Top Pinterest Boards for Kids

I adore Pinterest and get inspired scrolling through my Pinterest feed. I love stealing a few moments curled up with a cup of coffee scrolling though all the wonderful DIY projects, kids activities and art projects. If you were to ask my hubby, he would say I was a Pinaholic:) You can find me on Pinterest here and it would totally make my day if you followed me! I pin a wide variety of things, but my favorite pins are engaging ideas all about PLAY and LEARNING activities for kids.

Finding creative/fresh content can feel like a shot in the dark. I love having my feed packed full of inspiring images that make me want to click though, however finding those “must follow pinners” can be challenging. If you are a parent, teacher, homeschooler, or caregiver, then you will love that I compiled a list of my Top Pinterest Boards for Kids. Each of the boards are packed full of the best activities to play and learn right along with your kids!

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Top Pinterest Boards for Kids

Growing A Jeweled Rose ~ Crystals board is packed full of fun and educational activities for kids. Her 2 girls are always having fun and enjoy learning though messy play. She has some of the best Play recipes that I have seen.

In Lieu of Preschool ~ Genny is a former teacher who enjoys engaging her two kids in fun Preschool activities at home. Her board is packed full of exciting activities for little ones that you won’t want to miss.

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas ~ Bern’s Pinterest board is a wonderful resources for crafts, learning and parenting activities. Being a teacher, she is always creating and finding fun educational activities to do with her 2 lil divas.

B-Inspired Mama ~ Krissy is a former art teacher and busy mom of 3 kiddos. She loves bringing moms simple ideas for crafts, recipes, learning fun and creative parenting ideas.

Train-Up a Child ~ Allison’s board is packed full of play, parenting and learning. She loves playing right along with her kids and gives them plenty of opportunity to do lots of hands on learning and messy play.

Housing A Forest ~ I love inspiring my kids to spend time creating, experimenting and playing. You will find lots of inspiring ideas all about creating though play and discovery.

Mess For Less ~ Vicky is a former teacher that loves creating her kids. Her boards are full of engaging crafts and activities, fun food, parenting tips, and making memories on a budget.

Fun at Home with Kids ~ Asia is a fun loving mom and former teacher. She loves encouraging her 2 little ones to be creative with lots of fun open-ended play activities. Her photography is beautiful and I love scrolling through all her wonderful images.

Coffee Cups and Crayons ~ Megan’s board is full of fun and useful ideas for modern parents. She shares lots of engaging ideas for fun and easy learning activities, kids crafts, party inspiration and acts of kindness for families.

Fantastic Fun and Learning ~ Shaunna is a homeschooling mamma that shares lots of engaging learning activities, play ideas and crafts that are perfect for preschoolers. Her board is packed full of wonderful resources for preschoolers

Plain Vanilla Mom ~ Jennifer is on a mission to make every “plain vanilla” day special. Her board is full of fun learning ideas and yummy baking recipes. I love her photos as well, makes me want to jump right in a play along:)

Twodaloo ~ Stephanie is fascinated by natural learning philosophies and creates lots of open-ended play, process art, and nature posts. Her board is packed full of early childhood activities, parenting, and post all about living a creative life.

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Another one of my favorite Kid focused Pinterest boards is our PLAY group Pinterest board. It is packed full of great ideas to keep your kids busy, having fun and learning.

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I love finding new Pinterest boards to follow. Feel free to share a link to your favorite kid focused board in the comments. I can’t wait to check out what you are pinning!

How to Blow a Bubble with Your Hands

My kids have always loved playing with bubbles. Kaleb could hardly wait to show us the new “trick” he learned at school. Yep, apparently when the boys were to be washing their hands, they were secretly creating beautiful big bubbles. Here is Kaleb’s simple tutorial on how to blow a bubble with your hands. Love it!

Materials needed to blow big bubbles with your hands:

Sink with water
liquid hand soap.
and your hands:)

To make your bubbles you will need to:

Wet your hands
Then generously rub your hands with soap
Place your hands back in the running water, like you are about to wash them
Rub them together until you have super slippery and soapy hands, Make sure that you don’t wash all the soap off, you just want to wet your hands until they are slippery.
Place your hands in a circle (you can either use one hand or both hands)
Create a “soap skin” (like when you use a bubble blower) and gently blow
You will need to keep re-applying soap every few bubbles to keep your hands slippery.

It can take a bit of practice to get the bubbles to float off your hands, but the kids got super excited when it worked.

