Father’s Day is upon us again here in Australia and I thought it would be nice to share a collection of gifts made especially for Dad’s by children.

I think it is easy to get caught up in the current commercialism of special celebrations and forget that it is an opportunity for children to express their love – and what better way to do that than with a little creativity and self expression to make their own unique handmade gift for Dad!

Regular readers will know I am a passionate early childhood educator currently working from home – usually in these ’round up of ideas’ type posts I share with you activities I have done with my own children as well as ones from around the web that I think you will enjoy and draw inspiration from.

This time I wanted to do something a little different – when I began to see photo after photo of creative Father’s Day ideas from dedicated fellow educators in some of the Facebook groups I belong to I decided I just had to showcase a few of them for you.

So this post is a little different, you won’t find lots of links to visit other blogs and their specific activity nor Pinterest styled pictures but what you will see is some lovely crafts made by young children in their family day care service – they are made by real children in real quality home day care environments.

Some gifts are more about the creative process and some have obviously had some guidance and support from the educators – and that is ok because as long as a child is able to express themselves creatively in a nurturing environment with the opportunity to engage in discussion about what this special day means to them and their individual learning journey then I only see a wonderful learning process in action.

So join me for a wander through this specially selected collection of handmade children’s gifts for Dad. Most of the activities are simple and therefore require no explanation so I am going to stop talking!

Keep an eye out for some links to a few of the educators fantastic Facebook pages. I encourage you to stop by for a visit to see what other fun they get up to.

Ok enough talk…Let’s get started!

I couldn’t write a Father’s Day post without sharing some previous years gifts my family day care children and own twins had fun making. I always try to incorporate some recycled materials if I can and was particularly pleased with how these wooden plaques turned out.

What I was more excited by though was the amount of time all ages spent on this project and the pride they took in arranging the pieces they were choosing to glue to their masterpiece. We finished them off with some photos and then some handprint wrapping paper and a little twine to use as a hanger.

Shared by The Empowered Educator

Shared by Educator – Natasha

Daydream Factory Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Kate Delaney

Shared by Educator – Heather Martyka

More from me!

Shared by Educator – Karen Nixon

Karen’s Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Kerrie Waters

Shared by Educator – Demelza Jackson

Daintree Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Lyn Hibberd

Shared by Educator – Suman Jain

Giggles Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Neyah Rogers

Neyah and Geoffs’ Place Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Yulia Vakar

Shared by Educator – Maxine Burr

Shared by Educator – Natalia Tikhonenko

Shared by Educator – Tracy Dimuccio

Shared by Educator – Kaylene Milligan

Shared by Educator – Kelly Curtis

Kell’s Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Samantha Van Niekerk

Miss Sam’s Family Day Care

Shared by Educator – Tracey Taylor

Shared by Educator – Niki O’Malley

I hope you enjoyed your wander and perhaps found a little inspiration from the photos above…they are all easily modified to give as gifts other than Father’s Day so perhaps keep them in mind for the next occasion you need a special heartfelt gift from the children.

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful Father’s and carers out there. Cherish your children and try to fit some play in every day!