In the kids activity kits a few months ago, I included a perler bead fish craft. I heard from some of you that the kids had a lot of fun making those. My kids love perler beads. There are days where they will work on bead projects for hours.
If you want to give them a try, you can find mini kits for $1 at Michaels and A.C. Moore that include everything needed to make one small project. Perler beads are a great fine motor skills activity. If you have kids ages 3-5 who have trouble with the tiny beads, they now have a larger size available that will be easier for them.
From this:
To this: (Here is a gallery of my kid’s perler creations from the past 6 months.)