| Kids are amazingly creative. Give them a cardboard | | | | Staple them in the middle to make a booklet. |
| box and they make a car, a doll house or a robot. | | | | Give a booklet to each kid. |
| Give them a rubber band and they make a gun. Mine | | | | Let them plan out what goes onto each page before |
| found a huge rubber bad used by the florist and made | | | | they actually start work. |
| a gun using that rubber band and Lego bricks. It shot | | | | Provide them with color paper, scissors, glue, pencils, |
| Lego bricks across the room. | | | | pens and crayons. |
| Getting kids to make Christmas gifts for their friends | | | | Once they get the hang of it, they can make a book |
| and family members is a sure way to keep them | | | | for each person on their gift list. |
| happily occupied and hopefully out of mischief. Here | | | | They might even make a book for you. |
| are some suggestions. | | | | 3. Friendly Stones |
| 1. Framed Art | | | | Get the kids to gather smooth palm sized stones. |
| Any child can draw. Give them thick white paper, | | | | Wash and dry them. |
| pencils, crayons, or paints and let them draw a | | | | Get white paper, black paper and colored paper. Get |
| christmas scene. Once the masterpiece is complete, | | | | the kids to make eyes and mouth out by cutting and |
| Get the picture framed professionally in an expensive | | | | pasting these features on the stones. Let them get |
| looking frame. It might even pass of as fine art by a | | | | creative and add in mustache eyebrows, bow tie or |
| master people pretend to understand but no one really | | | | anything they might think of. |
| does. That might make a fine gift for a snobby relative, | | | | Once the glue on these stones are dry, cut a piece of |
| don't you think? | | | | velvet slightly smaller than the stone and stick it |
| On a serious note, a picture drawn by a grandchild | | | | underneath each stone for a finishing touch. |
| would be treasured by the grandparents. Frame the | | | | 4. Bracelets |
| picture and let them give it to their grandpa or grandma | | | | Do you have a box of cheap beads with holes large |
| for Christmas. | | | | enough for a thick, stiff elastic string? |
| 2. Picture Books | | | | Let the kids have the beads and the elastic. |
| You could get the kids to make picture books or | | | | Teach them to thread the elastic through the beads. |
| activity books as gifts for those they love. When I | | | | When the string of beads is long enough, teach them |
| asked my kids to make a birthday card for grandpa, | | | | how to tie a knot with the loose ends to secure the |
| they made picture books complete with lift-the-flap cut | | | | bracelet. |
| outs. | | | | Let them have the rest of the beads and string to |
| Bring the kids to the library to browse through the | | | | make Christmas gifts for the ladies. |
| picture books available there for ideas. At the end of | | | | With some creativity, the holidays can be spent |
| the outing suggest that they make their own picture | | | | productively, making gifts for everyone this Christmas. |
| books. | | | | Who knows? The kids might even surprise you with |
| Take 5 sheets of A4 size paper and fold them in half. | | | | some invention of their own. |