simple Analogy

Crafting With Kids

Our crafts for the conference went off splendidly.  My friend Michelle, who helped me several nights, was amazed that the kids enjoyed the crafts so much.  We decided it was not that the crafts were so stupendous or anything, but that after sitting in church for an hour and a half or two, that they were ready to do ANYTHING except sit.  The kids were so eager and excited to see what we were going to do next.  Even the parents and adults without children were interested in what was going on in our area.

I also think that the kids enjoyed it because for many of them craft time is not something they do at home.  To some parents it seems a monumental task to do a craft project with their kids.  Having to come up with an idea can be the hardest part.  Also, crafting with kids can seem a little extravagant monetarily in these "tough economic times".  I'm so tired of hearing that phrase!  But really, you don't have to spend a fortune to craft with kids.  I spent an average of $10 per day for our crafts.  But that was for 30 to 40 kids!  Averaged out, I spent about $.25 to $.33 per child.   I think I did a pretty thrifty job. 

You don't really even have to spend money at all.  There are lots of books in the library with ideas for using around the house items to craft with.  You can join Kids Artist Trading Card Swaps as a way to get your kids to stretch their artistic imagination and have some fun globally at the same time.  Also getting together with a play group and crafting with friends can be a lot of fun!

So, as a result of seeing the kids have such a good time, and seeing the parents enjoy what their kids were making, I've got an idea knocking around in my head.  Stop by tomorrow and then I'll tell you about it.

Multicultural Crafts for Kids - Peru

Peru is know for breeding Alpacas.  They shear them and use the hair to make yarn and all kinds of other things. 

Our project was to dye wool yarn.  Why didn't I use Alpaca yarn?  Because we're going for cheap with these projects, and my mom just happened to have a ball of thick wool yarn that she donated for the cause.  We used kool aide for the dye using this technique.  Our room smelled nice and fruity!

Each child got a 14 inch piece of wool with knots tied into the ends.  They dipped half of it into one color, and chose another color for the other half.  Since I wasn't dying the whole skein of yarn at once, the microwave time was only 1 1/2 minutes per piece of yarn.

Perfect bookmark!

Extra Activity:

Color Peru's flag.

Multicultural Crafts for Kids - Paraguay

Paraguayan Indians are known for stretching animal skins and making drums.  So, drums it was.

I asked the volunteers in the nursery to save their empty 15 ounce soup/veggie cans.  I also asked them to remove the wrapper, wash, and dry them for me.  We collected about 45 cans in one week's time.  I cut off the stem of a balloon and the kids stretched the top of the balloon across the can.  Gotta get it really stretched tight or else you get a belly button.  Younger children might need help with this part.   

They taped a construction paper wrapper around it, used colorful duct tape to hold the top secure, and decorated the wrapper. 

This craft is virtually free to make, but beware!  It tends to make boys want to drum all the time, and not only on their drum, but also on walls, tables, and their sister's head.  Oh, and also, the older kids discovered that by pinching the balloon and letting go, it would make much more noise than if you just tap on it.  Great!

Extra Activity:

Color the Paraguayan flag.

Multicultural Crafts for Kids - Cambodia

Cambodia's crafts consist of basket weaving.  I'm sorry, but I don't like weaving.  It takes too long, and the younger ones need constant "under, over" prompts.  I've done this one before, can you tell!  What is Cambodia known for?  Agriculture - specifically rice.

We did rice art.  I used this recipe to dye my rice, then let the kids have free reign on the design part.

 
They liked it so much, they asked to do it again, and again, and again.  The kids did pretty well keeping most of the rice on the table, and only minor sweeping was necessary.  This craft is best done in a room with a hard surface floor.  Vacuums have a harder time picking up the rice.  I've done that before as well!

Extra Activity:

Color the flag of Cambodia.

Multicultural Crafts For Kids - France

We've begun our "Mission Possible" Missions Conference at church.  These are the posters the boys made for the contest.  Keep in mind that my kids are really into Mission Impossible.

Landon's:  (poster board sized - We tried to come up with a way to have smoke coming out of the video tape, but it just didn't have the same effect as on the TV show.)

Noah's:  (interactive - We ended up putting a little "open me" sticker on it because people didn't know that they could open it.  Inside he put a picture of each missionary participating in the conference and the country they represent.)

