Page 8

DIY Easter Egg Hunt Carry Baskets

Have your children got a fun Easter Egg scavenger hunt coming up? If they’re involved in a few different activities, such as childcare, kindergarten, playgroup etc., chances are your little ones might have a few on the schedule.

So they’re going to need a cute little carrier to hold their colourfully wrapped chocolate treasures. This Easter Egg Hunt Carry Basket is seriously easy and a great little craft activity to fill in a quiet afternoon.

To Make: Easter Hunt Egg Baskets

Ages: 3+
Time: prep – 15 minutes, assembling – 10 minutes

What You’ll Need:

A plain coloured carrier such as these paper bags
Washi Tape
Ribbon
Glitter glue pens
Masking tape or glue
Easter egg decorations (such as these)

To Make:

1. Make or design your Easter egg decorations. Find ours here.

2. Lay your paper bag carrier on a flat surface.

3. Glue or stick your decorated Easter egg onto the middle of the bag. Variation: you could also paint or have the children draw their own designs onto the bag instead of using a pre-designed Easter egg decoration.

4. Then cut a strip of washi tape to the length of the bag and stick onto the top to create a line of pattern from one edge to the other.

5. Take your ribbon (any colour you like) and tie in a bow. Using double-sided tape (or masking tape doubled over) fasten the bow onto the top right corner of the basket on a slight angle.

6. Now take your glitter glue gun pen and carefully write the words “Happy Easter” onto your Easter egg and leave to dry. Ta-da you have a gorgeous colourful Easter Hunt Egg Basket.

Note:

We did this step last so that it was the final step in the method, meaning we’d have a finished product that would let us see the end result but also let us pack away the craft supplies and tidy up whilst waiting for it to dry. You could also write onto the Easter egg before Step 2 or in advance so that you needn’t be worried about smudging your work.

Easter egg scavenger hunts are such fun for kids. Remember, you don’t have to use chocolate either! #Eastereggs #nannylife

Click To Tweet

Pop on your arm and away you go in search of the Easter bunny and his eggs! This basket would also be a cute little party favour bag for an Easter themed party or if you’re giving little Easter gifts to your friends.

>>> Do you have an Easter egg hunt planned for the kiddos?

Washi Tape Easter Egg Bunting

This Easter egg bunting was so much fun to make! The beauty is that you can completely customise your own colours and designs, letting the children have autonomy and control of their designs.

You can make the bunting as long as you like and pop it up on display to decorate your Easter themed space. We plan to use this to decorate our Easter scavenger hunt tent.

To Make: Washi Tape Easter Egg Bunting

Ages: 4+ or Kindergarten
2+ with careful guidance and prep done in advance
Time: prep time – 20 minutes, assembling – 15 minutes

You’ll Need:

Kid-safe scissors
Masking tape, glue, double-sided sello tape or blu tac
Coloured card stock or paper
An Easter egg stencil or shape
4 washi-tape designs
String, about 1 ½ metres in length

To Make:

1. Start by cutting out your Easter egg shapes. We used 4 different coloured cards to create a pattern of alternating colours. For the younger children, you could have your Easter eggs pre-cut. For more info on patterns, see these fun activity sheets.

2. Once you have your Easter eggs, lay them out in a long line and arrange them in a pattern. E.g. blue, yellow, pink, orange, repeat.

3. Cut strips of washi tape and carefully stick onto your line of Easter eggs, arranging the washi tape evenly. Repeat the process with each washi tape leaving an event amount of space between each strip of washi tape. Tip: it’s much quicker to line the eggs up and stick a line of tape onto them all at once, then trimming the edges afterwards.

4. Your eggs will now be stuck onto the surface. Carefully pull them up and then trim the edges so that you once again have individual eggs.

5. Once again, arrange your eggs in a pattern face down (tricky, I know) and pop a dab of glue or double-sided tape onto the middle of each egg at the top.

6. Cut your string down to size, leaving an even amount of space on either side of the eggs to let it hang properly. Then press your sting down onto the sticky tape so that your eggs are not all connected in a line onto the string.

7. Carefully hang your Washi Tape Easter Egg Bunting to decorate your Easter themed space and enjoy the festivities!

Notes:

You’ll want to have a clean surface that the tape can stick to and then be pulled off easily, such as a wooden or plastic table. Paper underneath will not work properly.

