Written by Josh and Jenny Solar of The Happy Family Movement

First off, what exactly is a Fun Fest you ask? Here’s the thing…it’s SO simple. You pick a day (we usually declare a fun fest the night before), and you do nothing but have fun! That’s it! We’ve done a few Fun Fests now, and I want to tell you, they are the best days ever! We don’t leave the house, we stay in our jammies, the kids are involved in every aspect of it, so it’s a true family affair. The other cool thing about a fun fest is that it costs nothing. It’s simple, it’s free, and everyone has a blast. What more could you ask for?

We came up with the idea of Fun Fest in December of 2010 when we were snowed in. The kids were getting stir crazy, and we were too. We had to do something, so we decided to have a day where we did nothing but have fun, with each other. And, so, Fun Fest was born.

5 tips to making an incredible Fun Fest for you and your family:

• Make a list. The first and one of the most important steps to a good Fun Fest is to make a great list. We choose to let our kids make the list by themselves. It’s amazing to watch their little minds come up with the games we’ll play. For our Fun Fests, anything goes. As long as we’re not physically harming each other, it makes the list. Another reason this is fun is because we then get to check everything off the list. Kids LOVE to check stuff off of lists! And, at the end of the day, you get to step back and see all the fun you had, in one place, all checked off.
• Eliminate no and can’t from your vocabulary. This is key. As parents, we get into these habits of saying “no” and “we can’t” without thinking. It’s a mindless reaction. The point of Fun Fest is to let your imagination wander, and have an absolute blast with your kiddos. Anything goes! By intentionally eliminating the words “no” and “can’t” from your vocabulary you’ll open up a space where everyone’s creativity will run wild. And that’s an awesome space to be in!
• Do everything on the list. This one is pretty obvious, right? If it’s on the list it has to be checked off by the end of the day. I’ll be honest, some of the activities we’ve done in the past have lasted 5-10 minutes. That’s ok. The activity still got checked off, and we still laughed.
• Document the day. What’s the point of having a really awesome day if you have nothing to remember it by? At least, that’s my view. As a photographer, I document as much as possible. Having pictures can take you right back to how you FELT on any particular day/moment. We used our big, legit cameras the first few Fun Fests we did, and for this last one, we decided to just use our phones here and there and share via Instagram (plug: you can find the Happy Family Movement on Instagram @happyfammvmt). If you decide to share on Instagram, use the hastag #funfest so we can see all the craziness.
• Have fun! This is above everything else, the key to an amazing Fun Fest. Have fun! Fun Fests are stress free ways to just be together with your family. They give us all an opportunity to act on the wild and crazy things we want to do every day but never actually do. There’s nothing more fun than spending a day with your kids doing whatever your heart desires.

Looking for some Fun Fest inspiration? You can watch a slideshow we put together from our first Fun Fest, and here’s a link to another Fun Fest we had last year.

I always get a thrill out of Trash to Treasure projects— and this one is definitely one of my all-time favorites. Kaley from Dualey flipped an old particle board desk into an adorable play kitchen for her son. The details that they included in it are incredible— a nightlight in the oven, a pullout cutting board and the Pyrex dish as the sink. I can’t decide who has more fun with this— her son playing in it, or Kaley and her husband building it together. — Jen

Have a DIY project that you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here. (Low res, under 600k per image, please.)

Kaley used her mom’s Pyrex dish for the sink. The faucet it from Home Depot and makes it look totally legit.

Use old CD’s as stove burners— genius!  I also love how they have an actual coffee pot on the stove.

Turn a shelf into a cookbook nook. I love her choices for books: Eating the Alphabet, You are my Cupcake, I like Fruit, I like Vegetables and We Belong Together.

A few Ikea utensils mixed in with second hand ones. All I can say is I would have LOVED this kitchen when I was a little girl.

Kaley’s son can prep his meals on his very own pull out prep area— I love this. Kaley used velcro on the IKEA food to keep it secure. Why didn’t I think of that?!

For a step-by-step tutorial on how they made this play kitchen, visit Dualey.

Kaley gave old food containers a second life in the play kitchen by painting them and gluing adorable custom  labels on them. You can see more of her trash-to-play food project here.

During our Family Sponge cardboard treehouse giveaway, we asked our readers to fill in the blank:

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is _____________________________.”

I loved the responses from our readers. No one recommended their kids’ cool eco-friendly toy. Which makes me think that The Story of Stuff is on to something. Do we really need to buy all of these “eco-friendly” toys when our kids would much rather climb a tree, play in the sand, or build a fort with a cardboard box?

Don’t get me wrong– cool wooden and sustainable toys are fun and inspire play at home (these are some splurges I’ve made on Amazon– Green Toys Tea Set, Plan Toys Fruits and Veggie Set, Melissa & Doug Building Blocks Set). But nothing beats the great outdoors. Nothing.

