Five For Friday - Five More Ideas To Start Your Child's Collection

Buttons- you can use buttons to make patterns and shapes the same way you can with caps and lids -
there are also lots of button crafts. A quick google search for button craft ideas will show you button picture frames, button mobiles, button ornaments and our favorite, tiny button dolls.
Bookmarks a little harder to find, these are a good challenge for an older child. The local library is likely to have an assortment as give-aways, bookstores have them as give-aways and for sale (they don't cost much). Making your own is a lot of fun. This collections is likely to accelerate an interest in books and reading and that is a Good Thing!
Menus take-out menus, advertising menus that come as inserts in the newspaper, many restaurants will let you have a menu for your collection if you ask them. Ask friends, grandparents and other relatives to pick up menus for you when they dine out.
Pennies finding pennies is a hobby in itself.
"Find a penny, pick it up;
All the day you'll have good luck.
Find a penny, leave it lay;
Bad luck will come to you that day."
or
"I found a penny here today,
just sitting on the ground.
They say that it's a sign that
my Guardian Angel is around.
They toss them down from Heaven
whenever we are down
just to make us smile
and wipe away our frown."
Greeting cards lots of creative possibilities here. Collect an assortment from every holiday. Cut images from the cards to make collages, dioramas, paper dolls or handmade greeting cards. Open them out flat, sew the folds together and make your own book...

My Collection

The kids have been out of school - what? - two weeks? Have you heard it yet? Yup. That's it..."I'm bored!"
This might be a good time to start a collection. Your kids can learn a lot from making of collection (it doesn't really matter what they're collecting). An early enthusiasm for something now could lead to a lifelong hobby and deciding how to keep, arrange or display things is an artistic exercise in itself.
You may have to help your child to generate ideas about what he would like to collect by making suggestions (otherwise she could fall right into the commercial trap of collecting 'my little ponies').
Here are a few ideas to get you both started:
Candy wrappers, stamps or stickers use them in albums or make colorful posters for the wall
Bottle tops and jar lids collect the tops of all sorts of different kinds of screw-top bottles, jars and tubes. Arrange them in patterns or letter shapes.
Small rocks and pebbles collect pretty shapes or colors. Your child could also paint or use markers on smooth stones to make animals, insects or scenery.
Postcards collect these wherever you find them (you'd be surprised how many are available in your own home town - after all, someone is a tourist there...)Ask your friends and relatives to send them to you. Collect the stamps!
Refrigerator magnets almost everyone is giving these away as a promotion now and a refrigerator makes a very good size display board.
Leaves these are much easier for small children to collect and preserve than flowers. Show them how to press the leaves flat between pieces of paper towel under a pile of books.