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Building Plans
If your child enjoys building toys, encourage your young builder to become a planner and designer, too. Give your child paper and a pencil and have your child make a drawing of what he or she intends to build next.
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Fireworks Craft
Here's an easy and fun craft for kids for Independence Day.
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Self Portrait
Through this directed lesson, kids will learn how to create a colorful, stylized version of themselves.
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Friendship Tree
This fingerprint friendship tree craft is a great way to help your children document and remember the friends they have made.
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Kids Obstacle Course
Get kids hopping, dipping and skipping in an obstacle course that builds gross motor skills.
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Pointillist Planet
Pointillism is a technique using dots of color to create images. Challenge your child to paint a planet in dots!
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Leaf Squirrel Craft
This project uses simple materials found in nature to create a squirrel in a tree, but kids can use their imagination to create lots of different animals or landscapes using leaves.
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Pteranodon Kids Sculpture
These creatures were inspired by a wire-and-wood dog made by American sculptor and artist, Alexander Calder. Kids will love how the clothespin head makes the scupture interactive.
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Superhero Yourself
This art project has your child creating a superhero version of himself. Think of attributes of your superhero and write a list. What's their superpower? What are they afraid of?
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Young Director
Even young children are capable of using technology in creative ways, and parents should encourage such self-expression. Prompt your child to create a "video tour" of your home or neighborhood.
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Calder-Inspired Garden Art Project
Kids will learn about visual design and balance in this art project inspired by American sculptor, Alexander Calder.
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Swimming Fish Tessellation
Kids will learn about tessellations in this art project, and even learn how to make one of their own. A tessellation is a repeated shape that fits together like a puzzle, with no overlaps or gaps. This style of art was made popular by the artist M.C. Escher.
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Make a Birdhouse Kids' Activity
Kids can design and build a birdhouse using a cardboard or plastic milk carton.
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Activity: What do you do all day?
Discover how your child sees you.
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Activity: Pattern necklace
Make a necklace with a repeating pattern to practice pattern recognition.
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Activity: Which cup?
Help your child develop her inference skills with these activities.
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Activity: Cubism in the kitchen
Bring out the little Picasso in your child with this art activity.
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Activity: Make your own music
Let your child make up music and dances with homemade instruments.
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Activity: Boxes o' fun
This fun art project will keep your child’s toys, treasures and tools organized.
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Activity: Paper maché bowls
Let your child create small paper maché bowls for serving snacks or holding tiny treasures.
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Activity: Stained glass windows
Your child can fill the room with dazzling colors by creating these easy stained "glass" windows.
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Activity: Create an ocean
Your child will make waves with this fun and easy art project.
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Activity: Blowin' in the wind
Your child will know which way the wind blows after she creates a colorful windsock.
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Activity: Fancy frames
Let your child create colorful picture frames that show off his artistic masterpieces or favorite family photographs.
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Activity: Big hands, small hands
With your child, create an impression that will last a lifetime.
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Activity: Festive candle holders
These decorative crafts can be tailored to any holiday.
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Make a Box Guitar
Strike a chord in your child’s interest in music by helping make his own box guitar.
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Make a Rain Stick
Help your child make his own version of a rain stick.
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Activity: Make your own piñata!
This project takes a bit of planning, but will be as fun to break as it is to make.
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Activity: Food prints
Make decorative printing stamps out of food.
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Activity: Thinking on your feet
Exercise your child's imagination and body.
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Activity: Fashioning fairy tales
Ask your child to fashion arts and crafts that illustrate Grimms' Fairy Tales.
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Activity: It’s in the bag
Help your child explore the world through the sense of touch.
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Activity: Popsicle patterns
This colorful activity works on your child's pattern recognition.
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Activity: If the jar fits
Here's a hands-on matching activity using common objects around the house.
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Activity: Creative wrappings
Let your child use their imaginations while making gift giving more personal.
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Activity: Clouds
This activity will let your child stretch her imagination out in the fresh air.
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Activity: Pattern borders
Decorate greeting cards with a repeating pattern your child can fill in and complete.
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Activity: Personalized puzzles
Make puzzles out of pictures your budding photographer has taken.
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Activity: Picture stories
Spark your child’s imagination and interest in reading and creative writing.
