Valentine Sweets

The Children’s Museum kicked off the weekend with all kinds of Valentine’s Day activities. Art Exploration (held most Fridays from 10-10:45am) kept kids busy creating all kinds of Valentine’s Day art at several stations.

Kids learned how to beautifully blend colors to paint their paper hearts and created their own 3D collage, made entirely out of red objects. There were also stations set up for making Valentine’s Day bookmarks and fingerprinted cards.

Two floors down from Art Exploration, Hannaford’s was sponsoring a Valentine’s Day event of their own. The children learned how deliciously fun healthy eating can be by crafting their own chocolate bark treat. Toppings included heart healthy treats such as Kashi Heart Healthy Cereal, dried cranberries, dried apricots, and Cheerios.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, each child was able to make two chocolate bark treats, one to enjoy and one to share!

~ Kerri, PR Intern

Sharing is Caring Festival

During December and January, the Children’s Museum in Easton will celebrate the holiday season and the importance of providing good help to those in need. The Museum’s Sharing is Caring Festival is a series of holiday-themed events that help those in need and raise awareness for how children and families can give back to the community.

This month is our 20th Anniversary Campaign for Kids. It is important that we continue to provide a fantastic learning environment for kids in our area. When you give to our annual fund, you support quality educational experiences for all children in our community. For the Museum to be affordable to you, we need charitable support. We appreciate your consideration and help. Even if you can’t make a cash donation, there are more ways of donating during this holiday season. Here are just a few:

Come to our Cards for Kids events all month long, where kids will make cards in our art studio that will be distributed to organizations who serve those confined indoors by illness or disability. A special card from a child can lift a spirit and make a smile.

Starting Thanksgiving weekend, Museum visitors can donate to the Warm Hearts Drive and drop off new hats, mittens, and socks to help keep needy children’s heads, hands, feet and hearts warm during the winter.

For our popular Kids’ Holiday Shop, parents can donate new or gently used items for the kids to buy and wrap. Volunteers are on hand to help children select and wrap a perfect gift for mom, dad, friends and family. By donating, you will give kids the opportunity to buy, wrap, and give gifts to their loves ones.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is a symbol of strengthening communities, empowering individuals, and bridging barriers. On January 17th, we commemorate his legacy by celebrating The Martin Luther King Day of Service. It is never too young to learn the value of helping others. On the 17th the Museum offers a variety of arts and crafts projects inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. You can find more ways to give back to your community here.

We hope that these events offered by the Museum provides you and your family with a charitable Holiday Season. As you can see, there’s a lot of ways to give back to the community, and we hope you’ll take advantage of these opportunities or seek out your own! And even when the holidays end, remember there is always someone in need.

-Josh Nyer
Public Relations Intern

Have Your Own Winter Workshop!! Part III

Don't Miss the first two in this series: Winter Workshop Part 1 and Part 2

For the final Winter Workshop blog we will focus on creating home-made gifts. Not only is it fun for everyone but it is also a great way to save some money, yet give great home-made gifts that friends and family will be sure to love!


An easy and fun (not to mention tasty!) present to give is a mason jar filled with the ingredients for making cookies! Chocolate chip is the most popular cookie, but pick your favorite cookie- sugar, oatmeal raisin, or even gingerbread!

1. By having the kids measure out the ingredients and layer them, it will help them to learn about measuring and counting.

2. Once the ingredients are layered and the top secured tie the recipe to the top with fun ribbons, maybe cut it in a fun design using crazy-cut scissors!


3. Some other fun touches include attaching a cookie cutter, or creating your own label on a large sticker! Have fun and personalize your gift!

Need help finding a recipe? Check out this site, its full of great recipes for many, many differnt kinds of cookies!


Do you have any old baby jars hanging around?

1. Have kids paint the inside any color they like, just have the layer of paint be thin enough that you will be able to see through.

2. When its dry put in tea-lights; the candles will light up the jar so it will look like stained glass.


These lights look great in bunches, maybe on a mantel or a couple on the dinner table.


The most fun of all though can be creating gifts that you can eat! The old saying "one for you, one for me" may come into play here, especially with so many delicious treats!

1. In a fondue style using melted chocolate, dip marshmallows in. (or anything you want like pretzels)


2. Then cover them with other goodies like jimmies or crushed up peppermint sticks is a great treat!



And you will probably not be able to resist stealing one or two, just to make sure it tastes just right!


We hope you have enjoyed these Winter Workshop blogs and that it has given you some great ideas for this t ime of year. Remember be creative and have fun with the kids in your life! Happy Holidays!

Have Your Own Winter Workshop! Part II

With Thanksgiving this week the kids are sure to be home and looking for something to do. Try these great seasonal crafts; this week learn about creating your own easy to make reindeer ornaments!

1. Popsicle sticks are an absolute must in this craft, and you will need 3 to create one craft.

2. Take two sticks and create a basic "V" shape (glue the bottom of the "V")

3. Then take the third stick and place it at about a 1/3 of the way from the top of the "V" so it overhangs, almost like an upside-down "A". Simply use Elmer's glue wherever the sticks meet.

4. Once it is dried, use brown paint over the entire thing. (You could also do this to all the sticks individually before gluing, it is up to you!)

