In all honesty, I was only an avid Pinterest user for the first month that I signed up. Then, I realized that I probably wouldn't do any of these pins/ideas on my personal account. The public PeoriaParent.com pinterest account just has a few, but they are proven & done by me. If you don't have pinterest, then I'll just be listing my proven pins below.
Christmas Card Booklets: Save all the holiday picture cards you receive, punch a few holes in them and add rings/ribbons/pipe cleaners to keep them together...use as coffee table books at the holidays!!! It's nice to look at these books with your kids. See attached pics for the ones I did
Glow in the Dark Fun: Stick glow sticks in balloons for awesome fun in the dark. My kids & their friends love this! It's about a $1 for 15 pack of glowsticks at Michael's. See our facebook pic on our fun.
Air-powered Lego Car: Make a lego car and power it with a deflating balloon. This is a good one about trial & error. The kids can engineer different kinds of cars, and figure out which one works best.
Naked Egg Experiment: Stick a raw egg in vinegar in 24 hours. You will see the egg's shell dissolve or "bubble" away because of the vinegar reacting with shell. There will just be a rubbery, bloated membrane encasing the yolk, with no shell. My kids found this awesome. Heck, I found it absolutely awesome.
Fitted Sheet for Box Spring: Use a fitted sheet instead of dust ruffle for the box spring. I like the clean lines of a fitted sheet compared to a dust ruffle. This is not on the pinterest account, but I read it somewhere on pinterest, but don't remember where.
Organized Sheet Sets: Store your sheet sets in the corresponding matching pillow case. This tip grealy organized my linen closet. The fitted sheets were the problem originally. Storing the flat, fitted, & a pillowcase in the 2nd matching pillowcase gave rise to neat piles in my linen closet. Love it! (Again, I read this somewhere in pinterest, but don't remember where).
Anything crafty or pin-inspired has to be EASY to do for me & the kids, and with common household items. Anything simple for a busy parent.