My daughter Zoe has so much fun with just a rope swing hanging from a tree or using sidewalk chalk to decorate the box her store-bought toy came in. I think we can eliminate a lot more “stuff” in our lives and just play with the never ending possibility that is all around us– and it’s free. Hanging out with Mother Nature not only sparks imagination play, but when you get down and dirty with simple objects outside, it triggers some of our happiest childhood memories. So here’s a list that our readers shared:

6 awesome toys that are sitting in your recycling bin or just right outside your door

1. Beach Sand (Here’s a great way to bring the sand indoors)

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is beach sand. There’s nothing better” ~ Ash & Matt 

“My favorite eco friendly toy is sand also!” ~ Wendie

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is sand. I am constantly amazed at the way my girls can entertain themselves for HOURS with nothing but a shovel, a bucket and a stretch of sandy beach. The best!” ~ Christy

2. Tire Swing

“Our favorite (as in both myself and the kids) eco friendly toy, our tire swing!” ~ Leslie

3. Trees, Twigs, Dirt

“I grew up on ten acres and playing outside was a must. And my toys were the dirt, trees, and mountains! I want the same for my kids. My imagination was endless!” ~ Corrin

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is a twig or small branch. My eight year old son, finds endless entertainment from them. And they are also great for toasting marshmallows over a bonfire too.” ~ Popo Joy

“Dirt and water! They can go a long way with children.” ~ Melissa

4. Cardboard Boxes

“Our favorite eco-friendly toys are cardboard packaging…we paint, build, and create with them.” ~ Corrin P.

“Our favorite eco-friendly toy is cardboard boxes. We save them all and Madison draws, colors, paints, cuts them.” ~ Catty Young

“The long cardboard box we made into a ship today!” ~ Jackie

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is anything we can make with what we have. She is enjoying the cardboard car we built for her out of a box.” ~ Sarah

5. Toilet Paper Rolls

“We make a lot of things out of cardboard toilet paper rolls–pirate spyglasses and binoculars, mostly. But also caterpillars and phones and people with whacky “hair”. Paper towel rolls become swords. It’s actually all about swords-for-super-heroes lately.” ~ Pamela S.

6. Milk jugs

“My favorite eco-friendly toy is using milk jugs to make lanterns or bird feeders” – Amy Linderman

Yup, this list is pretty simple. Now go play!

What’s gives your child endless play time that doesn’t involve a store-bought toy?

Written by contributor Jennifer Torres Siders of Stockton Mama.

Switching out Alice’s crib for a toddler bed left us a big blank wall that I’ve been thinking about how to fill for the past couple of weeks. I wanted something she’d enjoy – that was also pretty to look at – and came up with this take on a felt board.

Maybe in the future we’ll add some fancier shapes and turn it into more of a story board. But for now I kept it simple. Already an expert in color identification, Alice has begun to dabble in counting and sorting, and I think she’ll have fun moving the bright circles around.

This was super easy– it got finished during a longish nap time. And it’s a good way to use up those scraps of felt left over from other projects (Thank goodness you didn’t just throw them away!).

Materials you will need:

• A poster frame – mine was 18″-by-24″ (Go for one with a window made of acrylic or some other type of thin plastic sheeting. It’s cheaper than glass, and since the finished project is going to be handled quite a bit, probably safer.)
• Dark-colored craft felt – about 1/2 yard off a bolt (more or less, depending on the size of your frame)
• Individual sheets of craft felt in a variety of colors
• Strong tape
• A fabric marker
• Scissors
• Circle templates (I just traced around a small bowl and a couple of jelly jars).

Step 1: Take the frame apart. Set the clear plastic sheet on top of your large piece of felt. (If you’re working with an old frame that no longer has any glazing, or if you want to replace a glass window with something less breakable, you could try a piece of cardboard that’s been cut down to the correct size). Using scissors, cut the felt so that it’s about 2-3 inches larger than the plastic sheet on all sides. Just eyeball it – this doesn’t have to be exact.

Step 2: Cut the corners. Make two snips, from the edge of the felt to just shy of the edge of the plastic, on all four corners– you’re cutting away the corners so that the bulky felt will be easier to wrap around the sheeting.

Step 3: Fold the felt. Starting with one of the long sides, fold the felt down over the plastic and secure it with some strong tape (I used polka-dot duct tape, mostly to prove that it wasn’t just an impulse buy. You could use something else.). On the opposite side, pull the felt tight around plastic, and tape it down too. Repeat on the short sides.

Step 4: Reassemble your frame with the felt-covered window in the middle. Your felt board is finished. Hooray! Now comes the fun part.

