Mar 30, 2012

Daisy chain toy

I thought you might get a kick out of this craft for smaller children that I wrote about over at Alpha Mom, seeing as we've just entered spring in the northern hemisphere, and Easter is nearly here. All the things you need to make a nice big set of these work out pretty cheap, and this is a DIY toy that will last a long time, so worth it. I spent just over $5 for all the materials to make enough of these to keep my two girls very busy and give them plenty of options.

The way these work is that you make lots and lots of individual flower sections that the kids can thread into each other and be taken apart again easily to make many different kinds of chains for head dresses, necklaces, bracelets or just long decorative garlands. It would work out to be a really neat fine motor skill activity for preschoolers.

If you'd like to see how to make these then pop over here to Alpha Mom where I have the whole tutorial posted. Bonus Easter points on this one, because they fit into the plastic egg hunt eggs, so that gives me more options that aren't candy for the egg hunts that we do here.

Flower fairy baby Del likes stealing them.

Over the weekend I'm hoping to put together another post about a similar daisy chain craft we did that is more suited to older, grade school kids like my girls. They really enjoyed the pipe cleaner daisy chains, but it was a bit too easy for them as they are now six and seven years old. After thinking about it for a bit I came up with another option for them that would be more of a test of their motor skills and look more realistic too. It's all made and I did take photos, but I need to find the time to write it up for you. I'm hoping that if I get it up here some time tomorrow then anyone that wants to will have enough time to make a set as an Easter gift.

In the mean time, here are a few older FW posts of easter type crafty goings on that might interest you...

Last year's Easter craft I wrote about over at Alpha Mom was the Pysanki on paper eggs. Ours are back up on the walls this year and we're going to make new ones over Spring break.
Bunny ear paper plate hat, with the template also over at Alpha Mom...
Origami bunny ear headbands from last year...

Lastly, here's an old post about how we do our egg hunts. It works out much better for us as a collaborative hunt, rather than the crazed, free for all, seemingly "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" themed event they hold at the local park, that everyone needs padding and pepper spray for.

Hope you're all geared up for some fun spring break times with the kiddos! My best mate from home just sent me a bag of 40 mini Cadburies Creme Eggs. I am ALL SET! Om nom nom!

6 comments:

Ticia said...

I obviously need to head over and check out those posts.

Jen said...

Great idea and what a sweet pic of the baby. made me smile :)

Mary said...

These are great ideas. I'm definitely going to try the daisy (or cherry blossom) chain idea and I LOVE the pysanky easter eggs you made last year. Can't wait to try that. Thanks for all the inspirations.

Anonymous said...

Cute, cute! I'm always looking for inexpensive candy alternatives. I host many neighborhood kid events and don't put candy into the eggs or the ubiquitous pinatas. Over the years, I learned that candy persists because how cheap and easy and gender neutral it is!

Donna @ EdibleCreations said...

Baby Dell with those wings and the flowers has to be the cutest sight online!

coffeepoweredmom said...

I love this craft! I did this for my two little girls and it has been a huge hit. I wrote a post on it over at my new blog and I gave links back here. I hope if you get a minute you can make sure I gave you enough credit.
http://coffeepoweredmom.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/flower-power/
Either way, thank you for this amazing craft, the girls (and I) are huge fans of it!