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Holiday Events at Pierce County Libraries

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Did you know that your local library is hosting a variety of holiday events throughout the season planned just with your kiddos in mind? Best of all, these events are FREE! Some recommend advance registration as they fill up fast. Updated for 2016.

Holiday Events at Pierce County Libraries

Make and Decorate Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread House Decorating at Pierce County Libraries

Don’t make a mess in your house when you can do it at the library! All supplies are provided and most locations suggest registering at piercecountylibrary.org/calendar. Different age ranges are welcome at each location, so check out their great Gingerbread Houses PDF with all the details.

Puppets Please Holiday Show

Holiday Events at Pierce County LibrariesHoliday Events at Pierce County Libraries

These colorful marionettes will be touring throughout the Pierce County Library System to bring you a holiday themed in the round show for all ages! Check out the schedule here.

Holiday Events for Kids

Don’t miss the New Year’s Eve Party and the countdown to noon with PCLS! Crafts and games for the kids with no late night worries. Here is the flyer with more details!

Holiday Concerts

Your local PCLS hosts a variety of holiday concerts. These may be more suited for the music appreciating adult, or the especially cultured child.  But, they do sound pretty great, featuring music by Vivace! Choral Program, Rogers High School Brass Quintet, Tammy Jacobson, The Dickens Carolers, and harpist Susan W. Haas.  Check out the schedule here.

We hope you are able to enjoy one more of these great events in your local neighborhood!

For more holiday fun, be sure to check out our South Sound Holiday Fun Guide!

South Sound Holiday Fun Guide Holiday fun tacoma auburn puyallup renton federal way bonney lake

Disclosure: We are SUPER proud to be sponsored by the Pierce County Library System, one of the very finest in the country! We’re so lucky!

Make a Leprechaun Trap for St. Patrick’s Day!

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Just a quick reminder, that St.Patrick’s Day is around the corner, which means you’ll want to be building your leprechaun traps.

Trap a Leprechaun

Never tried to trap a leprechaun?  You can see some truly beautiful projects  on Pinterest (Feel free to follow Sounds Fun Mom while you’re there!) Quite frankly, our kids’ trap usually looks like a hot mess of cardboard, duct tape, and whatever else the boys found in the recycling bin. It doesn’t matter, though. They have crazy fun making it every year.

The basic idea is that you design some sort of box that a little leprechaun might be lured into. Bait varies….I know some kids who swear by Lucky Charms, and some who try to construct a cozy looking, moss bed.  At our house, we always try pistachio pudding. We’ve yet to catch one, but we usually find some chocolate gold coins he’s left behind. At other houses the little guys don’t leave treats but do plenty of mischief-like turning the toilet bowl water green. Leprechauns!

Disclosure: Henry wants you to know that the mess in the picture is Not a leprechaun trap. It was a condo he built for his pillow pet. I just thought I’d share it with this post because I think it’s awesome. And nothing we make ever looks like it should go on Pinterest. You’re welcome.

So Easy Halloween Crafts!

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You know when you see crafts on Sounds Fun Mom they’re going to be easy ones!  These totally do-able ideas come from some of my blogging friends around the country! I belong to a little group of gals who all write about very specific regions, and they’re some of my favorite cyber friends. I think you’ll agree these fun projects are super clever, and I love that they don’t require anything fancy (or expensive)!

 

First up, check out these mummified lanterns. I know this looks very Martha, but it’s basically, “bandages,” applied with a two-step paste. You can get all the directions over at Chambanamoms.com, where Laura Weisskopf Bleill and Amy Hatch write for moms in the Champaign-Urbana area of Illinois. This craft and the pic are from their contributor, Sarah Dexter.  The boys and I made these last year, and they looked pretty cool on our porch. I will say I couldn’t really figure out what to do with them after the big day, and eventually some slugs crawled in one, but I have a feeling that kind of thing is unique to the SFM house…….

Or how about these ghosts? The “Secret ingredients,” will cost you about a buck. If you have little ones who like to get messy (and you can tolerate it), you’ll love this. This one is courtesy of  Annie Tandy who writes Kids List Activities for Little Kids in the La Grange, Hinsdale, and Western Springs area of Illinois. Check out her site for the directions for this easy craft.

Finally, here’s a bite size caramel apple! If you’ve ever watched your kids try to eat a whole caramel apple, you’ll agree with me that this is genius. Pure genius. Want to make your own? You’ll find easy, peasy directions over at Kids on the Grand where Melody writes for families near the Grand Rapids area. If you have family or friends in any of these areas, I hope you’ll hook them up with these great resources.

If you enjoyed these, you might also like this post on how to make  Paper Strip Pumpkins. I won’t lie-these are a little harder, but they look super cute and could work for Thanksgiving. If you have a room mom who could cut all the paper strips, they’d be cute table decorations for your class feasts or celebrations!

Science Fair Help: Favorite Sites for Kids’ Experiments and More

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This time of year, a lot of schools start planning for science fairs. While these have a certain amount of ugh factor for parents (who do you think is making that poster??) finding a cool experiment is easier than ever thanks to a number of seriously cool web sites. Not doing a science fair? Even better! You can do some easy investigations just for fun!

If your kids are doing the science fair as a school assignment, be sure to attend the informational session if you’re a first-timer. Virtually all schools have one-call and ask!

I know our first go-round there were some bits we were seriously confused by! (You can head here if you want to read more about our family’s science fair misadventure).

If you could use some help brainstorming, here’s a round-up of favorite sites. Be sure to share yours, too!

  • ScienceBuddies.org A very organized site, especially good for finding an experiment suitable for a school science fair.
  • ZoomSci Based on the PBS Zoom series this site has loads of easy, fun experiments organized by science discipline. I also like that it includes comments from kids who have tried them and suggestions for variations.
  • BillNye Does anyone else remember watching him on Almost Live? A cool site for older kids. Check the “Parents and Kids,” sections for home experiments.
  • ScienceKids Colorful, comprehensive site with games and information as well as ideas for experiments.

Don’t forget that your library has shelves of books on easy science activities. If you haven’t ventured out of kids’ fiction, you’re missing out!

If you’re a home schooling family, I also urge you to look into the various science clubs at the Tacoma Nature Center (non home schoolers can enroll as well). The Pierce County Library system also offers many free, STEM themed programs. I typically list these in my weekend list and the calendar. The Geek Dad events are particularly good ones (and no, you don’t have to be a dad).

And, of course, there are lots of great destinations for young scientists and explorers  all around the South Sound (for a Seattle adventure, don’t forget to check out  the deal of the day page for the Groupon to the aquarium. I’d love to hear your favorite destinations for fun and learning, too-or your best science fair survival tips!