Our DIY LEGO Kit with 24 Free Printable Activity Cards was such a hit that I've been putting together additional kits to keep in my purse for times where we're on long car rides or waiting at restaurants, etc.  They're super small and would also work well on plane flights since they take up barely any room.  We almost exclusively use ours when we go out to eat.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Hello friends!  Exciting news - the first printing of the book sold out in the second week of November!  This was quite the unexpected surprise, and you may have noticed over the last few weeks the book has become harder and harder to find.  I know that several of you were hoping to get copies for yourself or friends for Christmas/the holidays, so I wanted to give you the story on what your best options are!  The second reprint of the book finished today, but a large percentage of it is already spoken for.  We recommend placing an order in the next few days if you'd like to get yours soon since there will be a limited number of books available before Christmas.  Otherwise the third reprint should be ready toward the end of the month (we don't have an official date for it yet) and it should be readily available everywhere by January.  Thank you all for your support and patience!  It's very unusual for a book to do this well and we are THRILLED!!!!!  I assure you that both the publisher and I are doing everything we can to ensure that people are getting copies ASAP and hopefully in time for Christmas. 

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

If you are in the US:

You should be fine getting copies of the book by Christmas as long as you order within the next week or so.  If you are in the US, go ahead and place an order through one of the US providers ASAP just to be sure, but the majority of the reprint copies are headed for the US:

BACK IN STOCK  Amazon US

  BACK IN STOCK Barnes and Noble US

BACK IN STOCK Adams Media US

for an autographed copy with free shipping call:
University Bookstore Mill Creek at (425) 385-3530

If you are in Canada:

If you are in Canada, Amazon CA and Chapters CA should have new copies available shortly.  The hope is that the new books will reach International distributors by the 12th of December.  We recommend placing a preorder at either location (if there's demand for the book, they will be sure to get the book ASAP), preferably with expedited shipping; if for some reason it's delayed and you need copies by Christmas, you can always cancel later.

BACK IN STOCK on 1/10/15 Amazon CA

BACK IN STOCK Chapters CA
BACK IN STOCK Book Depository

You can also get autographed copies shipped at cost from:
University Bookstore Mill Creek by ordering from this page.

If you are in the UK:

If you are in the UK, we are hoping that the book will reach International distributors by the 12th of December.  We recommend placing a preorder at either location (if there's demand for the book, they will be sure to get the book ASAP), preferably with expedited shipping; if for some reason it's delayed and you need copies by Christmas, you can always cancel later.

BACK IN STOCK as of 1/4/15 Amazon UK
BACK IN STOCK Book Depository

You can also get autographed copies shipped at cost from:
University Bookstore Mill Creek by ordering from this page.

If you are in Australia or another International country:

If you are in Australia or elsewhere in the world, we are hoping that the book will reach International distributors by the 12th of December and will ship to you shortly thereafter.  We recommend placing a preorder at either location (if there's demand for the book, they will be sure to get the book ASAP), preferably with expedited shipping; if for some reason it's delayed and you need copies by Christmas, you can always cancel later.

BACK IN STOCK Book Depository

You can also get autographed copies shipped at cost from:
University Bookstore Mill Creek by ordering from this page.

Again, thank you all so much for your patience and support!!!!

X was feeling the crafty Christmas spirit, so I put together this simple toddler craft for him.  Added bonuses include an adorable finished product and some fine motor skill building during creation!  Oh, and it's also fun for older siblings should you have any of those.

I figured this recipe out by accident while trying to come up with a recipe for something I'll share in a few more days (once I get the photos of it), but immediately realized that it was a VERY fun and NEW play recipe.  Just like real snow it is puffy and cold and the best part is that it re-puffs once you compress it several times (somewhere around an hour in it starts to lose steam, but for that hour it's REALLY FUN!)

We so enjoyed our Fall Leaf Watercolor Resist art project that we of course had to do a winter version.  And to make things even easier, I made a free printable template in case any of you want to make one too!  :)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

One of our favorite things about the holidays every year is making homemade ornaments.  Typically we make several batches of new ornaments each year to decorate an enormous tree (yes, we're those people with the 9 foot tall tree...we may or may not have been excited to find a house with vaulted ceilings for this exact purpose) and then at the end of the season we choose a handful of ornaments to keep for the next year.  That way there's room for both new and old ornaments on the tree.  This year we've got a few new recipes for ornament doughs to share with you - and first up is our chocolate ornament dough!  This year is already super exciting because little X is finally old enough to actually help in a (mostly) meaningful way with our ornaments.

