Book Review: Upcycle It! Crafts for Kids

Crafty pro Jennifer Perkins offers lots of ideas for crafts kids can make with materials that would otherwise be on the way to the trash or recycling bins in her book Upcycle It! Crafts for Kids.

The book covers the basic supplies you need to get started making upcycled crafts as well as some of the happy trash you might want to start collecting in order to make the projects.

In all there are 25 projects organized by theme including items for organizing your space, decorating your room, school supplies, adding a personalized touch to objects and making gifts.

There’s a lot of fun stuff here, from a lamp made out of a green plastic bottle to DIY food wraps to a picture frame covered in tiny toys.

The projects are rated for kids 8-12, but there are things even older kids might benefit from being supervised with. Younger kids could also make some of these projects (stamped fabric bags or a T-shirt rug, for example) with help from parents with cutting.

My daughter is 12 and while she has made projects similar to some of these before, I think she’d have a lot of fun with these ideas and be able to do a lot of them herself. Whether with a parent’s help or crafting solo, these fun ideas are sure to get kids a little more interested in what’s going into the recycling bin and how those items can be creatively reused.

About the book: 114 pages, 25 projects, paperback. Published by Rockridge Press March 2022. Suggested retail $12.99

Leif Erikson Day is celebrated on Oct. 9, and it’s a great time to learn more about the Vikings and why we still remember Erikson all these years later.

If you don’t know about Leif Erikson (sometimes spelled Eriksson), he’s believed to have been born in Iceland, and is considered the first European to set foot on continental America, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a printable mini book about Leif Erikson and the Vikings for kids to read and color. It talks about who the Vikings were, what kind of ships they used, how they got to America and more. It’s a good overview for younger kids to use.

A good unit study is available from Simple Living Creative Learning, which includes a page where kids can write what they know, what they want to learn and what they learned through the unit, as well as information on the Vikings, longships, helmets, clothing and more.

Get a printable Viking unit study with reading passages, comprehension questions and other activities aimed at grades 4-8 from Creative Classroom Core at Teachers Pay Teachers. (And see more Vikings content from TPT here.)

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus has some great unit study ideas, too, including suggested books and videos. The post includes information about the Viking voyages, society, mythology and ships, as well as some vocabulary and a list of famous Vikings. While you’re over there also check out her free printable lapbook, which includes mini books on ships, a timeline, a Viking women coloring page, draw your own Vikings, geography, ancient runes and more.

Piqolo Kids has a lesson on Viking women with (available for purchase) worksheets about a day in the life of Viking women. Even if you don’t grab the printables there’s some good resources on that page and a link to a video on Viking women.

Learn how to draw a Viking ship with instructions from Drawing How to Draw, or grab Vikings coloring and labeling worksheets from Kids Puzzles and Games.

There’s a Leif Erikson Festival annually in Norway, Michigan, which you can learn more about here.

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