Most children love to get their hands dirty while making crafts. They love the feel of finger paints oozing between their fingers and really don’t mind having glitter all over them. Some even think it’s fun! You can teach your child how to make a cloud picture, one of the perfect children activities for a sunny day.

Encourage your child to spend some time watching the clouds pass by before beginning the craft. They’ll be able to see the various shapes, sizes, and colors of clouds. This will also give them ideas of what they can make their cloud pictures look like. If you have more than one child, it’s unlikely their pictures will look the same although they may be similar.

Your child can use any number of mediums to create their cloud pictures. You might want to have on hand shaving cream, finger paints, food coloring, cotton balls, paper towels, and glue. You’ll also want to have plenty of finger paint paper available because it’s unlikely your child will want to stop with just one cloud picture! If you have sky blue paper, it might make the process easier, and they’ll be pleased with the results.

Here are some ideas for cloud pictures:

* Cotton Ball Clouds – You can draw a pattern of a cloud for the children to use as a base for their picture, or you can allow them to create their own clouds if their picture is made from cotton balls. If this is the method you’re using, have the children pull the cotton balls apart slightly and then glue the cotton to the paper.

* Paper Towel Clouds – Children will need several white paper towels, glue, and blue construction paper. They can tear the paper towels into pieces and glue them into shapes that they feel look like clouds. Let them use their imagination to create images much like they would see in nature.

* Shaving Cream Clouds – Children love playing with shaving cream and this is one craft that is sure to please. Squeeze a blob of shaving cream onto a piece of paper made for finger painting. Allow them to add a few drops of food coloring to the shaving cream and mix the food coloring in. Let the children use the colored shaving cream to paint clouds. If the food coloring wasn’t completely mixed, the variations can become the shadows of the clouds.

Children, and some adults, all over the world love to watch the clouds pass overhead as they lie on their back in the grass. This is an activity to share with your children to calm them down before making crafts, and will also encourage them as they learn how to make a cloud picture. Be prepared, however - your child may enjoy the craft so much they want to decorate their room with their creations.

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School bells will be ringing again soon, and with a new school year comes homework. Your child may need your help learning how to make homework less stressful. Using the following these ideas may provide your child with the help they need for homework problems.

If your child is like many, they may procrastinate when it comes to homework. Of course, this adds to the stress they feel. Creating a schedule for time at home will enable them accomplish everything they have to do. A good schedule would include:

* Wind-down time and snack
* Homework
* Chores
* Dinner
* Time with family

To make the transition from school to home easier, give them a half hour to ride their bike, watch one television program, or do a craft. A nutritious snack is also a good idea when children return home, particularly if lunch was earlier in the day. A piece of fruit, yogurt, or a cheese sandwich will give them much-needed energy and allow them to concentrate better on the task at hand.

Set aside a specific place for your child to do homework. You’ll want to have a basket or box which contains supplies they’ll need including pencils, paper, calculator, eraser, and markers. If you they need your help managing their time, you may want them to do homework at the kitchen table.

Break down assignments into smaller portions of time and be available if they need your help. You can be available without sitting by them and doing their homework for them. Knowing you’re available to help should they run into problems can be comforting. You may choose to read, pay bills, or do another activity at the table with them.

Limit the number of outside activities your child has to avoid burnout. If they’re spending all their evening hours practising sports, with scouting, or in band they won’t have time for homework. You may want to institute an “academics first” rule if they are involved in too much.

What do you do if you think the teacher is assigning too much homework? Make an appointment to speak with them, without the children being present, and discuss any problems your child may have. Speaking to the teacher in front of the child could lead them to question the teacher’s authority from then on. You may also want to ask the teacher what you can do to help your child learn.

Use breaks between assignments for young children, and at least every hour for older students. The break doesn’t have to be a long time, but enough to allow them to get a drink or get up and walk around.

Homework and stress seem to go hand-in-hand. You can do much to teach them how to make homework less stressful by following these useful ideas. You may also empathize; it may not have been so long ago you were doing homework yourself.

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What mother of preschoolers or other children hasn’t found broken crayons in the couch, under the couch, and all over the floor?  You may even have been frustrated to find a crayon in the laundry, way after it’s too late to salvage the clothes in that load.  Help your child create crayon wax-melting art to keep from having to throw all the broken crayons away.

Melted wax is dangerous for anyone, especially for children.  Please be careful when trying any of the following crayon wax-melting art projects.  Adult supervision is definitely a must for melted wax artists.  Here’s how to do it:

In the oven:  Set your oven to 250 degrees.  Create new crayons by melting the old broken pieces.  Break the pieces up into smaller pieces and sort the crayons with like colors.  Place the crayon pieces into an old muffin tin.  Put the tin into the oven and then turn the oven off.  Watch the crayons so they don’t melt entirely.  When the crayons have melted sufficiently, remove them from the oven and then place the tin into the freezer for half an hour.  Take the tin out and then pop the new, larger crayons out.

Double Boiler:  Another way to melt peeled crayons is over a double boiler.  Use an old pan that you were going to throw away.  Get a larger pot and place water in the pot to boil.  Put the old pan into the water so it floats.  Put the crayons into the upper pan and allow them to melt.  You can then use a ladle or measuring cup to remove small amounts of wax.  Dribble or paint the melted wax onto paper or into old candy molds.  You can also dribble or pour melted wax on wet sand.

