Blog
Seaside Play Dough: Making Fish, Snail and Lobster
We have recently taken a few family trips to nearby lakes, and our collection of rocks and seashells has grown accordingly. Come fall, it will be pleasant to remember our summer, while playing with some of our finds and play dough. Using my favourite recipe from the...
How to Make Wooden Teethers, Rattles and Simple Toys
Ever wondered how to make wooden toys for kids at home? We started with teethers and rattles, and there was one tool that was particularly helpful! As one of his first toys, my son had a wooden rattle fish. As a first-time-mom, I thought it was wonderful. No plastic...
Audiobooks for Toddlers: Record Your Own Audiobooks
If your toddler can listen to books for hours, maybe he or she is ready for audibooks? Record audiobooks for your kids and win yourself a little time for coffee while they're enjoying their favourite stories! When I was a little girl, I had a couple of vinyls with...
Button Moon Collage
Make a moon button craft to add to your home décor! So easy to put together that even young children can make this craft. My son is in love with the moon. When we go for a walk at night, which we do every evening, because it lulls him to sleep, he calls for it, “Moon!...
Hiking with Kids
When I was learning English, it took me a while to understand what “hiking” means. When I first heard the word, I thought it meant “camping”. Checking the English-Russian dictionary, I found a translation “walking”. Neither of those two describe hiking, which has...
Magnetic Moon and Stars: Build Your Night Sky
The nights of August are clear and warm, and it is a perfect time for stargazing, as we are witnessing the Perseids – one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year. We are always taking Budster for a walk before bed. During one such walk, he noticed the moon...
Toddler’s Favourite Book: Make It Yourself
In our family, we like creating traditions for celebrating milestones, and we certainly never fail to find more of them. I can hardly think of any parent who would not be excited about their child turning one, though. Last December, when Budster turned one, we planned...
Roller Painting for Kids
Kids like working with our big tools. They also like making big projects. This painting experiment includes both: a new fun tool and a really big piece of paper! What will happen if I give my son a VERY BIG sheet of paper? I have been pondering over this question for...
The Fox and the Crane: Shadow Puppets with Printables
Today I am participating in the Rockstar Sunday series over at Teach Mama. Making shadow shows can be very easy. Sometimes fairy-tales and fables have just a couple characters, and what makes them exceptional is the interaction between two. The Fox and the Crane - one...
Play Dough Corner for Babies and Toddlers
For my son's first birthday, he got a big package of colourful play dough cans. He loved them and played with them for a long time... stacking them into a tower. However, once the cans were open, he was not sure what to do, and neither was I. I could sculpt a...
The Princess and the Pea: Shadow Puppet Show
Adventure in a Box is participating in the Story Book Summer series over at Rainy Day Mom. Every article of the series features a story book and related craft or game. This week the theme is fairy-tales, and I chose The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen....
How to Make a Toy Paddle Boat
For a while, Budster has been enjoying a book about a little tugboat, and summer seemed like a perfect time to give him his first boat, so we got some wood cutouts together and made him a toy paddle boat. Though I used wood, you can modify this tutorial to work for...
Pippi Longstocking Dinner Decorations
Pippi Longstocking was my first book hero. Oh, how much I wanted those freckles, red braids and drawers full of small treasures! Not to forget the monkey and the horse. Once, after reading the book for the fiftieth times, I began to write a sequel to the story, but...
Lego Colour and Shape Sorting
Budster and I continue to enjoy the possibilities that Lego bricks can provide. Do you remember our Goodnight, Gorilla game with Lego blocks? Today I would like to share one of the first games we have played. We got our bricks as an assorted lot of Duplo blocks on...
Goodnight, Gorilla: Building the Story with Lego
Over the last month, we saw the beginning of a passionate love that has the potential to last for many years. Budster has fallen in love with Lego. Up until now, Budster's favourite toys have been hammers, brooms, even lemon squeezers, and of course, books and paints....
