Free hands-on kids' crafts and activities for Thanksgiving holiday

Check out these cute Cut And Paste paper crafts to print free for kids. Children will love coloring and making Thanksgiving party decorations, invitations, greeting cards, games, table decor, placemats and more with these printouts. Print 3D turkeys, Native American Indians crafts, pilgrims, pumpkins, harvest cornucopias--all the traditional holiday themes. These are perfect for preschool and elementary social studies crafts too.   Free printable Thanksgiving holiday activities, crafts, coloring pages, cards

Non-toxic homemade face paint for Halloween and dress up

Face painting is a fun part of dressing up for Halloween. Many costumes for children require a mask or face paint of some kind. Here are easy, homemade non-toxic fact paint recipes for kids' costumes. Commercial face paint and cosmetics often contain harmful chemicals. Some may cause a rash on a child's sensitive skin.

Use these DIY recipes to make Halloween face painting safe, non-toxic and non-allergenic. The ingredients in these recipes should not cause skin irritation. If they do, it's likely that the child has extra sensitive skin or is allergic to that specific one of the ingredients. If any face paint, temporary tattoo or skin product burns or itches, wash it off immediately and apply cool compresses to the affected area. You should not apply Halloween face paint to children with eczema, psoriasis, acne or rashes.

Basic homemade face paint recipes for children:
1 teaspoon powdered corn starch 1/2 teaspoon cold cream (Pond's, Avon) 1/2 teaspoon cold water food coloring
Blend to a creamy paste.

Homemade sensitive skin Halloween face paint recipes
Noxema Skin Cream (this kind is mentholated and can be more soothing for children than regular cold cream) corn starch food coloring
Blend.

Natural homemade face paint recipes (safer for children for extra sensitive skin, skin allergies)
glycerin or clear aloe vera gel, olive oil and natural food coloring: cold tea or coffee (brown), juice
from carrots, purple cabbage, beets or blueberries or onion skins (yellow). Blend for green.

You can also use regular cosmetics for homemade face painting The safest non-allergenic brands are: Cover Girl Clean Make-Up, Bare Escentuals, Bare Minerals, Burt's Bees
, Kiss My Face and Jasons. Avoid makeup with mineral oil or alcohol. Children should wash all makeup off after Halloween trick-or-treating. Use fragrance-free, alcohol-free hypoallergenic baby wipes to remove all traces of make-up, especially around eye area. Follow with a gentle face wash like Ceravue. If the child's face appears red or inflamed, apply cool compresses

Patriotic RWB recipes for Labor Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, US holiday lessons

For Labor Day Memorial Day, how about red white and blue recipes and creative American patriotic foods? Here's RWB appetizer-to-dessert menu. It's perfect for July 4th, BBQs, Father's Day and summer picnics and parties. Make these RWB recipes with kids for fun, hands-on learning. These healthy snacks work well for school holiday parties.

* Red White and Blue Chip Mixer. Make chips swing American. Blend any combination of blue corn chips, red corn chips (available at specialty and holiday food stores) red BBQ chips, pink taro chips (available in Terra's root vegetable chip blends), homemade parsnip chips (white) and beet chips. For white, use white corn chips, popcorn or white cheddar cheese puffs.

* Old Glory Veggie Platter: Use a tri-section platter for crudites (cut vegetables) or arrange them in stars and stripes. For red use red pepper strips, tomato wedges, radish roses. For blue, cut purple pepper strips, purple broccoflower, egg plant slices or shredded purple cabbage. For white veggies, use parsnip slices, cauliflower, water chestnuts. Cut some peppers and parsnips into star shapes (with star cookie cutter).

* Stars and Stripes Fruit Kebobs: On skewers, alternate any combination of watermelon chunks, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, strawberries, pale green honeydew, apple stars, banana slices (dash of pineapple or lemon juice prevents browning).

* Americana Lemonade Spritzer: Color lemonade blue with purple cabbage or blueberry juice. Or leave plain. Garnish by spearing strawberries or colored, star-shaped marshmallows on straws. Make star-shaped ice cubes with clear or grape soda or red pop. For clear ice cubes, put a blueberry in each.

