I'd kike to start a thread of fun, frugal things for kids to do, so I'll start with my fingerpaint recipe. (God only knows what's in the storebought stuff!!) Finger Paints: 3 Tblsp. sugar 1/2 c. cornstarch 2 c. cold water food coloring Mix the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan or a glass bowl. Add water & cook over med-hi heat till thick, or in the microwave for 2 min, stir, then 1 1/2 min, till thick. Add food coloring & store in baby food jars, or whatever you have on hand. I make four batches in a row, one color each, and keep it in pint jars. My daughter just loves it! It does take a while to dry tho, usually overnight. GL!

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 08, 2000

Answers

Michelle, since you have the paint mixed----I use to buy rolls of paper from the printer, that printed newspapers--they have the end rolls---they sell cheap! Use to cut potatoes in half & with a knife cut a pattern in the cut side of the potato, then the kids dipped it in paint & stamped the design on the paper,-- we used the paper latier for gift wrap! They use to use any veggies we had for stamps-- like cut a pepper in half & use it for a stamp--you get the picture! When paint was dry, I would roll it up & store it for when we needed gift wrap. Don't have paper---have anyone save their brown paper bags for you, cut off the end, cut the side & you have the inside of the bag for paper. When you wrap the gift then have the child sign their art work as: (this giftwrap was made with love by: & then date it!) I still have some in my keepsake box! (we use to do this on our picnic table out of the wind!)( even have put table in the garage & paints & paper & turned them loose!!!!!)Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 08, 2000.

Play Dough--indgredents: 1 cup of flour--1/2 cup salt--2 tablespoons veggie oil--1 teaspoon alum----water---food coloring(if you want)---- mix flour/salt/oil/alum together add SMALL AMOUNT OF WATER at a time until mixture has consistency of bread dough. now is when you can divide & add food coloring if you want--(we never do) make for sure you store it in airtight containers--(we use zip lock bags) it will last a long time! If you want to keep the artist work--just let it sit out to dry! Grandma Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 08, 2000.

We make a LOT of salt dough. My 5year old son loves it. The simplest recipe is: 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup salt and just a little over 1/2 a cup of water. Mix to a stiff dough.

Our library has a number of books on modeling with dough and it's amazing what you can do with it. Once it's dry (I always let it air dry) you can paint it and seal it with clear acrylic. Last year I made quite a few christmas tree decorations.

I've recently become very adventurous and made a bass relief freize for over a door at the end of the hall. It looks really nice. Hope to start selling them at craft fairs eventually.

Left over dough can be saved in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Happy modeling, Pauline

-- Pauline Adderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), June 08, 2000.

Another thing my grandkids like to do is cut egg carton sections lengthwise, so you have two long rows of sections. Paint each section a different color, attach pipe cleaners for antenna, legs if you wish, paint eyes or stick on buttons, and you have catapillers. If you cut sections apart, and stack them open ends together, you can make snowmen. Out of dried gourds, we have made "gourd buddies". Cut a heart shape out of cardboard and glue to the bottom for "feet" to help the gourd stand up, and then paint as desired, to look like aliens, animals, people, etc. Sometimes we have attached shredded paper for hair, etc. Lots of good ideas for kids to do cheaply! Jan

-- Jan (Janice12@aol.com), June 09, 2000.

Me again. I have gotten the end rolls of newsprint FREE by asking at the newspaper itself. Ask for the printroom manager, and they will usually save them or give them cheaper than the paper companies do. Jan

-- Jan (Janice12@aol.com), June 09, 2000.

Edible Modeling Clay: 1c. Peanut butter...1c. nonfat dry milk...2/3c. powdered sugar...1 loose cup coconut-opt....Place peanut butter in a large bowl and work in dry milk with fingers. Add powdered sugar and coconut and work with fingers. The texture should be play dough like. If it's too dry, add peanut butter. If it's too sticky, add dry milk. This can keep well in a plastic bag for a week. Leaf painging:1. Collect leaves of different types and vein patterns...2. Paint an even coat of non-toxic paint on top of sponge. 3. Place the ribbed side of the leaf on top of the sponge. Place a piece of paper over the leaf and press gently for 10 to 15 second. 4. Place the leaf, paint side down, on a piece of paper. Place another piece of paper on to and rub gently for another 10 to 15 seconds...5. remove top paper carefully and carefully peel off leaf, holding by its stem. These are from a book called "Miserly Moms" by Jonni Stivers McCoy. The article I have gives the price as $5.50, that was in '96. It gives the order address as Miserly Moms,P.O. Box 32174,San Jose, Ca. 95152-2174. There's also a recipe for rock candy, but it didn't work for me. I have another recipe for rock candy, it didn't work either. It tells you how to make paper and 3-D map dough.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 10, 2000.

