Rolling with the Punches
Things have been rather quiet around these parts lately. It’s been a while since we’ve headed out to the beach, and with Honolulu being anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour away, we haven’t been out that way either. In an effort to keep life from getting too mundane, I’ve been trying some new activities with the girls. Needless to say, all is not going according to plan, and my little OCD mind can’t handle it.
Finally, we went to Target and I picked up a little craft set that included stuff like pipe cleaners and beads. This actually went better than expected. The girls decided on their own that they’d make bracelets for themselves. There were a few fights over beads and such, but it mostly went well. It did hurt a little when they started mixing colors and shapes without any sort of pattern. That’s just me being crazy though.
I’m going to continue to try getting these guys to make some sort of craft project. Suggestions would be appreciated. Hubs thought that possibly getting them a little table, so that they don’t have to work on the floor or kitchen counter might help. I’ll have to see if I can find something. I also bought some materials to display their art, so maybe that will encourage them as well.
A little kid table is always helpful in my opinion. I like doing canvas paintings with the boys. I just grab a few from Michaels and let them paint whatever on them and then we hang them in the playroom. They love it!! Also any kind of toilet paper roll crafts are always a hit, and super easy. There are tons of ideas on pinterest. And when we get super board…we glue pasta on paper, then paint it! haha
Does your neighborhood have a community center or playground? My mom used to take us to the one that was walking distance away almost every day.
Walmart has little tables, we got a Mickey Mouse one but there’s a princess one too. Having their own table makes craft time easier for sure.
I think a little table would be great, walmart is a great place to look!
A table is a great idea!! Emma has one and that’s where she does craft time. We got one from Home Goods.
We do a lot of painting and chalk art work.
I am getting all twitchy just thinking about crafts with children. Good for you for encouraging it!
When I taught one of my favorites was worm painting. You buy live fishing worms, then put tempura paint (make sure it is tempura-it wont hurt the worms and will rinse right off) on some paper spread out, then put the worms on the paper and let them crawl through the paint and create art. Right after you are done rinse the worms off with cool water. After we were done we put the worms in our garden. We also did tongue painting-mix corn syrup and food coloring then they use there tongue to paint the mixture around. Go light on this one so you don’t sugar them up too much. 🙂
We do a bunch of stickers — and the kids love them. They get frustrated if they accidentally rip a sticker in half — but they can decorate a page and then color/draw with crayons and pencils to make a scene. S just got a rubber stamp set from Melissa and Doug for Christmas, and the ink isn’t very dark, so I let them play with that a lot at the table, too. They stamp ANYTHING they can get their hands on! Ha. Otherwise, we like to finger paint, do water color paints {which is a pain for me because S paints the same spot so much she soaks through and rips the paper … and then can’t figure out why!}. But we’ve also taken to Pinterest a LOT lately and have some new ideas once it starts to warm up here — like painting with spaghetti noodles, rubber bands and bubbles!!