* RBW Pinwheels:Flatten four pieces of white bread thin. Spread one with strawberry jam, another
with cream cheese and another with grape jam. Stack in alternate colors. Roll into log. Slice through all layers to make pinwheels.

* Patriotic Cole Slaw: Mix chopped purple cabbage, red peppers and radishes. Dress with vinegar, olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, horseradish and sugar. Cut peppers like stars if desired.

* American Flag Grill: Grill red smoked sausage, hotdogs, burgers (with beet juice added), or pink salmon. Garnish with purple cabbage shreds, purple and red pepper stars and mayonnaise. Poke tiny flag toothpicks in burgers.

* Festive American Fries: Julienne potatoes or use frozen French fries. Coat some in paprika or Louisiana red pepper and leave others white. Dye mayonnaise blue (naturalistas, use purple cabbage juice). Serve with red ketchup, plain and blue mayo. Dieters, use olive oil mayo.

* Lady Liberty Sundaes: Serve vanilla ice cream drizzled with strawberry and blueberry syrup. Mix colored gelatin for syrup. Decorate with blue and red candies (M&Ms, Nerds, Runts). Make fruit sundaes with blueberries and strawberries. Serve strawberry or spumoni ice cream topped with bluecolored topping. Serve Blue Moon ice cream with red and blue gummy worms, sprinkles, mini marshmallows and red fruit snacks. Or made a RWB ice cream buffet and let guest decorate their own.

* Star Cookies. Make star-shaped cookies easy using refrigerated sugar cookie dough. If you don't have star-shaped cookie cutter, cut into thin circles. Cut each circle into five pie-shaped wedges. Arrange in a circle, point side out. Place red or blue M&M or hard candy in the center. Hard candy will melt to clear "stained-glass" look. Or sprinkle with colored sugar. Or draw stars on cookie with colored spray frosting. Frost with strawberry cream cheese.

For more deliciously festive recipes, visit my blog Great Food 4U. For patriotic and other holiday printables, visit my blog Free Printable Holiday.

MLK Jr. Day connects Detroit, Rosa Parks bus to New Orleans Congo Square, Kwanzaa

 I had a profound experience, an epiphany if you will, on Christmas in 2014. I was taken outside my life and transported to a place I've never been, in a time I never lived. The memory haunts like the song your memory doesn't recognize, but your heart does. This experience is particularly relevant on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and always during Black History Month. So what's the big deal?  MLK Jr. Day connects Detroit, Rosa Parks bus to New Orleans Congo Square, Kwanzaa

Free printable Catholic Christian Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, holiday crafts, Christmas craft activities

Will you be celebrating Advent this holiday season? Advent is the Catholic Christian season leading up to Christmas. For four weeks, prior to #Christmas, Catholics practice Advent values prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Each week focuses on hope, expectation and joy. Here are free printable advent calendars for kids to make, to guide Christmas devotions. Free printable Catholic Christian Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, Christmas crafts

Halloween candy leftovers use-up recipes, ways to reuse stale candy from Trick-or-Treat

So trick-or-treat is over and now your kids have a haul of #Halloween candy. And of course you want them to eat all that sugar as soon as possible (not!). Or maybe you're stuck with stale candy you couldn't give away because it rained on Halloween or you didn't get as many trick-or-treating children. Or maybe you gave out yucky kinds like Mike-N-Ikes or Mary-Janes, tsk-tsk. You could blow your diet, eat all the treats and then regret it. Or you could try one of these healthy ways to use up leftover trick-or-treat goodies.  Halloween candy leftovers use-up recipes, ways to reuse stale candy from Trick-or-Treat

Kids summer activities: Sand castle science lessons, social studies at the beach

 Parents and homeschoolers, looking for a way to keep the educational momentum this summer? How about kids summer activities at the beach? You can actually homeschool at the beach by building a sand castle. Teach social studies connections and science lessons. in sand castle building. A sand castle is a great art medium. In fun kids summer activities, children learn earth science lessons on biomes. They also explore engineering and physical science lessons messing with sand at the beach. If you can't do sand castle science lessons at the beach, you can make a sand castle in the backyard or even inside.  Kids summer activities: Sand castle science lessons, social studies at the beach | Examiner.com