A tin of vibrant Sharpies can keep my children busy for HOURS.
I'm not kidding. HOURS.
And that's ok.
A word of caution: Moms, you know you need to supervise your kids with Sharpies up until a certain age, right? I remember a certain four year old boy that was SO PLEASED he could write his name - that he wrote his sweet name IN SHARPIE ON HIS BRAND NEW JEANS. (not good)
Use Sharpies with caution.
We buy new Sharpies at least four times a year. They get used that much around here.
The creativity, enjoyment, and {blessed} peace and quiet for mom make it more than worth it.
In our home we've had three excellent Sharpie projects that have coincided with quite a bit of learning.
Art For Kids
Simply let your children spend an afternoon on Art For Kids. These drawing tutorials are so fun and easy to follow.
My son had just gotten a brand new 24 count pack of Sharpies and was in HEAVEN when I told him he could have the iPad and just go through as many tutorials as he wanted.
Remember that {blessed} peace and quiet I talked about earlier? I had a ton of it thanks to this awesome website!
Map Tracing
An assortment of Sharpies, quality maps (our some from the Classical Conversations Connected), and lots of tracing paper make for another educational Sharpie activity.
Who doesn't like seeing something beautiful they have created? Tracing maps is tedious, but for some reason all the kids get out of it is FUN and loads of geography KNOWLEDGE.
You could let your kids trace just about anything, though.
My son loves to trace pages from his LEGO Minifigure Year by Year, the comics, or just about anything else that strikes his fancy.
Sharpie Tie Dye
This activity takes just a little more supervision, but if you have a big kid (like my 12 year old), then your children are perfectly fine to do this one on their own.
All you need are plenty of vibrant Sharpies, white bandanas, a medicine dropper, plastic cups, rubber bands, and rubbing alcohol.
After your children draw the intial designs on the bandana, it is much fun to watch the colors blend together when they drop the alcohol on the fabric.
See more detailed instructions from a previous Science Sunday post I wrote about this activity.
Fun!
Oh, and here's a BONUS: you can use your Sharpies to make Rubber Band Bracelets!! How cool is that?
What is your kids' favorite thing to do with Sharpies?
*Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Sharpie in any way and have not been paid to write this post. We just LOVE Sharpies!