Kids Stilts

Here's a simple DIY project to build "stilts". You can do this for or with your child - pretty straight forward, check it out:

Materials Needed:
* two 2x2x8' timber beams (e.g. pine)
* one 2x4x 12" piece of wood (e.g. pine)
* two 3/8" x 4" Hex Head Bolts
* one 3/8" Dowel piece 4" long
* two small rubber cups (or table legs floor / carpet protectors)
* cordless drill with standard wood drill bits

Note: It would be nice to simply buy one 2x4x8' and rip it in half, but 2x4 timber will almost always bow after being cut.

Teaching your son how to be a man

Deciding on the ways you should teach your son how to be a man can inspire a great deal of soul searching for any father. Back in the olden days, when a man was seen as the head of the household, sole bread winner and a pillar of physical and emotional strength, this task may have been an easier one. The advice back might have been quite simple "get a good job, work hard, support your family and don’t cry". However things are bit more tricky for 21st century dads. Here are some more contemporary manly things to teach your son:

How to cook
Why is important? Because knowing how to cook is all about self-sufficiency and independence. Is there any skill more important than one that teaches self sufficiency? Cooking is also “still” a pretty easy way to impress girls – so two birds with one stone.

How to manage money

Countdown calendars

Here's a useful tip to manage motivation and excitement for the little people in your house when you are working towards a particular goal or significant changes in their lives. You can use a "countdown calendar" to count down to the day when the change happens - for example starting school, moving house or an upcoming travel adventure. Countdown calendars work in the same way a Christmas calendar works except that you just count down the number of days (rather than using the days in the month). The easiest way to create a countdown calendar is by starting with a large piece of paper or card board and drawing something relevant on it (e.g. a house, building, plane or place, etc). Make the drawing as large as possible.

The million dollar mother's day tip

OK - so Mother's Day is coming up in a number of countries (either the first or second Sunday in May depending on where you live). So you need to get a present for your partner, right? So you don't know what to get, right? Well here's the million dollar trick ... go to pinterest.com find your partner's Boards (yes she will have a pinterest account and she will have created lots of boards). See what she pin'd and repin'd, pick something nice that fits with your budget for Mother's Day and get her that. This is a surefire method for getting her something that she really likes (as opposed to something that she pretends she likes).

Have a great Mother's Day!

-DIYFather.com

Indoor bowling DIY style

Here's a great game you can play with young children aged 18 months and up. It's your own version of 10 pin bowling except that you don't need pins or a bowling alley - all you need is a ball (any ball) and your little one's favorite toys (whatever they are in to at the moment). Here's what you do:

1. Clear some space on the floor (living room, nursery ... wherever you've got a few feet / yards of floors space)
   
2. Get a handful of your child's favorite toys and line them up in row
   
3. Grab a ball (e.g. soft ball, tennis ball, golf ball - whatever you can find in the house) and move away from the toys you set up - now roll the ball towards the toys to try and knock them over

Easter Apps

Predictably the Easter season has also affected iPhone and iPad developers and as a result they have come up with a number of Easter-themed Apps. If you're stuck inside this Easter or just want to avoid the mess that comes with a game of Egg Toss - check out the following free Easter Apps for a bit of entertainment on your iPhone, iPod or iPad over Easter.

• Bunny Fingers Easter Rabbit Reality - Ever get the feeling that you're seeing bunnies everywhere ... well this app
  helps you see them.




• Easter Egg Hunt 3D - go on elaborate Easter Egg hunts and never leave the house with this app.
  
  

50 epic songs you must introduce your kids to before you die

Despite all the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Spottify, RDIO and what not social sharing of information and music there is every chance that your kids will not have discovered one (or several) of the following songs by the time they leave school (or before you kick the bucket). So here's a chance to have some cool father-son or father-daughter moments by playing one of the epic anthems (as in mood altering songs that are longer than 5 mins) of all time to them. In alphabetical order ...

* A Friend In Need - Placebo
* Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
* America Pie - Don Mclean
* Angie - Rolling Stones
* Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie
* Bakerstreet - Gerry Rafferty
* Black Magic Woman - Santana
* Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
* Blasphemous Rumors - Depeche Mode
* Blue Monday - New Order
* Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
* Born Slippy - Underworld
* Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
* Cafe Del Mar - Energy 52
* Creep - Radiohead
* Everyday People - Arrested Development

Games to play over Easter

Some ideas for Easter inspired games to play with your kids over the Easter holidays.

1. Easter egg hunt - the classic ... pretty simple to set up. Get some chocolate eggs, colored eggs, chocolate Easter bunnies or other treats and hide them in your backyard, garden, a park or just inside the house. When done - call your kids and let them find the hidden treats.


2. Chase the rabbit tail - use an old scarf and tuck into the back of your trousers and get your kids to grab the tail and take it off. Take turns on who's got the tail. As a variation you can play this in a way that all players are only allowed to move by hoping or jumping.

DIY with dad: top 5 easter egg designs

Here's some inspiration for Easter craft projects with the kids - depending on what you're into and what resources you've got at home you can pick a project from the following:

The ultimate Easter Gadget I guess ... the "Egg-Bot Kit" by Evil Mad Scientists - prints illustrations and patterns on eggs (other other spherical objects). Getting one of those will set you back $195 ... but hey what price tag can you put on being the coolest parent on the block.

Here's an awesome tutorial on how to create marble eggs ...

Make your own LEGO egg - get some felt floor scratch protection pads (usually used on chairs / tables to protect wooden floors) and stick on your egg. Afterwards paint over in typical LEGO colors (yellow, red, blue, etc).

DIY with dad - getting ready for Easter

Here's a great activity for dads and kids when you are preparing for Easter. Many families end up decorating Easter Eggs but to do that you need eggs you can decorate. So you can take the boring route and just buy some eggs in a craft shop. OR you make this task into an adventurous (and perhaps slightly messy ... but in a good kind of way) activity with the kids. Here's a step by step guide for blowing out eggs:

Preparation

1. Get some fresh Chicken or Goose eggs with white egg shells (shouldn't be hard around Easter)
   
2. Find a space that's either easy to clean (e.g. wooden floor / tiled floor) or put some plastic cover / old table cloth / newspaper on the floor. This is just to avoid any stains on carpets etc in case you break an egg or some of the liquid spills on the floor.
   
3. Grab a food bowl to hold the egg white and egg yolk (which you can use later on for cooking or baking)
   
4. Find some 2-inch nails, drawing pins or a high speed drilling tool and have paper towels within reach (just in case).

Blowing out the egg (you can also watch the video below if you're a visual kinda guy)