We craft a lot “from scratch” but we also do some crafting from kits. We prefer open-ended experiences but crafting kits save me prep time. Sometimes crafting kits even save some money if they provide materials I do not have on hand and would otherwise have to buy in bulk.

Wummelbox sent me one of their nutrition-themed project boxes to try with my kids and review.

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As you can see, each box contains a lot of materials for making 3-4 themed projects. In fact, each box has everything you need, including staples like markers and scissors…so there is no searching for anything.

The projects are less “finished craft” and more toys and props for games and imaginative play. So, they can be used over and over again. The materials are excellent quality and most are eco-friendly–a huge plus! One of my favorite parts of the kit is that the box itself is part of the craft.

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The first project we tried was the felt fruit for the grocery store. We chose the grocery store project to complete first because there were enough fruit pieces for both my older kids to participate. Some of the projects only have materials for one finished item. Essentially, these are felt pieces that the kids stitched together and then filled with batting.

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I have some experience sewing with my kids so I knew to tape down one end of the string. There is also no needle provided so I wrapped a piece of tape around the end of the thread. We also weren’t sure which stitch to use and I am no expert. The illustrated instructions seemed to show a running stitch but, in retrospect, I think we should have used a back stitch or overcast stitch to better hold in the batting. The box could use a little more explicit instruction for some of these projects.

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The stuffing sticks out a little and I had to be a little more hands-on to help the kids complete the project but they were both very happy with the results. They were proud they could make the play food themselves.

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Our next step was to break out some markers and color in the money provided with the set.

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My older two are always making play money so I knew they would enjoy this step.. I really liked that there was plenty to go around and even my toddler could participate in this step.

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Perhaps because Wummelbox is a German company, the change values don’t entirely match-up to American currency. That would be a nice learning touch but you can always white out the numbers on the 2 cent piece and make it a 10 or 25 cent piece.

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Finally, I turned the box into the cash register. With every Wummelbox kit, the box becomes part of the play. I had a little trouble opening the box so the edge is a little messy but the kids didn’t even notice.

The kids had fun buying and selling the fruit they made.

The projects are developed by experts and approach each theme from a number of angles. I would like to see more materials and suggestions for guiding play that explicitly tie the project into the nutrition theme.

The highlights of the Wummelbox are that it includes all the needed materials, the box is reused as part of the project, and the projects extend play and quality time beyond the initial craft.

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“Each high-quality WummelBox contains 3-4 themed-based projects (Nutrition, Sound, etc) and is designed to inspire children age 3-8 to learn and explore the world around them.” You can order a single Wummelbox ($34.95) or 3 ($24.95 per month) or 12 month subscription ($19.95 per month). Each box is a retail value of $35.95

“Lead with your values” is good advice for a well-lived life. As it turns out, it is a good practice for brands, too, according to Jackie Huba, author of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, and a speaker at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Throughout the Celebration / Conference, Disney took the opportunity to highlight the company’s values. As someone who has admitted ambivalence about the “princess culture,” and as a social studies educator, I was very impressed with Disney’s direction.

What then to make of the alleged “Merida Makeover” that had Internets flaming with protest just before Merida’s coronation as part of the the royal court of Disney Princesses?

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A little background: For those who have been living under a rock, or at least with no contact with girls ages 4-10, Merida is the Scottish princess from the Pixar / Disney movie, “Brave.” She chafes under the expectations that she should tame her main of red curls, put on a delicate dress, and marry a suitor for the good of the kingdom. She’s also a great shot with a bow and arrow and a rare example of a children’s character who has a loving, if complicated, relationship with her mother.

A few weeks ago, an image appeared showing Merida with a Bratz-style face, lots of make-up, a sparkly low-cut dress, and an impossibly thin waist (made weirder by the already exaggerated proportions of Merida’s round head). Catherine Connors, a Disney employee as well as a deep thinker and a blogger I respect and admire, has shared the official story that the Merida makeover was just a one-time “iteration,” or a piece of “concept art,” and was never intended to be a new image for Merida. There are many variations on Merida on various marketing sites and products, including a Merida “toddler” doll, but the only place I can find the widely-circulated “new” Merida image is on Target’s website. There was a two-dimensional Merida on our Disney Social Media Moms invitation to the coronation and her dress was a lighter teal but she still had her bow and arrow and she didn’t have clubbing make-up. When all the “princesses” are shown together, they need to share a similar animation style that makes it appear as if they are part of the same reality. The trick is to retain Merida’s individuality while still making her seem as if she comes from the same universe.

