First, you can find a lot of different recipes, but it’s pretty basic.  Mix equal parts of cinnamon and apple sauce, maybe a cup of each.  You can add in a tablespoon each of ground cloves and nutmeg and also a couple tablespoons of regular white school glue if you like.  (This is the recipe I used.)  Mix the ingredients together until they form a smooth dough.  If it’s too sticky, add a bit more cinnamon.  If it crumbles apart, blend in a little more applesauce.  After a little stirring and kneading, it should look like this:

Sprinkle a little cinnamon on a rolling pin and roll out the dough.  You’ll want to keep it at least a quarter inch thick so your ornaments won’t be too fragile after they dry.  Then use cookie cutters or freehand cut out shapes.  (I used a wine glass and a smaller glass to shape simple wreaths.)

Use a pencil/chopstick/dowel/straw/whatever to make a little hole in each ornament for hanging.  Knead the scraps back together and roll it back out again to use as much of it as possible.  Keep dusting cinnamon on your rolling pin as needed to avoid sticking.

Transfer them to an ungreased cookie sheet.  You can either leave them out for a couple days until they dry, or bake them at very low heat (200F) for several hours.  When they’re completely dry, they’re ready to use.

You’ll end up with wonderfully scented ornaments for your tree or package tie-ons!

Transforming a plain terracotta flower pot using a little tape/primer/chalkboard paint makes for a very happy little cilantro!  I think I’ll use a few more chalkboard pots so that I can label my little seedlings, then change the look of their pots as they grow more recognizable.

It might be more fun with the entire pot painted, don’t you think?  And just imagine how kids would love to start their own seeds, then scribble words of encouragement to their tiny plants as they grow!  It might be fun to line a walkway before a party with congratulations and words of welcome hidden among beautiful blooms.

As it is, I’m going to leave my happy little cilantro and a piece of chalk in the kitchen window and wait to see what it becomes next.

If you anticipate having a bored child at some point this winter, it’s a good idea to have a stash of knit gloves, Velcro dots and practice golf balls hidden away.  I took these along when visiting with my tiny nieces and nephew at the holidays, and they helped me with these pictures.

First you want to stick the scratchy Velcro dots to the practice golf balls.  (Don’t stick the scratchy dots on the gloves or the gloves will stick to themselves and you’ll end up with a frustrated child.  Not what we’re going for here!)

Crafting lets you sneak in all kinds of other learning.  If you want the kids to work on their counting skills, give instructions like, “Let’s put five dots on this ball.”

You don’t really need the softer Velcro dots on the gloves, but the kids will probably like sticking them on.

My little niece really enjoyed this part.  She put her hands in the gloves to see how far up she needed to put the dots, and then imagined herself much bigger and put the dots way above her fingertips.  The gloves themselves will work as the soft Velcro to catch the balls, so no correction was needed.  Let them imagine big grown up hands, it’s all good.

When it’s time to play, it’s better to just use one glove to catch and keep one hand glove-free to pull off the ball and throw back.  Tell them it’s like baseball, you just wear one.

Suddenly they’re WAY better at playing catch than they’ve ever been before!  All you need to do is toss the ball to their hands and it will stick.

Catch played this way helps younger kids and older kids to play together with much less “can’t catch” drama.  My sports minded brother in law noticed that gloves made it easier to catch the “right” way, either over or underhanded, and thought it would help in their sports development.  I just liked having quiet craft time with a group of small kids of different ages, and they ended up with self-made toys they could keep.  This craft was a winner all the way around!

I purchased this little unfinished wooden family from Goose Grease Undone as a Christmas gift for my brother and sister in law’s family.  They’re home schooling, and I thought this would make a creative art project and keepsake to let each of the kids paint their own self portrait.  It will be interesting to see the details the different aged kids see in themselves, and even a messy, multicolored little one would be absolutely adorable.

The kit comes in a wooden box that makes gift giving easy – I added a ribbon and a tag and it was ready to go!

Who knows, maybe one of them will see themselves as a ninja.

(This one is from MooShooPork.  My kids asked for “tiny ninjas” for Christmas.)

Use a cheese grater to shred the bars.  I like Ivory because it’s less dense than most soaps and grates so easily.  (This part should be done by an adult or a careful older child.)  Looks like cheese, doesn’t it?

Add water, a little at a time, and stir it around with your hands until your soap foams a little and is easy to form into balls.  You can make plain snowball soap if you like, but if you want to add a little extra fun (or encourage the kids to wash their hands more often), you may want to add a little prize.  Little balls work well, of course, but I like to hide little toy animals or dinosaurs inside.  I found these at Tractor Supply.  They were a little more expensive than what I might have found elsewhere, but the models were so well made I couldn’t resist.

Form the shape of a ball with your sudsy, shredded soap, starting with your little prize if you want to add one.  Then set them out on a rack to dry, which may take a day or so.

If giving them as a gift, once they’re dry you can wrap them in plastic wrap and tie them with a pretty ribbon.  This is an easy, inexpensive gift for kids to make for friends, classmates and relatives – and since it’s soap it’s a really easy craft to clean up after.

My older daughter, now 16, was nearly five when she drew this family portrait.  Her little sister was about month old at the time, and apparently the baby was a huge presence in the household.  (See the big green one with three toes on each foot?  That’s the baby.  A child psychologist could have a field day with this set!)  She drew herself as the small one to the lower right, looking like she’s about to make a break for it.  I guess there’s always an adjustment period when someone joins the family.  I wish I’d had her draw a new family portrait each month to see how things changed.  Oh, the things we think of years later!

I wanted to preserve the drawing in some way that also kept it in plain sight and decided to try making some fridge magnets.  I cut out the pictures, sandwiched them between two pieces of clear Contact paper and attached an adhesive magnet to the back.  I used the type that comes in a roll, but there are nifty sheets of adhesive magnets that would probably work better.

I also had her draw pictures of her grandparents, aunts and uncles, made them into magnets and gave them to each as gifts.  She was so proud to visit and see her drawings on everyone’s refrigerators!  Many are still in use more than a decade later, and the hairstyles STILL make me laugh!