Family Game Night – ThinkFun

I have said this before, but family game night is something we really enjoy and value. There is nothing better than spending time together giggling and laughing, especially if it involves a bowl of popcorn:) We love trying new games, so when we received a couple games from Thinkfun to play and review we were really excited. If your kids love brain teasers, puzzles and logic games then they will love the following games created by ThinkFun!

The first games we tried was Thinkfun Mini Mouth. This multi-player game is a great way to help kids build vocabulary, improve reading skill and work on their spelling. It is a fast paced word race game where the object is to be the first player to say a word that includes the turned over letters.

We spent most of our time giggling at the silly words the kids came up with. My favorite letter combinations were “z,r,u” or “k,x”. Simply because my kids have no reservations about just saying whatever come to mind. Mini Mouth is a a great compact game that is all about learning while kids are giggling and having fun.

Being a travel game, it is the perfect size to keep in the car or purse. This is a fun way to encourage your kids to flex their vocabulary muscles no matter where you are. The game comes with 26 playing tiles (Letter A-Z) and a handy little storage bag. I also love that it is affordable.

The next game we played was ThinkFun UnHinged. It is a fun pocket sized brain teaser that is challenging no matter your puzzle solving skills. It is a clever puzzle that includes a little booklet of 40 puzzle challenges that increase difficulty from beginner to expert. You recreate the challenges by folding and unfolding various hinged blue and white hexes.

My kids love brain-teasers and thinking games, so they jumped right in with this challenge. This game is designed to be played as a single player, however my kids turned it into a fun family challenge. They set a timer and we tried to “beat the clock.” When the time was up the puzzle was passed on to the next player to see if they could solve it before the time ran out. For our house, the timer was a fun way to get the whole family involved in playing and it built a little excitement.

Since it is compact and all one-piece (plus the challenge book) it would be perfect for long car rides, on the plane, or in general just on the go. I love that there are no little pieces to loose!

I would love to hear what your favorite way to spend family night is. Do you enjoy playing games together, and if so what are your favorites?

Disclosure: I received a free product from the sponsor to review. I received no monetary compensation and my opinions are my own and were not influenced by the sponsor.

Shredded Paper Snowman

When I saw this little snowman from BabyCenter, I knew we had to make one. Who knew that shredded paper could be so cute! We added our own twist by creating the snowman shape with paper plates. This little Shredded Paper Snowman is so easy to make, and your kids will love the process!

To make your own Shredded Paper Snowman, you will need:

2 Paper Plates stapled together
Shredded Paper
Black Paper Circles for Eyes and Buttons
Orange Paper Triangle Nose
White Glue

I stapled 2 paper plates together into a simple snowman shape. Next I encourage my little guy to squeeze glue all over his paper plates. He couldn’t get enough of this, thankfully he has pretty good aim with the glue bottle:) Make sure to protect your table with paper.

Once the plates are nice an “gluey”, have them start pressing handfuls of shredded paper onto their plates. You may end up with bits of paper everywhere, but it sweeps up really easy.

We found that we needed to add a 2nd layer of glue and more shredded paper on top of the first layer. I got no objection, just a look of pure joy that he got to squeeze more glue. By adding the 2nd layer, it made the paper stick better and also gave our little snowman a little extra dimension.

This is the first time that we created anything from shredded paper. It was so much fun, that we will have to find more ways to create with it. Another wonderful free material to craft with!

“Paper Snowman” (which according to the creator is his proper name) turned out so adorable. I especially love all the buttons:) They ate lunch together, and I heard lots of funny comments about snowmen not liking strawberries just carrots. I love kids:)

These little guys will probably continue dropping paper, but that’s OK. I can just hear him saying “Look, my snowman is melting!” I think this is my favorite snowman craft that we have made so far!

What is your favorite way to build snowmen? Outside in the snow, or cozy warm indoors?