Step 5: Trace circles. Use various sizes for your rainbow felt pieces (I used an air-soluble fabric marker, but any kind of marker would probably work) and cut them out. If your kids are of scissoring age, they might like to help. (It’s easy to get carried away here.)

Step 6: Gently press your circles onto the board. They won’t hold up to a wind storm or anything, but they stick pretty well. You can hang your board on a wall or let it be portable. I really love how interactive the finished project is – and it’s more fun than you’d think to play with different color combinations. Remember to take turns.

For more inspiring crafts from Jennifer, head on over to Stockton Mama.

Join the discussion

How do you help your child learn their shapes and colors? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Birthdays parties are tons of fun, but also create tons of waste. And with parties every year, why not consciously change some things to help the environment and eliminate some of the waste? We have a few suggestions that can save some trees, some money and also look super cool.

Eco-Friendly Birthday Party Ideas for Kids

1. Party outside: Use nature as your setting and ditch the balloons and streamers. Instead, invest in a fabric banner that you can use multiple times like the one pictured above from ACME Party Box Company.

Build forts and do a campout for the kids in the backyard, complete with hot dogs and smores. “Low key and adventurous” is the theme, which also means little waste and lots of fun.

2. Eco-friendly Invitations: Evite is a great way to spread the word about a party, without wasting a sheet of paper. But for kid’s parties, it’s a little bit harder to do that. What about making invitations out of reclaimed goods, like a toilet paper roll and scraps of paper?

3. Use products that can be reused or easily recycled: I love this Cardboard Box Birthday that Brianne and Sean Walker did for their son’s first birthday. It’s complete with recycled cups and a cardboard box playground— and the Not a Box book is super cute!

These mason jars are adorable, reusable and multifunctional. Add eco-friendly paper straws to the mix and you have a very green drink that also looks very cool.

4. Make food from scratch: Avoid the box of cake mix and all the packaging that goes into store-bought food by making the refreshments from scratch. This carrot cupcake is a great dessert for kids and chock-full of nutrients- it’s made with whole-wheat flour, applesauce and wheat germ. Love it!

5. Adventure Party: Take the kids outdoors for activities like a mud run, complete with obstacles and a hose for a refreshing finish line.

Create a nature scavenger hunt, where the kids get on their hands and knees scouring the Earth for nature’s own treasures.

Have the kids get in lines and a do relay races. For this Lorax theme party, Gwynn had a recycling relay race.

6. Eco-friendly gifts for party guests: Ditch the $1 bin toys and give heartfelt and eco-friendly gifts to all who came, like these DIY melted crayon race car molds made from old bits of crayons.

Or make these custom seed packets out of recycled paper and string. What better way to remember a party than to watch your gift grow in your own backyard.

Join the Discussion!

What eco-friendly party ideas do you implement in your home? Do you have some Pinterest birthday inspiration you could share with us? Share your Pinterest party ideas link in the comments below!

Written by contributor Melissa Allen of Green Owl Art

Something magical happens when children pretend play. Have you ever just stopped and watched a child completely engaged in a new role? It is pretty amazing. Pretend play is such an important learning tool for children. It helps them to grow and mature socially and emotionally, gives them skills and confidence to carry with them throughout life and teaches them to nurture, love, rationalize and compromise. It’s a pretty cool thing is what I am trying to say. 

Helping your child to embrace imaginative play is easy to do. Here are a few ways you can help them learn and grow through pretend:

Play with them. Go along with the story line and get into character yourself. It’s always more fun to play with someone else.

Provide tools and materials. It doesn’t take much, simple things around the house can spark an imagination so easily.

Let them be bored. Turn off the screens and force them to get creative. They will thank you for it, okay maybe not, but, they should.

Pretend Play Ideas

1. Play food for grocery store, restaurant or home pretend play. I use real empty food boxes and cover them in clear packing tape to make them durable. Plastic berry containers filled with pom-poms. Egg cartons with paper mache eggs.  They just love the real stuff from my kitchen so much more then the actual toys. That’s why we keep an art recycle box in our home.

2. Play money. So many uses and easy to make.  Green felt cut into rectangles and wooden rounds for coins.

3. Shoe Shop. Got empty boxes? Got shoes? You got a shoe store.

4. Mommy/Daddy. I know you all have dolls, but add a few real props to it to make this pretend play even better. I filled an empty baby wipes container with felt squares, made the dolls cloth diapers (might as well throw in some green living skills while you’re at it) and added some retired baby bottles to the doll corner.

5. Hair salon. Last week I showed you how to make a hair cutting doll which is great for this. You can also pull out some sponge rollers and empty spray bottles and let the kids do your hair. My daughter once used pipe cleaner to decorate her aunts beautiful long hair. She turned out very festive.

