Ok, I am going to be very honest with you about something.  I am not a project mom when it comes to my kids.  I am not the mom that has art supplies and other things like that in the house.  They have plenty of toys and lots of things to do but I am not a person who comes up with crafty things for them to do.  They bring things like that home from school and that has been fine so far.

Recently they have been asking to do more writing and coloring and things like that at home so I have been trying to come up with more projects for them.  They were off of school for valentines day so I had looked up some STEM projects and we had a project day at the house.  They enjoyed it so much that I came up with some ideas for us to do over Easter.

So if you have kids in school right now you are probably familiar with the terms STEM and STEAM.  Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts), Mathematics.  It’s kind of a buzz word and has been infiltrating our schools and children’s museums nation wide.  The methodology is essentially to give students a hands on experience with real-world base applications rather than learning about these fields from a text book.  It’s been a great approach for boys especially who tend to be tactile learners.

My boys especially have thrived with these type of projects and they are easy to set up and for them to manage on their own.

Stacking Eggs

I originally found this idea on Pinterest here.  The idea is that you give the kids Easter Eggs and Playdough or clay and allow them to build a structure as tall or wide as they would like.  Skills learned would be how to build a foundation to support the height of their structure.  Because it is simple and quick even my two year old participated.

Jellybean Building

This project is similar to the stacking project but with this they press toothpicks into jelly beans to build their structure.  This will help build hand eye coordination as well as reasoning skills.  You can find tons of these on Pinterest to use with marshmallows, jelly beans or anything that is soft.  Here are a few ideas here.

Painting

Target is always my go to spot for cheap and inexpensive things for project items for the kids.  It is also my place for stocking stuffers and Easter basket goodies too.  In the dollar section in the front of most of their stores they usually have seasonal items for decorating and other things.  One of the items I have been finding the last few holidays were small wooden painting projects.  I like them specifically because they come with everything.  The paint, flat wooden ornament and a paint brush.  It’s like a one stop shop and after they are finished we can throw all of it away and start over again the next time.  They usually run between $1 and $3.

Matching

Matching games are one of my favorite projects to keep the kids entertained.  Especially in restaurants.  It is easy to grab something on the table and have them make matches from sugar packets to jellies to creamers.  Since I had leftover jelly beans I decided to make a matching project for Porter.  I usually just give them a pile of jellybeans and have them put the matches into bowls but I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it may be fun.  He loved it.

You can follow my Project Play board on Pinterest here for all of my ideas on how to keep your kids entertained.