Tag: activities for kids

Spooky Season, Cute and Easy Ghosts for Kids

I love a good easy craft that I can do with my kids.

Bonus points when it’s something you are actually excited to keep around your house for weeks until the most wonderful time of year arrives – yes HALLOWEEN!

These little ghosts take about 30 minutes to make (plus dry time) and the supply list is minimal. Just make sure to consult below because we had to do a take-two after we bought the wrong kind of clay and ended up with a big mess and little ghosties in the trash. Bummer!

Ghostie with the Mostie

Supplies:

  • Crayola Model Magic Air Dry Clay (make sure to get this one. They make a different Air dry clay for pottery and you DON’T want that one).
  • A Rolling Pin
  • Placemat
  • Pencil
  • Spice Jar (empty or full is fine, it’s just to get the shape down)
  • Tin Foil
Foil over the spice jar, then overlay the clay

Steps:

  1. Make a small ball of foil and place it on top of your spice jar. Then use a larger piece of foil to drape over the top of the ball and spice jar.

2. Grab your placemat and rolling pin. Roll out your clay pretty thin. It will need to cover your spice jar and reach the bottom of it.

3. Use a pencil to poke out some eyes. You will want to play with this part until the eyes look as you wish. You can also make a mouth if you prefer.

4. Let your cute ghost dry for 48 hrs.

5. gently lift off the tin foil and ghost from the spice jar

6. Leave as-is or paint your ghost.

I left mine white but my daughter decided to paint black spots on hers. Turns out this may have been foreshadowing since our family costumes have been decided and they include Dalmatians. Ruff, Ruff!

These ghosts are so simple that I think it would make a fun classroom project this Fall.

Need a book to pair with this activity?

Try The Lonely Little House Ghost.

Now, go get your spooky on.

But not too spooky, just the right amount of spooky. Don’t go frightening the kids.

Unless that’s your thing. In that case, take them to Home Depot. They always have the CREEPIEST Halloween section.

My girls love it!

Motivating Kids (and Adults), Free Progress Chart

If I’m being honest, my 10th book was one of the hardest to publish. It had little to do with the book itself, and everything to do with my own motivation…

If I’m being honest, my 10th book was one of the hardest to publish. It had little to do with the book itself, and everything to do with my own motivation.

My goal was to finish writing and publishing Ringo Picked last month…but I was on twelve different planes, bouncing from city to city and it left me feeling overwhelmed.

You’re kind, I’m sure in your head you gave me a pass for not reaching my goal.

But what if I told you that my goal was the same for the last three months and for various reasons I didn’t get there. That changes things a bit.

Obviously life happens, but in reality, I wasn’t making progress because of me.

Sometimes we all need a little motivation to hold ourselves accountable.

Ringo Picked: A seriously silly story about nose picking + practical tips to help quit bad habits to raise healthy, happy kids 3-8yrs finally did get published in June.

I actually made a plan of what needed to happen, set aside an entire day to actually do it without excuse, changed my environment for inspo (cute coffee shops always help me), and planned a reward for myself once I reached my goal.

Whether it’s a bad habit you (or your kids) are trying to quit, or a goal you are trying to reach, visually seeing progress and having a reward to look forward to at the end can help.

I’ve created this free Progress Chart to help your kids (or students) reach their own goals. Get FREE your printable here.

Wondering what my “reward” of choice was? A new coffee mug and a massage! Oh yeah, plus the personal gratification of publishing book ten 😉