Activity: Ball and cup trick

One of the things that I am very proud of is that my dad is an amateur magician. He's done many a birthday party for us kids, and even some church functions. But before you get all excited and ask what the secrets to his tracks are, don't even bother asking. I think that magic is a wonderful thing and I REFUSE to figure out the tricks...even the simple little kid ones. I still enjoy watching my dad practice and viewing him with the mindset of a 6 year old. And that's where the activity comes in. Kids love magic tricks too! So for this activity, there are a lot of choices.

1. Plan a magic themed birthday party (there are lots of people around that do some magic tricks, or you could learn them yourself).

2. Buy an amateur magician kit for play time with the kids (you may want to make a few extra capes if you have a lot of kids)

3. Find some science experiments (make gak, flubber, goo, etc.)

4. Watch a Harry Potter movie.

5. Color changing drinks (I think there is some clear kool-ade that changes colors or something).

6. Add peroxide and baking soda to a bottle of mountain dew (it will glow in the dark!)

7. Color with Crayola Color Wonder products.

8. Make a volcano erupt using baking soda and vinegar.

9. Spend some time on Youtube learning for easy and simple card tricks that your kids can learn.

10. Make some milk magic!

Candy Corn Art

Fall is my favorite season! I love the colors, the smells, kids being back in school, and all the excitement that it entails. I also love Halloween crafts. I love doing the crafts, saving them, and using them year after year for my Halloween decorations. My mom did the same things when we were kids. Like mother like daughter I guess! It is no wonder that I am constantly looking for new fun crafts that kids ages 3 and older can do. I went through my Pinterest Halloween page and decided on a craft.

Here is a summary of one that we did this week.

This is my finished candy corn. 

Candy Corn Artwork

Materials Needed:
Craft glue sticks or wet glue
Black, white, orange, and yellow construction paper
White crayons
Scissors


Directions: have either you or the kids, depending on their ability to use scissors, cut small squares out of the yellow, orange, and white construction paper. The amount of squares you will use will directly correlate to how many kids your have. If you only have one or two children doing the craft, then I'd only cut on page of each color into squares. You can always cut more if needed. We had plenty left over when we were done.

This is my 3 year old daughter's candy corn.

Next, using the white crayon, draw a candy corn shape (triangle with rounded edges) on the black construction paper. Then instruct the kids where the colors "should" go (orange on bottom, yellow in the middle, and white on top). And if you are anything like me, just let go of color placement perfection preferences now, or you will be pretty stressed out when trying to get a 3 year old to follow your color instructions perfectly.








Now and let the kids have fun! And remember, the idea of all crafts for children is to have fun, enjoy themselves, and develop important fine motor skills in the process.

This is how my daughter decided she wanted to craft instead.