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Frankly, the Merida image on the Target page (look C) appears creepy to me. I can’t imagine it selling a whole lot of merchandise. There’s a lot I could say about the sexualization of images marketed to young children and whether or not a one-time piece of marketing art matters but Jenny at The Bloggess, Amy at Resourceful Mommy, Monica at Wired Momma, and Katherine Stone, Cecily, and Pilar Clark, at Babble have already covered most of it. So, instead I asked my six year old daughter what she thought of the images of Merida.

She described Merida as “brave” and then began describing the plot point that Merida didn’t want to marry anyone. She liked image B the best because Merida had a bow and arrow and looked more like she did in the movie. She did say that the Target image (C) looked like she was dancing but said she did not like the face because the eyes looked “sharp.” She still preferred the dress and face on image B. She liked that image A (from the coronation invitation) showed Merida with her bow.

So, while I am a bit disturbed that Disney would agree to a marketing image so antithetical to Merida’s message for Target, I am reassured that my daughter “gets” what Merida is really about. In the end, toys and dress-up clothes and other products are just props for our children’s imaginative play. When her first grade teacher asked them what they would do if they were stuck in a tower (a la Rapunzel), my daughter said she would rescue herself.

I think she needs this “Self-Rescuing Princess” t-shirt from Her Universe, whose founder, Ashley Eckstein, was another speaker at the conference.

The stories, the merchandising, the marketing, it all matters…but it doesn’t matter nearly as much as how these things inspire our girls and boys. Even more important is how we, as parents, guide our children through these issues.

Disney has always been about dreaming big and telling engaging stories. They are also taking this new, interactive age very seriously, however, and I am not just talking gadgets. Disney has reached into its rich body of lore to empower its audience with the values of loyalty, curiosity, confidence, kindness, sacrifice, determination, and more.

Sure, it takes a bit of a stretch to see Ariel as a feminist role model but if a little girl who loves mermaids sees the tale as one of adventure and curiosity, then I’m all for a little revisionism. Accuse me of drinking the Kool-Aid if you will but when a Merida rode in on Angus, stomped on stage, and shouted, “I am strong. I am brave. I am Merida. I am a princess,” I had chills.

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Now that Disney has the attention of little girls everywhere, they seem to be asking them, “What kind of strong woman are you becoming?”

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Disclosure: As an invited guest of everyone’s favorite mouse at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration 2013, for a small conference fee I received, in addition to access to the conference, a host of other magical gifts (including a free copy of Monster Loyalty and the Merida wig and Merida doll that appear above) and amazing benefits to facilitate my learning and enjoyment of Disney World Parks with my family. I paid for my own transportation to and from Florida as well as for follow-on accommodations after the conference. As always, my time can be hired but not my opinions are not for sale.

Everyone’s favorite mouse has been kind enough to host my family on his newest cruise ships the last two years. This year, after a very rough late fall / early winter for me health-wise, I received a little pixie dust in my e-mail…an invitation to the Disney Social Media Moms celebration!

I couldn’t be more thrilled to learn more, hang out with lots of cool bloggers, and enjoy the parks with my family.

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We shared with the kids through a scavenger hunt (a great way to build reading and reasoning skills…I’m sneaky like that) and I think they were a bit in shock.

Their initial reaction was a bit “deer in the headlights” but after I stopped taping, they started squealing.

I can’t wait to share what we learn at Disney!

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My daughter is really enjoying her Saige American Girl of the Year doll. She’s been reading the second book, Saige Paints the Sky. So, we decided to make a hot air balloon craft, inspired by Saige!

Materials:

• inflated balloon
• glue, diluted with a few drops of water
• tissue paper
• yarn
• fishing wire
• plastic container
• raffia

Directions:

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1. Tear or cut your tissue paper in strips.

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2. Coat the balloon with the slightly diluted glue mixture.

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3. Cover the balloon (except a small circle at the bottom) in the strips of tissue paper.

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4. As you go along, add glue on top of the tissue paper, too. Make sure your entire balloon is covered in tissue paper, except a small circle at the bottom you should leave empty, and paint with an extra coat of glue. Let dry overnight.

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5. While it is drying, glue raffia around your plastic container. My daughter wants a bigger one next time so she can fit her American Girl Marie-Grace mini in the basket.

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6. After your balloon dries over night, pop the balloon. Remove the deflated balloon and fix the tissue paper if it collapsed a little.

7. The adult can poke two holes on either side of the plastic container, tie yarn on one side, thread the yarn through the bottom of the balloon, and then down to the other side of the container.

