My kids are getting so bored with winter that it’s a daily thing in our home to say one of three things:
1. Get off the couch and find something to do
2. Get off the couch and find something to do
3. Get off the couch and find something to do
Surely this must count as three doesn’t it? Each time I say it my voice amplifies, making it a totally different request by technical definition. Whatever. I just want them up off the couch and doing some of the fun stuff they like to do prior to the winter boredom era.
So mama greenie drank a little extra coffee and came up with some fun little busy things to help your kiddos enjoy themselves this Spring Break. It’s coming, and it you are like our fam, no GREEN here. At Least not the pretty kind that grows in the warm weather. The kind you have to mow. The kind that tickles your tootsies when you walk barefoot through it! Aaaah, love green turf.
Rock-A-Bye-Birdies
Materials
Egg carton
Hole punch
1/4-inch-wide ribbon
Colored tissue paper
Pinking shears or decorative-edge craft scissors
Blown eggs
Glue stick
Colored feathers
Colored card stock
Marker
Instructions
For each, cut a cup from the egg carton and punch 3 holes as shown.
Cut 3 pieces of ribbon, each about 9 inches long. Thread an end of each piece through a hole in the carton and knot it, then tie the other ends of the ribbons together.
Cut two 2- by 6-inch rectangles of tissue paper, one with the pinking shears. Lay the pinked rectangle on top of the other. Wrap the papers around a blown egg so that the pinked edge peeks out from behind the straight edge. Secure with the glue stick.
Place the wrapped egg in the cradle. Use the glue stick to attach a small tuft of feather and a card stock beak and eyes to the egg. Make pupils on the eyes with the marker.
Craft and Image Courtesy of: familyfun.go.com
Backyard Birdfeeder
Materials
Clean 1-liter soda bottle
Craft knife
2 wooden spoons
small eye screw
Length of twine for hanging
1. Start by drawing a 1/2-inch asterisk on the side of a clean 1-liter soda bottle, about 4 inches from the bottom. Rotate the bottle 90 degrees and draw another asterisk 2 inches from the bottom.
2. Draw a 1-inch-wide circle opposite each asterisk, as shown.
3. Use a craft knife to slit the asterisk lines and cut out the circles (a parent’s job). Insert a wooden spoon handle first through each hole and then through the opposite asterisk, as shown.
4. Remove the bottle cap and twist a small eye screw into the top of it for hanging.
5. Finally, fill your feeder with birdseed, recap it, and use a length of twine to hang it from a tree.
Pine Cone Bird Feeder
Instructions:
1. Tie a few feet of string to a pine cone. Cover the pine cone with the mixture below. Roll the pinecone in birdseed and then suspend it from a tree branch outside.
2. Food mixture: Mix 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, lard or suet with 2 1/2 cups cornmeal or uncooked oats until well blended. Optional: add dried fruit (chopped up), chopped nuts, seeds (especially sunflower and millet), and/or suet, which are high-energy bird foods.
