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After being cooped up indoors, for most of the winter months, your kids and you will be glad to embark on some outdoor activities. Arts and craft projects are always popular with children. Stock up on supplies, during the winter, so you will be ready for outdoor fun when that first nice spring day arrives. Reserve some of these ideas for birthday parties, slumber parties or playdate activities. Crafts double as a party favour to take home.

Painted Rocks Project

Start the rock painting project by going on a rock hunt. Take kids out to the country and search for rocks. Make sure you have permission to be on the property. Take along a bucket to collect the rocks. Lay down an old sheet over the driveway or on the lawn. Give each child a small plastic bucket with three colours of acrylic paint, paintbrushes, markers and containers of water.

Spread the found rocks in the centre of the sheet and let the kids sit in the outlying area. Suggest they paint faces, animals butterflies or just designs on the rocks. Tip: save up your empty plastic vitamin bottles for water containers. They can be filled, capped and set in each child’s bucket without the worry of spilling.

When the painted rocks are dry, the adult should set them out on newspaper and give each rock a spray or two of clear art sealer (found at the craft store). Turn the rocks over and spray them again. This will not only seal the paint to the rock but enhance the brightness of the colours.

Garden Stepping Stones Project

Set up a workspace outdoors, to keep the mess out of the house. Give each child a large cake pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil. Find extras at the Good Will Store or other reuse stores. Have a mixture of items they can add to the top of their stepping stone, such as shells, marbles, metal washers or small flat tiles.

For each stepping stone, mix together (in a bucket):

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups of sand
• 1 cup white craft glue
• 2 cups water

Pour the mixture into their pans and let them create a stepping stone masterpiece. Let the stepping stones dry for at least three days. They should come out of the baking pans easily. Spray the stones with an exterior clear sealer, with several coats on the top and bottom. Let them dry overnight. After deciding on the path location, have each child drop their artwork into the ground where you have dug an indentation.

Bird Feeder Project

Use a large (2 litre) recycled pop bottle for the base of the bird feeder. Unscrew the cap from the pop bottle. Wrap a piece of wire around the bottle, just under the screw indentations, leaving enough wire on each side to tie to a tree branch. Screw the cap back on the bottle. This will keep the wire secure. Cut a large circle on one side of the bottle, 5 inches from the bottom.

Take the birdseed and the feeder out to the tree where it will be hanging. Fill the bottle up to the 5-inch mark of the open hole. Undoubtedly, birdseed will be spilt as it is poured into the bottle, leaving see beneath the tree. Bird sightings on the ground will be enjoyed as they pick up the spilt seed. Purchas a picture book that shows different birds, their names and information. When birds appear at the bird feeder, go through the book with your children to learn about their new feathered friends. You may also want to do a birdbox to compliment this.

Win a Chalkola 32 Acrylic Paint kit

To help you get the children outdoors and enjoy summer projects, I am lucky enough to have a Chalkola 32 Acrylic Paint kit to giveaway.

PRIZE: Chalkola 32 Acrylic Paint kit

To enter simply complete the Gleam widget below, all entries are optional and each one completed will gain you more entries into the random draw.

Chalkola 32 Acrylic Paint kit (WTDS)