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Activity: Scratchboard painting
This activity allows your child to scratch the surface on the fascinating world of art.
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Activity: Buttoning
Help your child gain practice in sorting and sequencing.
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Activity: So long
Here’s an activity to help your child identify and sort different measurements.
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Simple Similes
Poems and stories written for children are often full of similes: comparisons between unlike objects that use the words like or as. After reading poems with similes, try to write one of your own.
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Books By Me
Making their own books gives children confidence in their writing skills.
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Activity: Sing or read
Use music to help your child make the connection between spoken and written words.
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Activity: Build CVCs
Encourage your child to build simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words from letters.
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Activity: Old MacDonald animal parts
Use a favorite song to practice blending sounds into words.
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Activity: Word collage
Help your child make a collage made of pictures of different words that rhyme.
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Activity: The sound that is the same
Help your child recognize the common letter sound within a group of words.
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Activity: CVC word riddles
Play a riddle game for words in the CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pattern.
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Activity: I'm taking a rhyming trip
Help your child pack an imaginary bag only with words that rhyme.
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Activity: Family scrapbook
Make a family scrapbook with your child that includes family photos and family facts.
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Activity: Picture stories
Spark your child’s imagination and interest in reading and creative writing.
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Activity: Point of View
Telling a tale from another point of view streches the imagination and enhances comprehension skills.
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Activity: More or less
Play this easy card game to teach your child number recognition and number value.
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Activity: Super sums
Use a deck of cards to teach number recognition and addition.
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Activity: How many jellybeans?
Count out sets of small objects to give your child practice with addition and subtraction.
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Activity: The big top
Let your child discover how one object can be a combination of many different shapes.
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Activity: Pennies for the piggy
Gain addition practice by counting pennies as they are added to a bank.
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Activity: Bean counters
Help your child establish the the one-to-one connection between number and object.
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Activity: Count your snacks
Use snack time as an opportunity for your child to practice early math skills.
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Activity: Lucky seven
Use this magic dice game to help your child learn her math facts for the number seven.
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Activity: Measure for measure
Armed with a ruler or tape measure, set your child loose to measure the world.
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Activity: Block power
Block out time for playing with blocks! Blocks are great math tools.
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Activity: So long
Here’s an activity to help your child identify and sort different measurements.
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Activity: How many scoops does it take?
Teach volume and capacity by encouraging your child to guess how many scoops of rice will fill different size containers.
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Activity: Play War
Play the card game “War” to give your child practice with greater than and less than.
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I Shrunk the Room!
By making a miniature model of their room or other familiar scenes, children can learn important geometric concepts.
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Biome Boxes Game
Get your child thinking about biomes by playing the Biome Boxes game with toy animal figures.
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Activity: Sun pictures
Create rudimentary photographs with your child and teach her the power of the sun.
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Activity: Volcanic action
Simulate volcanic action in your own backyard as you stimulate your child's interest in science.
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Activity: Will it float?
Use this simple experiment to introduce your child to essential science skills.
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Activity: Rotten apples
Protect your child’s health by using this experiment to demonstrate how germs are passed.
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Activity: Zoo time
Research your child's favorite animals, then follow up with a fun visit to the zoo.
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Activity: Tweet Tweets - Homemade Bird Feeder
Create some tasty treats for the wildlife in your child’s own backyard.
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Activity: Animal classification
Have your child make and illustrate a list of the different land animals and aquatic animals she has seen.
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Activity: How does your garden grow?
Gardening is a wonderful way to introduce children to life science. Dig in!
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Activity: Turn a leaf
Have your child collect leaves outside, then make a book identifying the different types.
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Activity: Summer buggin'
Inspire your young scientist to explore the variety of insects living in our world.
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Activity: Taxonomy
Further your child’s interest in animals while gaining practice in sorting and classifying.
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Activity: Farmers’ market
Take a field trip with your child and explore how food gets to the dinner table.
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Make Your Own Parachute
Learn a little about the language, history and science behind parachutes. Then, make your own simple parachute at home!
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Activity: African safari
Play traditional games and hear stories from other parts of the world to increase geographic literacy.
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Around the World Art Project
Kids learn social studies skills by thinking about land, sea, air and space travel with this interactive art project.
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Create the Spirit of St. Louis as a Paper Plane
Build your own version of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis airplane out of paper!