Books You Will Not Tire of Reading to a One-Year-Old
Do you feel like you are reading the same books to your toddler again and again? You probably are, but some books certainly get old faster than others. Here is the list of books we loved reading to our toddlers. Again and again. When our son turned eighteen months, it...
Three Little Pigs: Shadow Puppet Play with Free Printables
Based on the famous fairy-tale, these printable shadow puppets will let your kids make their version of Three Little Pigs and stage a shadow play at home or in the classroom! The Three Little Pigs is one of my son's favourite fairy-tales. There are these three...
How to Import JPG or PNG into Cricut Design Space
Many of the projects on my blog use silhouette designs. You can cut them by hand or you can use a special silhouette cutting machine. Here's a quick tutorial on importing JPG or PNG files into Cricut Design Space, so that you could cut them out with a Cricut Machine....
How to Make Matryoshka Nesting Dolls
Have you ever thought of painting your own matryoshka doll? Here are the basic materials and design elements for making a traditional Russian nesting doll. Educational Benefits of Matryoshkas Matryoshkas are wooden dolls that come in a set: they range in size and can...
How to Get Your Child Interested in Reading
How to raise a child who is interested in reading, or better yet, loves books? Here are some ideas for how to get started from an early age! As does every parent, I have certain hopes for my son, the biggest one being for his health and safety. There is also the hope...
How to Make a Puppet Theatre
Want to open a puppet theatre at home or in classroom? Here is our DIY tutorial on how to build a sturdy puppet theatre from wood! UPDATE: Four years later, our wooden puppet theatre is still with us, but we also made a printable version to share our enthusiasm for...
How to Import JPG or PNG into Silhouette Studio
Many of the projects on my blog use silhouette designs cut out of paper. You can cut them by hand or you can use a special silhouette cutting machine. Here's a quick tutorial on importing JPG or PNG files into Silhouette Studio, so that you could cut them out with...
Little Red Riding Hood Puppet Show
Based on the famous fairy-tale, these shadow puppets will let your kids make their version of Little Red Riding Hood and stage a shadow play at home or in the classroom! I think that sometimes, we all want to try our hand at a new creative endeavour. With our home...
Organizing an Art Corner for Toddlers
I will start this post with a confession. Far too often for my liking I concentrate on where and how to create instead of simply sitting down and starting the creative process. I worry about how much time I have left before Budster wakes up from a nap, and whether I...
Books as a Tactile Experience for Babies and Toddlers
Adventure in a Box is happy to participate in the Sensory Play Challenge Week Blog Hop. Please, visit other participating bloggers for more ideas on sensory play. Each day will bring a new sense into focus. The first one is tactile. Nowadays it is well-known that...
How to Make Garden Markers Rocks
Looking for a simple, cheap and cute solution for making vegetable markers? Try garden marker rocks! The post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Last week, as we were planting our garden, we once again faced the question of how to label our...
Spring Scavenger Hunt for Toddlers
Adventurous spirits fly high in our family; we love treasure hunts. An Easter hunt is a must - last year I had to climb on the roof of our house to get my biggest egg. But other holidays are not a complete write-off for organizing a small treasure hunt with a map or...
Watercolour Painting with Toddlers
When I was growing up, all I had for art supplies were a box of gouache paints and a scattering of pencils that broke whenever I tried to sharpen them . It was not because my mom did not care to develop my creativity – it was just life in a small city in early...
Books to Read Before Going to the Zoo
Few children do not like animals. Our Budster is no exclusion, and we have been encouraging his interest whole-heartedly with a variety of colourful books (from Mommy) and many captivating animal sounds (from Daddy). Once in a while, we would also take a trip to the...
Painting a Cutting Board
My one-year-old son and I were preparing to make his first gifts for Mother's and Father's Days. After browsing through my drawers of craft supplies, I came back with some paints and... a blank wooden cutting board. When I was a girl, I painted a lot of utilitarian...