{"id":2775,"date":"2019-12-17T09:41:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T17:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2020-02-07T02:13:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T10:13:44","slug":"diy-toys-with-your-kid-christmas-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/2775\/diy-toys-with-your-kid-christmas-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Toys with your kid: Christmas craft!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
5 toilet paper rolls, transformed into Santa and reindeers easily! \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

I have a four-year-old at home, and I am very comfortable to let her\nhave some unscheduled downtime. She will feel bored, which is perfect, as she\nwill be actively looking for something to do. Without YouTube, without tablets,\nyou will see how a boring kid sparkles creative ideas with her associative\nthinking.  It is good mental training for\nadults too – if you are just feeding your kids with new toys whenever they feel\nbored, your brain has not done its job too – not to mention it is not\nsustainable at all.<\/p>\n\n

Instead of providing \u2018answers\u2019 to deal with boredom, parents could\ncreate an environment that inspires thinking and nurtures creative children. As\nyear-end is approaching, I am going to challenge myself with a new year\nresolution. I will co-create toys with my daughter using existing materials at\nhome whenever she \u201cwants\u201d something new to play. Because we all know that\nsometimes we don\u2019t really need those things we want.<\/p>\n\n

I am no artist-mom, so if I can do it, you too!<\/p>\n\n

Give toilet roll\na few cuts: Reindeer is coming to town!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Steps to turn an empty paper roll into a reindeer.
Steps for creating the body and the horns. \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
  1. Stock up\n some empty toilet rolls (they are really useful!)<\/li>
  2. Press the\n paper roll with your palm and make it flat<\/li>
  3. Cut out \u2153 and make it shorter <\/li>
  4. Follow the\n black line to cut <\/li><\/ol>\n\n
    \"\"
    Steps for creating the body and the horns. \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

    Reminder: If you think cardboard is too hard for children to cut out,\nparents can help with the above steps. Children under 5 may find it difficult\nto use scissors.<\/p>\n\n

    When you finished cutting, you can follow these steps to create the\nbody and the horns.<\/p>\n\n

    After the paper reindeer is in shape, it\u2019s time for colouring! This is\nfree time for children to paint in their own way. My daughter painted them all\nbrown, gave them different expressions, and we ended up having 4 unique\nreindeer!<\/p>\n\n

    Now, come to the nose! Instead of buying materials from shops, I want\nto challenge my daughter to search for alternatives from the house. After\nsearching her stationary for a while, she happily says,  ‘Mama, we have diamond stickers!\u2019 Here comes\na perfect solution! It is always nice to allow some space for children to solve\ntheir own problems, sometimes they will even surprise you with their\ncreativity!<\/p>\n\n

    \"\"
    Children free time: paint the reindeers in their own way! \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
    \"\"
    FINISH! Look how easy it is! \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

    Transform rolled paper straws into Christmas ornaments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    Besides empty\ntoilet rolls, I have lots of old magazines and newsletters at home. I used to\njust put them in the recycle bin, but recently I find that they have a better\nsecond life! If you search in Pinterest with keywords \u201crolled paper\ncrafts” or \u201crolled newspaper crafts\u201d, you will find they can be handmade\ninto photo frames, paper flowers, baskets or even drawers! Of course, you first\nneed to turn them into paper rolls. Here are the easy\nsteps<\/a> from youtube. <\/p>\n\n

    \"\"
    How to make rolled paper straw from old magazines? \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

    I am going to\nstart with making easy Christmas ornaments as my daughter is small. <\/p>\n\n

    1. Make the rolled paper flat, paint in green, and cut them into\n different lengths that resembles a Christmas tree.<\/li>
    2. Glue the rolled paper together, and decorate them.<\/li>
    3. Done!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n

      Besides the Christmas tree, I\nalso experimented to use rolled paper to make a paper star ornament. I took\nreference from the \u2018Hong Kong toothpicks stars\u2019 \nwhen making this – a collective memory of Hong Kongers, where we used to\nmake star-shaped crafted using toothpicks to kill time when we went \u2018yum-cha\u2019\nwith parents (Video here<\/a>). Those were the days when we did not have mobile phones!\nLastly, if you want to hang up the ornaments, leftover yarns will do the job.<\/p>\n\n

      \"\"
      Upcycled Christmas tree craft from a 4-year-old! \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
      \"\"
      Upcycled Christmas tree craft from a 4-year-old! \u00a9 Josephine Ng<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

      Read more:<\/p>\n\n

      1. 28\nChristmas Crafts Made From Toilet Paper Rolls<\/a><\/li>
      2. 12\nToilet Paper Roll Christmas Crafts<\/a><\/li>
      3. How\nto make Paper Straws from Newspapers<\/a><\/li>
      4. 10\nDIY Rolled Paper Crafts From Recycled Magazines<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I have a four-year-old at home, and I am very comfortable to let her have some unscheduled downtime. She will feel bored, which is perfect, as she will be actively looking for something to do. Without YouTube, without tablets, you will see how a boring kid sparkles creative ideas with her associative thinking. It is good mental training for adults too – if you are just feeding your kids with new toys whenever they feel bored, your brain has not done its job too – not to mention it is not sustainable at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21],"p4-page-type":[26],"class_list":["post-2775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-sustainably","tag-plastic","p4-page-type-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2788,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775\/revisions\/2788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2775"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}