The kids make new crayons of interesting color combos by peeling the paper off the old broken ones, and we remelt them in the tiny muffin tins. You can use a regular muffin tin, but they will be like cakes. They pop right out.

Cornstarch and a small amount of water makes a fun (messy) feels dry, but it's wet, feels solid, but it oozes, glop to play with.

You can make a stamper of any shape by cutting a potatoe.

We have made many mobiles of tissue paper butterflies, sea shells, homemade playdough planets, etc.

Give your kids a stack of large cardboard boxes and a roll of strong tape and you won't see them for hours. Then, take it outside, give them left over latex paint, and you won't see them until supper.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.

My kids enjoy making cucumber or zuchini boats. It's a great way to use those large, yellow cucumbers. We float them in water to decide which side likes to be up, then cut an oval opening on the up side. Scoop out alot of fleshy stuff, but not too much on the bottom. (The extra weight on the bottom helps it stay right side up.) We sometimes paint them, put on stickers, toothpicks, straws, whatever.

At our best birthday party all the guests made their own Zuchini boats. It was quite a flotila when they were done.

-- Kathy (redfernfarm@lisco.com), June 10, 2000.

Hi, Ithink this is a wonderful thread. Thank you so much for starting it. I'll add a few of my own. Fingerpaint made out of instant pudding. Vanilla can be used with food coloring for colors. Chocolate makes great brown. Also building toys can be made out of PVC and couplings. My kids love to make tents out of chairs and blankets.

little bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), June 10, 2000.

Crayons or markers and access to a wall. ;-) If you shop somewhere that marks large, unbaggable purchases by putting a length of colored tape on it, save that for the kids. Give them the stickers from music and book club junk mail. Cut slick paper (magazine pages) into long narrow tear drop shapes, roll from the wide end around toothpicks and glue. Stick in chunks of packaging foam to dry and string as beads. Cut the sleeves of trashed t-shirts into rings (the sleeves are almost always good no matter what shape the rest of the shirt is in) and use them for loopers on a pot holder loom. Depending on the size, may be too big for a boughten loom, so make your own with a piece of plywood and a bunch of finishing nails.

Ok, so they're not recipes. Just fun and cheap. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), June 11, 2000.

Hi--I can't find my recipe for bubbles! Had one that was really good!!! But can't find it! We have a family reunion comming up & it is for 3 days--so I'm putting together an activity box out of games & things I have on hand. I found bubbles on sale with lots of things to form the bubbles with(bubble pipes & wands)! I thought if I made a few more gallon & put them in used plastic dishwashing bottles--they could squirt some in plastic cups for everyone to have their own bubbles & bubble wands! That seems to be something all most all ages of children will do! Can some one help me with a recipe???? Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 11, 2000.

Don't forget boxes. Kids can do all sorts of things with them, esp. big boxes. If you can find one and air conditioner comes in, it's great for making a tent-the box an old sheet or two. My grandkids love to play in boxes, so do the cats.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 11, 2000.

Sonda, try this one for bubbles. 2/3 cup liquid dishwashing soap, 1 gallon water and 2-3 tablespoons of glycerine. At the county fair here, they put a children's wading pool up on a big spool and fill it with home-made bubble solution. The kids love playing in it and there's room to dip a hula hoop in for some really really big bubbles. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbio@hotmail.com), June 11, 2000.

Gerbil, Thanks so much for the recipe!!!! What a great idea of a wadeing pool & a hoola hoop! I'm going to do it for the kids! That ought to keep them busy for quite a while! Plus they can dip their pipes & wands in the pool & not spill the single cups etc. Thanks so much! Wadeing pool, bubble mixture--wands--add kids & sit down in a lawn chair & take pictures! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 11, 2000.

I saw a great idea at a birthday party.....Take a bucket of homemade bubble solution and some old badminton racquets, cut the strings out of some & leave them in the others, dip them in the bucket, and have fun! I got my racquets at a thrift store for a quarter each, and I love blowing bubbles with my daughter. Her great-grandpa even got into the act one day, it was cute!

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 12, 2000.

Michelle, thank you! We have some old rackets, I will add that to our bubble blowing! I'll let you know how it all works out--the reunion is June23/24/25/. Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 12, 2000.

Dress up!!

