The supplies you need are indeed simple: Balloons, scissors, cups (preferably paper), mini marshmallows and rubber bands (optional).

All I had to say was “marshmallow launcher”, and my nephew, niece and son were at the table. Would they come running as fast if I said “brussels sprout” launcher?

First they cut the bottom off the paper cup.

I tied the balloons for the younger kids, and the kids then cut the tops off of the balloons.

Stretch the balloon over the cup.

You can add a rubber band to for extra security.

Load the cup with a marshmallow and pull back to launch!

My nephew immediately decided if one marshmallow is fun to launch, a handful is even better.  He was disappointed in the explosion as the marshmallow just toppled over the rim of the cup.  He did clean up the mess, by consumption. The physics teacher of my previous career had to resist going into a lecture on Newton’s Second Law of Motion and Elastic potential energy.  The kids got the idea through experimentation.  More stretch, more boom.  More marshmallows, less boom.  More marshmallows?? Yes, please!

In all honesty, much of the actual assembly of the bow is largely a grown-up task (that is, if you have average fine-motor skilled 6-and-unders).  But the good news is that it goes quickly (once your popsicle sticks are pliable – plan ahead!), and then your little knights can be let loose for target practice.

All you need is:

• A few popsicle sticks (might as well do several while you’re at it)
• Dental floss
• Cotton swabs
• Sharp knife or scissors (for the grown-up – to notch the stick and cut one end off the cotton swab)

Start by cutting two notches into your popsicle sticks on each end.  You’ll want them close to the end of the stick, and fairly deep (I ended up going back and cutting them a little deeper than I have in this photo.)

Then, pop your sticks in a glass of water to soften (so you can bend them into the bows.)  You’ll need at least an hour for this step — and a little longer didn’t seem to hurt it.

When you’re ready to “bend your bow”, start by wrapping the dental floss around one end.  I just wrapped it around 3-4 times, securing it in the notch.  Then, holding the stick in one hand, stretch the dental floss to the notch on the other end — but take care to keep the floss on the same side.  Note: the popsicle stick is not especially “bendy”, so you will need to bend it to shape with one hand, as you stretch the floss tightly across.

Then just wrap the floss around the other end of the stick, again pulling it taut and tightly into the notch.  I just wrapped it a few times again, and then cut it off.

Your bow is ready to go!  Your knights can decorate it with markers if they’d like to personalize them (we didn’t have the patience.)

Remember to snip the ends off your cotton swabs (you could also put your kids to work on this, using a set of nail clippers.)

It takes a bit of practice to get the motion down for shooting this teeny bow and arrow, but once you do, it’s great fun!  We found we could shoot those little arrows 10 feet or more!  You could set up targets (using bowls or waste baskets to shoot into, or make bulls-eyes with cardboard & paper) for extra fun.

Did you know that during Medieval times, knights used special designs and pictures on their shields — called a coat of arms — to identify themselves?  The reason is because one man in armor looked a lot like another, so the coat of arms he carried was used to identify a knight in battle.  During that time, few people could read and write, so pictures were very important.  A coat of arms was like a label or a sign, so you could know instantly who was coming toward you, and, as my kids said, “know whose team he was on.”

This fun & easy DIY project will allow your kids to come up with a design for their own “team.”  All you need is:

• Cardboard cut in the shape of a shield
• Aluminum foil
• Tape – to secure the aluminum foil
• Colored tape (we used some special glittery tape we found) – for decorating
• Markers (we used Sharpies, which are awesome on aluminum foil, but obviously use your own judgment about that.  My 4- and 6-year-olds are okay, but the 2-year old is quarantined from them.)
• Packing tape or duct tape – to make the handle

Before you get started, cover the shield with aluminum foil and secure on the back with tape.

Then, it’s pretty much up to your knights-in-waiting to design their coats of arms.  Lady S was happy to create designs using the super-cool glitter tape (you can get similar at any craft store.)

And then colored in the “fields” of the shield with the Sharpies and added some special designs.

We also talked about how sometimes knights had images on their shields – to represent things like strength, or speed or courage.  Sir H decided a lion was appropriate for his coat of arms.  He drew it on a piece of paper, which we then taped to the shield.

He decided the colorful tape was a good addition, too, so created a border for his shield with that.  You could use duct tape (have you seen the crazy fun duct tape you can get at craft stores these days??) or colored masking tape, too.

As the finale, we added a handle to the back.  We took a length of packing tape (duct tape would have been better, but this was what we had) and folded it in half cross-wise (ie., the adhesive part onto itself), to form the handle.  Then I taped each end to the shield.

Now my knights are ready for any adventure!

The supplies you need are indeed simple: Balloons, scissors, cups (preferably paper), mini marshmallows and rubber bands (optional).

