Halloween is over and now the season of gratitude "Thanksgiving" is around the corner.
Here I am focusing on thanksgiving which as most of you know falls on the fourth Thursday of November and is an official holiday and officially/unofficially ton of fun with family & friends. This day is celebrated as a day of harvest in the United States and Canada. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by English colonists of Plymouth and Wampanoag people.
Halloween is over and now the season of gratitude "Thanksgiving" is around the corner.
Here I am focusing on thanksgiving which as most of you know falls on the fourth Thursday of November and is an official holiday and officially/unofficially ton of fun with family & friends. This day is celebrated as a day of harvest in the United States and Canada. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by English colonists of Plymouth and Wampanoag people.
It is said that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national thanksgiving day to be held each November.
This is also known as a day of appreciation. Turkey dinner is the most popular and favorite of all on this traditional holiday. This day makes us realize and remind us to be thankful, show gratitude, and honor things and people around us.
You can be thankful to friends, family, or any stranger. You can show gratitude to God for giving you the privilege of becoming what you are and what you have.
Some people enjoy this day by doing campouts, having leisure in shopping, some enjoy with friends by taking covered meals to friends and family.
I know this time, is a challenging time for most of us as due to the current pandemic many plans are withheld, some are grieving the loss of closest loved ones and wonder how will we endure Thanksgiving this year? But cheer up by remembering all the beautiful moments in your memories.
This year as we are following social distancing, kids are missing on a lot of activities - school, friends playtime, and very important - family time with grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles, and so many more loved ones.
From our perspective (aunt’s, grandma, grandpa, uncles, and many more roles that we play) – It's also on our mind what to gift a kid this holiday. It’s always a tough question, it’s even tougher this year with the current pandemic situation. The short but not easy answer to this is, there are a LOT of options, literally, and it gets very confusing.
What I believe in is, get kids something that they can engage with, enjoy, learn, and remember you for!
Apart from fun toys – which by the way, for most kids, they like to play with the box more than a toy itself, and that’s true, Creative Activity-based toys (like Crafts) can be a really good way to make kids and parents both happy. It’s a win-win, kids are challenged to use and develop skills, show and bring their creative one out – truly! And, parents always like when they see their kid grow each day, and more importantly spend time away from screen.
Talking to Neha (Founder, Owner of The Kids Craft), a Craft activity can help bring a kid even closer to the family apart from all the development benefits it has. Imagine gifting a craft kit to a kid and then receiving a facetime, video call from your loved one showing what a masterpiece they have created using the gift you sent them. Just imagining it, tickles my brain and inner self – so exciting.
There are so many options out in the market today, and there are a lot of great ones, so I am not going to say that The Kids Craft Craft Boxes are the ONLY best ones out there, but they are top-notch, and that’s why I offered to write a blog as I believe you need to experience what hundreds of kids have already experienced and appreciated. I particularly like the upcoming Holiday/Christmas theme, with 5 different activities and a Unicorn is an all-time winner – just so lovely, and beautiful (see at the end of this blog). I would highly recommend them. Once you have figured out what you are going to gift a kid, absolutely share with our other readers so they can learn and take ideas from the research you have already done. Post your ideas in the comments section below.
Be sure to make this thanksgiving more exciting by sharing with your family/friends one thing you have been thankful for, in the past year and another person will continue the norm. So just lay back and think about what you are thankful for? At last, I just want to say don't be thankful only on thanksgiving, but keep on appreciating the whole year round, which in turn will flourish happiness around you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Ruchi!
Halloween has a special place in our hearts. With October around the corner I am muddled on how this festival will look during these pandemic times. With all of us supposed to be staying home and practicing social distancing doesn’t mean Halloween is cancelled — it just means...
]]>Halloween has a special place in our hearts. With October around the corner I am muddled on how this festival will look during these pandemic times. With all of us supposed to be staying home and practicing social distancing doesn’t mean Halloween is cancelled — it just means we need to brainstorm creative quarantine Halloween ideas. Nothing can beat the joy of seeing kids’ imagination run wild, planning the costume, the excitement of being a mermaid or the Princess, or the Fire Fighter or the Police man, my little goblins make me yearn that there’s got be a way we can celebrate Halloween during COVID. There are a bunch of ways to make it feel special and just as festive as years before.
Spooky Movie Night
You can choose to do this one via a projector in the backyard, or just with your family, relaxing on the couch. Pop some popcorn and plan to run your family's favorite spooky movie. Do gather some blankets for kids to hide themselves watching the scariest part.
Reverse Trick or treating
With reverse trick-or-treating, people drive by houses like the COVID -19 Birthday Parades. Those in the car will safely and with social distancing deliver the goodies or candies to the kids in costumes in their yards.
Make Crafting Ritual for your Family
One of the ways to make Holidays memorable for kids can be establishing a unique family fall ritual which can be making a craft. So, when Halloween comes around, take the opportunity to gather up some supplies and settle in for a spooky crafter noon. The way my kids’ eyes light up when they see their own creations is priceless. Here are some craft ideas you can choose -
It will be unfair to expect you to run to several stores to gather supplies and exhaust you. Why don't you get an all-inclusive Craft Box delivered to you right at your doorstep. I would highly recommend The Kids Craft's all-inclusive Craft Box, not only that Neha (& team) is my great friend but they have also surprised me with the level of kid's engagement each time we get a box. It's always a fun and exciting moment for my kids & myself to unwrap the box and have fun together for days. Here is where you can find their Halloween special Craft Box offerings: Halloween Special Craft Box offerings by clicking here.
Safely Give Out Treats
If your neighborhood is still hosting a socially distanced trick-or-treating event, consider making some of the individual and exact same treat bags ahead of time so that you can leave them in an area. When kids come to your door they pick one pack without touching others - remember to leave the note out for kids that the bags are exactly the same so they can spare the effort of scanning through the best looking bag they want to find.
Make a Treat Feast
Make a kids friendly Halloween treat and what best if kids can join you and help. My kids love the candy corn Rice Krispies recipe. it’s so easy to make and dangerously delicious.
Virtual or Social Distanced Halloween Craft Party
While we are talking about Crafts, let me throw this idea out there - If your community is one of that fun and always eager to try something new one. I encourage you to explore options to host a virtual craft creation party or outside party (if it's not too cold) while maintaining social distancing. I talked to The Kids Craft team and they were quick in coming up with individual craft that you can buy in bulk (6 kits or 12 or more) for the whole community and let them spend 30 minutes together to build their own, say, The Fiery Dragon Mask. They also mentioned that they can mix and match - get some unicorn ones, get some dragon. Here is the link that they provided for Halloween Individual Crafts - all appears to be in the range of $5 or less a kit.
Virtual Costume Affair Party
Have a virtual party where everyone can show off their Costume and its inspiration. There can be prizes for the Scariest Costume, Best Costume, Best Inspiration and many more.
Choose one or more to celebrate little things together with your family and make this Quarantine-o-ween the Happiest.
Read this blog to learn more about my initiative here, and little bit more about myself, values, beliefs!
]]>Expanding on the objective and specifically unique and fun part, it's my mission to help you spend quality time with your kid, specifically stress-free and hassle-free experience. If you have to run around to gather things from 10 different places to gather material for your kid to learn something new, well that's great and appreciable of your efforts, but what if, you don't have to and instead use that time to spend with your kid. That's where The Kids Craft comes in, we enable you to spend quality time with your lovely kiddo. We offer Craft Box for your kids or one-off Craft Kits, or even better monthly subscription service where in you receive a unique, new and freshly designed craft box with all material included. We do the work and all the running for many parents, insread of you doing it, saves much time. So, leave the hassle to us, and enjoy seeing you kid be a creator and create a masterpiece. Let your kid "be a creator".
Let's talk about affordability part, Craft Box is much simpler way to get many things, some of our craft boxes have over 30 things included all in one price - can you imagine going around to all the different places, thinking about needing 30 things and then buying each required craft material individually at a cheaper rate. I suppose you could if you just look at $ spent but that's a lot of time, energy and probably more money spent for the overall experience (time & material). We make it simple for you, we get to buy in bulk, that means wholesale rates, we go through and spend energy in coming up with the craft ideas, ensuring it's going to be fun - otherwise what's the point, testing them out - so we iron out the kinks before you get the box, creating easy instructions, including interesting facts that your kid will learn as they create a craft, create a story to make it more insightful, interesting and fun for your kid, and shop all of the products from many vendors. That was exhausting just to tell, I can imagine and have experienced in the past, how exhausting it will be to do all of it.
Let me touch on Safety part, it's a very important part, in fact the most important part of all of it. Being a mother of two kids, who would know better than me and you as a parent that not everything being sold out there is safe and may have an ingredient that should not get in your kid's hand, example, a product with lead contents, etc. That's just scary! What I have told my small team and I personally monitor is, either we create and assemble a product in a reasonable cost with ultimate quality products, or we don't create. There are no cutting corners when it comes to all of ours safety. I take pride that we are able to include products from companies like Crayola, Newell Brands, International Paper, etc. They are reputed and have stringent and robust quality standards. We never compromise on quality and safety. I simply just won't get anything out of our shop, if I can't give it to my own kids.
Please take some time to review my blog from time to time on thekidscraft.com, and The Kids Craft @thekidscraft.com offerings. This initiative can help you with many of your worries, like how to make sure your kid's spending time that develop their skills, sensory, motor skills, etc., what affordable Birthday Gift can I get a kid that they will remember me for, what can be an affordable return gift that kids will actually use and will remember you for. I have talked to many parents, whose first google search is "return gifts under $5" - we are right there, we know it and we have a range of product.
I hope you will enjoy our collection and will choose us to help you develop your kid and kids around you.
From time to time, I will ensure that we share craft ideas on my blog that will help you to leverage things easily available to you and sometimes unusable or not needed anymore, but can be used to create beautiful art or a craft. It's a win-win situation, use stuff that you don't need anymore or just lying around at your home, and let your kid be a creator.
A little bit more about our family (you will definitely see us in videos in upcoming blogs or products):
I am a mother of two kids and I appreciate them in our life and like you, I have a great desire to see them grow and prepare them for better future.
"The Kids Craft" family is proud to offer the highest quality, unique ideas and craft kits for your loved ones.
From our family to yours, we put lots of love and careful attention in each item. We hope you enjoy our work as much as we enjoy bringing it to you.
We are a fully US based family & a small-business family, and completely align with and understand our cultural, & social values.
Each product right from ideation to execution is local and created, assembled and shipped out of our location here in Illinois.
It's a fun and a proud moment to watch the kids when they create their own stories, even beyond what we have created to give them a starting point. You will be amazed when you see your kid do that!
Let's make this world a better place for our kids and let's prepare our kids for future by developing them.
Do not hesitate to give a suggestion or ideas or if you would like me to share more about any craft ideas I post, or any craft ideas you would like me to post.
I would love to hear about not needed things lying around you at your house that you think can be used for your kid's development, esp. arts & crafts related, but just don't have time, or not sure how to leverage them, and I will be sure to spend some time to see how it can be leverage and post my ideas at my blog. My direct email address is neha@thekidscraft.com
If you are not satisfied with anything or have a suggestion on how we can improve our presence in this internet ecommerce world, I urge you to get your valuable feedback and suggestions. Just an email away!
Neha Garg
CEO & Founder