It's hot.

 I love South Carolina because from where we live, you can be in the mountains in two hours or sitting on the beach in an hour - but that's only if you don't melt between your house and the car.  Every single day of June was over 90 degrees, and over 100 degrees once you add in the heat index.  (My father-in-law jokes that he refuses to come to Columbia in the summer thanks to the heat!)  We have very limited time to play outside during the day, so as a parent I am forced to put on my former daycare director, superwoman thinking cap and come up with some outside morning or indoor crafts to do.

Cameryn could paint or cut paper for hours (she just sits at the kitchen table with kid scissors and cuts up junk mail or old papers) but both can be pretty messy and boring.  So, here's a list of some things that we have planned to keep us busy during the HOT weekends until October.  (Yes.  October.  It will be at least 90 degrees until October.)   All of the craft supplies can be bought at the Dollar Store or they are things that we have lying around our house.

1.  Macaroni Necklace
2.  Apple / Potato / Cucumber Paint Stamps
3.  Paper Bag Puppets
4.  Paper plate masks
5.  Sock Puppets
6.  Decorate Foam Visors
7.  Drum using an old coffee can or butter tub.
8.  Paper Plate Sunshine
-  You'll need paper plates, lots of paper, markers, crayons or paint.  Trace multiple copies of your child's hands.  Paint the hands and paper plate.  Cut out hands and glue to the edges of the plate to form sun rays.  Add face to the sunshine!  You can also cut out the eyes to make a mask.
9.  Rainsticks
- You'll need a paper towel, toilet paper, or wrapping paper tube.  Use construction paper to cover one end of the tube.  Cut aluminum foil to be 6in wider than the tube and 2x as long.  Twist the foil into a long piece and bend to make two long pieces.  Twist both long piece into a spring shape and insert into tube.  Add dry beans, dry rice, popcorn kernels, beads, etc. so that only 1/10th of the tube is full.  Use construction paper to cover the other end of the tube.  Decorate tube.  You can also use different amount of rice, beans, etc to change the rain sounds.
10.  Cupcake Liner Flower Garden
-  You'll need cupcake liners, construction paper, glue, glitter, confetti, tissue paper, buttons, beads.  First, flatten several cupcake liners.  Glue the flat bottom of the liner to construction paper.  Add glue to the flat inside bottom of the liner and decorate with glitter, tissue paper, buttons, beads, etc.  Draw stems on the construction paper.  Done!
11.  Coffee Filter Butterfly
-  You'll need coffee filters, paint or markers, water, clothespin, pipe cleaners, something for the eyes (beans, googly eyes, or buttons.)  Paint the coffee filter with watercolor paint.  OR paint with regular paint / color with markers and mist with water to let the colors run together.  Set aside to dry.  Paint the clothespin.  Glue on eyes and antennas to clothespin.  Pin clothespin in the middle of the filter to make butterfly wings.  You can add a magnet to the clothespin to make a colorful fridge magnet too!
12.  Carwash 
13.  Picnic

Got any other fun ideas?