In hindsight, it could be easier and less time-consuming to stick the rows of washi tape in lines onto the coloured card and then cut out the Easter egg shapes.

This is a great activity for some cutting practice and hand-eye coordination. Kids love cutting things and it helps children to develop their fine motor skills. Make sure the children use safe scissors and that you’re constantly supervising. Remember to cut in a direction away from your body and always be seated whilst cutting. For more cutting practice see these printables.

Variations:

For a different style, use Easter themed paper or fun patterned paper instead of plain coloured card stock. Or have the children decorate their Easter eggs by drawing or colouring them first. For an early learning component, let the children write the letters for “Happy Easter” onto each Easter egg in the bunting for a spelling, writing and reading activity.

Washi Tape Easter Egg Bunting – a fun easy kids craft! #nannylife #Easter

Click To Tweet

Good Reads: A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Title: A Sick Day for Amos Mcgee
Age range: 2-6 years
Reading level: Preschool – Year 1

The best sick day ever and the animals in the zoo feature in this striking picture book debut.

I’ve had several occasions to read A Sick Day for Amos McGee to different children. It has appeared more than once next to the bed in a stack of books as I visit homes as a temporary nanny. Written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated Erin E. Stead this charming little story won best illustrated children books of 2010 award from the New York Times. It also garnered a 2011 Caldecott Medal for illustrations. Since is publishing in 2010 it has appeared on favorite book lists all over the internet.

A Sick Day For Amos McGee is a very calm, low-key book, making it perfect for bedtime. Amos works at the zoo and always takes time out of his day to visit his special friends and share a moment that makes them both happy. As he visits each animal friend, a classic repetition list appears, with sentences sounding the same as the story unfolds.

Interesting words are introduced on each page for younger children, as well as playful sentence structures to keep the reading from sounding monotone. The use of this technique makes Amos McGee feel like a familiar classic. I have to say, it felt like such an “old fashioned” book I had to check to see when it was published. There are no verbal gymnastics required to read this book. The punctuation is clear. The narrative unfolds like a dream.

When Amos gets sick the animals return his kindnesses in the same list form , one after the other until the day is done. There is a lesson in this book, painted in words and pictures that both adults and children will receive. One plot point that stands out strongly is that Amos practices “child directed play”, spending time with each animal in a way that makes each animal feel most loved. When Amos doesn’t come to work one day, the animals all go to visit him, and each share their individual expression of love.

Instead of dominating, the sweetly detailed illustrations add depth and description to every written page, creating a complementary balance between words and pictures. The illustrations are as low-key as the book, soothing yet interesting without fanfare or over stylization. One finds elements of personality in the animals and Amos on each page adding information to the story without adding word count. It’s no wonder that the illustrations blend so well with the writing, as Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead are a husband and wife team.

A Sick Day For Amos McGee is the perfect book for bedtimes and quiet times. If your child seems frustrated by the lack of action, take a moment to pour over the pictures, asking questions about what the child sees, pointing out some of the unique details: the mouse waiting at the tiny bus stop, the activities of the penguins in the penguin pool, and where the red balloon goes at the end of the evening. Interaction with children while reading a book can create a special moment that kids will always remember, changing a seemingly hum-drum story into a beloved childhood classic.

Not only do I take this book along with me in my Nanny bag to work, I would recommend it to parents looking for a great bedtime read.

A Sick Day For Amos McGee is a calm, low-key book, perfect for bedtime. #nannylife #goodreads

Click To Tweet

>>> Do you have a book that’s particularly good for bed times and quiet times?

St. Patrick’s Day Craft: Rainbow Pot Of Gold

Christmas feels like it was just two weeks ago and yet here we are, crafting our way into March! St Patrick’s Day is just days away so my pre-schoolers got busy creating a keepsake rainbow. And you can’t have a rainbow without a big pot of gold, can you?

Celebrate the heritage and culture and chat about the luck of the irish with this fun easy kids craft. This rainbow painting and pot of gold is the perfect St. Patrick’s Day Craft and is a great activity to do with the kids in an afternoon, with lots of creativity, reflection and thinking, and laughter (of course).