Disclosure:  We were sent some of these games for free at our request.  This did not sway our opinions - in fact, not all of the games we were sent made it into this post.  :)

At five years old, S is finally super excited about playing games.  There are SO many games out there, it can be a bit overwhelming.  S and I had the great idea to make a wishlist of games and then email the companies to see if they'd let us try them.  We did, and they did, and here's the result of our little experiment!  As I mentioned above in the disclosure, not all of the games made it into this post.  Not to say those were bad, but we just didn't enjoy them.  The ones that follow are a mix of games we already owned and the best of the games we tested.  The age range for these games is 3 and up, but this list is probably most ideal for kids ages 3-8.  I do not present them in any particular order, and those games that were chosen as a favorite by more than one family member are noted with a **.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

I thought I'd put together a list of our ten absolute favorite creative gift ideas for kids.  These are gifts that have withstood the test of time in our household and are toys that my kids, despite being 3 years apart in age, both love and can play with together.  Some are budget-friendly ideas and a few are big ticket items.  In our family, we generally like to have the grandparents join us in buying one big gift for the kids to play with together, and I've heard of a few other families that do the same, so I thought I'd include two ideas for any families looking for a BIG group gift.  Though I'm definitely writing this with the holidays in mind, these also make fantastic birthday gifts as well!  :)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Product photos courtesy of Amazon.

Disclosure:  Paramount Pictures compensated me for this post.  I was not swayed by compensation because I was already excited to see Interstellar and I also love space activities for kids and Matthew McConaughey.  :)

Today I'm sharing a compilation of the COOLEST outerspace-themed activities for kids to get you all pumped for the upcoming release of the new Paramount Pictures movie Interstellar.  To get the full details for each activity, click on the name of the activity listed below the set of photos.  And don't forget to check out the Interstellar movie trailer at the end - doesn't it look SO good?  And it's available in IMAX.  So.  Cool.

Galaxy Oobleck from Twodaloo

Edible Glowing Star Sensory Play from Fun at Home with Kids

Galaxy Slime from Twodaloo

Star Sewing Cards for Kids from Kids Activities Blog

Constellation Geoboards from Babble Dabble Do

Moon and Stars Night Sky Magnets from Adventure-in-a-Box

Stretchy Night Sky Playdough from Twodaloo

Homemade Moon Sand Recipe from The Imagination Tree

Erupting Moon Dust Prewriting Activity from Learn Play Imagine

After School Craft:  Rocketship by MollyMoo

Making a Bottle Rocket by Science Sparks

DIY Cardboard Rockets by Hellobee

Lunar Landscape Small World by The Imagination Tree

Erupting Moon Rocks from Learn Play Imagine

Easy Space Project for Kids from Carrots are Orange

 Recycled Solar System by Still Playing School

Handmade Solar System in a Box by Playful Learning

Space Themed Sensory Tub by One Perfect Day

Moon Dust Paint Recipe by Learn Play Imagine

Puffy Paint Moon by No Time for Flash Cards

Free Printable Night Sky Journal from Fantastic Fun and Learning

And now that you're totally feeling the outerspace theme, here's a peek at Interstellar, out in IMAX® 70mm film, 70mm film and 35mm film on November 5 and everywhere November 7. Thankfully we have an IMAX theater in Seattle because I can't think of a cooler place to watch it! 

One of the things I am most excited about with my new book is the ability to use it to make creative kits and gifts.  When writing the book, a big focus of mine was making sure the materials you needed were easily accessible.  Sure there are a few specialty items (I promise they are SO cool, they're worth it), but did you know:

 You can complete 120 of the activities in the book just using items found at a regular old grocery store!  

True story.  :)  This also makes putting together kits ultra easy and affordable.  You could use the kits as:

• a gift to your child or another child for the winter holidays
• a gift to your child's preschool teacher or other caregiver 
• something to keep at the grandparents' house
• a fun thing to bring out when the babysitter comes over 
• a sensory kit gift basket for a fundraising auction
• a birthday party gift for a classmate or friend
• a unique baby shower gift!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Larger Sensory Kits

 Sometimes the needed materials list for an activity book can be overwhelming.  I tried to counteract that by providing a quick start shopping list of 15 easy-to-find items in the introduction of my book (see the list inside my book here!).  With those 15 items, you have the materials needed for approximately half of the activities in the book.  Here's an example kit I put together using the quick start shopping list (I also added spaghetti noodles because they were only a dollar, haha).  I shopped at the Dollar Tree for about half of it and picked the rest up at Target.  Of course your final price will vary depending on where you purchase your supplies, but I was able to put this kit together for just under $40 - and that includes the book!

