Looking through pictures of past holidays,
I was reminded of this gem:
My husband usually teases me for completing my Christmas shopping in July, but this year: It didn't happen. In fact, it won't even start until after Thanksgiving and may include a final countdown starting Dec. 18th. Oh, for easy stocking stuffers that can be ordered online and delivered before the holiday rush!!! Have mercy on me readers: Please post your ideas in the comment area now. Looking through pictures of past holidays, I was reminded of this gem: This simple beauty came with monster arms, twisty legs, googly-eyes, and enough colorful brads to make a family of five legged beasts. Low tech - it's fun in the morning, fun in the car, and fun after Christmas dinner at Grandma's house.Overall, that's enough to qualify for a 5 star rating on my Christmas list.
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I have a spatial kid. He’s a puzzle master. He’s a building dynamo. He’s (now) an animal balloon maker. Here’s how it all went down: Lovely family members recently provided us with a bag of long balloons and a balloon pump. After these supplies sat on the table for several days, my nine year old asked me to make him a dog. (Although I can’t remember where or why I picked up this skill in college– I do, in fact, know how to make balloon animals. It’s the wonders of a liberal arts education. Hooray!) I quickly inflated, tied, twisted, turned, adjusted, turned and twisted the balloon animal before returning to other mommy duties (reading a book to my six year old). Fifteen minutes later I turned to find this: My son had made almost a dozen animals: The dog. A giraffe: An anteater. A kangaroo. Wowza! That’s when it struck me. Although I was seemingly too busy to notice earlier– my son had found a great opportunity to use his motor skills, creativity, and spatial reasoning. Animal balloons are not just for the Saturday Market. They also make a great activity at home. I’ve always loved the building of vegetable 'faces', but Hanoch Piven has expanded the fun to a whole new level of art. This summer the neighborhood kids and I joined the fun. First we read Piven’s great books: Then we created self-portrait poems: During Spring Break this year, my boys and I tried our hand at stop animation. Inspired by my friend Jessica – I broke down the mechanics and created a plan that would allow one Mommy and two busy boys to finish a short video in less than two hours. Keep in mind – I’m all about process rather than product. This fun afternoon project neither outlasted my six year old nor wrecked havoc on my living room. We learned a ton and have a renewed sense of appreciation for the art of animation. My motto remains: Grab hold of every opportunity you can to help your children experience and explore life around them. Here’s how it all went down: 1. I found an old recording of my youngest son singing a song. Now six, this recording captures his sweet voice at four years old when he came home from preschool with a new tune to share. 2. The boys and I colored a background setting on a large piece of butcher paper. 3. Each of us worked to create the needed props. I was in charge of the main character. My six year-old created the flags. My eight year-old took charge of the pirate ship, leaves, door, etc… 4. My eldest son then set the items in place while I stood above and snapped a photo. After each shutter, he’d move everything to the next position and I’d capture another image. 5. My youngest generally danced around the room, singing at full volume and occasionally offering his excellent directing advice (“Put it there.” “No there.” “ Higher.” “Ok, now make it go upside down!”) 6. Once all the photos were captured – I dropped music and photos into Windows MovieMaker. Here are the results: I recently introduced my boys to the wonders of paper-mache. Of course when I say "wonders", I actually mean: ooey-gooey-sticky-runny-mess-mache. There are a host of paper-mache masters out there and all sorts of online recipes for paper-mache paste, but I’m old school simple: a scoop of flour mixed with warm water until full goop-status is successfully achieved. My eight year-old configured and taped some boxes together from the basement to make this: Little brother helped his older brother place wet newsprint strips in place like this: A few coats of paint, and the completed project looked like this: Tips for those tackling like-projects: 1) Plan plenty of time for each stage of the process. The more goop used (read: the younger the paper mache artist) the longer it takes for the creation to dry in between each step.
2) Plan to place all young children working with paper mache directly in the bathtub. Dried flour-paste looks unattractive on elbows, but is downright yucky on hair and in ears. Christmas is great when you are a kid: Your mail intake quadruples in the month of December and three’s a new envelope to open every day! Thanks to our smart Grammy, we have a clever way of displaying all the cards we receive from loved ones. Each year we string Christmas ribbon along the handrail leading to our 2nd floor. Then using clothes pins, we attach each greeting to a location where we can see it every day. Festive and fun my sons look forward to the mail carrier’s delivery every day! I’ve talked before about my belief in letting kids get bored. In a busy, fast paced, go-go-go world – it’s good for all of us to catch our breath and just give ourselves time and space to see what happens. Let your mind wander. Start a project before you know where it’s going. Start a project that you may never finish! These are not activities that are easily approved in the adult world , but for kids their activities that are just right for exploring their abilities. One good bet for inspiring the preferred response to boredom is a handy stash of ‘stuff.’ Our ‘stuff’ always includes letter stickers, glue sticks, scissors, crayons, construction paper, magazines and (of course) full and total access to the recycling bin. Awhile back, my oldest son created a treasure hunt for me. All of his own doing, I was surprised when his quiet work ended and I was invited to begin the search. My son’s handmade notes led me one to another and along the way I was rewarded with the junk food we had purchased for a recent Birthday BBQ. In the end, neither of us ate/drank the treasure, but we enjoyed the hunt. Here’s the note I left for him to extend the fun.
I’m a big believer in letting kids get bored. This can be tricky as there’s a certain balance between I-have-nothing-to-do-so-I’m-going-to-create-my-own-fun and I-have-nothing-to-do-so-I’m-going-to-terrorize-my-brother. Balance is everything. This past month, my seven-year old used a bit of his down-time to create an original board game. Stealing the dice from Monopoly and the game pieces from Sorry, Mr. Creator laid out a game based on the life cycle of a salmon. The goal: to be the first fish to reach the spawning bed. Along the way, on the board, there are squares that will send you back ten spaces (I hit that one twice – Ek!). There is also one area where you can be caught by a hungry fisherman and (in the words of my son) “That’s game over for you, dude!” Where this kiddo got the idea for this new creation – I couldn’t exactly tell you. At school he was studying water and aquatic life which is where I assume the spark of imagination was ignited.
I had previously wanted to throw-out our basement stash of cardboard, but am now glad I was talked-into keeping half the pile. One key component to the balance of boredom is having raw materials at-the-ready when inspiration strikes. Paragraph. This summer our family is embarking on a big trip! I mean a BIG trip! This will be our first ever across-the-Atlantic-my-babies-have-passports-please-oh-please-Mr. Volcano-stop-erupting WOWZA of a BIG trip! (Send your prayers!) In an effort to suppress the “How many days until I ride on an airplane? questions (which have already begun), my youngest son and I spent the afternoon making a paper chain to help us with our vacation countdown. Simple, easy, old fashion fun! For those who need a recap, here are the basics: 1) Cut your paper strips. You can use construction paper, old magazine pages, or even cut-up paper bags. I used different colors of copy paper. 2) Number each paper strip (Great time for some extra handwriting & number sense practice. Tee hee!). 3) Staple the rings together to create your chain. 4) Now hang up your creation and take turns tearing off a ring each day until you are down to #1. My son was proud to show the chain to his brother and Dad after dinner and explain the countdown process. This is a great activity for anyone looking forward to a holiday, birthday, or other special event.
It was nice to sit with my son and talk about our upcoming trip while working on this project. It gets me even more excited for the adventure ahead. Now if I can just explain to my husband that we don't begin packing on the day we get down to chain #1, but instead get an early start - we'll be golden! Look what the Easter Bunny brought to our house this spring! Paragraph.
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