>>> How To Make A Rainbow Pot Of Gold for St. Patrick’s Day

You’ll Need:

Coloured paper & black card
Scissors
Glue
Markers
Gold paint
A cork, bottle lid or similar

To Make The Rainbow:

1. If you’ve got a writer, have your child write on a pre-drawn and cut cloud: “If I found a pot of gold and a leprechaun gave me six wishes, I’d wish for a rainbow of things!”

2. Cut long strips of coloured paper and glue onto the back of the cloud.

3. Now comes the fun part – the wishes! Picking only 6 is hard but your kids are guaranteed to come up with some pretty cute (& strange) wishes.

4. Write one wish on each colour of the rainbow.

To Make The Pot:

1. Draw or source a pot and stencil onto black card.

2. Use a cork, bottle lid or similar to stamp into gold paint and onto paper. Tip: If you don’t have gold paint, yellow paint with glitter works just as good!

3. Once dry, cut out the coins and glue onto the already cut pot.

Don’t have gold paint? Yellow paint with glitter works just as good! #StPatricksDay #craftsforkids

Click To Tweet

We had lots of fun imagining and wishing for everything we could only dream of whilst making this St. Patrick’s Day Craft! Happy crafting.

>>> If a leprechaun gave YOU 6 wishes, what would you wish for?

__________

Olivia is a career nanny & craft extraordinaire from Sydney, Australia. She shares her passion for children & creativity by providing simple arts, crafts & activities full of learning opportunities. Her aim is to encourage & inspire you to be creative with your babies, toddlers and preschoolers!
You can find more from Olivia at www.acraftyliving.com or follow her on Facebook & Instagram at @acraftyliving.

Put Yourself On Your Priority List

(To prevent professional burn out) As I write this, I sit in the kitchen of a family I do some date night babysitting for. It’s my second babysitting job for the day. To add to my schedule, at around 8:15 this morning, one of my Mom Bosses called and asked if I could babysit.

I told her that I could the morning, or the afternoon. Those times didn’t work out and as I hung up, I cried from relief. But, as I sit at the kitchen table, after the kids are asleep, she texts me to see if I could babysit tomorrow. I say yes. What’s my problem?! Welcome to the 65 hour work week, with no “weekends.”

As nannies, we spend almost every working hour (and a lot of non working hours) seeing to the needs of other people. We unload people’s dishes, and we fold their laundry. Sometimes we vacuum their homes and we almost always do dinner.

If we don’t set aside the time to put ourselves first, it can begin to seem as though there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Sure we love our nanny kids and our parent bosses, we show them love by doing what we do.

But if we don’t make the time to do something for ourselves, be it a pedicure, or a gym session, or to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and binge watch Grey’s Anatomy, we soon find ourselves stuck in cycle of endless work.

There’s no sun, there’s no light, there’s no break. And you know what? You deserve a break. A caregiver is not all that you are. Whilst being a caregiver is a huge part of your generous personality, it shouldn’t consume your entire existence. Put yourself on your priority list to prevent burnout and to win back some work life balance.

So after working 65 hours one week and 50 the next, I have an appointment for a mani-pedi with a girlfriend. Because I am not just an exhausted and happily overworked nanny, I am a girly girl who likes her nails to be sparkly.

You deserve a break. A caregiver is not all that you are. Carve time for *you*. #nannylife #burnout

Click To Tweet

Nannies, I give you permission to take time out for yourself. I give you permission to say no to the 3rd babysit job for the day. I give you permission to protect your weekends and I give you permission to reserve the right to be picky with your jobs.

Mostly, I give you permission to sit on the couch in your pyjamas after a long day and watch trashy tv. It does not make you any less of a responsible nanny, nor any less educated, respectable, or professional. It makes you strong.

>>> So what’s your plan for the weekend? Lots of RnR I hope!

__________

Abby Sneddon is a professional U.S based nanny. She currently works with two gorgeous toddlers in a nanny share arrangement and has a professional background in private Montessori preschools. Abby believes the best way to teach a child is to lead by example and carries this notion through every aspect when it comes to health, wellbeing and fitness, raising well-developed children, and education. Abby blogs at The Nap Time Nanny.

« Previous Page
1
…
6
7
8
9
10
…
42
Next Page »