DIY Cardboard Seedling Starter {Earth Day Celebration}

Pin It

In celebration of Earth Day this year I wanted to share a way that you could get the kids involved more in starting your garden. I've already posted about releasing butterflies and getting kids involved in gardening so this activity just goes hand-in-hand!

Our family has become quite addicted to gardening over the past year. We were successful in our first attempt this season in our raised bed and are now expanding to the back yard. But since the back yard isn't quite ready for plants yet we decided to start our seedlings in containers first before putting them in the back yard.

Since we're a bit frugal we decided to use household items to start our seeds this time around. I grabbed some cardboard, a craft bin we weren't using, and some left over compost to get started. This method not only proved to be easy but it was a great way to get the kids involved. I can't wait for them to start seeing the little seedlings sprout!

DIY Cardboard Seedling Starter

What You'll Need:

• cardboard tubes
• shallow container
• compost or planting mix
• seeds
• scissors

What You Do:

1. Cut your cardboard tubes to size. If using paper towel roll cut in 4ths and if using a toilet roll cut in half.

2. Start to fill your container with dirt.

3. Spread the dirt out evenly over the whole container.

4. Using a finger, make a hole 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep in each tube. This will be where the seeds go so read the packaging on the seeds to see how deep you should be planting them.

5. Fill hole with recommended amount of seeds and cover back up.

6. Water well. 

7. Continue to water as directed on the package and allow for adequate sunlight. Depending on the variety of plant your growing, transfer to a larger garden bed when the sprouted plant is large enough (usually 2-3 leaves need to have formed and the plant should be 4-5 inches tall).

Starting from seeds is a great way to reap the benefits of home gardening without the costs of purchasing starter plants from your nursery. Plus, with seeds you get way more than a small plant will yield and you usually end up with multiple plants for a fraction of the cost!

Getting Our Craft On!

Do you need a few ideas on what to do with your creative and artsy toddler or preschooler? Are you looking for step-by-step directions to help you with crafts and DIY projects?

Every Wednesday you can check out our crafty DIY projects over at Formula Mom!

The Simmworks Family has been sharing our creations with Formula Mom for the past four weeks and we're loving it! Looking for fun and educational crafts to do with the kids is definitely a wonderful way to engage my son and daughter. And now my son has come to start asking what craft we'll be doing next.

So remember to head on over to the Formula Mom's craft corner and check out what fun we have in store for you each week! 

Here are a few of our previous crafts:

DIY Cardboard Giraffe

DIY Sidewalk Paint

DIY Dinosaur Fossils

DIY Easter Bunny Basket

Dinosaur Party Hats {How To}

When planning my son's Dinosaur Train birthday party I stumbled upon an Etsy store with printables for everything Dinosaur (you can check them out in detail on her blog). One of the things included in the kit was a dinosaur party hat. Since I wanted to make my party unique I opted out of purchasing the kit but I did find a way to make those adorable party hats! I used a template I found from Oh Happy Day for the base of the hat, picked up some cute cardstock from Michaels and got cutting and piecing together. Here's what I came up with! 

Pin It

Dinosaur Party Hat

What you'll need: 

• Cardstock in various colors
• Party Hat Template
• Tape
• X-Acto knife
• String or ribbon

What you do:
1. Print template onto cardstock (save 1-2 colors for the spikes).

2. Cut out template by following the solid black lines.

3. Cut out slit on template.

4. Roll hat together and place tab into slit. You may have to bend the top tab a bit to get it to fit. Once the tab is in, lift the top tab again so it doesn't slide out.

5. Cut out spikes leaving a 1/4" space at the bottom of each spike row.

6. Bend spike row on the bottom at the 1/4" mark and cut the middle of the spikes to slide into the slot.

7. Tape spikes down from the outside and inside of the hat.

8. Using the X-Acto knife, make a small X on either side of the hat.

9. Place the ribbon or string in each hole and knot on the inside.

10. Decorate the hat more from here or leave as is for the perfect Dinosaur Party hat.

Do you have more ideas to make a party hat perfect? I'd love to hear them!

Homemade Playdough {DIY Tutorial}

Pin It

When we were planning our activities out for Valentine's Day I wanted to do something special with the kids, just me and them. Now, we do special things together almost every day but I wanted to find a special time to focus solely on them without thinking about what we needed to do next (or what I needed to work on). And since I've been pinning crafts to do with them for a while now I thought it'd be a great time to try out a pin.

So after we hosted a super fun Valentine's Day party with our playgroup I put the kids to bed and got out the ingredients for playdough. I found the "recipe" on one of my favorite blogs, How Does She?, and loved how easy the project sounded so I got to work. It took me all of 5 minutes to take the ingredients out, snap some photos and pre-measure everything. And once the kids woke up we were ready to get our DIY on!

Homemade Playdough

What you'll need: 

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• food coloring
• medium pot
• wax paper

What you do:

1. Grab a medium pot and pre-measure all of the ingredients except the food coloring (if you're including a little helper into the mix).

2. Let your little helper dump all of the ingredients into the pot except the food coloring (look at that concentration!).

3. Stir, stir, stir until combined.

4. Now it's time for the adult to take over (unless your child is old enough to use the stove). Place pot on stove and set heat to medium and add food coloring (as many or as little drops as you'd like to get the color your going for).

5. Stir the mixture until it starts to form a ball.

6. Once the mixture forms into a non-sticky ball, dump it out onto wax paper and let cool.

7. Once the playdough has cooled a bit start kneading the dough a few times until there is a smooth and soft consistency. You can let your helper take over this part for you if the dough has cooled down enough.

8. Re-form into a ball and give it to the kids to enjoy! How easy was that?

The playdough lasts quite a while when stored in an air tight container. I love that Missy over at How Does She? repurposed baby food containers to store her playdough so I grabbed some containers I had in the tupperware cupboard that weren't being used and use them. Little hummus or pizza sauce containers seemed to be the best size and held the full batch of playdough perfectly.

Also... if you want your playdough to smell wonderful too I've heard that using kool aid as food coloring not only makes pretty colors but leaves great scents too. Cinnamon will do the trick as well but you still have to add the food coloring. And if you're really wanting to spice things up you can add glitter to the dough to add some sparkle while you're kneading.



Molly had a lot of fun playing with the dough once it was ready. She tried to eat it at first...

Then decided it was a phone and she called Daddy...

Then she just played with it in her fingers and squeezed it a bit before trying to share with me...

What a great afternoon treat! And the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day with my little valentines.

Do you have an awesome DIY project that would work great for kids? I'd love to hear them! We're always looking for awesome things to do together and to incorporate with our Tot School.