PS - If you're on a mobile device the cool trick to load the list in the book above won't work - boo!  So here's the list straight from the book:  cornstarch, shaving cream, flour, cotton balls, cornmeal, vegetable oil, food coloring or liquid watercolors, craft foam sheets in multiple colors, dish soap, baking soda, vinegar, salt, gelatin, rice, contact paper.  :)

Smaller Kits

My friend Megan gave me the idea for these -- she's putting some together for her son's classmates' birthday gifts.  To make a rockin' smaller kit, pick a favorite activity and then bundle the book with all the needed supplies for that activity.  Since there is a whole chapter in the book dedicated to slimes, I thought I'd showcase a DIY Slime Making Kit.  Unlike store bought Slime Kits, this one makes a larger batch of more customizable slime.  Plus it includes, by way of the book, the recipe for the basic nontoxic two-ingredient slime (so you can make it again and again) as well as a multitude of other slime recipes to try!

The DIY Slime Making Kit pictured below includes:  food coloring, clear school glue, Sta-Flo liquid starch, and a copy of our book (containing the recipe for two-ingredient slime and photos and detailed directions of the slime making process).  Depending on where you get your supplies, the total cost of the kit will vary, but this one cost me $23 - including the book.  If you'd like to make a slime making kit for a younger child, there are several taste-safe recipes in the book and you could create a Taste-Safe Slime Kit for about the same price.  :)

Baby Shower Gift/Baby's First Birthday or Christmas

Since our book contains 72 activity ideas for babies, it would make a creative baby shower gift.  You could give the book alone, or you could make a smaller kit as detailed above out of a baby activity or two that you think your friend may enjoy.

If you'd like to pair the book with some baby-friendly materials for a first birthday or first Christmas gift, my top supply choices would be:  flour, cooking oil, cornmeal, cornstarch, gelatin, rice, spaghetti noodles, and flax seeds.   

Our book is available worldwide!  Here are some links, but if you don't see one that applies to your country, email me at funathomewithkids@gmail.com and I will happily help you track one down!  :)

AMAZON US
BARNES AND NOBLE

AMAZON CA
AMAZON UK

FISHPOND
BOOK DEPOSITORY

I'm adding Halloween to our set of compiled holiday activities (we've also got Valentine's Day, Winter, Easter, and Fall activities all in one spot).  Included in our list are activities for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and older children with plenty of sensory and art activities.

Happy Halloween!

We love our Magic Foaming Stars so so much that we just had to put a Halloween spin on it!  I love this activity so much because it's super easy and quick to set up and the results are crazy cool.

 This was a crazy idea I had a few months back when I was brainstorming for Halloween ideas.  I wasn't sure it would turn out as cool in reality as it was in my head, but I think it did!!!  I love having kid-made holiday decorations, and this one was nice and easy and the end product is super fun (and just the right amount of spooky).  :)

Well I had a very exciting morning!  Those of you who follow along with our Facebook page may have seen the news that I had my very first TV appearance this morning.  New Day Northwest invited me on the show to share three activities from our new book.  I was totally terrified, but am happy to report that I survived and didn't horribly embarrass myself or the show!  :)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

The book comes out in just a few weeks (it ships to distributors, such as Amazon, in just NINE MORE DAYS!!!).  If you preorder from Amazon now, you'll get your copy a few weeks before they start showing up in stores.  And right now Amazon has an AMAZING price on it.

I'd love to share the video clip with you - it's 9 minutes and showcases three different activities from the book:

If you'd like to see more of the book, there are about 20 pages available via the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon.

The book is available WORLDWIDE!  If you don't see a listing for your country below, please email me (funathomewithkids@gmail.com) and I will help you find one!

AMAZON US
BARNES AND NOBLE

AMAZON CA
AMAZON UK

FISHPOND
BOOK DEPOSITORY

I have been obsessed with the idea of using a hand mold since I first saw Happy Hooligans' Melting Frozen Hands activity here.  She then went on to post this amazing Halloween Haunted Hands activity with them and a Frozen (movie) activity here - all so much fun.  I had a slightly different idea for how to use them -- I wanted to see if I could make wiggly, jiggly gelatin hands for Halloween.  I could and I did and booooy are they just the right amount of creepy for Halloween.

My kids aren't babies anymore, but since we love making Discovery Bottles so much (and honestly they still play with them a bit), we thought we'd share two ideas for any babies or young toddlers in your life!  We've been having fun with spiders and webs again this year, so we had to make a Spiderweb Discovery Bottle.  And of course, glowing activities are another thing we enjoy, so we decided to make a Glowing Centipede Discovery Bottle.  It has such a perfect eery Halloween glow!

