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Happy Monday!\u00a0 I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah or whatever your family celebrates. Here’s some ways to make a little magic this week, especially for the new year.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Make nature confetti.\u00a0 Let kids duplicate the fun of tossing confetti without the mess to clean up– and help birds and squirrels at the same time.\u00a0 In a large bowl, mix up bird seed, dried corn, crumpled leaves, small dried fruits, flower petals and\/or any other natural materials you have on hand.\u00a0 Take the bowl outside and encourage the kids to toss handfuls up in the air.\u00a0 They can shout happy new year, offer up wishes for loved ones and so on as they toss.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Use sand molds to make a really whimsical supper.\u00a0 Wash them really well and then use them to make mashed potato castles (make it thick, oil the mold, pack it in and then very gently unmold), sea creature ice cream shapes (soften ice cream and spoon into molds, freeze and gently unmold by dipping the mold side quickly in hot water) and so on.\u00a0 You can decorate the creations with fancy toothpicks, blueberry eyes, peas and carrots, you name it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Be detectives.\u00a0 Take the kids to any public place and concoct a story together of what occurred there.\u00a0 The kids can use clues as small as footprints or litter to figure out what kind of people (or animals) were there and what they might have been doing.\u00a0 Invent the rest of the story together and weave an exciting tale based on the clues left behind.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Make ice ornaments and hang them outside.\u00a0 Fill small dishes with colored water and small natural items, along with a loop of yarn.\u00a0 Freeze outside overnight, then dip in warm water for a moment to pop out of their containers.\u00a0 Hang on low bushes and trees.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 If you have snow in your area, get the kids wondering what kind of visitors have been poking about!\u00a0 Use carpet remnant, large pieces of cardboard or other scrap materials to make some giant beast prints.\u00a0 Cut them out (an exacto knife works well) and then poke two holes in each to tie them onto a pair of shoes.\u00a0 Now go stomp around in the snow while the kids are sleeping or away, and really get them wondering!<\/span> 7.\u00a0 Spend an ordinary day in ball gowns, fancy clothes or costume.\u00a0 Go someplace if possible!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Have your child use magic markers or fabric pens to alter a pair of old white tennies.\u00a0 Slip a bell onto each shoelace so she can jingle when she walks. 10. Gather a few branches in a pot or heavy vase.\u00a0 Give the kids strips of ribbon, small pieces of paper with a hole punched for hanging, and a pen.\u00a0 Ask them to write wishes, prayers or blessings for themselves and loved ones for the coming year.\u00a0 Tie the wishes to the branches.\u00a0 Kids can decorate their blessing tree throughout the year to match the season.\u00a0 At the end of the year, give them another color of paper to write out thanks and record accomplishments.\u00a0 The papers can be saved in a small container or scrapbook.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n And with that, I’m going off to start on the ceremonial New Year’s Week laundry pile.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Have a magical week!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy Monday!\u00a0 I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah or whatever your family celebrates. Here’s some ways to make a little magic this week, especially for the new year. 1.\u00a0 Make nature confetti.\u00a0 Let kids duplicate the fun of tossing confetti without the mess to clean up– and help birds and squirrels at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[123,154,253],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n6.\u00a0 Go sledding or ice skating in the kitchen!\u00a0 Pull little ones around on towels, or have them put on socks and slip around the floor.\u00a0 Older kids can pull the little ones and accidentally get some exercise in at the same time!\u00a0 If you’re brave enough, give them a bucket of warm soapy water and have them “mop” the floor with their stocking feet.\u00a0 My girls used to love to do this, though it can get pretty wet!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5043\/5339975446_1f05346885.jpg\")
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\n9.\u00a0 Take a white crayon and write some fun and simple activities on random squares of a 2012 calendar.\u00a0 Each day, let your child color the day’s calendar square with a marker to reveal any secret messages (the crayon writing will appear like magic).\u00a0 Some fun ideas for messages are Go on a picnic, I love you, Smile!, Wear purple day, Cake for breakfast and 100 Kisses day<\/em>.
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