July 4th Celebration Stick

My kids checked out Corduroy's 4th of July (board book) from the library.  At the end of the book Corduroy and his friends are in a parade and the doll is holding a fun stick.  My son thought this was a great idea and wanted one of his own!  So I came up with a simple July 4th Celebration Stick-- my kids call it a Parade Wand.






•dowels (ours are 7")
•regular ribbon(6"pieces)/curling ribbon(7" pieces)
•wide ribbon; 3" pieces
•silver chenille stem (optional); 2" or 3" pieces
•low-temp glue gun

••Hot glue ribbons (I used 4 regular/6 curling) and chenille stem piece at top of stick and then glue the wide ribbon piece around all of it to hold together!  Form a small noisy parade (like my kids immediately did) and wave like crazy!

☆ linked to Red White and Blue All Over! on Somewhat Simple  
☆ linked to Fourth of July Party on It's a Blog Party!

Make Classic Can Stilts

Classic tin can stilts have been around for a long time.  Make some with the kids on a summer afternoon! They're fun to decorate and even more fun to stomp around with outside!

A few tips:

• I wouldn't recommend using a small can like I did for my son's.  A 29.5 oz. can is perfect for smaller kids but a #10 can is even better, especially for bigger kids (like mom ☺) and for safety reasons.

• I opened the cans with a no sharp edges can opener.

• I had my husband drill holes and then I glued foam circles around them.(answering the comment)

• We decorated with paper, Mod Podge, and paint.  The paper had a slippery/messy time and patterned paper was easier to work with than card stock.

• For the handles I used vinyl rope from Dollar Tree and hot glued ends after knotting.

-Picture of my can stilt supplies on Flickr.

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 * Family Fun's Can-do Stilts are decorated patriotic! (pictured above)

* Education.com's safety advice on their Coffee Can Stilts activity: "...have your child don protective gear and practice walking before hitting the open road." 

* You can buy some fun Monster Clompers from ALEX Toys.

Woo! Jr. is THE Place for Printables

Woo! Jr. is an awesome site for all things kid!!  Printables to make them happy, awesome coloring pages, and activities to keep them busy.  Looking for 4th of July and summer ideas?  You can find fun by topic-- holidays and seasons!  The Woo! Jr. family: Animal Jr., Cartoon Jr., Classroom Jr., Craft Jr., Fantasy Jr., and Space Jr.!