5. Take out the goggly eyes and place them a little under the overhanging stick.

6. Then take a pom-pom for the nose and voilia! You have a reindeer!

7. The final step is just to take a piece of ribbon/yarn/fishing line so that you can proudly hang your ornament; a good place to glue the ribbon is in the back, above where the overhang is.

Also don't forgot to have your child sign his or her name on the back in a Sharpie, along with the year so you will never forget making this fun keepsake! You can also be creative with this project, add glitter, bows, other paint colors, whatever you want- the most inportant thing is to have fun!

Another cool ornament is one you can make from used holiday cards! It is a great way to recycle last year's holiday cards, after all you want to save them but dont really know what to do with them. This way you not only recycle but you are creating a fantastic ornament made from cards from friends and family, making it all the more special and personalized.

1. First cut the fronts from the cards, the more varied the cards the better your ornament will be!

2. Once you have the fronts of all the cards you want to use you can then start cutting the fronts individually: you want to cut the card into 5 strips about 1/2-3/4 in wide. A way to get the kids involved is to have them use a ruler and mark where each card should be cut, a great and fun way to learn about counting!

3. After all the cards are cut out stack them into piles, then have the kids go through and mix the pieces up- you want a mismatch of pieces!

4. Then using a hole punch, punch holes in the both the top and bottom of all the card pieces.

5. Next using a brad, place and secure though all the card holes you have made.

6. Now fan out the card pieces, until it creates a sphere shape.

7. Lastly tie a string to the top brad and there you go!

You can now hang your sphere of holidays cards anywhere and it will look fantastic! Maybe in the window there the light can peek through!

We hope you enjoy trying out these crafts with your family, check back in two week for our last Winter Workshop blog!

Have Your Own Winter Workshop! Part 1

Halloween was only a few weeks ago, but it's already time to start thinking about holiday season! Before you know it you will be in a whirlwind of holiday parties, recitals, visiting and of course those dreaded trips to a crowded mall. So this year, while there is still a little time left before the craziness of the season starts, take a look at some fun ways you can spend time with your family and enjoy the holiday season! Have your own "Winter Workshop" at home! Put your favorite holiday CD, a festive sweater (and maybe a smock over that! and prepare for a day of family fun, which will be educational, low-cost and environmentally friendly!

First up- holiday cards! There are so many ways to make your own cards! Simply buy basic blank cards, in any color- you can find them at local stores like Target and A.C. Moore. One fun way is to use potato stamps! Easy to make but adults definitely do the cutting!

1. First cut a potato in half.
2. Next draw out a design in marker on the potato- such as stars, snowflakes etc,
3. Then using a knife carefully cut away the excess potato until you are only left with the shape you want.
4. Now let the kids dip the stamps into paint and let them design the plain cards however they like! By making the cards themselves it create a truly unique cards that friends and family would love to have!


Another, less messy, way of using plain cards is to use office supplies! Yes, office supplies! For instance creating a tree on the card front is both easy to make and made of things you can find around the house.

1. For the tree itself use round green color coding labels, easily found at Staples (and if you dont have green stickers you can spray paint it green or use another color, be creative!). You can also have a counting lesson here too, by starting the tree with one sticker, then the next row two, then three and so on.

2. Once the shape of the tree is done decorate it with reinforcements and smaller 1/4 in color coding circle sticker labels (both also found at Staples.).

3. And lastly top the tree off with a star sticker! Using office supplies as decorations may sound funny at first, but it very budget friendly and really lets you stretch your creativity!


A great card to make is the "Santa" card. Here you will want to buy red card stock, available at craft stores such as A.C. Moore. (it is too late this year but after Christmas/Valentine's Day sales are great times to buy this at a discounted price.)

1. What you want to do next is make a "belt." You will also need sticker paper (found at Staples) and a can of spray paint in both black and gold. Once you spray the paper let it dry.
2. Have the kids cut out a rectangle the width of the card, remove the backing and stick to the card at the middle.
3. Then on the gold paper have them cut out a square, but you may want to cut another, smaller square inside the bigger square for them; then remove the backing and stick over the block of black- thus creating a belt!
4. Using some of the white sticker paper you have not painted cut out a fun shape; three of the sides will be straight and line up with the bottom and width of the card. The last part however, make a fun wavy shape to create fur at the bottom of Santa's coat.
5. Lastly you want you can add three black round stickers as buttons! and there you have it, a simply card that looks awesome!


Another great way to use those potato print stamps is to create your own wrapping paper. Yes, it sounds like this could be hard, but really nothing could be easier, promise! Simply go to a craft store and buy a roll (or rolls if you like) of craft paper, 30 in x 15 feet is a good size.

1. At home lay out the craft paper on the table; now you can either leave it plain or paint it a background color is you prefer. If you paint it make sure to let the paint dry. Then the fun can start!
2. Bring out those potato stamps and let the kids loose! Have them stamp in whatever paint color they want, using whatever shape they want! There are no rules except to have fun and be creative. Once it is dry you will have a unique wrapping paper that you can truly say is one of a kind!

We hope you have fun doing some, or all!, of these crafts! Look for a new holiday blog in two weeks!