Exciting Snow Play

Seems like I can think of nothing other than snow and snowmen recently. Maybe a warm vacation is in order to escape our winter wonderland:) Last week from the Kids Co-op, I featured 6 creative Snow Themed Craft ideas that your kids will love. This week I’m featuring Exciting Snow Play ideas that were linked up from last weeks Kids Co-op. Kids love playing in the snow, so why not give them some new and exciting ways to explore this chilly medium!

Colored Snowballs from Life with Moore Babies
Bringing it Inside! – exploring snow indoors from PlayDrMom
Winter Sensory Bin: Bringing the Snow Inside from Crayon Freckles
Making Homemade Ice Cream…with Snow from Blue Skies Ahead
Outdoor Art in the Snow from Craft Knife

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab a Housing A Forest button.

Come back every Thursday to see if your creative idea were featured and link up any new ideas! (I will be using one image and a link back to your blog.)

Here are our favorite snow play activities from Housing A Forest.

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Counting Snowmen

We love building snowmen, although recently the weather has not been co-operating. So instead we decided to build our own snowmen craft. They turned out adorable and worked perfect as a simple counting snowmen activity.

To make your own Counting Snowmen, you will need:

Egg Cartons
Toothpicks – for building the snowmen noses. Use an orange marker to color them.
Googly Eyes
Black Pompoms
White Glue
Foam Stickers – for the hats, scarves, and arms

Start by cutting apart your egg cartons into long strips. These little guys look adorable as simple snowmen, but by creating a set of them you can make your own simple math activity.

Once you have each of your little snowmen cut out, paint them white. We had so much fun putting our little snowmen together, I forgot to take pictures. Sometimes it is wonderful to set aside the camera and just enjoy creating with the kids:)

I added the numbers 1-6 onto a large sheet of paper. I love being able to reinforce number recognition even when the kids don’t realize it. Don’t they look adorable all lined up!

The kids love playing games. I was excited to turn this little craft into a fun learning game. We took turns hiding the little snowmen all over the living room. When the kids found a snowmen, they counted the number of “snowballs” it had and then placed it above the appropriate number. The kids had so much fun searching for the little hiding snowmen. They were really excited when they placed the snowmen above the right number. Lots of cute cheers and encouragement for each other I love being able to turn crafts into simple learning tools that kids enjoy.

I love that these little snowmen used up a bunch of supplies I had laying around the house and our recycle bin. Egg cartons are such a great free crafting resource. I would love to hear what you are creating from your egg cartons!

For more exciting kids activities, check out this fun list of Winter Ideas!

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Snow Themed Crafts – Weekly Kids Co-op #9

Sorry for being late at putting together the weekly Kids Co-op. Things got a bit crazy with my 5 day series on the ABC’s of Crafting on a Budget. I had so much fun putting the series together, however that pushed back my favorite weekly link party. Last week I looked back on the Best of 2012. Check out all the inspiring projects and crafts that you guys linked up from last year. This week I’m featuring fantastic snow-themed crafts that were linked up from last weeks Kids Co-op. Even if you have no snow outside, your kids will love creating these little snow focused crafts!

Easy Snowman Art that is perfect for all ages from Learn Create Love. Her site is packed full of adorable snowman crafts..
Why not throw a snowman party? This simple Paper Plate Snowman Garland from School Time Snippets would make a perfect decoration.
I love these little Snowman Thank-you Notes from PlayDrMom. The skinny tooth pick arms and legs are cracking me up.
A fun winter twist on a classic stamping activity. These cute Apple Print Snowflakes from Boy Mama Teacher Mama would make fun wrapping paper.
Lots of fun tearing and glueing in this adorable Letter S: Snowman Craft from Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails.
We love printing and painting. I am now on the hunt for giant foam cutouts to try our hand at Snowflake Printing from Teaching The Little People.

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab a Housing A Forest button.

Come back every Thursday to see if your creative idea were featured and link up any new ideas! (I will be using one image and a link to your blog.)

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Google + and Twitter.