'Fairy Palace'

Today, T2 asked if she could make a picture of a Fairy Palace. I cut out assorted palace-y shapes and she got busy with a vision and some glue...

This is her finished palace. I think this is the first time she has used collage to create something she has in her head.

What do you need for a Teddy Bear's Picnic?

T2 has a Teddy Bear's Picnic at school on Thursday and needs to take a bear with her. She's already selected her 'talkie bear' and wants me to record a message for him to say to her friends. Just as I was about to go to bed tonight, I remembered a bag of furry fabric I had in the basement and had an uncontrollable urge to make her a bear shirt to wear. I have practically zero sewing skills but I couldn't resist trying......
I've made the bear face and tomorrow will sew it to a shirt - I'm interested to see how it turns out. I figure if T2 recognizes it as a bear then that's all that counts!

I made a template by drawing around a bowl and 2 cups! (Not my choice of cereal for my kids - Daddy got sucked into buying it)

I cut it out of fur fabric, found some googly eyes, a cord from a pair of pants (I heat sealed the ends to avoid fraying) and a button for a nose. I made a bow and sewed that on. I glued the eyes and sewed on the nose and mouth.

I decided to glue the face onto the shirt with fabric glue. T2 is thrilled with it and can't wait to wear it tomorrow!

Unexpected Mom Time

T1 has recently been diagnosed with some challenges - one of which is a learning disability. He can read OK but writing is a real struggle. This great kid with an amazing brain cannot get his ideas down on paper due to a processing disorder. This is becoming a problem at school where so much focus is placed on written ability. We considered enrolling him in a multi-sensory reading program which would take him back to basics. The program was in a centre 30 minutes drive from our home. The recommendation was that he go 2-3 times each week. Not that our son isn't worth it but the time this would take and the cost made it hard to swallow. Yet we knew he needed the help.
I decided to train to teach the course myself - figuring we could do it at home and save both time and money and I would have a better understanding of what he was learning. Today I decided would be day 1 of the program. I knew ahead of time the idea would be negatively received. He's almost 9 years old and would rather be doing anything else rather than study.
I explained to him that we wanted to help make writing easier for him and he had two choices - either we could take him back and forth to the centre - a minimum two hour each time extravaganza or we could spend 15-20 minutes on Monday - Thursday and one day on the weekend. It didn't take him a second to choose the less time consuming option!!
After school we gathered everything we would need and sat down together to do the first 2 lessons of the program - I knew they would be really simple for him but would make for a positive first day.
It was nowhere close to the struggle I had envisioned - he sat without complaint (I chose to ignore the eye roll) and we worked together for about 20 minutes - it was calm and peaceful and I was able to enjoy watching his furrowed brow, his head scratching and eyes-to-the-ceiling thinking pose. He worked methodically - carefully correcting errors as he spotted them.
I was so proud to see him putting so much care into his work and although he didn't waste a second in leaving the table when the lessons were over - for a few moments, it was just me and my son, teacher and student. I would have thought it would be obvious who held which role but I think I was in many ways the student and he the teacher. I learned that all it takes is a few minutes and a commitment to work towards a common goal to carve out an opportunity for closeness.

A gift for Huds

T2 and I made a spontaneous gift for Huds the puppy's Christmas stocking (note to self - need an extra stocking this year). I had an old towel that we have been using to clean wet/muddy puppy paws when he comes inside. It is hard to hold him still and get the excited puppy paw to make contact with said towel. I decided to make a couple of mitts to help with the task.
I folded a towel in half and drew a mitten shape a bit bigger than my hand - using the existing finished edge of the towel as the opening edges of the mitt. I pinned it, tucking in a looped piece of ribbon before sewing around the edges (except for the opening). I was going to sew it and then turn it inside out to make it look neater but I didn't like the way it turned out so on my second attempt I just sewed around the edges and left it that way. Next I found a dog stamp and some fabric paint and let T2 decorate it. This will be a gift from her to Huds - although it's really a gift to me as I'm the floor mopper and clean paws mean less cleaning of floors!!

Christmas craft 1

Today, T2 and I made her a Christmas shirt. First I ironed a shirt, then painted her foot brown with fabric paint.... "ooh that's cold and it tickles"

Then we did one foot print on the shirt....