8. Thread fishing wire through the top part of the balloon so you can hang it up in the child’s room. My daughter keeps hers over her bed.

Drift off on imaginary adventures!

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Educational Connections:

• Science: How do hot air balloons work? (Check out this video and hot air balloon experiment from PBS Kids.)
• Technology: Hot air balloons were the first successful human means of flight. Make a timeline of human flight.
• Language Arts: If you could go anywhere in a hot air balloon, where would you travel?

My son asked to make a St. Patrick’s Day craft today. I didn’t have anything planned but I made a few suggestions and he said he wanted to make a pot of gold.

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Materials

• cup or plastic container (we recycled an applesauce container)
• construction paper: black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (optional), and purple
• ruler
• pencil
• scissors
• glue

Directions

1. Cut a length of black construction paper long enough to wrap your plastic cup or container and glue the paper around the container.

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2. Measure and cut 1″ strips from the other colors of construction paper.

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3. Starting with the red, paste each strip in an arc onto the inside of your cup. Repeat with each strip in rainbow order, shortening each subsequent strip by approximately 1/2″.

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4. Cut the rest of the yellow paper into squares and crumple into balls. Put into the “pot” to be your “gold.”

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Hope you find the pot of gold at the end of your rainbow!

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Educational Connections

• Science: Investigate what makes a rainbow in an age-appropriate way.  Recreate a rainbow with a garden hose on a sunny day. Does the rainbow appear when the sun is behind or in front of the spray of water? Younger children will learn that sun shining through the water droplets makes a rainbow. Older children will learn that light is made up of all colors and that the water acts like a prism, splitting the light into separate colors.  Advanced students may study the different wavelengths of colors.
• Science/Geology: How do we find gold? What are some of the uses of gold? Why is gold a precious metal?
• Weather: Once children understand what makes a rainbow, ask what types of weather are likely conditions for a rainbow and in which season(s) rainbows would be most common.
• Ecology: Can you find a plant or animal for each color of the rainbow? Make a rainbow collage of the pictures.
• Home Arts: “Eating a rainbow” of fruits and vegetables can help you maintain a healthy diet.  What do these colors mean when you see them in fruits and vegetables?
• Art: Make a rainbow with only red, yellow, and blue paint. If you blend the colors, what happens?
• History and Culture: How did other cultures view rainbows?  What gods or goddesses and myths and legends are associated with rainbows?

At a recent trip to the American Museum of Natural History, we say this Dinosaur Skeleton Fossil Playset and I claimed it as my own souvenir when my boys opted for Safari Dinosaur figurines instead.

I immediately thought it would be lots of fun to try to identify our dinosaur fossils and make impressions of them on play dough for a dinosaur fossil craft and activity. Our kids are definitely paleontology fanatics. The two older kids pick Prehistoric Park when they get to watch a movie and then spend all week pretending to trap prehistoric animals and bring them back to our time to save them from extinction.

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First, we matched our dinosaur fossil figurines with the dinosaurs on my son’s Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Placemat. We like this one because it groups some of the more well-known dinosaurs by their era.

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Pressing the fossil figurines into play dough worked really well. My son added some dinosaur footprints, too.

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They wanted to make more permanent fossils so I made a batch of salt ceramic. That didn’t really show the shape as well as I had hoped, so I bought some model magic the next day and we made a few more fossils.

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The kids really enjoyed having some dinosaurs posed as if they were fighting.

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We used a straw to create a hole and then added a ribbon when our fossils were done drying so the kids can hang them in their rooms.

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Educational Connections:

• Science/Paleontology: The dinosaurs lived long before there were humans.  How do we know anything about them? What part of the dinosaur was most likely to become fossilized? How do paleontologists find and excavate dinosaur fossils? What can we tell from their fossils?
• Science/Paleontology: Different dinosaurs lived in various eras. Which dinosaurs lived at the same time? Did any dinosaurs live at the same time as humans?
• Science/Paleontology:What did different dinosaurs eat? What is meant by the terms carnivore and herbivore?
• Science/Paleontology: What defenses did the various dinosaurs have? Can you find evidence of these in their fossils?

Both of my kids made this plastic bottle snowman craft in their classes this December. In their classes, they used a 2 liter soda bottle but I thought it would look neat with any sized bottle–you could make an entire family of plastic bottle snowmen from water bottles, sports drink bottles, soda bottles…any plastic bottle!