Hit up the thrift shops, etc... My daughter had beautiful (to her - little eyes don't see stains or faded places!) ball gowns. We bought old coats for their "fur" collars which made lovely stoles. Anything with chiffon, bugle beads or sequins was a big hit. Take apart huge skirts and use the fabric to make scarves or stoles, or drape on a hat. Add some hats and big gaudy junk jewelry and you have quite an ensemble. Oh! Don't forget shoes! I gave my daughter my old high heels, but noticed that her friends outgrew them in about the 2nd or 3rd grade. Old but dainty mismatched tea cups or those 1960's glass hostess sets (cup and plate with holder for cup) are perfect for tea parties - and a good time to sneak in a lesson on manners!

Other dress up outfits, contributed by Grandma the most excellent seamstress, were: pirate, sultan, flapper, clown, red riding hood, gypsy, etc.. Good for encouraging the imagination!

Another favorite is paper dolls. How I mourn the demise of the Sears catalog! My cousin and I, then later my daughter had huge extended families (perhaps modeled on our own?) of paper dolls cut out of the catalogs and magazines (especially good for pets). We would furnish complete houses and host family dinners for our families, and of course, invite the neighbors from across the other side of the bed, where we would lay out our households.

We made southern belle dolls out of poppies and hollyhock flowers, using a toothpick to attach unopened buds for heads and other flowers for hats. We made popsicle stick rafts and rafts of twigs tied together with twine and floated them down the Mississippi with Huck and Jim (okay, so it was really just the creek in the backyard).

Camping out in the backyard, under tents made of sheets and blankets pinned over the clothes line - scareing each other silly with ghost stories and watching the bats flitter around the pole light.

I was always happy to have my daughter invite friends over - invariably, if you invite more than one, there will be an aurgument and someone will be left out. That person "got" to spend time with me. We would make cookies or clean cabinets, or talk about whatever was on their mind. I would buy swimsuits and sweat suits in assorted sizes at thrift shops and keep them on hand for impromptue water fights or hikes. Getting to hunt firewood and build a fire and roast weenies or cook "stew" over an open fire was another thing the kids enjoyed. Treasure hunts were popular for parties - the treasure was in an old purse shaped like a trunk - usually Whistle Pops or little squirt guns or candy bead necklaces and chocolate coins.

For groups of kids:

I was perenniel room mother when my daughter was in the lower grades - usually in charge of the food - I always had the kids help plan what they wanted to eat and what style, then they each brought something and we fixed it together. We had fancy parties for Valentines day - where I taught them all how to do a simple two-step (good practice for later dances and proms), a Hawaiian feast and a hoe down - complete with contest for the best jug and washtub band (sort of Karaoke?)

I noticed one year that several parents kept their kids home on the day of the Halloween party re: religious reasons, so the next year we had a fall festival instead - everyone dressed up in Western or Farmer wear and we had a bar-b-que and line danced. The PE teacher was in on the scheme and had taught them to square dance in PE so we had a whirl at that too.

At one party, the games Mom was late and I was desperate, so I had all the kids take off their shoes and toss them in a big pile. We chose 4 teams and the team that found their shoes and got them back on first won - talk about a wild scramble!! Anything that kids can to to use up energy is good! Balloon stomps - with each team having a different color balloon and the team that stomped all their balloons first being the winner (an air compressor is a big help here - and gets Dad or Gramps in on the action - no guy is quite as cool as the one who dumps 10 garbage bags of balloons on the gym floor!).

Potato races - put a potato in a spoon and race to the other end, transfer the potato to the other guy and he races back (Also works with finger jello, but is a LOT messier). Egg tosses (hard boil for younger kids). Give each team a pair of big work gloves and have them unwrap a stick of chewing gum, put it in their mouth, then pass the gloves to the next team member. Carry relays, where two people link arms and carry another person to the finish line (good if slower or handicapped kids in the class) Disqualified if you drop your person!

All older kids need is a source of music and lots of food - have it be BYOB - of pop that is, and it will be cheaper to host. I've found that having fewer places to sit encourages them to dance earlier in the evening - usually they stand on opposite sides of the floor staring at each other until 1/2 through the party, then gripe 'cause they didn't get to dance!

Sorry so long - can't tell I enjoy spending time with kids, can you!!?

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), June 12, 2000.

Here's a couple fun recipes that my kids and Brownie Troop liked; Pear Mice: Put a pear half on a small plate...in the small end of the pear, cut two small slit where ears would be, insert banana slice...use two raisin for eyes...make a carrot curl for the tail. Candles...Put a ring of pineapple(candle holder) on small plate...put half a banana(candle) in hole of pineapple ring...put a maraschino cherry on top of banana(flame)...put some whipped cream on pineapple ring where handle would be. You can also cut small squares of cheese and use pretzel sticks for building things.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 12, 2000.

