angathome

Like most celebrations in our house, Father’s Day traditionally starts in Mum and Dad’s bed with gift giving. The children can’t wait to give their home-made cards and presents.

We have a loose family policy that for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day we will get the kids to make gifts, rather than spend a lot of money buying something. So in light of the fact that Father’s Day is this Sunday, I had a bit of a search for Father’s Day gifts for the children to make this week and found some great ideas. I can’t show you a photo of mine because said Father would see it, but here are some of the other cheap and relatively easy ideas that all the children in the family can participate in.

• The poster in the photo above has all the children’s footprints on it. I cut them out because we find it very difficult to get a good print right away and usually end up doing several prints per person to get a good set. In the centre is a photo compilation of all the children. My husband likes to have something to put up at work so our gifts are usually photo based.
• Children are photographed holding large cardboard letters to spell out “Dad” here. 
• The wall hanging above is my own idea. We made this a couple of years ago with the older two (7 and 5) doing the sewing which was their own design. The calico style fabric is sewn around dowel sticks using blanket stitch so that Daddy can hang it in his office at work. They also wound wool around cardboard frames to make the mini photo frames and we put photos of all the children in them.
• Children are photographed in the shape of letters here to make a “We love you” message. You could also do Daddy, Grandad or Grandpa the same way if you have lots of children.
• There are a number of nice ideas for the kids to make here. I like the handprint tree and the fingerprint tree. We are going to use one of these to make Father’s Day cards and add Psalm 128:3 to the bottom; Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

• Another of my own ideas in previous years were these screwdriver flowers. We wound strips of green crepe paper around the screwdriver to make the flower stems. The flower heads are made by cutting a two-inch wide strip off the end of a crepe paper roll (still rolled up) and making tiny slices into it all the way across, without cutting through the strip. When the rolled up strip is unrolled, you end up with a very long fringed ribbon of crepe which is then wound round and round the tip of the screwdriver and taped in place.
• kidspot has a nice handprint flower scroll to make that would be quick and easy. A large family could fill a garden with everyone’s handprint on their own flower.
• Another cute card idea here. Make footprints inside a larger print from Dad’s shoe with the caption “Walking in our daddy’s footsteps.” Don’t forget to clean the paint off Dad’s good work shoes though!
• We make cards every year with the degree of difficulty dependent on the age range of the children and the time and patience available from Mum. These were very simple collage photo cards. I just set out the cardboard frames already cut and a bunch of materials and let the little ones glue on whatever they wished. A picture of themselves was added once the frames were dry.
• To add to the family traditions that we like to keep going, I thought it would be nice to give Dad a themed breakfast or lunch. Cupcakes with Daddy on top, pancakes or sandwiches cut into letters to spell his name, pizza with a letter D on top… I’m sure with some thought this could be good.

Whatever your choice, spend some time to show Dad just how special and important to the family he is. I couldn’t do it without my wonderful husband and he deserves to be spoilt!

Filed under: Celebrations, events & festivals (Christmas, birthdays etc.) | Tagged: celebrations and traditions, Father's Day, gifts for dad, gifts for kids to make, home-made Father's Day gifts, presents for dad, things to make for father's day | Leave a comment »