If you blow really gently, you will be able to make a bubble almost as large as your head. They also discovered that they could also get the bubbles to stretch between both their hands. Eventually the bubble would divide into 2 large bubbles, one for each hand.

I love that these simple bubbles can be made anywhere, and really need no special tools or materials. No fancy bubble solution needed, just regular soap. Love it!

For more fun ways to play with bubbles, check out our:

Rainbow Bubble Snakes

Bubble Painting

Soap Free Bubbles

How to make Frozen Bubbles

Engaging Activities For Boys

Welcome back to the Weekly Kids Co-op! With summer right around the corner, I am compiling a list of fun things that I know my kids will want to try. I love summer break, and I can hardly wait for my kids home all day. Their break never seems like it is long enough to accommodate all the things we want to do, so I am starting planning now:) I love this list of Engaging Activities For Boys linked up from the Weekly Kids Co-op.

Simple boats that are sure to be a hit ~ Tinfoil River and Ice Boats
Create a catapult to launch marshmallows ~ Clothespin Catapults
Embrace their curious side ~ Tinkering
Add a fun spiderweb trellis to your garden ~ Spider Web Trellis
Create building pieces, you are only limited by your imagination ~ Cardboard Building Boards
Take the cars outdoors and construct some roads ~ DIY Outdoor Roads
Fun game that your boys will love ~ Ping Pong Fish Bowl Toss
Boys of all ages love sticks~ Sticks ~ Natures Perfect Toy
Worms are great for fishing and composting ~ DIY compost Bin with Worms
SImple science experiment that your boys will love ~ Shooting Water Experiment
Create a spiderweb masterpiece ~ Catch a Spider Web

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

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

Floating Rice Bottle

As you know, we love simple science experiments. When my kids saw this fun science experiment/trick on Steve Spangler Science and had to try it. I love that it uses things we have around the house and it was so easy to set up. Next time you have friends over, wow them with this simple Floating Rice Bottle Trick.

All you need to amaze your friends with this simple trick is:

2 plastic water bottles ~ empty and dry
2 pencils or chopsticks
Dry Rice
Funnel ~ to fill the bottles with rice

Before you preform your trick, you will need to do a little behind the scenes work. Fill one bottle with dry rice about 1″ from the top. Fill the 2nd bottle to the top and gently tap it on the counter. Pack the rice in the 2nd bottle as much as possible (you may need to add more rice and keep packing). You could also push the pencil into the bottle a few times to pack it further. Make sure that when you are done, both bottles appear to have the same amount of rice in them.

My kids had so much fun setting their trick up. They set the 2 bottles on the table along with the pencils and called their friends in. If you are looking for a fun way to perform your trick, check out how Steve Spangler explains lite and regular rice. My kids loved this part:)

Have your friend push a pencil into bottle #1 (unpacked rice) while you push a pencil into bottle #2 (packed rice). Your friends pencil will just slide in and out easily. However, you will be able to pick up your bottle of rice with only just the pencil. Your friend will question what he did wrong or if you did something to your pencil. You can offer to switch pencils and try again. You will find the same result. Bottle #1 stays on the table while bottle #2 is easily lifted.

You are able to lift bottle #2 with a pencil because of friction and density. Make sure to click on the above link to check out the full scientific reason why and how it works.

If you are up for revealing your secrets, dump each bottle of rice into their own measuring bowl. You will be able to see how much extra rice was packed into Bottle #2. You might be surprised at how much it will hold.

I hope your kids have fun amazing their friends with this simple friction trick. If you are looking for more scientific inspiration then check this list of our favorite experiments (just click on the red link)

10 Fun Backyard Activities

Welcome back to the Weekly Kids Co-op. This week I am featuring 10 Fun Backyard Activities that you kids will love linked up from last weeks Kids Co-op. Perfect for keeping the kids busy and having fun this summer. My kids can’t wait to try some of these fun ideas.

Add Some Color to Your Sidewalk ~ Easy Sented Sidewalk Paint
Dance, Run and Jump ~ Water Blob
Use Weather to Create Art ~ 5 Ways to Paint in the Rain
Create an Imaginative Small World ~ A Fairy Garden
Learn Math While Jumping Around ~ Gross Motor Addition Game
Gross Motor Games ~ Pool Noodle Play Date
Moving and Learning Letters ~ Sidewalk Chalk Phonics Games
Splash, Squish and Play ~ Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud
Create Simple Art ~ Chalk Rubbings
Playing with Discarded Items ~ 5 Ways to Play with Tires

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

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