Then 2 hand prints......

Like this.....


Head and antlers



Eyes and nose


We just need to add a few details and 'connect' the antlers to the head with brown paint and we have Rudolph!!

Home made gift

I decided to make a puppet show for G - one of my favourite little girls. I had already made T2 a tension rod one which she loves but I wasn't 100% pleased with it plus we don't have many convenient doorways to hang it in our house. I decided to try a different approach and bought a tri-fold board from an office supply store (designed for displays/presentations). I haven't quite finished it yet but I'm pleased with it so far.

'Tis the season to be.....

.....crafty

Watch this space - Christmas crafts are a coming.......

A not-feeling-very-crafty-kind-of-day for T2

T2 is full of head cold today and not in a very happy mood. So not much happening around here today.

My creations

Tonight I tried making hair clips for the first time.

Today T2 made this from the felt scraps - it's a house and two sticks. This is the first time she has intentionally created something using collage.

My neighbour was clearing out some stuff her girls had outgrown (I love when she does that!!) and she dropped by with a huge collection of beads for T2. We already have lots of beads but you can never have too many!

T2 hasn't shown much interest before but seeing all the new ones meant she didn't need any encouragement to join me in stringing some.

Treasure rocks part 3

I finally added some pics of the treasure rock excavation.

Playful Clay update

I had decided that T2 and I would paint our playful clay creations after naptime today - I hadn't checked them in a couple of days as they were high on a playroom shelf out of reach of T1 & T2. Luckily I didn't mention to T2 that we would be doing this as the dried results were less than pleasing - all crumbly and brittle so it looks like we'll chalk that one up to a fun activity but with no long lasting sculpturistic (sure it's a word....ok it is now) results.

Now I am on the prowl - I need to find a simple dough recipe that hardens well - preferably without baking.

I was sorting through the basement and found a bag of shredded sparkly tissue paper that T2 and her friends had played with a few months ago - I was about to toss it out, then decided to have one last hurrah with T2 today.

Great for grabbing.....

'spaghetti scooping'

pouring

scooping

...tong grasping

...dumping

It requires lots of concentration!

It can be quite messy -that doesn't bother me. Putting a mat, newspaper or towel under the table would make for easier clean up - just pick up the corners of the floor covering and shake all the paper into the garbage/recycling.

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After my weekend 'baking' I had lots of oddments of felt - usually I'd toss them if they were really small but this time I used pinking sheers and cut them into shapes for T2 to use as collage material.

This is a city.

T2's cookie baking set - my sewing is pretty bad but I don't think she'll notice! I'll add a little cookie sheet and a rolling pin.

T2's mail - I'm going to make a little mail bag. The envelopes open so I'll make some little cards to go inside. They have her name and address on the front.

T2's new magnetic numbers. I was bored with her small store bought ones so I made some new ones with scrap booking paper, magnetic paper and clear contact paper. She loves them!

My weekend

We had a busy weekend - Huds the puppy had an event we needed to take him to. We are fostering him for Dog Guides Canada and our local mall wanted foster puppies at the mall to spread awareness of the organization and the foster puppy program. It was fun and Huds loved all the attention!

There were the typical errands, play times, meal times, laundry times, sleep times etc etc but I did carve out some time for a few projects of my own - baking, correspondence and number crunching. Why, you may wonder am I bothering to mention this - well, the baking didn't involve an oven, the correspondence didn't involve any paper or stamps and the number crunching didn't involve a calculator. You'll have to see why in my next post because I am going to bed!

More Friday Fun

OK, this is just too cool....

I was blog surfing and saw a craft called Rainbow in a bag over at Artful Parenting, which is a super cool blog.

Mix in a pot....
1 cup cornstarch
1/3-cup sugar
4 cups cold water

Heat stirring constantly.
Once it starts to thicken - remove from heat - it will resemble wall paper paste initially but as it cools, is more like Vaseline.

Divide between as many bowls as you have colours (food colouring). Add some food colouring to each bowl and mix. I chose primary colours only.
When it has cooled (I couldn't wait that long), scoop some of 2 or more of your goop into a ziploc bag (or similar - my eco conscience was able to justify using the bags as it's in the interest of education!!!).

Seal the bag and squish and squeeze to blend the colours - hold bags up to light (window in our case) to see the results in it's full coolness.

