Fantastic Fidgets: 4 Ways to Turn a Fad into a Creative Pastime!

If you have kids, you have probably heard all about fidget spinners. Your kids may be begging you to search the stores for them, they might be trading them with friends, or they might be driving you crazy with the whirring gadgets. I was pretty sure these would be a passing interest that would get shoved in a drawer just like the abandoned Pokemon cards but that hasn’t been the case for my kids. As a matter of fact, we’ve gotten a lot of mileage for our money so far. Besides tossing them in my purse for restaurants or shopping trips, my kids have been practicing tricks and even customizing their fidgets!

Check out these 4 kid-approved ways to get the most out of spinners this summer. 

Customize Your Spinners

Recently, my kids spent a good 45 minutes painting their first batch of fidget spinners. They are thrilled that their spinners will be customized and they totally enjoyed this project. All you have to do is pop out the gears before painting the plastic shell. We used whatever craft paint we had laying around. Spray paint and splatter paint also make for a cool effect.

Make it Educational

I absolutely love how creative teachers can be and how generous they are at sharing their ideas online. I’m totally taking advantage of these amazing resources for spinning fun! Here’s an awesome math worksheet that uses a spinner as a timer! My youngest loves this Sight Word sheet! In addition, I will be letting him try this free phonics spinner worksheet. For older kiddos, there are even STEM projects using spinners.

Build Them From Scratch

 If you’ve got the time and your kids are a little older, why not try to construct your own spinners? Check out this awesome link for building them from our favorite toy: LEGOS! Also, here is an amazing DIY version! 

Perform Tricks & Experiments

There are lots of tricks you can do with spinners, but here is a great video showing just a few simple, kid-friendly ones (NOTE: I’ve found that some of the YouTube videos on fidget spinners are actually not kid-friendly but this one is clean). Here are some other weird and fun tricks via Learning Express!

In case you still haven’t jumped on this crazy train, here are the places that fidget spinners might be found in the Columbia area: 5 Below, Ollie’s, Michael’s, Walgreen, Educational Wonderland, Be Beep, Learning Express and GameStop.

NOTE: Because I am a bit of a safety nerd, please remember that these are NOT for little ones. The pieces can come apart and become a choking hazard. My 5-year-old seems okay but I still don’t let him use them without supervision! You can’t be too careful, in my opinion.

How do you creatively use your fidget spinner?