Bird Cage

This Idea Came From: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/animals/cagedbird/

Our Experience: I was and still am shocked that this worked!! This is a project that requires doing a first step then waiting another day or later in the evening. It takes some time to get the hang of slippery glue, string, and a balloon. We tried a few ways and the best was to just dunk all the string in a bowl full of glue at once. Get it all gunky! Then put it on the balloon. Wear a smock and do not be scared of having a good amount of clean up on hair, clothes.. and tables. It is just Elmers so it is not so horrible but be prepared for a potential mess. After we helped each other wrap the balloon with wet glued string we found a clothes-pin and hooked it to a hanger so there would be no issues with getting it off a plate or worse! It dried by evening the same day- so we took a small dowel and raffia string and put our bird on a perch. The moment of truth was when it was time to pop the balloon... the glue slowed down the popping process and was not startling. It was actually really cool. It retracted like the Wicked Witch of the East's feet curled under Dorothy's house. We had a giggle about that. Our bird cage is now hanging in our living room since it is so neat-o!

The Lesson: Something that was expected to be terribly hard.. was really easy. What made this project awesome was we were so surprised by its success. It is fun to get really gloppy and sloppy. And it is super cute!

Mosaic Paper

This Idea Came From: The Little Hands Art Book by Judy Press, Page 53

Our Experience: Emma's cousins came over this morning for a visit so we flipped through the book of crafts and found one they all wanted to do together. First, I took out remnant craft paper of different colors and let them each rip two colors each onto paper plates. It really didn't matter what technique or size pieces they did- this was a nice stalling activity so I could gather glue onto another paper plate (I added a drop or two of water and mixed it on the plate so it would be easier to use with paint brushes). Markers were used to draw an outline of what they wanted to "mosaic" on the paper. Jake opted for the boy approach of getting right to the drawing, Kendall (older) copied what was in the book which was fantastic, and Emma wanted to do what Kendall was doing but needed help with the outline. No biggie. After that was established each of them took a brush of glue and figured out their own way. It was GREAT! Kendall glued the back of each piece, Jake made dots on the paper and stuck the paper to it, and Emma painted glue inside the whole shape area she wanted to mosaic and then started to place paper on it all at once. All good!

The Lesson: This was a nice project that made each of them aware and myself as well... that there are many different ways to accomplish the end result. Feeling good about what you are doing for yourself.. but appreciating what your neighbor is doing with the same concept is always one of my favorite discoveries. Sharing in preparing the paper... being careful with sneezing away from the loose paper... following steps.. and being creative with your own ideas. All in all a wonderful crafty morning. We love our cousins.

Quick Tulips

This Idea Came From: I thought it up. It is Valentines Day and my favorite flower is the tulip. So, we made a paper bouquet... well it was merely a suggestion!

Our Experience: Waiting for the chef to make breakfast, I pre-cut 8 flower heads.. and a piece of ribbon. Brought a whole piece of green paper, scissors, glue, and oil pastels (but crayons work too). We used a piece of white rolled paper so we could make the background big enough to draw on as well. Sat the young one down at the table and let her make blades of grass on her own. I cut long stems. She was chomping at the bit to start gluing and I let her put everything anywhere she wanted. I put one finger on each end of the stem and she drew a glue line by herself from one end to the other. Not a bad project for steady control and practicing purposeful application. After everything was glued I drew simple outlines of a few things and she filled in faces and details... and made a few of her own contributions... like worms in the dirt. Ha ha... cute.

The Lesson: Today she seemed to catch on of the order of things... like.. cutting first - then placing.. then glue. Even though it didn't quite make it in the spots predetermined... she was great at taking charge of her art. Confidence. I love how she started coloring the sun's rays and didn't stop until she made it all the way around. That shows stick-with-it-ness!

Print, Paper, Scissors

This Idea Came From: One day Emma was playing on www.nickjr.com and found the print button. We turn off the printer now- let's just say there are plenty of scenes from Olivia to practice our cutting and pasting for a good long time. I have no idea exactly where these came from on the site since Emma figured it out on her own!!

Our Experience: There are a lot of things going on in our family so it is really hard to do full blown crafts at times. I have a bin of odds and ends of many varieties and these Olivia scenes got tossed in there. So, we had a few moments before the day got started and she was restless. All this required was scissors, and glue, markers and the scenes and character printed from the internet. Emma can cut pretty straight now but I helped with the more complicated shapes (which I can not believe she let me). After we cut all the pieces out.. I had her draw a picture of herself... we cut that out and then glued her friend Olivia and her self portrait on the scene. It was a 15-20 minute process.. and she was thrilled. Mission accomplished.

The Lesson: Making time to focus on the important things (that one was for me). The smallest craft to us is huge for them.. don't forget to make time for the simple things in life. We really are a bigger- better- more- society. Cutting is a major task for little hands.. and Emma is getting really good. This takes time so practice makes perfect. Using glue and learning to use a little less.. and applying it evenly is what we are starting to focus on. Control and listening to directions. Concentration.