Is it odd that I am having so much fun with these and T2 is napping??? She'll love trying them out when she wakes up!

Friday fun

I'm on day 3 of Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and feeling a little stiff and creaky so I didn't feel much inspiration for a craft/activity for today. Then I remembered that I wanted to try playful clay from MaryAnn Kohl's book Preschool Art.

1c baking soda

1/2c cornstarch

2/3c warm water (I added food colouring to the water)

Mix baking soda/cornstarch in a pan, add warm water - stir until smooth

Over medium heat bring to boil stirring until it resembles mashed potatoes.

Allow to cool on cutting board, then knead.

This dough keeps for several weeks in an airtight container but also air dries in a few hours and can then be painted. This is our plan, then I'll put a clear coat on top and glue a piece of felt to the bottom for a paper weight or sculpture depending on the finished result.

The dough has a nice smooth feel and I enjoyed manipulating it as much as T2. We chose to make patterns with Duplo, buttons and spools.

I am looking forward to us painting them when they are dry.

The pot below was made by me in 1976 when I was 3.5-4 years old. I have always loved it - especially the childish fingerprints forever embedded in it. I made it at preschool and for years it was on my parents' shelf until they brought it with them on their last visit. It now has pride of place in our china cabinet.

There was time for a little button threading

Feeling a little redundant

T2 woke up and was so excited when I told her I had found the Play-doh but she didn't want me to play - she wanted T1 to play instead. I guess they don't need me right now. The good thing is that I got all my chores done during nap time so I get to sit and watch them play together. So far they are getting along nicely - even the puppy is calm.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I found it
I found it
I found it

OK so it wasn't in the clear container I was picturing but I found the Play-doh in the playroom closet in a polka dot box. Wahoooo I know what we'll be doing when T2 wakes up and I'll be able to sleep tonight finally having found it!

You know you must be doing something right when....

.....you're 3 year old tells you "I have a beautiful life". Warmed my heart.

Today we got busy with some clear contact paper and tissue paper to make a sun catcher picture. I cut 2 pieces of contact paper and a construction paper frame and tore up pieces of tissue paper

.

T2 arranged the tissue paper pieces on the sticky side on the contact paper

When she was done, I stuck the second piece of contact paper on top of the tissue paper and trimmed off any extra. T2 chose to glue it to the playroom window. Now we need the sun to shine through it.

Still looking for the wretched Play-doh

Treasure rocks part 2

Tonight while I was making dinner, I gave T1 & T2 their treasure rocks that I made last week. I had hoped to find some mini excavation tools but hunting for MIA play-doh distracted me so forks and spoons were the next best option. I didn't know how successful they would be and my expectations were low, I mean, it's flour, water and used coffee - how good can it possibly be? Incredibly good is the answer. The kids chipped and poked away at their 'rocks' for as long as it took to cook pasta (OK so it was the fresh kind that cooks super fast...), not a "stop....don't do that...leave me alone...Mommmmmmmmmmmmmm" to be heard. I think I even saw a tongue poking out in concentration. They didn't even seem disappointed that the treasure had been borrowed from the toy animal box in the playroom. The only downside - the strong smell of old coffee once the rocks were demolished.

Not much Mom time today

On Tuesday/Thursday T2 goes to preschool for the morning, comes home and has lunch and a nap by which time it is often time to prepare dinner so it seems we hardly have a chance for a conversation on those days but today she woke a little earlier so we were able to spend a few extra minutes together at the craft table. T2 needs to work on her fine motor skills a bit so I pulled out an ink pad and an 'O' stamp and let her stamp green 'O's all over her paper (I since discovered the only way to remove green ink from hands, face and ears is with traditional bar soap and not liquid soap). After she had stamped to her heart's content (and I suggested we finish up with the ink before it spread from skin to clothes, furniture and the dog) we sat and coloured in all the 'O's - (actually she coloured and I hung out at the table and we chatted). In the end it looked like a page of bubbles - she loved it.

Tomorrow is a no school day for T2 so I'm planning a few fun things for us to do - I can't wait!

Play-doh - wanted dead or alive. $1 reward

Where's the &^%&*%$ play-doh?

scratching my head...

...no, not lice. I still haven't found the play-doh aaaaargh