The Project of the Month Club (POMC) lets you choose from science projects, wood working, or arts and crafts projects to do with your kids. The club sends you a kit that contains the directions and materials you’ll need to complete the project.

Here are some of the samples of the woodworking projects they send out.

It would make a fun Christmas gift that would keep on giving all year long. According to the website the prices range from around $19.00 per month, to around $33.00 per month depending on the number of months you subscribe, and the number of projects that were shipped together.

Project of the month is offering Play Library readers a 10% discount, just enter the code: 50852 and you should receive the discount.

You can find more information about the projects available and the cost at the Project of the Month website.

Post from: Play Library

From the initial stink of the vinegar being poured into the cups (I never have been a fan of that smell), to the cry of the first kid saying, “This crayon is broken!” (you know, the wax one whose effects show up only after the writing and then the dying is completed), to the crack of the last of the many eggs being dropped by slippery little hands (or by my slippery big hand–oops!), this odd little tradition is one that I truly enjoy remembering and reliving each Easter holiday.

I’d remembered seeing instructions on the food coloring boxes on how to just use them to make the coloring for eggs. I thought I’d use them to do a side-by-side coloring test with the PAAS colors, but then I read that it required half the bottle of food coloring for each color! We’ll have to save that experiment for another day.

If the coloring activity doesn’t last nearly long enough for your kiddos and you find yourself looking for other Easter-themed ideas, head on over to the PAAS website for games and craft ideas.

Is egg coloring a tradition in your home, too?

Post from: Play Library

These are two of the creations that my kids made using the Play-Doh EZ 2 Do Zoo. (Pink Giraffe and Green Elephant, in case you weren’t sure. )

I like sets like these. I’m was never very good at coming up with something creative with just a lump of clay or a pile of Lego, and I always felt so lame watching other kids come up with the coolest sculptures and such while I sat there staring at the lump. I do have fun, though, replicating something while giving it my own little spin. I’m guessing there are lots of kids like me out there who are daunted by the idea of coming up with something from scratch, but who still love to play with Play-Doh and other arts and crafts materials. I think these types of sets are great for them. This set comes with several sets of eyes, feet, wings, ears and more, as well as some texture paddles that allow you to give a feathery or other texture to the Play-Doh body of the animals.

Of course, my 1 year old did both. He used the set and still came up with a brand new creation. What do you think we should name this one?

Post from: Play Library

One of the crafts that we had for the kids at my daughter’s birthday party was Zoo Animal Magnet Kits from Oriental Trading Company. I always wonder how the crafts are going to be shipped, and how much assembly will be required when they get here, so I thought I’d lay out a before and after of one of the magnets. The black rectangle is the magnet that gets glued on the back. All of the pieces can be assembled with standard school glue. Isn’t he a cute little monkey with his curly pipe cleaner tail?

Most of the kids did a great job with this craft. There was a small instruction sheet with each kit, which was primarily just a picture of the finished products. The kids were really proud of all of their little animals. And the best part was that they weren’t expensive. At 3.95 for a dozen, I was able to pick up a few extras to keep around the house when boredom starts to set in. They’ve come in handy on this snowy day!

Post from: Play Library

The day after the Groundhog excursion for my daughter’s birthday, the traditional caffeine and sugar sponsored madhouse (AKA the birthday party) occurred. Don’t worry, the caffeine was strictly for the adults who were silly enough to stick around to help (thanks for being silly enough to stick around and help! ).

Inspired by our recent jaunts to Kids’ Club at Michael’s, we decided on an “Arts and Crafts” theme for the birthday party. Each child was given a canvas tote bag to decorate with fabric markers, a zoo animal magnet to assemble, and a felt pillow to stitch, fill and decorate. The girls were given heart pillows, and the boys were given a variety of sports balls to make (how very non-gender neutral of me, I know).

The kids all had a blast. The magnet crafts were fairly easy to accomplish by most of the kids, and the tote bags were almost as simple as coloring a piece of paper with markers. We thought the fabric markers were better for this setting than fabric paint (no drying time with the markers), and we just used cheap cookie cutters in a variety of shapes for the templates.

The pillows were a little more time consuming for the kids to complete. Most of the kids who were around my daughter’s age were able to complete the project once they got help getting started, and some without any assistance at all. We did have a few younger kids (mostly siblings of the older kids) who only got part way through the project before it was completed by an adult or taken home to finish.

Part of the reason for hosting this at home rather than at Michael’s was that, for the number of kids we wanted to include, I think our lowest price option would have been (if I’m remembering the figures correctly) just over $100. That’s with no food or anything else included, just the most inexpensive craft. Now, we were inviting 12 kids, in addition to our two oldest, which means that’s a party for about 14 kids.

Instead, we ordered all of our crafts from Oriental Trading Company on-line, and used the code from one of their catalogues that I got from a friend (thanks friend!), which qualified the order for free shipping b/c the total was over $60 (I had to order a $3 item to get to that $60!). They have some fantastic arts and crafts kits for kids at great prices. That $60 paid for the bags, the animal magnet kits, the pillow kits, a little bottle of glue for each kid, and three sets of fabric markers for the kids to share. And there were several extra of both the magnet and pillow kits. I think that would make those Thrifty Mommies proud, what do you think?

I do have to say, though, that I’m not the kind of person who minds a mess (you’d only have to meet me once to know that was true!), so hosting a party where there’s going to be scraps of yarn and spots of glue and scribbles of marker around when the party is done just doesn’t even phase me. I can see how it would be worth paying an additional $30 or more if it would bother you to have the mess in your house.

I’m sure that some of the additional money at Michael’s is also for paying the helpers that would be there to assist the kids in their projects. My solution? Grab a Bald Man and some great, but nutty, friends who are willing to hang around and help you out for free!!! Thanks, nutty friends. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Post from: Play Library

I have to say that I chickened out from buying it. The week was already too busy for me to potentially add, “Remove sidewalk paint from kids’ clothes,” to my to-do list. It sounds a bit messy. But it did look like fun.

Have any of you tried it? What was your experience with it? Are any of you out there from Crayola and want to send me a sample to review?

Post from: Play Library

Here’s an astronaut hat my son and I made this week. It’s got nine planets, a sun, a moon, a spaceship, a nebula, and two satellites. Simple to make using construction paper, pom poms, pipe cleaners, foil paper, and broken space toys.

What have you and/or your kids created lately? Send me a picture!

Post from: Play Library