All I had to say was “marshmallow launcher”, and my nephew, niece and son were at the table. Would they come running as fast if I said “brussels sprout” launcher?

First they cut the bottom off the paper cup.

I tied the balloons for the younger kids, and the kids then cut the tops off of the balloons.

Stretch the balloon over the cup.

You can add a rubber band to for extra security.

Load the cup with a marshmallow and pull back to launch!

My nephew immediately decided if one marshmallow is fun to launch, a handful is even better.  He was disappointed in the explosion as the marshmallow just toppled over the rim of the cup.  He did clean up the mess, by consumption. The physics teacher of my previous career had to resist going into a lecture on Newton’s Second Law of Motion and Elastic potential energy.  The kids got the idea through experimentation.  More stretch, more boom.  More marshmallows, less boom.  More marshmallows?? Yes, please!

Apparently, these hoarding skills are passed down from mom to kids. You might recall that I’d created a Gift Wrapping Kit from scraps of wrapping paper. Recently, I found a bunch of remnant fabric I’d saved from old Halloween costumes, curtains, and more. I thought, what better way to take advantage of these scraps than to enable more fun collecting and storing treasures! They’d be perfect for making small pouches.

So, my daughter and I gathered the fabric, scissors, and some ribbon (optional) and headed to the park for some crafting fun with friends.

The first step is to cut out a large circle. I quickly realized that cutting a circle is really tough to do without some guidance. I had a hard time with it. So, you can only imagine how tough it was for a group of 5 year olds. While we made out okay (you don’t need a perfect circle to make a pouch), I’d recommend that you bring a marker to draw a decent sized circle before cutting.

Then, we cut little slits every 1-1.5 inches or so around the circle. The tricky thing here is to cut close to the edge, but be careful not to cut all the way through to the edge. This might require some grownup assistance. The marker might come in handy here too! Also, we found that keeping the slits pretty close to each other is a good idea for keeping the pouch closed well.

To create your drawstring, you can either cut a long, thin piece of fabric or use ribbon. We had some ribbon on hand to thread through the slits. This is great weaving and fine-motor practice. At the end, we simply tied the two loose ends together.

With the cinching of the ribbon, the pouch is complete! The girls were then off to find nature treasures to tuck into their handmade pouches.

I hope I’m not the only one out there who winds up responsible for planning her own mother’s day gifts every year! I was pondering ideas for a project that would be both mom- and kid-friendly when I saw white carnations at the grocery store. They reminded me of how much I used to love dyeing flowers with food coloring when I was kid – there’s just something so magical about watching the color travel up through the stem all the way to the tips of the petals. Just for fun, I thought I’d add a little color-mixing exploration and create a rainbow!

All you need for this project is flowers and food coloring. Carnations are a good choice because they’re inexpensive, long-lasting, and they suck up the color quickly. To prep the flowers, I cut off the stems ends so they’d drink the water faster, then placed them in cups of water. I just happened to have the right number of flowers to do all the colors of the rainbow and have one left over to leave white, so we could compare the difference.

I used paste food coloring because it was what I had on hand, but the liquid kind works just as well. The only trick with the food coloring is that it helps to use a lot! I mean, really a lot – the water should be dyed a nice, deep color.

The mixing step turned out to be a lot of fun by itself. My son very seriously and carefully mixed each color until we had this lovely water rainbow in our window.

And then we came back just hours later to find that our flowers were already starting to turn colors! We kept checking on our flowers throughout the day and watched the color deepen and spread. Some flowers turned out more vibrant than others, and it was really interesting to watch the patterns the colors make as they travel through the flower petals.

We left them overnight, and in the morning we had a lovely pastel rainbow.

Add a little bit of ribbon and sweet little boy, and voila! Happy mother’s day!

Mother’s Day is coming up, and in our house, that means flowers! Since I had a big stash of empty jelly jars just waiting for a craft, I thought of these cute DIY vases — all you need are some jars and some yarn. Just wrap the yarn around, cross it to hold in place, and keep wrapping. When you get to the end of the yarn, just tuck the loose end under to hold it in place.

If you’re starting with clean jars, there’s no prep work at all. If you’re recycling and need to remove the label, learn from my mistake and get that done before you have three kids demanding to know when they could start making vases. (The smarter way to do it would be to soak the label with vegetable oil, let it sit for an hour or so, then scrub it off.)

Older kids might want to experiment with layering different colors of yarn, or try wrapping it in neat rows. But I think even the overlapping wrapping looks really fun, and it’s easy enough that even little kids can participate.

We had such a good time creating this set, we decided to create a second set to give as gifts!

See more great ideas for Mother’s Day in our roundup here!

What are your favorite kids’ crafts for Mother’s Day? Tell us in the comments!