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Materials:

• plastic bottle with the label removed
• white tissue paper or tissues
• styrofoam ball (available in craft stores)
• sticks or pipe cleaners/chenille stems (for arms)
• toilet paper tube (for hat)
• black construction paper (for hat)
• orange felt or construction paper (for nose)
• googly eyes
• red or pink yarn or black construction paper (for mouth)
• felt of any color
• buttons or black construction paper
• glue (tacky glue, glue dots)
• scissors

Directions

1. Tear tissue paper. This is loads of fun!

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2. Stuff the tissue paper into the bottle–great fine motor control activity!

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3. Poke two holes into the sides of the bottle with a knife. (Adult step. I may give my kids scissors but I do not hand sharp knives to my preschool with instructions to stab things.)

4. “Screw” the Styrofoam ball onto the top of the water bottle.

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5. Cut out scarf from felt, orange nose from felt or construction paper, yarn for mouth, etc. Glue on embellishments. We used tacky glue for most items but needed a glue dot for the scarf. This is an opportunity to make creative choices!

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6. For the hat, we rolled a cardboard (toilet paper) tube in black construction paper an inch longer than the tube. Then, we folded in the top part of the construction paper. We traced a circle on some more construction paper and glued it to the bottom. This is our top hat. My son wanted to decorate it with jewels. I don’t remember that part of Frosty the Snowman but, hey! it is his snowman and he can bedazzle its hat if he wants.

7. Stick two twigs into the holes in the bottle for arms. We had fun gathering the right twigs outside but you can also substitute chenille stems/pipe cleaners.

My son also wanted a broom so I took another twig and tied raffia around it.

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Educational Connections:

• Science: Why does it snow? What is the best kind of snow for building a snowman?
  
• Art History: The earliest known illustration of the snowman is from the Book of Hours, c. 1380. During the Renaissance, snowmen were used in political commentary. Snowmen are accessible because anyone can get the material for free and they are also an example of temporary art. What other art can be made from freely available materials? What other types of temporary art can you find? (Check out the History of the Snowman)
• Popular Culture: What snowmen do you know from popular culture? Why do snowmen seem so magical? What is the largest snowman on record?

Nemo dropped about 30 inches of snow on my area, the highest totals in New York and boy was it a mess!

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The kids wanted to sled but that thing wasn’t going anywhere–sorry kids!

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At least they had a chance to measure the snowfall.

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The baby was less than thrilled. “Uh, guys, I’m sinking!’

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But my daughter pretended to be a Viking warrior princess.

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And it was quite the snowfall! Even though the snow had stopped before noon on Saturday, my kids didn’t have school until Wednesday. The major highway and all of our main roads became parking lots as drivers had to abandon cars.

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Hope you are warm and safe wherever you are!

My daughter cannot bring candy in with her Valentines so we could not use lollipop Valentines. Instead, we usually use pencils. This year, she wanted something different and we found a bag of inexpensive heart mazes at Michaels. So, we made these “A-MAZE-ing” class photo valentines.

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First I took a photo of my daughter holding a giant poster board/oak tag heart. I ‘shopped a clip art hear-shaped maze over the heart. This way, there is a maze even when her classmates remove the plastic maze.

Then, I helped my daughter (over-)embellished it on PicMonkey. A bit on the tacky side but she’s a 6 year old at Valentine’s Day…if that is not a time to break out the bling, I don’t know what is.

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Finally, we used glue dots to stick on the plastic mazes.

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Ready to go!

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I thought my son was going to do the lollipop photo valentines we did last year, and the year before that for his sister. Then, he suddenly wanted superhero valentines. Superhero Lollipop Valentines. Great! No Problem! I’ll just print out these awesome free printable templates from Zakka Life and… No, wait, he wants Super Hero logos, inside hearts. And Batman needs a bat mask. And Wonder Woman needs a tiara. And Spider-Man needs his Spidey mask. I prefer Zakka’s template but I’m a sucker for my kids…get it? sucker?  Of course, Superman doesn’t wear a mask and Spider-Man doesn’t have a cape so I took some liberties with this.

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Materials:

• template (I modified mine from Zakka life)
• lollipops
• card stock and color printer
• scissors and decorative edge scissors
• glue or tape
• single hole punch

Directions:

1. Print the template of your choice on card stock or thick paper.

2. Cut out the capes and trim the bottom edge with decorative scissors to give a scalloped edge. (My son helped with this.)

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3. Punch a hole at the top of the capes.

4. If desired, write a Valentine’s message on or under the cape.

5. Slip the lollipop into the cape. This should hold as is but you could also use an X-ACTO knife and cut an “X” instead of punching a hole to create a tighter fit.

6. Glue or tape on the mask.

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