How To Keep Your Thanksgiving Sanity: 10 Easy Kids Crafts

It’s been looming on the calendar for months, but it wasn’t until this weekend that I allowed the cold hard reality to hit me: the kids would be home from school for 5 days in a row because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Sure, I’m thankful for lots and lots of legitimate and meaningful things, but FIVE. DAYS. Gah. So… I got my Pinterest hat on and wrangled up some ideas to keep the peace with all the kids home. (Pretty please click over and pin all of these from the original sources!) In no particular order, God speed, folks.

1. Every time I throw out an egg carton I think there must be a craft whose dreams are being dashed… well not anymore. I will forever be making shakers with my egg cartons after seeing this idea!

2. These rustic wooden blocks are so sweet. In our house, Eleanor is just beginning to notice letters and words and spelling and she’d love to have a set of these colorful blocks. I think I’ll grab a board at Home Depot and cut the squares at home with our miter saw and then let the kids help sand and paint. I can go ahead and stencil the letters on (vs. the vinyl used in the original post), but I’m thinking this will be a hit!

3. I mean it involves fruit loops- how much arm twisting do you need?!

4. Our kids are young so it’s a challenge to impress upon them the idea of being thankful. This pumpkin is super easy to do and would look sweet on the table as a reminder to them of their thankful list.

5. Here’s another craft to display thanks… with the added fun of a twirling pie!

6. Q-tips and paint are all you need to make this beautiful autumnal art. Eleanor could probably do her own tree, but I might draw one for Oliver and Martha and just let them fill in with whatever colors they like! If you want to add a little fine motor work, you can cut the Q-tip down to an inch or two so that your child has to use their pincer grasp.

7. At one of the many carnivals we went to this summer, my kids discovered popcorn. I forget how much they love it, but this would be a really fun activity for them to make and snack on.  I’ve had an oldschool pan of jiffy pop in our pantry for ages, so maybe I’ll bust that out and blow the kids’ minds.

8. Granted this project is a little more involved, but how cool are those leaves made with colored paper pulp? True story: I was responsible for the paper making section at the Portland Children’s Museum one summer and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for all things paper making!

9. This could easily be one of those Pinterest fails, but if you follow me on Instagram (which you totally should!) you’ll know that we took the kids for their first Chinese meal the other night and they were floored by the fortune cookies.

10. Am I the only one who saves toilet paper tubes? Well this is a pretty sweet and easy way to reuse them for Thanksgiving.

Phew… I’m feeling much better about the prospect of having 3 restless children home all day every day from Wednesday through Sunday. I have some fun Christmas crafts lined up for next week so tune in for a last minute advent calendar idea and some other cheap and easy decorations. (Cheap and easy sounds much nicer when talking about a craft than it might otherwise, huh?)