Beach in a jar (for summer all year long)

Prep time: Overnight

Activity time: 30 mins

We went to the beach a number of times this summer.  On our last trip, we collected shells, driftwood, rocks, pine cones and sand for our final beach art project. 

We disinfected each item with bleach to kill any micro-organisms (and those that are not so micro).  Following the directions on the bleach container, I submerged our treasures in pails with the appropriate mixture of bleach and water and soaked everything overnight.  I also soaked the sand in such a mixture.  

Disinfecting the sand (in jars), shells, rocks and driftwood

  The next day, we washed off the shells and rinsed the sand.  We then lay everything out in the sun to dry, spreading the sand out on plastic shopping bags to expose as much as possible to the air.  Once everything was dry (an hour or two for the shells and sticks, a bit longer for the sand) we put some sand in each jar and then layered in our sea shore items.   

The finished product

I have one beach jar on our living room shelves for the family to enjoy and the boys have a jar in their room by the window.  These will remind us of the great times we had as a family at the beach this summer and help us remember that next summer isn’t too far away.

The Alex My Giant Busy Box - The best craft box ever!

Elijah received the Alex “My Giant Busy Box” for his third birthday. I knew this was “activity gold” and I quickly hid it in a closet so it would be "new" for our beach vacation. The kids were extremely excited when I pulled this out – and I was excited to finally get to use it (4 months later)! 

More on the goods: the thing I loved most about the Busy Box is that it was all-inclusive, and I didn't need to buy anything additional to do any of the 16+ crafts.  The kit also includes a big chunky glue stick with glue that goes on purple and dries clear. This was not only very helpful to make sure everything sticks, but also for catching glue in unexpected places before it dries.

The kids' favorite activity was making paper bag puppets (popping out the animal body parts out of the perforated paper, gluing them down, and adding stickers to the finished product), There were 4, so each boy made 2. The puppets were colorful and the kids put on many impromptu puppet shows.  There were also a number of surprise wild animal sightings - it was like being on a safari!

We made the lion together and it was love at first sight!

There is also:

• Sticker art (a park background with veggie, flower and animal stickers and a pizza with toppings) + frames
• Tissue paper art with 8 colors of small tissue paper squares
• Clay with cardboard animal limbs and eye to add in to create 3D animals
• Chicken, sheep and piggy shaped pre-cut card stock with an assortment of goodies like pipe cleaners, feathers, paper accessories, flowers, buttons, and streamers to glue on.

We got through 1/3 to half of the activities in the “My Giant Busy Box” and are now bringing it home for our next rainy day.

“Tinker toys” on the cheap lead to hours of fun

The preparation for our beach vacation included a trip to the dollar store. We picked up 2 sets of “sticks and blocks” for $0.99 each (one set for each boy of course), filled with colorful mini-dowels and cubes with a hole drilled on each side. Very Tinker Toys-esque - and at a great price. 

I set up towels for the boys on the deck (so the sticks wouldn't fall through the holes in between the slats of wood) and the boys created structures and obstacle courses for their toys for over an hour.  Mom helped make a tower with a tunnel and the boys took it from there!