliant idea of scraping it off with a spatula.
 
That’s it! Enjoy the fruits of your labor! You can either frame it as is or use the gorgeous paper in other crafts. 

KINDNESS TOKENS

It's always good to encourage family members to be kind to each other, both kids and adults. Here's an idea that makes kindness a little more tangible.
Plastics marked #6 can be shrunk in the oven in the same way the old Shrinky Dinks used to be. 

What you need:

• Plastics labeled #6
• Colored Sharpies
• Scissors
• Oven, kids and patience (not necessarily in that order)

You may want to cut out the shapes yourself as this might be a bit hard for little hands. You want to remember that when heated, the plastic will really shrink down. It can be impossible to predict how small they will shrink if the plastic lids and containers are of different weights and thicknesses. It doesn’t have to be precise but our advice is to make the shapes bigger than you think you need to.

First decide what words or phrases you want to put on the tokens. Reminders that will promote family harmony, like “share”, “cooperation”, “please listen”, etc, are all good, but you can decide what works best for you. 
 
You may need to help them with the writing but then your grandchildren can do all the decorating.  It's much easier to draw on the plastic if you place it on top of a piece of cardboard. That also helps prevent accidental Sharpie marks on the table. 
 
Bake the plastic pieces on a foil or parchment covered tray at 175°C or 350°F for 1-3 minutes. Watch them closely. They shrink up fast. First they curl then uncurl and lay flat. That’s when they're ready. After pulling them out of the oven, you can press them flat with a metal spatula if you want. In case you're worried about smell, there is none.
 
Some of the plastics may shrivel up rather oddly, but this is not a precision craft. It’s about family harmony, not achieving perfection.

Keep all the tokens in a small bowl on the bench. When someone wants something, they can find the token and show it to the interested party as a little reminder to be mindful of others. For example, if the grandchildren are fighting, you can pull out the “cooperation” token. If one of them wants to tell you something,  the “please listen” token can come in handy.

Before the oven.

After they've cooled.