Do you struggle with ideas of activities for kids AND parents to do together? I know I do. I LOVE spending time with my girls, but I’ll be the first to admit that I often lack an idea of something we would both enjoy doing. Often by the time we come up with an idea that sounds good to everyone, our time is up. That’s no good because I really want to spend time with my girls.
This summer, with us taking an extended time off of our homeschooling (we usually school year round), I wanted to make the time count. I wanted to make sure to spend some great time and build some great memories with my girls. It is just too easy to get into the busyness of daily life and let the time slip by.
As I told you in my 5 tips for healthy and fun summer post, I had each of my girls spend 10 minutes writing up a list of things they would enjoy doing together with me. The ideas had to be free, things we had, or the occasional low-cost activity. I totally thought it would be hard for them or they wouldn’t have very many ideas. I was totally wrong. They each came out of their room with a few pages of ideas! Yay!
Now I wanted to find a cute way to store those ideas. My thought was that we could put them all in a jar. Then each day we would pull an idea out of the jar and do that idea.
Today, I’ve got the tutorial on how to make your own jar along with a few of our idea. The main idea I want to give you is to talk to your kids about what they would like to do with you. They want you and they want to spend time with you. Rather than needing to spend a lot of money, why not ask them what they would like to do that meets your time and budget. If you kids are like mine, they will have plenty of ideas for you. I know I only have my girls for a short time and I want to make sure I enjoy every minute of it…so this summer we have our summer jar of fun! We have even taken this jar on our cross-country road trip! (Which you can follow that adventure on Instagram or Facebook)
Supplies:
- Large Glass Jar
- Mod Podge Sheer(affiliate link)
- Optional embellishments (paint, wood cut outs, ribbon, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge)
- Slips of paper with activities written on them
To start this craft, you will place a large amount (if your jar is large) of the Mod Podge sheer in the jar and swirl it to cover all the glass.
I’m quite certain I used WAY too much. I just didn’t have the patience to wait for it to spread and cover. The directions say to leave the glass upside down to dry. I started with it in a tray so it would have a place to drain the excess liquid. After one day it had drained off the amount you see in the middle. Day two it had drained off the last picture above.
After a week it still wasn’t dry! I was getting impatient.
I came up with the idea to place the jar on the red cups with some parchment paper below. That way if anything drained out it would not ruin my kitchen counter. I could tell this was working to get the glass to dry, but it still took another week to dry. Granted where we live is humid, but this craft took extra patience on my part and two weeks to dry!
When it is finally dry, you will have rough spots on the rim of your jar. You can either try to pull them off or just use a bit of sand paper to smooth things out.
Now comes the fun part! Decorating your jar.
I started by Mod Podging some cute scrapbook paper to the inner lid. I also painted a few wood cut outs. I painted one with a “C” for the Coake girls. I also painted some wood flowers with chalkboard paint.
I’ve had this cute pom-pom ribbon for a long time. I got it from Pick Your Plum(affiliate link). I thought it would look cute around the top of the jar.
If you want to do the same, start by hot gluing the back portion of your ribbon to the jar.
Work your way around the jar, until you are near the front and have a small gap (middle picture).
Loop your ribbon around. Place a small amount hot glue behind your loop. Pull the loop tight into the hot glue.
Add a second row directly above the first row.
A tip for you – when placing the lid back on the jar, to get it back in the same place, start screwing the lid on in the same place you want it to end. It will get it back in the same spot for you.
Oh my cuteness! Love pink and green and love pom poms!
Add your wood cut outs that have been painted in chalkboard paint to the bottom of your ribbon. Make sure you adhere the back of the cut out to the front of the ribbon how the ribbon will naturally lay on your jar.
Now you just need to add your fun activities for kids and parents into your jar.
My girls wanted to do each others hair and nails. They also proved they are my girls in their desire to go to Starbucks and hang out….ummm…Hello! Fun! 🙂
I love that they want to take selfies with props or costumes. Makeovers and board games were other ideas.
They had enough ideas to fill our jar. I know I could share our list of ideas to help you, but in my opinion, that isn’t the point of this particular activity. The point is to find out what your child(ren) wants to do with you. It will be different from our family. Enjoy seeing their desires and what is fun to them.
I sincerely hope you will give this idea a try in whatever form fits your family. I just think it is so important that we invest time and energy in our kids. We only have them for such a short time. Why not do it in a way that is something they would love doing with you. I think the long-term benefits will be great for this activity!
What plans do you have for you and your kids this summer?
More Fun Ideas:
I love how the jar turned out but 2 weeks to dry!!! That is good to know, especially if planning to fill it as a gift. (wouldn’t be the first time someone had to wait 2 weeks for a gift from me though but it would be the first time I’d have to use “it’s not dry yet” as an excuse!)
Thanks! I know, right? 2 weeks! That would be awful to be planning it as a gift and if it weren’t dry. Love the “it’s not dry yet” excuse…lol!
I have tried that with regular modge podge colored with food dye and it worked as well!! How fun, and what a great idea to have things to do in the bottle. Great post!
I never knew you could do this with food dye and Mod Podge. That is really neat! We have been having lots of fun with our jar of ideas so far this summer. It is so nice to not have to think hard about what to do for the day. 🙂