 

   

I always do a craft with the kids after the service based on the culture/crafts of the featured country of the night.  That is why I had crazy things like dye 5 pounds of rice and crepes on my to do list.  This year's list of countries posed most difficult.  The four countries on the list:  France, Cambodia, Paraguay, and Peru.  I usually research the crafts of the country first.  If I don't get any ideas from there, I look at what they are most known for.  Then once I get an idea, I have to tailor it to be cheap, quick, and good for age 3 through teenagers.  Not all the teens think it's COOL to do a craft with the little kids, but we do get a few.  Noah loves to see what I will come up with.  He gave me quite the complement the other day after I told him what the plans were for this year.  He said, "You come up with the BEST ideas!"  Thanks, Noah!

France was easy.  I always like to do one "cooking" craft and the first thing I thought of for France was bread.  I wanted to make bread, let the kids shape it into a pretzel, then send it home with them to bake.  The more I tried to finagle this one, the more I saw it was not going to work.  Ok, so crepes.  It worked out very well.  I made the crepes (recipe here) ahead of time and let them fill, roll, and eat them.  We did strawberries and whipped cream.  Yum!  And even some of the cool guys from the youth group made one.  Of course!  It was food!  The only sad thing was that Noah did not get to participate in the crepe making.  He started feeling bad again and had to go home with dad.  Not to fear. I saved him some of the ingredients so that he can make his own.

Extra Activity:

Color the French flag.

Spring Break Skirt

During spring break, I stopped by Barnes & Noble to grab a magazine.  I looked through Sew Hip, a new mag from the UK.  I wasn't bowled over by what was inside, but I did see a skirt that I wanted to try.  Rather than buy the magazine for one simple skirt, I came home and did a search online for something similar.  Not Martha helped me out. 

  I know the concept is as old as the hills, but I'd never seen it with colorful insets.  I up-cycled a pair of old jeans and used some of my stash for a pop of color.  Can't get any more cashless than that!  I made mine with the inset in front, fitted back, and shorter.  It was perfect for shopping architectural salvage with my sister, who I might add is going to make me an aunt again!  Yippee for a new nephew/niece on the way and for a "new" skirt!

June Cleaver

Didn't she always seem to get so much done during her 30 minute day?  

Well, I beat her yesterday!  What do you do when you are relying on the internet for answers to projects, and there is no internet connection?  The things on the to do list:  school, wash all the towels and sheets, dust mop under the couches and beds, vacuum the house (Scott - did you hear that?  I don't know what Joel was talking about!), make a hot lunch for the boys (who me?), call ATT about the internet issue, groceries, dye 5 pounds of rice, make banana bread, cook dinner, and make enough crepes for an army.

Ha!  Top that June!  And I did half of it in my pajamas.  No dress, heels, and pearls for me!  Of course when it was 11:00 PM and I was still making crepes and my feet were begging me to sit down, I had the feeling that maybe I'd packed too much into my day.

Move That Bus - Day 6

Living room before:

 

 

 

After:

   

   

Hooray for no more yellow!  All my hard work paid off.  I have grand plans to make some throw pillows with a pop of orange (I dug some orange velveteen out of Meg's purged scraps), design a gallery for the blank wall behind the sofa using my own pictures, and maybe hang some curtains.  

Today is the last day of the Move That Bus Tour.  I haven't showed you the dining room because it's not quite finished.  After a whole week of revealing the blessing that is my home, all I can say is... God is good!  (and so is Allstate) 

Move That Bus - Day 5

Again no pics of the boys rooms before.  Landon's received no damage and Noah's only a little.

Noah's room:

 

 

Things that are important to him... piano, stuffed animals.

 

 

Landon's:  (still waiting for him to finish the artwork to hang up)

 

 

You'll remember the duvet from here, here and here.  Things that are important to him... chess, drawing, war

 

   

 

Move That Bus - Day 4

Kitchen before:

   

After:

 

   

 

  

Of all the rooms in my house, this one is my favorite.  The kitchen had the most dramatic makeover.  From white formica to granite with slate backsplash, from builder oak to modern cherry shaker cabinets, from white appliances to black.  And the sink - oh the sink! - went from normal split sink, to a marvelously deep stainless one.  I can't tell you how much easier it makes washing dishes in that thing.  No more wrestling cookie sheets or the dutch oven!

I love my kitchen!