 First up, we have our Spiderweb Discovery Bottle!  As you flip it right side up and upside down, the spiders and webs slowly float from one end to the other in a ghostly fashion.

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We LOVE slime.  One of our favorite things is to modify our slime recipes by adding different things and seeing what changes.  Every time you add something to slime, it will alter the behavior.  Our Chocolate Slime ended up being ULTRA stretchy; our Polka Dot Slime ended up able to stretch extra wide; and our Spider Slime was super clumpy and thick!

Ever since I created the bath bomb recipe for our Hatching Dino Egg Bath Bombs, we've been addicted to bath bombs.  They're just so much fun!  Not to mention they are inexpensive and easy to put together - a total win in my book.  :)  With fall here, I thought I'd try my hand at making some scented pumpkin bath bombs.  We love how they turned out!

I've heard how helpful it is to have our seasonal activities compiled (we've got Valentine's Day, Winter, and Easter all grouped), so I thought I'd go ahead and list out all of our Fall Activities for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers so you can easily find them in one spot!  You'll find both art and sensory activities to celebrate the fall season below.  To find the full recipe/details for the post, click on the post title below and that will lead you to each individual post mentioned below.  Happy Fall!  :)

One of our favorite things about the fall season is all of the lovely scents.  So we tend to incorporate them into our fall activities as much as possible!  Here is a simple recipe for some fall scented watercolors that combine the vibrant colors of fall with the delicious scents of fall!

We've been having fun celebrating the arrival of fall with tons of fall activities the past few weeks.  We were feeling art-y, so I thought I'd try out an idea I had for a watercolor resist project with a fall leaf theme.  S and I love how it turned out!

I am SOOOOO EXCITED to share this sneak peek with you guys!  Those of you who started with us back when Fun at Home with Kids started in February of 2013 might remember me saying that my dream was to someday write a book.

I can't believe it has actually come true!!!

I wanted to write this post to tell you ALL about the book.  Hopefully by the end you will be as excited about it as we are!!

Why "Screen-Free"?

I'll be honest, the title was the publisher's choice...but it's grown on me.  Specifically when I read this in the results of a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study:

"Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week)."

At first I didn't believe that statistic, but then I realized how many screens kids can encounter in a given day:  smart phones, computers, iPads, TVs...and it all adds up.  I don't want anyone to be under the false impression that we are a screen-free family, or that I think that kids having any screen-time whatsoever is "bad".  My husband works as a software engineer and I'm a blogger/writer - we definitely use a LOT of screens in our house.  Though our little X doesn't get too much screen-time, S enjoys a TV show basically every day and knows her way around an iPad.  :)  I like to think of the book's title as a reminder that in today's screen-filled world, we have to be conscious of how much screen-time (we and) our little ones are getting.

What's in the book?

Over 150 of our very favorite and best activities for entertaining kids from babies on up to age 10 (though I'll just say that the activities don't stop being fun when you're 10...my husband and I still like them and we're in our thirties).  

I asked a lot of my good (and honest) friends what they did and didn't like about activity books and designed this book around their advice.

Not overwhelming

Several of my friends said that when they get an activity book they don't know where to start - there are SO many activities to choose from, it's overwhelming.  I designed my book so that activities that use a common ingredient or recipe are all grouped together.  The simplest version of an activity or recipe appears first so you can get started there.  Variations on that recipe/ingredient appear in a condensed form on the following page.  My hope is that this will make the book appear more do-able, even though it does contain somewhere around 180 activities.  You can see a listing for each of the main activities here in the Table of Contents!  If you'd like to see a full listing of all the activities, you can view the full index via the Amazon Reader if you are on a desktop computer!

Since I am sharing not-yet-released copyrighted material, please note that you may not share these images on your site, nor may you pin them.  Please feel free to share and pin either of the cover images above instead.

Easy materials/supplies

The next most common issue my friends had was a suuuuuper long list of supplies.  I created a "quick start" list of 15 materials that are all easy to get your hands on (ideally you'll be able to get them all at your local superstore like Target or Walmart).  Honestly most people have several of the items on the list in their house already.  With these 15 materials you can complete nearly half of the activities in the book.  

Over 300 full-color photos

The final most common complaint about activity books from my friends was a lack of photos.  I've got you all covered here!  There are over 300 full-color photos illustrating the finished products as well as the steps and possible variations for the activities in the book.  I don't actually know how the designer in charge managed to fit them all - I think it involved a little magic - but this is probably one of the most photo-dense activity books you'll find.

