Kids New Years Crafts and Activities

The holiday season is almost over, but before it is we have New Years Eve! This holiday is normally associated with an excuse for us grown ups to drink champagne, but it can be a great holiday to involve the kids. After all, the basic spirit of the holiday is as a time of reflection and personal growth, which are important values to impart to children. Just making a list of resolutions can be a little boring, so here are a couple ideas of how to spice up your celebration.

Shoot for the stars. Lakeshore learning brings us a craft that I'm planning to adapt a little bit. As you can see, the idea is to get your kids to decorate a rocket with "2009" on the side. The directions are pretty basic, and it's an easy craft to alter/adjust to whatever supplies you happen to have lying around. What I plan to add to this is to have each of my boys write on the other side their New Years resolutions. What I like about this idea is that it's easier for a kid to keep track of a rocket they made vs. a list on paper.

Recycled Fun. What do kids like more than making noise? Okay, so this is not exactly going to teach your kids any important life lessons, but not everything needs to be serious and reflective, especially on New Years. But this noisemaker is made from recycled materials, so if you need an excuse to teach your kids about the environment, here you go! Brought to us by Kaboose, all you need for this craft is a water bottle, tissue paper and glue, some pennies or rocks to put inside, and some ribbon or crete paper.

Create a Memory. I love making scrapbooks. Each of my kids have one that I made for their first year. And I love organizing photo albums. So in other words, I'm easily excited by nostalgia. Every year I have my each of my boys help me make a time capsule. We don't have a backyard so we don't do the traditional route with a shovel-- I just stuff them in my closest. Each child includes something that they feel is symbolic of the past year, and writes a note to themselves in the future about how their last year was. My plan is to have each of my boys do this until they are 13, and then not open them until they graduate from highschool. I think it will be fun for them to be able to look back after all those years.

Hope these are fun for you and your kids!