Summer DIY Ideas with Kids

School’s out and summer’s in! It’s the perfect season for the kids to enjoy outdoor, as well as indoor activities. For the home, you might interest them into these DIY projects that may also be put on display as fun house decorations!

Collages

Collages are great for telling stories and exercising the imagination. What’s even greater is that anything goes when you’re creating a collage. It’s a free form craft where you can have your kids do watercolor doodles, use stickers and glue pictures from old magazines.

Great for an art session on any sunny day, here’s a sample how-to.

What You Need

• Large sheet of watercolor paper
• Watercolor paints and brushes
• Picture books such as old magazines and comic books
  • You can also print out family photos from your computer
• Scissors
• Glue

Directions

1. Lay out your watercolor paper on a flat surface, and make sure each kid has a big space to work on.
2. Bring the watercolor brushes and paints out and have fun!
3. While your watercolor art is drying, search through your picture books for interesting images. Divide and conquer by handing different materials to your kids, and be in charge of cutting out pictures.
4. Once you’ve had enough images, share the glue and paste away.
5. After it’s dry, frame your collaborative masterpiece and put it on display. Make sure you put it alongside the best house decorations!

Story Stones

Another great way to exercise the imagination and develop your child’s vocabulary is to create story stones. These stones, as they are appropriately named, are used as visual aids to storytelling.

What You Need

• Palm-sized stones
• Acrylic craft paint

Directions

1. Wash loose soil from the stones, and let it dry.
2. Think about the elements or characters of your story, and paint them on the stones—with the help of your kids, of course!
3. After you’ve finished painting, let the stones dry.
4. Now, you can set up a little family storytelling or a “build a story” session with the kids! If not in use, story stones would be lovely house decoration items in the garden.

Mini Garden

Gardening with your kids teaches patience. So, help them create a little garden of their own!

What You Need

• Pot
• Garden Soil
• Rocks
• Flowers
• Planting Tools
• Little garden decors such as a birdhouse or a small dwarf

Directions

1. Fill your pot with garden soil.
2. With the planting tools, root flower buds or seeds into the soil.
3. Have your little one design where the rocks and garden decors would go.
4. Make it his/her daily mission to check and care for his/her mini garden!

Make any home project colorful and fun with suggestions from Island Paints’ selection of shades.