Repeatable activities

The activities in this book have - no joke - entertained my two kids for the past two and a half years (and S for two years before that!).  Because they are so open-ended, they are highly repeatable; there are also lots of ideas for ways to vary the activities to make them seem new again.

Is there new material in the book?

Absolutely!  Around 50% of the book is new.  But don't worry - all of the most popular recipes are still included in the book - only most of them are BETTER!  That's right - I rephotographed tons of them and simplified the steps or refined the recipes to be clearer and even cooler.  Right now we only have the PDF of the book ourselves - our actual copy is coming in a few weeks - but it is SO HELPFUL to have all the recipes in one spot.  Even though I've created most of these recipes from scratch, I still can't remember the measurements off-hand.  I love having them all so accessible in the book.  And what good would a Fun at Home with Kids book be without the classics like Glow Water, Foaming Dough, and Crystallizing Watercolors, right?  :) 

As you'll see below, all of the sensory activities and recipes are allergen-coded and any activities that are taste-safe are also noted under the title.  Each activity has an approximate preparation time noted.  I made an effort to keep the vast majority of the activities at or under a prep time of 10 minutes, but there are a handful that require more time (they're really cool though).  I've also noted suggested ages for each activity - each child is different, of course, and you know your child's abilities and interests best, but it should give you an idea of what activities may appeal to them.

Since I am sharing not-yet-released copyrighted material, please note that you may not share these images on your site, nor may you pin them.  Please feel free to share and pin either of the cover images above instead.

So you'll be able to find classics like this:

As well as new favorites like this:

And just for fun, here's a peek at 18 randomly selected pages in the book - I had to make it tiny so you can't read it, but hopefully you still get an impression of it:

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Why pre-order?

The book's official release date is November 1st, but you can pre-order it now through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, multiple other online bookstores, and even through your locally-owned neighborhood bookstore.  Why bother to order it before it's out?  Here are a few reasons:

1.  If you pre-order through Amazon, you'll get a smokin' deal.  Amazon pricing can change hourly (isn't that crazy?), but they have a Preorder Price Guarantee.  That means that no matter what the price is when you order it, if a better price comes along before the book ships to you, they'll refund you the difference.  Pre-ordering it now means you have several weeks of price variations ahead and you will get the very lowest price of all of them!

2.  You get the book EARLIER.  Yep.  The latest news from the publisher is that the book could be ready as early as mid-October.  It ships out to Amazon FIRST and they fulfill their preorders immediately.  No one knows the exact ship date until it happens, but at least right now, there's a very good shot you'll have your copy of the book up to two weeks before it's in stores - how cool is that??

3.  Preorder numbers matter to retailers.  Several bookstores and retailers are watching my book right now (eeeek!) to see how many presales come in.  Books that have more presales are taken more seriously....basically if you guys show them that this book rocks with presales, it's WAY more likely to be widely available in stores.

Where can you get it?

The book is available WORLDWIDE.  If you don't see an option for your country listed here and want some help finding one, I am super happy to help!  Just email me at funathomewithkids@gmail.com.  For now, it's only available as a preorder online, but in November I'll be sharing all the places you can go pick it up in person.  Here are some places you can place a preorder:

AMAZON USA

BARNES AND NOBLE USA

AMAZON CA

AMAZON UK

BOOK DEPOSITORY

INDIEBOUND (for locally-owned US bookstores)

It's so hard to believe that my little girl will be headed off to kindergarten this week!  When I was a teacher, I always used to share a fun fact every day with my students.  I figured it was only fitting to continue the tradition with my daughter!  I've created 30 free printable lunchbox notes that contain crazy, amazing, or interesting facts about animals or the human body.  If there's enough demand, I'll post a second set of these.  :)

 Feeling inspired by our Fall Leaf Suncatchers, we decided to do a little fall sensory play.

We were so smitten with our Valentine's Day Suncatchers, we just HAD to make Fall Leaves.  We used the technique we discovered when we made our Super Vibrant Coffee Filter Flowers and it worked perfectly!  The leaves are so vibrant. 

I got the idea to make a post of awesome themed Pinterest boards from my friend Jamie at Hands on as we Grow.  I loved her post on 25 Toddler Pinterest Boards.  I thought I'd compile 15 of the best Pinterest boards for sensory activities and play recipes.  On these boards you'll find tons of ideas for filling up sensory bins, for messy play, for edible sensory play, and all sorts of recipes for doughs, slimes, paints, and everything in between.  Without further ado, here are 15 fantastic sensory boards: