Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Boston, MA

Vacations are special, and I often say they are what memories are made of.  So it is important to preserve these memories, and what better way to do this than to find fun crafts to do with your kids. 

We vacationed on the beach this summer.  To break up the long, hot day, we spent part of out morning looking for seashells on the shore.  All different shapes and sizes will do.  After lunch, we broke out the paint.  Water colors work well but make sure you have enough brushes for all the colors.  We also brought glitter not such a messy ordeal when you're on the beach!  After washing the shells, we painted and decorated them.  When we got home, we went to a crafts store and bought an unfinished wood picture frame for a few dollars, attached our painted shells with a glue gun, and we were done.  A few dollars and a lot of fun later, we had the perfect picture frame in which to display a photograph from our trip.

Another fun way to preserve those vacation memories is to create a photo album, personalized to represent your trip.  At a crafts store, buy a simple solid photo album (AC Moore has them cheap) or a memory book.  Gather some glue, some fun things you and the kids collected during your trip such as store receipts, the wrapper from a snack you enjoyed while away, a ticket stub from an amusement park or museum you may have visited.  Decorate the front of the book with these mementos and fill the inside pages with the pictures you took.  You'll be happy to re-visit these warm memories on a cold winter's night!