6. Play dough kitchen. Instead of giving the kids all of those plastic tools that never seem to work right, try handing over some bowls, wooden spoons, measuring cups and any other kid safe kitchen tools. They will enjoy it much more. Check out this easy play dough recipe.

7. Let them wash the dishes. Really. They will come out either still dirty or full of soap, but you will have a happy little helper on your hands.

8. Ice cream parlor. An apron, ice cream scoop, pom poms and bowls.

9. Is there a “real” doctor in the house? Last Christmas I put together a doctors kit for my daughter that cost me less than a toy kit. I filled an old make-up box with my amazon findings including a purple stethoscope for $3 and a child sized blood pressure cuff. I added things like gauze and band-aids and she was in absolute heaven recruiting patients by the minute.

I could really go on and on, but you get the idea. Our children are grown-ups in training and this is how they love to learn.

To see more details on these fun activities, head on over to Green Owl Art.

Join the discussion

What are some of your child’s favorite imagination play activities? Is there any pretend play ideas in my list above you think you will try? Let me know in the comments below!

Make musical sound shakers and enhance listening skills with this cool easter egg activity. You get to re-use your plastic eggs and recycle your egg cartons with one awesome easter craft. I pinky promise this activity is quick and easy.

We had so much fun making our own egg shakers with different sounds. Zoe was super excited to share her egg sound set with her preschool; she also brought it along for an afternoon playdate. The kids love to play with these sound shakers. So, now it’s your turn to make this easy and fun sensory activity for your kids!

Supplies for Plastic Easter Egg Sound Set:

• 1 recycled egg carton
• 12 plastic easter eggs
• 6 different items for sounds

We used: sea salt, steel cut oatmeal, paper clips, almonds, google eyes, beads
Other options: marble, ping pong ball, beans, rice, coins, jingle bells, buttons, mini pasta, confetti, glitter

How to Make Musical Sound Shakers

1. Hunt and gather 6 different items around your house. Include your child in this hunt– they will enjoy searching and suggesting ideas.
2. Open plastic eggs and place bottom halves in the egg carton.
3. Fill the eggs. Each egg should have a matching pair with the same item inside (there should be 2 eggs with sea salt, 2 eggs with paper clips, 2 eggs with beads, etc). For an independent learning activity, you can place the 6 items in 6 bowls so your child can fill the eggs on their own.
4. Put the tops on each egg bottom. Now you have 12 whole eggs in your egg carton.
5. Demonstrate the sound matching activity to your child. Shake, listen, match. You can say, “May I show you how we play?” Pick up an egg and shake it. Pick up another egg in your opposite hand and shake it. If the sounds don’t match, pick up another egg until you find the egg with the matching sound. Now ask your child, “Would you like a turn?”

*For a bonus art activity, let your child paint and decorate their egg carton. Your child will love this!

I stumbled upon this Montessori-inspired sound matching activity over on Living Montessori Now. This egg sound set is an Easter-inspired DIY version of the Sound Cylinders where the child must find the matching sound pairs by listening and then grade the boxes from the loudest to the softest. We keep it simple with just matching the sounds, but arranging from loudest to softest is a great extension activity.

Not only is this project a fun sensorial activity, but it’s great for early musical ear training. And this project will be played with way beyond Easter activities.

Let me know if you decide to re-use your plastic easter eggs and egg cartons with these sound shakers. Post a photo or a video of your egg sound shakers on our Facebook Wall. And please share in the comments below what you decide to put in your eggs. If it’s not in the list above, I will add it. I love seeing how creative we can get!

We celebrated Zoe’s 3rd birthday with an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party theme. We served tea, sandwiches and pizza on reusable plates from Crocodile Creek.

I used chalk board wall decals to write messages on the walls throughout the party space.

Friends came dressed up and got to serve their own herbal tea from the tea pots I put on the table. I got all of the tea cups and tea pots from the Salvation Army for super cheap. Score! I added little tags to the tea cups and pots that said “drink me” and “pour me.”

My mom made strawberry cupcakes and added the message “eat me” to each little cake. I’m a fan of cupcakes for kids parties– super easy to serve.

For party favors, we gave each child a bag that said “take me.” Inside each bag was a Little Golden Book of Alice in Wonderland . Books over candy– I figured they had enough sweet treats for the day.

We played the Alice in Wonderland tea party theme song during the party. And we also had Disney’s Alice in Wonderland movie playing on a big projection screen. What I love is how we can reuse the tea cups and pots for future tea parties and playdates. Zoe is asking for another tea party, but I’m sure she will change her mind the next time her birthday rolls around.

WHAT THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTIES HAVE YOU PLANNED?

Share your birthday party ideas below. It’s always nice to hear what was a hit for you and your family. Interested in sharing your child’s birthday party and photos with Family Sponge? Check out our submissions page for more information.