My little crafters!

My little crafters!
(January 2011)

We have had an unusually cold winter here in the northeast, even though all major snowstorms have missed us we have been faced with almost constant wind and temperatures in the low 30's and 20's.

This makes it really hard to even go to the grocery store, even though Andrew has been walking for awhile he is not very fast when holding your hand so I still have to carry him into the stores. Jacob runs alongside of me usually screaming and complaining about the wind and cold...hehehehehehehe.

For the past year or more I have been doing educational and fun crafts with Jacob. Andrew with his "independent" personality usually lets us craft while he plays or explores around the house. But this week I thought I would see if he wanted to join his brother for his "FIRST EVER CRAFT".

I decided to make a suncatcher with the boys since this could help bring a little color and "spring" into the house. They are very easy to make, you just need some random colors of tissue paper and some clear contact paper (which I swear I have had the roll I am using for 5+ years).

Get the kids to tear the paper up into little pieces, or cut them up in advance, and put them in a bowl. Then take a piece of contact paper and peel the backing off and place the sticky side up on the table. Since Andrew didn't really know what was going on I put a piece of tape on his to hold it in place. Then I let the boys take the tissue paper and "stick it" it onto the contact paper. When they were done I took another piece of contact paper (sticky side down) and sandwiched the tissue paper between the two pieces. I then trimmed the edges and hung on a window.



Andrew seemed to enjoy himself, but only wanted to be involved for one suncatcher! Jacob of course was up for more so we tried a few other things. We took a page from one of his coloring books and I cut out the "ice cream" and he replaced it with tissue paper, we traced his hands onto a plain piece of paper and turned it into a suncatcher as well!

I am looking forward to including Andrew in mine and Jacob's crafts, as most are educational and we talk about shapes, colors, and of course doing crafts has helped Jacob with his fine motor skills and patience!!