Chasing Away the Winter Blues!

Mini Bread Monsters

Total time: 2-3 hours

Ages: preschooler and up

Turn the kitchen into an edible monster laboratory where kids can create their own crusty creatures.

What you'll need:

Store-bought bread dough

Toothpicks

Concentrated food-coloring paste

Scissors

Garlic press

Raisins

1 egg white, optional

1 tbsp. water, optional

Helpful Tip:

Having a couple of loaves worth of bread dough in the freezer comes in handy for spur-of-the-moment affairs.

How to make it:

  1. To begin, heat the oven to 400º so it will be ready when your monster-makers are finished sculpting.
  2. Divide the dough evenly among the kids, reserving a chunk for colored dough. Mixing in the color is probably best left to an adult, since the process can get messy in the wrong hands. Here’s how to do it: Divide the designated chunk into smaller balls, dip a toothpick in the coloring paste and dab one of the dough balls, and then knead until the desired color is achieved.
  3. To create their monsters, kids can try a variety of techniques, such as rolling balls and snakes of dough, cutting out shapes, using scissors to snip a furry texture, or using a garlic press to create hair. Raisins also make great eyes, spots, collars, or buttons.
  4. Carefully place the finished monsters on a greased cookie sheet. Cover them with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let them rise an additional 10 to 15 minutes before baking. If you want a shiny finish, whisk together 1 egg white and 1 tablespoon of water and brush on just before baking.
  5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Then hand each monster-maker a glass of milk with his creation and watch the freshly baked treats disappear.

Potato Shamrocks

What you'll need:

Heart-shaped cookie cutter (2 1/2 inches wide and long)

Potato, cut in half

Paring knife

Green acrylic paint

Paintbrush

How to make it:

  1. Press a heart-shaped cookie cutter (ours was 2 1/2 inches wide and long) into the cut face of a potato half.
  2. With the cutter still in place, use a paring knife to cut the potato from around the heart (a parent's job).
  3. Remove the cutter, then dip the heart into green acrylic paint and press it onto the paper. Repeat to make two more leaves, and then use a paintbrush to add a swish for the stem.

Lucky Leprechaun

  1. For this crafty little decoration, first trace around the end of a toilet paper tube onto a piece of green craft foam.
  1. Draw a 2 1/2-inch circle around the first circle, and then cut them both out to create a hat top and brim and set them aside.
  1. Next, using acrylic paints,paint the paper tube green. Add a skin-tone face and hands, plus rosy cheeks, as well as a band of brown paint around the back for hair.
  2. Once the paint has dried, use a permanent marker to draw on facial and clothing details, and then use tacky glue to stick on 3 coiled brown pipe cleaners: 2 in the back for hair and 1 around the face for a beard. For feet, fold another pipe cleaner in half, then tightly coil and pinch the ends, as shown.
  3. Place the folded pipe cleaner inside the tube and glue the feet to the edge. Glue on the hat top and brim and a 5 1/2- by 1/2-inch strip of craft foam for arms.
  4. Finally, glue a decorative button to the hat brim.

Wind and Rain Game

Sensing boredom on the horizon? Challenge your child to an aquatic microrace. To play, place two drops of water at one end of a piece of waxed paper (we taped down the corners to keep them from curling). Then snip a drinking straw in half and show your child how to move the water across the paper by blowing through the straw. (Remind him not to chew on the end, or the straw won't work properly.) The first drop to reach the other side of the paper wins. As soon as he gets the hang of it, try racing cotton balls, crumpled-up balls of paper, Ping-Pong balls, or anything else that can be moved by a diminutive airstream.