I am really enjoying reading through your posts on this thread -- and I'm printing off all your neat ideas for my daughter to possibly use for the Summer Program at our church (it's kind of like eight weeks of VBS, summer camp, and summer school combined -- so she is kept really busy thinking of things to do with the children!) I think she will really like the hula hoop bubble idea for the really hot days -- sometimes they go to the beach and go swimming, but not every day.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), June 12, 2000.

Haven't tried this yet but hope to soon: Cut end off large potato,scoop out the inside (not too much)Fill with potting soil and sprinkle with grass seed. set the potato in a cup in a window. As the grass grows it looks like hair. Use buttons and other odds and ends to make eyes, nose, mouth etc. Then, something my dad used to make for me if you happen to have some old wooden sewing thread bobbins. "Tractors" You need a small wooden bobbin; candle; pocket knife matchstick and an elastic band a little longer than the length of the bobbin. Take empty wooden sewing thread bobbin. Cut little notches around the edges to resemble tractor wheels. Cut about 1/2 inch off the bottom of the candle and remove the little piece of wick so that there is just the hole. Line the hole up with the hole in the bobbin and thread the elastic band through both pieces.Tie a knot in the end of the band so that it can't slip back through the hole in the candle and put the matchstick through the loop at the other end. Wind up the band by turning the match like a key. hold it tight then place on the floor and watch it go! Some work better than others. Experiment with different elastic bands.(The loop needs to be a little off center on the match so that the long end drags along the floor) Make a few and have races. These things used to fascinate me when I was very small. I thought my dad was a genious! Pauline

-- PaulineAdderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), June 13, 2000.

Remembered a couple more things. Haven't tried this yet but hope to soon: Cut end off large potato,scoop out the inside (not too much)Fill with potting soil and sprinkle with grass seed. set the potato in a cup in a window. As the grass grows it looks like hair. Use buttons and other odds and ends to make eyes, nose, mouth etc. Then, something my dad used to make for me if you happen to have some old wooden sewing thread bobbins. "Tractors" You need a small wooden bobbin; candle; pocket knife matchstick and an elastic band a little longer than the length of the bobbin. Take empty wooden sewing thread bobbin. Cut little notches around the edges to resemble tractor wheels. Cut about 1/2 inch off the bottom of the candle and remove the little piece of wick so that there is just the hole. Line the hole up with the hole in the bobbin and thread the elastic band through both pieces.Tie a knot in the end of the band so that it can't slip back through the hole in the candle and put the matchstick through the loop at the other end. Wind up the band by turning the match like a key. hold it tight then place on the floor and watch it go! Some work better than others. Experiment with different elastic bands.(The loop needs to be a little off center on the match so that the long end drags along the floor) Make a few and have races. These things used to fascinate me when I was very small. I thought my dad was a genius! Pauline

-- PaulineAdderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), June 13, 2000.

I haven't tried this one yet, but it sounds fun! BOUNCY PUTTY: (Per child) 1/2 cup liquid starch 1/2 cup (4 oz.) school glue (Elmer's Glue) 6 drops of any color food coloring Give each child a paper plate to combine all of his ingredients on by using his hands. Mix and squish! The more they play with it, the bouncier the putty will get! Stores great in a sandwich bag.

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 14, 2000.

I made the bubbles for the kids to play with at the family reunion this week end! I bought cheap plastic rackets for them to use for bubble wands! They were a huge hit! A school teacher cousin of mine told me, if I had used Joy dish washing soap they would have been even better! So next time I'll use Joy! I have some mixture left in a 5 gallon bucket--so when I get caught up, I think I'll sit in the yard & blow bubbles & let the neighbors gossip about me! ha! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 27, 2000.

Since all kids love to paint and it is not cheap to buy, I would like to tell you how we make a paint that is inexpensive. You need a big bottle of white dish soap. We use Ivory brand that we get at the Dollar Tree for $1 a bottle. Using food coloring, mix on a small pallette to the desired color and you are ready to paint. The paint when dry is slightly glossy. My daughter has used this for 4-H art projects (she has won 1st or 2nd in the county the last 5 years) and I doubt anyone could tell it wasn't store bought paint. You can mix as little or as much as you like, vary the intensity of the colors, make many different colors you won't find in most paint sets and clean up is very easy. Can be stored in the frig.

-- melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), January 14, 2001.

joy dishwashing detergent and the glycerin and water makes the best bubbles.

-- js (schlicker54@aol.com), January 12, 2002.