DIY Life

Join me each week as I explore the naturally aromatic side of DIY. Helpful recipes for your "scentual" pleasure: from essential oils, herbs, and other botanicals to soap-making, body care products and other useful blends.

I admit it -- Diane's Avant Yard post, 75 tricks to get your kids outdoors, inspired me. It's one thing to enjoy scents, to make scented products, and to use essential oils and herbs in your daily life. But have you shared your love of scents with your children?

Inadvertently, you just may have. I know my three-year-old wanders through my garden with me, picking leaves off the basil plant for nibbling (he knows which plants are the edible ones), admiring the hard-working bees at the lavender plants, and of course, stopping to smell the roses (stereotypical, yet true).

Kids catch on, through your modeling, to the things you love. If you feel like spicing it up a bit, though, how about creating a scent hunt for your kids?

As the days grow longer and the weather starts to warm, kids across the nation go outside to play, and to get rid of their cabin fever from the long winter we all had.

Chances are that they will be dragging you outside with them! Instead of just pulling up a lawn chair and watching them run in circles, why not have a little fun with science and get them thinking as well as playing?

I am going to cover two different activities best done in the great outdoors that are sure to peak the kids' interest as well as show them a good time. These are easy to do, and it is easy to find the materials needed to get the jobs done! Now buckle up and let's get this science bus on the road!

Playing Santa is a huge privilege and a huge responsibility. Done well, you could make a child believe in magic and become part of their fondest memories. Done poorly, you could shatter a childhood, and scare them for life.

If you've been invited to play Santa, there are some important tricks of the trade. This clever video from the ministry of fun gives you a schooling in Santa impersonation. Here are the 7 skills to master.

• Jolly demeanor, quick thinking, Spirit
• HO HO HO
  
• Work with your eyes
• Be welcoming
• Don't disappoint
• Field difficult questions
• Do your research
• Know what's hip
  

While Santa is busy with his Christmas preparations at the North Pole, he'll need competent helpers. If you are one of the lucky ones doing the job this year, spend some time mastering that HO HO HO, expressing with your eyes and learning about the trendy toys. You'll bring magic to the children and have a great time too!

With inspiration from a recent blog post about ways to recycle empty milk jugs, I went in search of the instructions for making milk jug skeleton Halloween decorations. This craft project is just fantastic for keeping a couple kids busy for a few hours, but an adult absolutely must oversee all cutting operations.

You'll need as many as ten jugs to make one full size skeleton (about 3 feet tall), so start saving them now. We'd hate for you to have to chug three gallons of milk on Halloween night just to complete the project, especially if you're lactose intolerant. Although I guess that would give a realistic touch to your whoopie cushion costume.

Is it August already? If you have school-aged children, you are probably starting to think about getting ready to head back to school.

This means a more structured routine, purchasing school supplies and acting as a cheerleader.

What? C'mon, you know what I mean. Your kids aren't exactly psyched to get up and out the door early every weekday morning, only to do work for six hours straight. Did I mention the hours of homework that would be coming too?

Part of your job as parent is to help remind your kids about the fun parts of school: the amazing books they'll read, the new mathematical concepts they can use to wow their grandparents and of course the useless facts or knowledge they will need for Trivial Pursuit games. And recess.

Since most kids are crafty or at least want to be, having a list of art and craft supplies on hand is important to developing a future DIYer. Having a wide variety of supplies can stimulate their mind and help you, their parents and grandparents, get motivated on those family projects you have been neglecting to start.

Here is a list of essential art supplies to have on hand:

• Construction paper, tissue paper and card stock
• Tempera paints, watercolor paints, oven bake clay, and paintbrushes in assorted sizes
• Markers, pens, pencils, crayons and chalk
• Assorted buttons, beads, and rhinestones, and pompoms
  
• String, yarn, fabric scraps and scissors
• Elmer's glue, rubber cement, and glue sticks
• Old magazines and family photos
• Pipe cleaners, "googly eyes", and colored feathers
• Assorted size lids, jars and tins (make sure it doesn't belong in the art box before you throw it away)

The above list will help your kids get started on making collages, jewelry, paintings, note cards, pictures, and every animal known to mankind. As always, keep in mind that children of all ages should be supervised by an adult when handling sharp objects and young children can choke on the buttons and beads.

You can find art supplies at craft stores and dollar stores. You can also buy discounted art supplies online at DickBlick.com and Joann.com. You can also subscribe to Family Fun magazine, a wonderful resource for inspiring ideas on how to spend quality time with your kids. After all, aren't our lives all about raising a happy healthy DIY kid?

This is a tough one to guess without clues. So here goes: it is designed to break when needed. It has a couple of holes. The one in the picture is very young for one of these, as they would traditionally be used in very old mowers. You may found the name being used in a generic sense and it has been used in other "machines." And clearly, you can make one yourself -- it is a wooden stick with a couple of holes on each end. Homer Simpson would say it's a good stick for whacking snakes. What do you think it is?