Color on Fabric:  On a blank sheet of paper, create a design you’d like to have on a T-shirt or other piece of fabric.  Color the design heavily, using plenty of crayon.  Set your iron to cool and allow it to heat up.  Place newspaper between the layers of fabric so the colors don’t bleed through.  Then iron the paper until the design shows through.  For best results, use 100% synthetic fabrics.

Sun catchers:  Children love the colors that are thrown across the room through sun catchers.  You can help your child create a melted crayon wax sun catcher.  Give your child a pencil sharpener and let them make crayon shavings.  Fold a large sheet of wax paper and sprinkle crayon shavings on half of it.  With a warm iron, run the iron over the wax paper quickly.  Allow the wax paper to cool and then cut it into various shapes.  Make butterflies or flowers with holes in them where you can tape the melted crayon wax sun catcher on the back so the light and colors shine through.

Let the artist come out in your child.  However, since you’re working with crayon wax-melting art, be sure to supervise closely to keep your child from injury.  The artwork they create will spread colorful light across your room and into your heart.

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Everyone in the family has the responsibility to help keep the home running smoothly.  Obviously there are some chores very young children can’t do like shoveling snow.  What are the age-appropriate chores for the winter months?

There are many benefits of giving children chores to do.  It helps them learn responsibility, time management, and helps them play a contributing role to the success of the home.  Usually younger children are eager to help out.  It’s only when they get older that they start fussing and being slow in getting their chores done.

Toddlers as young as two or three love to do what their mommy and daddy do, so it’s a great time to enlist their help and begin to teach them how to do chores.  You might as well take advantage of their willingness to help while you can because it won’t last for long.  Of course, you’ll want to supervise them as they’re just learning, but it’s good for them to learn the proper way to do chores as early as you can.  Children this age can:

* Put their gloves and hats inside their coat pockets so they don’t lose them.
* Dry off pets that have come in from outside.

Preschool children still want to be helpful but they want to do things for themselves.  Thankfully they’re a little older so they don’t need quite as much supervision.  They can help around the house during the winter months by:

* Sweeping the porch or walkway right by the main door.
* Helping to carry shopping bags into the house.

Early school-age children are at the age that they may not want to help as much.  The level of supervision at this age is much less than with the younger children.  They can:

* Help take care of and walk the pets out in the yard.
* Take garbage out to the garbage cans outside.
* Sweep the sidewalk leading to the door.

Pre-teens are going to start pushing the boundaries so they may argue about doing chores.  At this age your child can:

* Help shovel snow from the sidewalks and driveway.
* Take garbage cans out to the road.
* Help scrape ice from side windows on your vehicle.

Teens are able to do much more without supervision, but they will likely fuss the entire time they’re doing their chores.  Teens can help out by:

* Shoveling the sidewalks and driveway.
* Depending upon how you heat your home, teens may be given the chore of chopping wood.
* Teens may have their driver’s license, so they may be able to help drive if your vehicle gets stuck in the snow.

When the colder weather comes, it’s important for everyone in the family to pitch in to do the chores.  It’s also important for children to learn to help with the success of the household.  To be sure everyone is helping, give them age-appropriate chores for the winter months.  When it’s time for spring cleaning, they’ll already be knowledgeable and able to take on their new chores.

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Parents often go overboard when buying Christmas presents for their children, especially when that child is their first.  What parents find out, after their babies are old enough to sit up and play, is that babies usually love boxes more than the toys that were originally in them.

Don’t become too discouraged.  It happens to nearly every parent.  When someone suggests that you may not want to spend so much on actual gifts because an infant won’t be able to appreciate them, you might want to listen.  If they have children of their own, you may be able to avoid some of the same frustrations they’ve had.

What is it about boxes that draws the attention of babies?  Part of the appeal may be that boxes are large and easily manipulated.  Boxes are also lightweight so they won’t hurt if the baby drops them.  Finally, as everyone knows, nothing tastes better than cardboard!

Since babies love boxes so much, don’t fight it.  Take advantage of their interest in boxes to begin to teach them to use their imagination.  Your baby won’t totally develop their sense of imaginative play until they are pre-school age, but there’s no reason to wait too long before encouraging this type of play.

Actually, if you haven’t looked at toys lately, you can buy pretend food to use in play kitchens.  These are smaller than normal foods, so they’re easy for little children to handle.  There are also plastic foods that are safe for children to put in their mouths.

One box that parents probably have in large numbers is wipe boxes.  Not only can they be used to store small things in, they can be used to build with like building blocks.  If your baby is a boy, he can put his chunky cars in the box and then take them out and play with them.  Little girls, once they start playing with baby dolls, can put their baby’s clothes in the wipe boxes and even use the wipe box as a bed.

With babies, it seems that simple is best.  They really don’t need to have toys with all the bells and whistles.  Lights and noises at this age may get their attention, but they may not hold that attention for long.  Give them a couple of small boxes and they’ll be happy for quite some time.

As your baby grows, they have the potential to turn almost anything into a toy.  They’ll find things in your home that you may not wish them to play with, so be concerned about baby-proofing your home.

Babies grow up so fast.  One minute they’re brand new, small, and helpless.  The next thing you know, they’re trying to get around on their own.  Give them simple things to play with.  Babies love boxes and they’re great items to help them use their imagination.

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