Kids bored? Here are a few sites that offer FREE instructions for games and crafts, printable coloring pages and other fun activities. Enchanted Learning offers a limited number of FREE pages of crafts for young children. (Or, for a $20 annual fee, members have access to thousands of printable and enlargeable maps, coloring and activity pages.) First Palette, created by a teacher, has lots of fun craft ideas using inexpensive materials. Try the dragonfly clothespins. Or create masterpieces with ice cube paint pops. Highlights Kids is an Internet add-on of Highlights for Children magazine and includes crafts and easy science experiments, such as discovering how salt affects the freezing of water. Recyclable materials like aluminum-can pull tabs and leftover electrical wire can be used in many craft projects. PBS has a crafts for kids section on its website. It offers fun projects such as face-changing dolls and newspaper forts. The Crafty Crow was created by a homeschooling mom. The website gathers children’s crafts from contributors across the Internet and includes dozens of earth-friendly projects. The site may appear difficult to navigate, so use this tip: Go to the category list on the left-hand side of the home page. Find the age group that interests you and browse through the collection of projects. We found cute little bird finger puppets, windsock-style fish made from empty toilet paper tubes, and fun DIY games. For more cheap ways to entertain kids this summer, check out our sister site, Living on the Cheap.
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